Materials in Côte d'Ivoire: advantages, drawbacks, lifespan, maintenance

This lesson is part of Designing and building a poultry house specialisation. It opens to every registered student, from free registration. Levels 1 to 5 and the tracks remain readable by everyone.

The same 8 × 40 m plan can be built in round timber and sack cloth, or in reinforced concrete, profiled sheeting and woven tarpaulin. Both houses will hold 1,600 broilers on the first day; in five years, one will need rebuilding and the other will barely have begun to age. Choosing a material means choosing a lifespan, a maintenance routine and a behaviour under the heat, rain and termites of Côte d’Ivoire. This lesson reviews what is found on our markets: timber, concrete, sheeting, wire mesh, tarpaulins, and says for each what it is worth, what it fears and how many years it lasts.

• ✓Compare the materials available in Côte d’Ivoire (timber, concrete, blocks, sheeting, mesh, tarpaulin) on four criteria: availability, lifespan, behaviour in the climate, maintenance
• ✓Recognise the timber species that last and those that do not, and protect timber against termites and damp
• ✓Choose the thickness and type of sheeting, the mesh size and wire of the netting, the type of tarpaulin, and calculate what the choice changes over twenty years
• ✓Set up the annual maintenance calendar of the house

1. Choosing a material: four questions, never just one
2. Timber: plentiful, light, but you must choose the species
3. Concrete and blocks: what no longer moves
4. Sheeting: the roof of almost every house
5. Wire mesh, tarpaulins and cloths: closing and breathing
6. The choice for the 8 × 40 m and the maintenance calendar
7. Going further

• •Four questions for each material: availability, lifespan in our climate, behaviour in sun and rain, maintenance; you reason over twenty years.
• •Timber: iroko, bete, teak for posts and frame (20 years under cover); white woods under the roof only; dry, protected timber, never planted in bare earth.
• •Concrete 350 kg of cement per m³ for structure, 300 for the slab, not too much water, watered 7 days; 15 × 20 × 40 blocks dried 3 weeks; bars covered by 2.5 cm.
• •0.40 mm sheet or alu-zinc profile painted white: 20 to 30 years and a single laying; 0.25 mm sheet: 5 to 8 years and three and a half layings over twenty years.
• •Chain-link mesh 2 mm (10-15 years), white UV-stabilised woven tarpaulin (4-6 years); monthly curtain maintenance, annual inspection in February, paint every five years.