BLOCKLAYING AND CONCRETE WORK PRACTICES OF BUILDING CRAFTSMEN IN RURAL AREAS OF ZAMFARA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study investigated the blocklaying and concrete work practices adopted by building craftsmen in rural areas of Zamfara State, Nigeria. Descriptive survey research design was used for the study on a sample size of 322 master craftsmen comprising of 253 with educational qualification and 69 without educational qualification. A 13 item validated questionnaire with a Cronbach Alpha reliability of 0.84 was used for collecting data for the study. Mean and Standard deviation was used to answer the research questions while t-test was used to test the null hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that: blocklaying and concrete work practices are not highly adopted by building master craftsmen in rural areas. There was no significant difference between the mean responses of the respondents on the building construction practices adopted by building master craftsmen in rural areas. This implies that the incessant cases of building failures in rural areas could be attributed to the negligence towards adoption of standard building construction blocklaying and concrete work practices in rural areas. It was recommended that there is urgent need for all categories of building craftsmen to highly adopt blocklaying and concrete work practices stipulated by the standard building code to enhance the performance strength of buildings in rural areas as well as improve their blocklaying and concrete work practices.