REPUBLIC OF CAMEROON

REPUBLIQUE DU CAMEROUN
Peace – Work – Fatherland
Paix – Travail – Patrie
UNIVERSITY OF BUEA
UNIVERSITE DE BUEA
HIGHER TECHNICAL TEACHER TRAINING
ECOLE NORMALE SUPERIEUR
COLLEGE (HTTTC)
D’ENSEIGNEMENT TECHNIQUE(ENSET)
Director: Prof. AKUME Daniel AKUME
Deputy Director: Dr. EBUNE B. Joseph P.O Box 249 Buea road, Kumba, South West Region,
Director of Studies: Dr LYONGA N. Agnes Cameroun
Tel:(+237)33354691 – Fax:(+237)33354692
COURSE CODE: EDT 201
Secretary General: Dr. LISSOUCK Daniel
Email: [email protected]

DEPARTMENT: CIVIL ENGINEERING AND FORESTRY TECHNIQUES

OPTION: BUILDING AND STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING (BSE)

LEVEL: 400 (B-TECH)

COURSE TITLE: Construction Technology and Town Planning

COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Mr. ASAH

CLASSIFY LOCAL BUILDING MATERIALS (LBM)

AND THEIR CHALLENGES

PRESENTED BY:
KAI PASCAR ALIBASSA Matr. No: HT19A328
AKANYA WALTER Matr. No: HT19A249
TCHATCHOUANG MOPI NAOMI Matr. No: HT19A304

FEBRUARY, 2020
 Traditional or Local building materials (LBM) are resources that are found
readily in large quantities across a community. The availability may largely be
dependent on the geographical location of the area as well as the chemical and
physical components of such materials. The purpose of this essay will be to
critically appraise some primary local building materials available in our
community or Cameroon at large. Examples of such building materials include;
adobe, bamboo, thatches, stones, timber, coconut trees, and grass just to name a
few. These materials are relatively cheap compared to imported building
materials (IBM). The purpose of this essay is to classification, and examines the
challenges of local building materials in our community and Cameroon as a
whole.
Classification of local building material
It’s quite challenging to classify LBM, but for this essay, we will classify them
under chemical and physical properties.
a. Local building materials with chemical properties
Local building materials with chemical properties include; earth, laterite,
and lime, which will be expatiated upon below.
- Earth: Sara well in 2007 captured the use of earth as a building material
dated back to ancient times. Today, it is still a major building material not
only among the rural areas but also in urban centers because of its
binding ability. Earth/soil is economical, minimal in processing, non-
polluting, and good thermal comfort. See fig below.
- Laterite: As pointed out by Arayela (2000), laterite bricks contributed
increasingly to the housing stock in Africa. Even though it has been used
in numerous places throughout the world since prehistoric times, it seems
that today, this material requires some re-evaluation. See fig below.

- Lime; According to Lucien (1980), apart from wood, stone and brick,
lime has been the best known and widely used material since ancient
times. Limes which in former times were the only binder used in the
building have been gradually supplanted by cement. Lime is usually
employed as a wash, which can be used in making up water-repellent
washes and mortar to protect roofs and walls, or for the manufacture of
particle board or chip board from agricultural waste as a composite
material. See fig below.
b. Local building materials with non-chemical or physical properties
Local building materials with non-chemical properties include; bamboos,
timber, thatches, grass, coconut trees and stone
- Bamboo: Bamboo is one of the oldest traditional building materials used by
humanity. When you are considering potential building materials for the
home construction as a society, we tend to focus on two or three
commonly utilized and widely accepted building materials: wood, stone,
or concrete. Uses for bamboo can also include building construction, both
in exterior and interior design elements. Unlike wood, bamboo (a
member of the grass family) regenerates very quickly. It is, in fact, one of
the fastest-growing plants in the world, with the fastest growth rate reaching
100cm in a 24-hr period (Farrelly, 1984). In contrast to tree harvesting,
there is simply no comparison to the replenishment rate of growing
bamboo. Bamboo can be harvested every three to six years for
construction purposes (depending on the species); whereas trees range from
25 years (for softwoods) to 50 years (for hardwoods). Significant
Advantages of Bamboo include Strength and Durability; Affordability.

- Grasses: Grasses were found in the

Middle Belt and Northern region abundantly for the purpose of construction
 in Nigerian Traditional Architecture. The type of grasses available
in a locality depends on the climatic zone, vegetation and closeness to
water source. Toward the Valley areas of the North West Region, elephant
grasses were common; even in the Northern part of Cameroon. Apart from
elephant grass, we have other species of grass used in roofing houses. See
fig below.

- Wild Coconut Tree: This fibrous tree is found mainly in the coastal region
of Cameroon. It produces good structural member for roof, wall, lintel,
ceiling and bridges construction. It is also used as an overlay for toilet pits.
Unlike timber, it is a termite resistance structure and doesn’t quickly decay
unless subjected to a long period of dampness (Dmochowski, 1990). See fig
below.
 - Stone: Research has stated that Cameroon is so blessed with rocks that
are suitable for building materials. Stone is a material with natural
interlocking feature and other useful properties and characteristics,
durable enough for structures and superstructures which can be used as
walling or flooring materials.

Challenges of Local Building Materials

Despite the availability of the aforementioned local building materials, it still

faces some challenges, some of which include; acceptability, durability, building
tall, deforestation and civilization, which will be enumerated below

- Acceptability: The future of any Architecture depends on the extent to

which it is acceptable to the people for whom it is intended. The notion that
buildings of local materials are substandard is the main obstacle to the
development of an authentic African Architecture that is truly indigenous to
the people. Perhaps the issue of acceptability has brought the destruction of
traditional values and their replacement with alien ones.
- Durability/ Low Strength: The highest problem of houses built with
traditional African building materials was the low strength of the houses,
implying that the locally available materials have the strength that is below
expectation when compared with strength of the houses built with
conventional materials such as cement, concrete, steel, among others. The
strength of every house is important because it determines the durability
and security of the house. This is consistent with the view of
Venkatarama and Prasanna (2009) that one of the drawbacks for using
earth alone as a material for construction is its durability which is strongly
related to its compressive strength. Riza et al. (2011) further explained that
most soils in their natural condition lack the strength, stability and
durability required for building construction. The above indicates that the
local materials for building houses lack the desired strength and
improvement of their strength properties would be beneficial to the users.
- Building Tall: The nature and strength of these traditional building
materials make it impossible for building tall. They encourage low rise
buildings leading to overuse of land. Millions of acres of land in Africa
have buildings constructed on them. For instance, the spread of buildings
requires the construction of new roads, drainage, utility poles, and other
infrastructure, which lead to, habitat destruction, land disturbance and
erosion,
environmental
pollution, global
warming, among
others.
 - Deforestation: the building materials sources in Africa contribute to
prevailing problem of deforestation on the continent. When timber for
construction is harvested, in many cases, replacement trees are not
planted, if replanted, the rate of replacement is far lower than the
rate of consumption.
- Civilization: Local and indigenous cultures have practiced sustainable
resource use due to their practical experience and human dependency on
earth’s life support systems. Traditional communities integrated buildings
into the natural environment in terms of adequate use of cost effective and
easily assessable local building material for construction and maintenance.
However, importation and the use of imported building materials has
put the African traditional and sustainable way of building and
construction processes in danger, thus relegating our architecture
- Frequent Maintenance: Frequent maintenance of houses built with local
materials, especially earth, is another challenge facing African
architecture. According to Rumana (2007), there is a high maintenance
requirement of earthen plinth and walls, which are often plastered,
especially during the wet season. This is due to the low strength of the
materials that make it a requirement for the frequent maintenance to keep
the building in good condition for use. If the houses built with local
materials are not maintained regularly, they will deteriorate in a few years
after their construction due to their vulnerability to weather such as rain and
storm.

To conclude, from the above, local building materials can be classified under
materials with chemical and physical properties. Furthermore, looking at the
challenges mentioned above, the following are suggested:
 - The government should encourage the use of locally available materials for
building houses to promote their culture and attract tourists for economic growth.
- Real estate developers and the government should encourage the use of
local materials to reduce the cost of constructing houses and produce affordable
housing
- People living in relatively hot weather like those in the Northern part of
Cameroon should adopt the use of local materials to reduce the effect of heat from
the warm weather on their health and reduce the energy required to Fan or air
conditions their rooms for comfort.
- Researcher should consider reinforcement to increase the strength and
durability of local materials with industrial and agricultural wastes.
- Also, more investigations and findings should come up with better processes
and methods to reduce labour intensiveness with their use.