Housing experts have emphasised the need for bricklayers to embrace modern technologies, improve quality of constructions and guarantee quality assurance.
Speaking at the 2023 edition of the Lagos State Bricklayers Association (LSBA) yearly general meeting (AGM) themed: “Traditional Masonry Techniques and Advancing Building Technology,” a past President, Nigerian lnstitute of Building (NIOB), Kunle Awobodu, said there is a wide difference between houses built with new technologies and traditional construction methods.
Awobodu, who was the lead speaker at the forum, advised bricklayers to adopt new methods of construction and boost competences through capacity development programmes.
According to him, bricklaying is a good trade that the society needs on a daily basis, and practitioners can change the perception of bricklaying as a dirty job.
He noted that the youths should be encouraged to take up bricklaying to gain employment after graduating from high schools, adding that such is more valuable than engaging in internet fraud.
On his part, former Head of Building Department, Yaba College of Technology, Dr. Emmanuel Aladeloba, lauded the Dangote Cement Plc for their commitment to artisans training, saying the move will enhance capacities of building artisans.
He advised artisans to be honest, transparent, while working on sites unmonitored, as well as charged them to use the right measurements and materials.
Aladeloba cautioned the artisans against accepting low pay in order to engage in substandard construction that could collapse in the future and result in loss of lives and waste of investments. “It is only when the house you built stays for long without cracking or collapsing that you can be called a bricklayer,” he said.
He further urged them to apply lessons learnt from the training on the use of right measurements, angles and dimensions to guarantee quality assurance and durable construction.
Aladeloba explained how site operations had been automated through new technologies to make constructions easier.
He also advised the bricklayers to introduce cadre grading based on experience so that new entrants would not earn the same pay as experienced ones in the daily pay schedule.
Addressing the forum, LSBA President, Taye Dauda, thanked Dangote Cement for training and re-training of its members.
Dauda pledged LSBA’s continued collaboration with relevant agencies to curb building collapse and attendant loss of lives and property in Lagos State.
Source: The Guardian
