13 Most Commonly Used Building Materials In Nigeria

So you want to build a home in Nigeria but do not actually have an idea on the kind of building materials that is commonly used in Nigeria?

Now you also would like to know the list of 12 most common building materials used in the construction of Homes in Nigeria.

Well, the Most common building material you’ll find in Nigeria are:

1. Timber, Planks (Necessary for Earth support, Shoring, Slabs, Lintel and scaffolding)

2. Sandcrete Blocks (could be 125mm, 150mm, 225mm)

3. Reinforcement Rods (8mm, 10mm, 12mm, 16mm, 20mm, 24mm, etc)

4. Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) (Depending on the nature of the job and the pocket of the Client or Owner) this could be made by Dangote or Elephant or Unicem (the 3 most popular cement manufacturers in Nigeria.

5. Granite ( Necessary for Lintel works and Over site Concrete)

6. Boulders (for Filling stations and some German concretes)

7. Gravel ( for works where less strength is required)

8. Bamboo (Used as shoring materials or supports for form works during the construction of slabs.

9. Aluminium Roofing sheets (long and short span)

10. Zinc ( used for most small structures, residential buildings, etc.

11. Water ( All Construction Activities need water, Concreting, Brick laying, German flooring, P.O.P, painting, etc.

12. Paints for finishing.

13. Tiles (could be ceramic, Terrazzo, Etc)

14. Sharp Sand (needed for everything about the building except Roofing in most cases. Could also be used for filling depending on the specification of the Engineer)

15. Laterite (for filling and backfilling)

16. Mix-Mud ( almost like the sharp sand, but has smaller particles than the sharp sand. Used for plastering or Rendering)

So these are the 13 most common building materials you’ll come across if you’re going to have a home built for you in Nigeria.

On my next post, I’ll be talking about how you can buy a solid sandcrete block for your building construction.