ABSTRACT
The project is a study of the physical properties of sandcrete hollow blocks produced in Benue State for the purpose of ascertaining their quality. Following a careful site survey of thirty block industries across the state, five block industries were chosen for assessement and about fifty blocks were randomly selected from each of them. Majority of the block industries visited produced their blocks using block moulding machines. With an average staff strength of ten, an average of eight hundred blocks were produced daily. The average price of each block is twenty five naira only. Quality assessement was done in the Civil Engineering laboratory of the University of Agriculture, Makurdi. The assessement was based on physical tests done on the blocks in accordance with the British Standard 2028 (Precast Concrete Blocks)/10/. The factors assessed were wet compressive (bedded) strength, dry and wet development strengths, density, dimensional tolerance, raw materials, mix, mixing process, manner of curing, drying shrinkage and wetting expansion. It was observed from the results of the tests that the 7th day wet compressive (bedded) strength averaged 0.420N/mm2, with a maximum of 0.45N/mm2 and a minimum of 0.40N/mm2. The 28 day dry development strength ranged from 0.49-0.63N/mm2 with and average of 0.57N/mm2. Apparently, these strength values are rather low when compared with the standard codes such as the Federal Ministry of Works/12/ which recommends 2.1 N/mm2 and the lowest individual strength of 1.7N/mm2. However, the values are close to those obtained in related works such as 0.58N/mm2 for dry development and 0.39N/mm2 for wet development strengths in Kano State