Everything you need to know about building materials, from buying to applying

The Sandpit – July “Building materials” article

Another brick in the wall?

Using the right building materials for the job might sound like a simple concept, yet stories such as the collapse of the roof in Pretoria’s Brooklyn Mall and a similar incident happening in the Kolonnade Shopping Centre a few years ago indicate that it’s a subject matter not to be taken for granted.

According to Henry Dworcan, MD of the leading building supplier The Sandpit, looking at the subject matter of building materials warrants discussion in two keys areas: firstly the correct and incorrect building materials for a certain job, and secondly, using the materials correctly to ensure longevity and stability.

He gives the example of the first step in almost any construction project, namely laying a cement foundation. The cement can be of a high quality and not past its shelf life, but the product will only perform at its optimum if it is mixed and applied correctly.

“The correct way to mix cement is five parts sand and stone to one part cement,” he explains. “But if you have guys using a wheelbarrow as your gauge, mixing five wheelbarrows of sand with one bag of cement, in the assumption that a bag of cement is the same quantity as a wheelbarrow, then the mix is going to be flawed. It’s no use having good cement, good sand and good bricks, and then a poor quality mortar between those bricks.”

It’s all part of the bigger picture. A job well done entails using the correct building materials in the correct way and only for the product’s intended functions. In the building industry, a brick isn’t just a brick. Depending on its function, it could be a face brick, cement brick or plaster brick that is best suited for the job. And even then, the right brick for the job is only as strong as the mortar that bonds it. 

One also has to be on the lookout for shortcuts being deliberately taken to up the profits, cautions Dworcan. “You sometimes have people taking shortcuts for the sole purpose of profiteering,” he explains. “Often this is when the owners have squeezed the building contractor to the point where there is little profit involved in the job for him, so he endeavours to do whatever he can to maximise his profit. At the end of the day, the building looks good but it is inferior, and someone is going to be the loser.”

Citing the example of concrete needing time not just to dry but very importantly to also set, Dworcan says that he has been in the industry long enough to have seen more than a few examples of jobs being pushed to finish quickly, and the result of proceeding too fast sometimes being pillars and support structures collapsing.

So at the end of the day, what can the consumer be on the lookout for?

“There are a lot of suppliers taking shortcuts,” Dworcan states. “We’ve seen it in the sand game, the cement game and the lintel game. As suppliers, we try to only support structures and products that have to adhere to industry standards, because not all of them do. You’ve got to be careful, and know the industry you’re in; you have to know your suppliers and products. At the end of the day, the name The Sandpit is based on the product we supply.

“We’re not producers, but we’re the first place people go to complain. Recently we supplied a specific type of metal doorframes that failed on site. Now, technically, we’re not liable for any damages, because we’re not producers, but our goodwill is our name, and everything we supply we back up. That’s imperative to our ethics and integrity in our game,” Dworcan asserts.