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Clay Bricks or Concrete Blocks: Are We Focusing on the Wrong Battle?
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Let me return to my professional docket, and stir up some dust on site.
For a UGX 200 million house, many Ugandans still insist on making clay bricks on site, burning wood, and spending weeks moving up and down managing kilns. Why? Because at face value, clay bricks look cheaper.
Here are the numbers:
1. Clay bricks: You’ll need 20,000 pieces, each costing UGX 300 delivered. Total? UGX 6 million. This is just 3% of your total house budget.
2. Concrete blocks: You’ll need 5,000 blocks, at UGX 2,500 each. Total? UGX 12.5 million. This accounts for about 6% of the total budget.
But this is where the puzzle begins.
Most clay bricks in Uganda are dimensionally inconsistent, fired using unsustainable wood (precious indigenous species that take very long to grow), and lack any quality standard. Their small size means more mortar consumption, slower laying speed, and more labour costs.
So what looks like a saving becomes UGX 4.5 million extra in cement, UGX 1 million more in labour, and over UGX 20 million lost in resale value due to poor finishing, visible imperfections, and buyer perception
That’s UGX 25 million or more spent to save UGX 6 million.
Meanwhile, we’ve spent 70% of our construction effort and emotional energy debating a 3% item, and neglecting the real beasts of the budget: roofing, finishes, doors, tiling, paintwork, electricals, plumbing, and design quality.
It’s time to ask hard questions:
Why are we burning trees and sweating bricks instead of building value?
Why are we still romanticizing a material that drains both your budget and your property’s worth?
It’s not about hating clay. It’s about thinking critically. A good house starts with good decisions, and not all traditions are worth preserving, especially when they undermine sustainability and structural value.
Let the debate begin. But let it be an informed one.
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The list is ready!
Do you think your insurer has met all the requirements to operate in 2025?
Watch out for the list, coming up soon.
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In 1931, the colonial Uganda Railways extended the main line from Nakuru (Kenya) to Kampala. In 1956 they added the line from Kampala to Kasese and the first post-independence government extended the railway to Arua near the border with Zaïre in 1964. In 2024, 62 years after Independence, we are celebrating extending railway services from Kampala to Namanve to Mukono! And it’s just repair of a small part of the colonial one that we plundered and watched rot! No sense of shame
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