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May 24 2007

How to Make Clay Bricks and Tiles

Posted by: Leo in SME 2,386 Views

Testing of Soil for Brick-Making:

  1. Get a handful of soil and add enough water to make it sticky.
  2. Mold it into balls and dry under the sun for 2 to 4 days.
  3. See whether the dried soil cracked or not. If it remains firm and hard the soil is clay.
  4. Test another one with this procedure.

Conduct another test by molding 4″ x 10″ x 2″ and burn with rice husk for one week. Good clay when dried by this method will sound metallic when tapped.

BRICK-MAKING

There are three (3) types of manufacturing methods for bricks:

  1. Soft-mud
  2. Soft-mud with repressing machine
  3. Mechanical method

Methods 1 and 2 are most suited for cottage industry. They are manually generated and require only a small capital.

Method 3 used machines for raw material processing and farming. Even if most of the machine can be made it still needs a big capital investment.

Procedure:

  1. Raw clay is left in the open for stock piling with a duration of about two (2) months or until the clay disintegrates through the action of sun and rain.
  2. The disintegrated clay is brought to the processing area. Sandy clay, plastic clay and sand are mixed in their proper proportions. Water is added to combine clay mixture.
  3. Knead either by hand or foot for about three (3) hours.
  4. After kneading, the clay should be aged for two (2) days to get a homogeneous mixture. Aging distributes its workability and lessening the possibility of cracking during drying and firing.
  5. Form the clay into a wooden mold.
  6. The formed bricks from the mold are then placed on a pallet and allowed to dry to leather hardness for not more than two (2) days.
  7. The leather hard bricks are retouched to remove the finger marks and scratches due to forming and handling. The retouching work can either be done by skillful hand manipulation or by machine for better and faster finishing.
  8. Retouched bricks are kept in the drying area until they are completely and uniformly dried. The drying takes about two (2) weeks during dry season and four (4) weeks on a rainy season.
  9. When dried, put the clay in improvised kiln. Arrange them loosely and pour rice hulls in between the spaces.
  10. Set fire from the bottom. Baking process takes one week.

CLAY BRICKS

Materials: clay, sand, water

Tools: shovel, hoe, pickax, strainer, wire #14, wooden scraper, wooden molds 10″ x5″ x12½”, gas oven

Procedure:

  1. Dig soil, remove stones and waste with the use of strainer.
  2. Mix with: 25% water (1 part water in 4 parts of soil) and 10% sand (10 parts of sand in 10 parts of clay). Mix well.
  3. Put in molds, scrape excess.
  4. Remove molds and let dry bricks within 3 to 4 weeks at room temperature.
  5. Invert brick so it would not crack or form wrinkles.
  6. Preheat gas oven for 2 hours at 980°C.
  7. Arrange bricks alternately
  8. Bake for 16 hours.
  9. Cool before use.

BRICKS AND TILES FROM RICE HULL ASH AND CLAY

The high cost of construction materials for housing and the need for enough shelter lead to this simple procedure. Rice hull is used in cooking bricks. The produced ashes is used in the mixture of bricks. These materials can be found anywhere in the Philippines.

Materials needed:

  • clay
  • rice hull
  • rice hull ash

Tools needed:

  • Oven or kiln with 3m x 5m measurement. (Open on top and made of red clay.)
  • Shovel, hoe and tool for digging.
  • Wood or metal mold with inside measurement of 2″ x 4″ x 10″ for red clay and 3″ x 8″ x 12″ for floor tiles.
  • Wood or metal for scraping.
  • Drying place (like table)
  • Hole about 3mx2m with water.
  • Mixing container — wood or concrete.

Procedure:

A. Bricks:

  1. Dig clay and bring to the hole with water.
  2. Soak for a day.
  3. Transfer mud clay in the mixing container and add rice hull ash: 1 part of ash to 3 parts of clay.
  4. Mix well by foot. Remove roots, leaves and other wastes.
  5. Prepare the molds (metal or wood). Wet inside surroundings and sprinkle with ashes.
  6. Pour the mud clay mixture.
  7. Scrape excess from mold.
  8. Remove from the mold carefully.
  9. Let it dry under the shade for a day.
  10. Let it dry under the sun for 5-7 days.
  11. Arrange the pile of brick tiles before firing.
  • a. Place 30 cm thick rice hull ash under the oven. Arrange the pile of bricks at 5 cm apart from each other and 15cm from the side of the oven.
  • b. Cover with rice hull ash, including the space between piles. Cover the first pile with 5cm thick of rice hull ash. Do the same in the second and next piles.
  • c. This size of oven can accommodate 1,200 bricks.
  • d. Ignite rice hull ash starting from the bottom. This will last up to one week. Leave bricks to cool.

B. Brick Tiles:

  • The method of making brick tiles is similar to bricks. They differ only in size and shape.
  • Both sides of the floor must have a 1 inch groove.
  • A laborer can make 200 bricks in a day.
  • An open oven with 3m x 5m size can cook 1,200 bricks in a month.

source: dost.gov.ph, photo from constructionresources.com

For more information, contact:

Dept. of Science and Technology
Rm. 303 DOST Bldg., DOST Complex,
Gen. Santos Ave., Bicutan, Taguig City 1631
Telephone Nos: (632) 837-20-71 to 82
Fax: (632) 837-8937
Web: www.dost.gov.ph


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