Cape Brick wins Regional Award at CMA Awards for Excellence 2006

Cape Brick, one of the leading concrete masonry manufacturers in the Western Cape, entered no less than nine projects in the 2006 CMA Awards for Excellence competition. Cape Brick has always supported the CMA Awards, since they highlight the best that concrete masonry has to offer and prove beyond doubt that it really is the most versatile and modern building material.

Cape Brick's entries for the 2006 awards were:

House Davis: Ron Davis is the owner of PD Homes Building Contractors, and has been a client of Cape Brick for many years. He only ever uses one product for all his various projects, and this is the SPK plaster grade 14MPa imperial brick. When it came to building his own house, Ron did not hesitate and ordered "the usual". So why was the product chosen this time? The site is extremely steep and required some serious engineering. The bricks had to be extremely strong and resistant to cracking. The product is made on a Speakman press that compresses the brick at 200 tons per square inch, resulting in bricks that test at 21MPa. (The brick is sold as a 14MPa product but laboratory testing shows a consistent result of 21MPa). This brick is made using recycled crushed aggregate, slagment and cement, a proud 96% of recycled materials. The relatively low cement content (4%) means that the product has virtually no shrinkage with the resultant cracking. The use of recycled aggregates allows the product to be priced very competitively while also being extremely environmentally friendly. What this project highlights is that a relatively unexciting plaster product can be used to produce upmarket housing of striking design and appearance.

ACSA Park: With a critical parking shortage at Cape Town International Airport, the joint venture team of Murray & Roberts and Jolinde Construction was appointed to build a new parking garage. The construction was obviously largely concrete framed with lots of formwork, but also required plenty of face-brick quality internal walling. Cape Brick's 14Mpa Fairface grade imperial brick was selected for its consistency, in terms of colour, dimensional accuracy and trueness of shape. The internal walling was not painted so any serious deviations from the norm become immediately apparent. The construction required a total of around 170,000 bricks.

Avenue Calais: This project was built by both Faircape Property Developers and Novabuild Construction in a joint venture operation. The site was run by the Novabuild team and although Cape Brick has supplied concrete masonry to Faircape for many years, this was to be Novabuild's first experience of working with its products. The site itself was a nightmare of almost impossible access for loading, combined with extremely steep gradients. Plaster grade 14MPa imperial bricks were used for the foundation and basement layers, with a switch 7MPa hollow maxi bricks once the project was into the above ground works. The concrete product was chosen for its uniformity and consistency, making laying and plastering fast and efficient. The speed at which this project was completed was a testament to both the building team and the materials with which they worked. Suffice to say that Novabuild Construction continues to use concrete masonry from Cape Brick for its projects to this day.

Crystal Waters: The client, Faircape Property Developers, is a developer with many large scale projects on the go. Most of these projects are situated in extremely difficult areas, with steep slopes giving rise to serious engineering requirements. Crystal Waters was no different, with the site having extremely steep gradients and difficult access. The building was a concrete frame with infill brickwork, so did not require load bearing brickwork in terms of the structural requirements of the building. However the bricks could not be off-loaded in the normal fashion, but instead had to be dropped down a steep slope from the truck, to land in a pile at the bottom. The product of choice for these sites was again the Hollow Maxi Brick, in both the 7MPa and the 14MPa derivatives. The product was chosen for its extremely tight adherence to the specified tolerances, its cost effectiveness (both in terms of the product itself and laying efficiencies) and its low wastage. The bricks are handled very roughly on site, and yet very few bricks are broken. This just goes to show the reasons for specifying concrete masonry in the first place.

South Seas: This project by Faircape Property Developers was an existing office block that was being converted into luxury sea-front apartments. The structure was concrete framed with mostly infill brickwork. The makeover involved demolition of most of the walling leaving only the concrete framework behind. Because the existing frame was being utilized there was no way that the conduiting could be set into the concrete and therefore there was to be a huge amount of chasing work. The client usually works with 3 core hollow maxi bricks and needed a unit that could be chased without excessive crumbling. Cape Brick supplied 12MPa Hollow Maxi Bricks with 38mm cores for the job and these were able to withstand the chasing without any problems. This project is situated right at the sea-side and is therefore subjected to the harshest of environmental conditions. The client chose concrete masonry for its durability and time tested strength. Also of interest is the fact that these bricks are made using mainly recycled materials and therefore fit in with the client's requirement of sustainable building practice.

Wembley Square: The client, Faircape Property Developers, has built many projects in a contemporary style, with the buildings' façade often consisting of clay face brick. This project was no different, and would be seen by many to be a victory for the proponents of clay masonry. However, there is more to this than meets the eye. The entire inner skin of the external walling, as well as the internal walls and basement layers consist of concrete masonry. In fact, there is more concrete masonry in this project than there is clay masonry. The product chosen was the 7MPa and 14MPa hollow maxi brick, the stronger of the two units being used for all structural work and the other for all non load-bearing walling. The product was chosen for its extremely tight adherence to the specified tolerances, its cost effectiveness (both in terms of the product itself and laying efficiencies) and its low wastage.M190 blocks were used for all boundary walling. What this serves to highlight is that clay and concrete masonry can be used together to great effect to produce a great end result with the client being the overall winner.

Forest Hill Drive: The instructions provided by the client were to create a terraced garden whist retaining the extensive 65 degree bank surrounding the property. Harry Gargan from Terraflora, in consultation with the engineer Alan Hendrie, decided to use a combination of concrete infill and Geofabric to ensure a high safety factor. Cape Brick's R12 Tan Rockface blocks were chosen due to their visual appeal, competitive cost, high quality and ease of installation. A concrete foundation was laid and the first layer of blocks were placed into the wet concrete. Concrete infill was utilised in the first four layers of the wall to create a sturdy base. Following this, every 2 layers of blocks, geofabric was placed extending 2m into the bank. Extensive subsoil drainage, weep holes and compacted sand drainage layers ensure excellent drainage thereby minimising the hydrostatic pressure placed on the wall. The end result is an engineered rockface retaining wall which is both aesthetically pleasing and functional.

Montrose Drive: The brief given by the owner was to extend the garden at the same level as the veranda so as to enlarge the entertainment area. To maximise the area available it was decide to create a retaining wall 4.6 metres in height at an angle of 60 degrees using Cape Bricks R12 Tan Smoothface block. The Installer, Terraflora, in conjunction with the Engineer, Rob van Loon, opted for a concrete filled double skin up to a height of 1.2m in the critical area, with the balance of the wall being constructed using a single skin. With the resultant force of the wall passing through the lower part of the wall, this concrete filled double skin coupled with extensive sub-soil drainage ensured a high safety factor against over turning. The use of the R12 block ensured an economical and attractive solution. The R12 block is a combination of value for money and ease of installation. Having a weight of 27kgs and a ratio of 12 blocks per square metre ensures quick installation without significant labour or capital resources. After a period of a year the wall was completely hidden by an extensive system of Big Green Leaved Ivy providing a safe engineered retaining solution combined with a "Green" wall.

Pepperwood: Pepperwood Country Estate is a prestigious security development designed around the Historic Berghoewe Manor House and Outbuildings in Somerset West. The Architects wanting to create a rural farm feeling, decided to ensure the dam was retained to accentuate the country feeling. After extensive research into the various possibilities, it was decided to use Cape Bricks R12 Tan Smoothface retaining block. Cape Brick's R12 block proved to be the safest, most cost effective and aesthetically pleasing solution. Harry Gargan from Terraflora was appointed to complete the project. When building a wall that reaches a maximum height of 4.8 metres, considerable engineering is required. A concrete foundation with steel reinforced y-bars was used to unsure the stability of the foundation and concrete shear keys were used in certain areas to a height of 2.5 metres. Steel gabions were used above the wall to slow down the flow of water over the wall thereby creating a visually pleasing "trickling" effect. The foremost banks of blocks were completely encapsulated by a sub-soil layer of water proof plastic to ensure that the dam remained water-tight. In addition to this an emergency outlet was created on the lower banks to ensure any excessive water flow would be directed directly into the subsoil drainage system. Finally all blocks situated below drainage pipes were filled with concrete to ensure stability and to prevent destabilisation. The net result is a steel reinforced gravity retaining wall that combines form and function.

And the winner is. House Davis! In the category, Concrete Masonry - Residential B
Individual Houses, Cape Brick won the Regional Award. The judges comment was simply "The ideal residence!".

For further information please contact Jean Tresfon at Cape Brick (021) 511-2006.