The continuous rise in the prices of goods and services have crawled into every sphere of the economy.
Even the living standards of some rich people have been cut down by the foreign exchange saga and other policy reforms, and those who are embarking on building projects are not left out.
Economy&Lifestyle discovered that one area where the economy slapped home owners is the increasing cost of screeding a building.
To screed your internal walls you need a mixture of screeding paint, bond and pop cement. For external walls you only need black cement and pop paint.
Screeding is a process of flattening and smoothing a surface. This method of prepping your walls prior to painting maximises your emulsion, oil, silk paint finishes.
Mr. Segun Aloma, a businessman, whose building is under construction, said that the high cost of building materials frustrated the work on his project, making him seek cheap and safe means to complete his building.
“My new house is undergoing screeding. It has two duplexes. A friend of mine sold the idea to me. He made me know that screeding helps walls to last longer and avoid stains from rainfalls or dust.
“He said he spent over N1 million on materials and workmanship to complete the screeding process on the duplex.
“I was still thinking about how much I will spend, when I encountered an artisan doing screeding, and also knew how to produce the screeding ingredients.
“He charged N600,000 to complete a duplex and is on the other one. This has saved me N400,000.
“I am glad I made such a choice.”
On his part, Mr. Andrew Showemimo, a lecturer, also confessed to cutting costs using locally made materials for screeding.
“Building materials are on the high side today. Cost of little materials like nails, wood, cement, strings have increased not to talk of sand, prices of blocks among other things.
“Before you could spend less than N200,000 in a building but now you have to have up to N500,000.
“The cost of screeding materials like pop cement, paint and bond have risen. Many Nigerians are skipping the procedure when constructing their houses.
“I had to go for an artisan who makes local screeding materials to complete my building walls.
“I spent just N300,000 for both workmanship and screeding of two flats.
“On a normal basis, if I had allowed the use of ready made materials it would have cost me twice the amount.
“I urge the government to look into the cost of imports of building materials to save us from continuous incidents of building colapse which leads to loss of lives and properties.”
The most available size of screeding paint in Nigeria market is that of 20 litres bucket which costs N14,000 above depending on the brand.
Further investigation revealed that the cost of white cement has risen from N6,000 to N19,000. The price of screeding paint increased to N25,000 from N14,000 and that of bond from N13,000 to N21,000 above.
Mr. Kofi Loko, who is into building interior and exterior finishing and makes local screeding materials, said: “I make local screeding materials. The finished work looks exactly like a screeding done with imported materials.
“Many of the building walls I have worked on last longer than two years.
“I make the bond and paint mixing it with white cement to make it stronger and then I mix it with the normal cement to make it darker.
“I earn more from making the screeding materials and also applying the materials on buildings.”