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The authors worked in northern Mozambique with the Ministry of Public Works on a project funded by Oxfam-Belgium and CUSO/SUCO Canada, promoting the village level production of building materials such as bricks, tiles and lime. The objective of the project was to give technical advice, support and training to production cooperatives and to investigate and demonstrate improved production techniques.
It was observed that the main technical problems that brickmaking units suffered from were: poor quality, weak bricks; a high breakage rate; no standardization; and a lack of knowledge and experience of how to correctly use bricks in construction.
The poor quality and high breakage rate was normally caused by selecting inferior quality clays and/or faulty production techniques during the clay preparation, moulding, drying and firing stages.
The lack of standardization at these brick sites created all sorts of problems for masons. The brick sizes varied from small to large blocks and none were correctly proportioned for use in construction. When bricks with different dimensions were bought from various brickmakers, the builders found that it was very difficult to build a wall and large quantities of cement had to be used in plastering to level off the surface of the wall.
Brickmaking is not a technically sophisticated or complicated process, but there are certainly correct and incorrect ways of producing bricks and it does take experience and skill to produce good quality bricks. During the project, the authors found that there was a complete lack of practical and easy to understand information available for first time producers to help them gain that skill.
Over the years of working in Mozambique, a number of technical manuals were written by the authors to assist small-scale brickmaking units to produce good quality bricks. Those who used the manuals were from cooperatives, state companies, schools, district Public Works staff, development projects and individuals who had to make bricks because no other building material was available locally. Often they did not intend to continue to produce bricks indefinitely but had to produce enough bricks to build a school, clinic, dormitory, warehouse, etc., so that they could continue with their other work. Because these people were not necessarily interested in becoming full-time brickmakers and often only wanted to produce enough bricks to build a certain number of buildings, they were not interested in investing in any substantial infrastructure such as permanent kilns or costly equipment.
The information contained in those manuals has been translated and re-written in english and now forms a more comprehensive brickmaking manual.
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.
It is intended for brickmakers who already produce bricks but need an easy to understand book on how to improve their production.
It is intended to be used as a training manual to accompany a practical hands-on brickmaking course.
It is also intended for those in government departments who have the role of encouraging and supporting the small-scale production of building materials and who do not make the bricks themselves but need to understand all of the practical aspects of brickmaking.
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