Village-level Brickmaking

At a glance..

The manual is intended for the first-time producer wishing to produce fired clay bricks on a small scale using the minimum of infrastructure and investment. For example, it is for those individuals, projects, government departments and non government agencies who find themselves in the position of having to produce their own building materials because none are available on the local market. It is also for those who intend to start producing bricks full-time to supply bricks for the local market.

The details..

Village-Level Brickmaking by Anne Beamish and Will Donovan is a technical manual that teaches small-scale brick production using minimum infrastructure and investment. The authors worked in northern Mozambique with Oxfam-Belgium, CUSO/SUCO Canada, and the Ministry of Public Works promoting village-level production of building materials like bricks, tiles, and lime. They found that poor-quality clay selection or faulty techniques during preparation caused weak bricks with high breakage rates.

The lack of standardization at these sites created problems for masons as sizes varied from small blocks to large ones without correct proportions for construction use. This made it difficult to build walls requiring extra cement plastering work later on. Village-Level Brickmaking aims to provide practical knowledge about how to improve brick-making skills through easy-to-understand instructions.

The book contains ten minimum conditions necessary before starting a small-scale brick production center: Clay (good quality), Water (sufficient quantity), Sand (for mixing purposes), Fuel (firewood or coal), Space (brick site location within 15 km radius having all necessary conditions) Transport, Motivation Management Tools & Equipment Assistance

Overall this comprehensive guide covers everything one needs when establishing a small scale-brick making unit; including extraction processes, clay preparation methods, moulding techniques along with field kiln constructions using firewood as fuel source or even coal-fired options if required.