Cement Stabilized Nsukka Psoriasis Africana-Laterite Blocks for Affordable Housing

Abstract

With the current state of the country’s global economic meltdown and the ever depleting natural resources and energy source; in addition to the high cost of owning a house, it has become imperative that new creative ways be developed to help salvage the situation and some of the ways developed are to find more abundant, cheaper and stable raw materials for construction. This research was aimed at determining the optimum mix ratio for cement stabilized blocks made with laterite and psoriasis Africana that can effectively replace sandcrete blocks with respect to its compressive strength. In this study we carried out a selective phase of investigation using mud and the plant, psoriasis Africana, in grounded form be stabilized with some specified quantity of cement to form mud block of 100mm x 100mm. Compressive strength for the blocks was determined after curing them for 21 days. The mix ratios for laterite blocks were 1:1.67, 1:2.5, 1:5, 1:6, 1:7, 1:8 and 1:5, 1:6, 1:7, 1:8 for sandcrete blocks. The results showed that psoriasis Africana laterite blocks (PALB) with mix ratio 1:5 which had an average compressive strength of 4.88N/mm² can be used in lieu of sandcrete block with mix ratio of 1:6 and average compressive strength of 4.11N/mm².