Cement Brick

Ordinary brick is made from earth. Usually these bricks were baked in a huge kiln. Bricks are one of those essential building material for the construction of a permanent dwelling house.

The size of a brick is usually 8x4x3 inches and weight about 500g. Thousands were needed for the construction of a long house.

Rural folks usually move about by means of 'perahu' or boat. These boats are small as they have to travell through shallow rivers, rapids and 1001 more other obstacles.

Naturally the cost of transporting bricks from the kiln to the long house is very high. Some body suddenly have a brilliant idea of making bricks from cement. So now we have "Cement-Brick".




This is the mold for making cement-brick. It's just a simple wooden framework which they put on an even surface. Underneath, it is usually lined with plastic sheet .

Wet cement is then poured into the slots. After a certain layer, small pebbles were arranged on top of the wet cement. Then more cement is poured in to top it up. When the cement is drying, the top part is scratched so as to make the surface rugged.