As reported two weeks ago, Kenyans are now using stabilised soil blocks to build cheaper houses that use natural products. As seen on the photos here, their first house is underway and will be complete mid august.
Cost is mainly saved on wall cement. The blocks are interlocked and hence you dont use cement to join them. You also do not have to plaster the inner wall as these bricks are smooth and colourful. if you want to paint there is a special paint that you can use without plastering.
You save upto 40% of construction costs on materials. Labour is also saved as you take a shorter period to build.
In Kenya, the machines sold are mosty manual. You can get them from Makiga Engineering services likoni road telephone 550665. You can also check with Kickstart Kenya. However the Diesel Engine run machine from www.hydraform.com is much better than the manual ones and you can buy it from their factory straight from SA.
Here a group in Syokimau has the engine machine and is able to produce upto 1,500 blocks a day. They are ready to make blocks and sell for any size of a project. The project featured on my blog has blocks made by these guys. you can talk to the builder for more information on building costs...the builder is MaKiri builders.
Please join my blog as a member to follow discussions on this topic and many others that may interest you.
