Foundation improvements for walls with hand moulded chip concrete blocks

Abstract

The need to search for alternative building materials is quite important in today’s context with serious problems associated with clay and sand mining. Mining of clay for manufacturing of bricks have caused severe degradation of valuable land and this has also led to the lowering of water table in these areas. Sand mining is also a serious problem that has seriously undermined the possibility to provide potable water due to intrusion of salt water. It is also desirable to reduce the use of brickwork in the present context since it uses bricks and sand extensively. In addition, brickwork requires plastering which also needs a considerable quantity of sand and lime. Thus, brickwork can be considered as an expensive form of construction with respect to the cost and also due to the associated environmental problems. An alternative to such drawbacks is chip concrete blocks with a thickness of 125 mm. These blocks can be manufactured as hand moulded (hand moulded chip concrete blocks - HMCC). These blocks are particularly suitable for rural areas of Sri Lanka where there are many self help housing projects funded by the governmental and non-governmental organisations. Since these blocks could be used to construct houses at various areas of Sri Lanka, it is useful to develop a cost effective foundation system that can be used with a weak soil.