MASONRY BLOCK-LAYING TRAINING TAKES OFF:

“This is a huge step in the right direction for the construction industry, as it will make a direct and positive impact on the affordable housing market,” comments Günter Koch, the CMA’s Western Cape representative.

“Over the past 10 years SAQA (South African Qualification Authority) and CETA have treated block-laying training as a mere adjunct to the brick-laying training material. The net result was twofold. In the first instance the training of block laying artisans fell short in meeting an acceptable standard by a considerable margin, and secondly, the quality of houses built with masonry blocks was inconsistent at best, and in many instances, well below acceptable performance criteria.

“As most affordable housing developments are built with concrete blocks, it means that for the past 10 years at least we have been building sub-standard affordable housing. The people who live in these houses are having to deal with walls that crack and leak, hardly factors designed to encourage pride of ownership. Had block-laying been recognised as a distinct trade from the outset, the R-millions spent on erecting affordable houses would been spent far more wisely and productively,” says Koch.

Towards the end of last year the CMA completed its trainee and facilitator training material for modular concrete block construction. The course material consists of 14 outcome-based activities which comprise the block-laying unit standard.

While expressing optimism on the future of block-laying in South Africa, Koch cautions that it is  important for contractors and sub-contractors to embrace full modular construction as well.

“There is no point in teaching learners the basic skills in modular construction if, when they join the real world, they can’t hone and perfect these skills through further mentorship. As things stand professional mentorship is woefully inadequate if not entirely absent among the contracting fraternity. It is absolutely necessary for fledgling skills to be further entrenched in the working environment as learners tend to ‘un-learn’ useful skills if they are not properly guided.

Although block-laying training began with the onset of 2009, gaining SAQA approval for certification purposes will still take some time.

“We hope this will happen during the course of next year. Nevertheless, the fact that we can now use the training material should go a long way to re-establishing modular block construction as a discrete masonry skill. This in turn will entrench it as the most cost-effective masonry system, not only for affordable housing, but for high-rise buildings, community centres, schools and shopping centres, as well as many other structures.

“Besides a better quality of housing we should also witness considerable improvement in the time it takes to build an affordable house as the block-laying training takes hold. When modular masonry was first introduced in the late 1970s construction speeds were much faster than they are today. The main reason for this is that over the years true modular construction, in which a complete range of complementary blocks, such as corner, half and quarter units, are used, has been gradually eroded and replaced by sole reliance on concrete blocks – a process which is both laborious and slow.

“Our new training programme is designed to address this problem and provided we achieve buy-in from contractors, specifiers and building authorities, the reintroduction of true modular construction will unleash a new and productive era in affordable housing construction,” concludes Koch.

For further enquires contact Kentse Mathiba at CETA Guateng on (011) 265 5900 or Peter Cleopha at CETA Western Cape on (021) 949 5325. The Tjeka organisation provides block-laying training and its regional manager, Gawie Burger can be contacted on 021 976 8057.

The Gugulethu Child Welfare administration block which was built with genuine modular masonry using concrete blocks.

Work in progress at a church in Khayelitsha which was built using genuine modular masonry and thin bed mortar (TBM) construction techniques.

DATE September, 2009
ISSUED BY David Beer Communication Consultants
FOR  Concrete Manufacturers Association 
ENQUIRIES Günter Koch (021) 461 2511 or 082 454 7657
John Cairns (011) 805 6742
David Beer (011) 478 0239 or 082 880 6726.  Email: bigsky@ibi.co.za