Suppliers and contractors on our network work in all nine provinces, from the township extensions and estates of Gauteng to the damp coast of Durban, Gqeberha and East London, the winelands of the Boland, the mining towns of the platinum belt and the coalfields, the Lowveld around Mbombela and Tzaneen, the villages of Limpopo and the Eastern Cape where families build with blocks they make themselves, and the long roads of the Northern Cape. Choose your province or town to read about bricks and brick making there and request quotes.
Gauteng
Johannesburg started out with a brickfields of its own, and the province has never stopped building. Today the demand is spread across township extensions in Soshanguve, Tembisa and Diepsloot, back rooms and boundary walls in Soweto and Mamelodi, estates and complexes in Midrand, Centurion and Lanseria, and factories from Germiston to Rosslyn. Cement brick and block yards sit on the edge of nearly every township, many of them small businesses running an egg-laying machine on a home slab, while clay brickyards and machine sellers work from the industrial belts. Sand comes in by tipper from pits south and west of the metros. Highveld frost in winter and violent summer storms are the two things to cover fresh bricks against.
- Brick machines Johannesburg
- Brick machines Pretoria
- Brick machines Centurion
- Brick machines Midrand
- Brick machines Sandton
- Brick machines Randburg
- Brick machines Roodepoort
- Brick machines Krugersdorp
- Brick machines Randfontein
- Brick machines Germiston
- Brick machines Boksburg
- Brick machines Benoni
- Brick machines Kempton Park
- Brick machines Alberton
- Brick machines Vanderbijlpark
- Brick machines Vereeniging
- Bricks Gauteng
- Paving bricks Gauteng
- Block machines Gauteng
- Bricklayers Gauteng
Mpumalanga
Coal and power stations shape building on the Mpumalanga Highveld, while the Lowveld below the escarpment builds for a warmer, wetter life. Around eMalahleni, Middelburg and Secunda you see rows of rented units, mine housing and new extensions going up beside the old towns, and some yards there work ash into their cement bricks. Former homeland areas such as KwaMhlanga, Siyabuswa and Bushbuckridge have hundreds of family homes built block by block as money allows, which keeps village block yards busy. Mbombela, White River and Hazyview add estates, lodges and smallholdings. Frost on the Highveld and heavy summer rain in the Lowveld both mean covering bricks while they cure.
North West
Platinum money and village self-build drive most brick orders in North West. Along the mining belt from Rustenburg to Brits and Mooinooi, rental rooms, mine housing and new extensions take cement bricks by the truckload. The villages of Bojanala, from Mogwase and Ledig to Madibeng, build family homes in stages, so block yards there sell a few hundred bricks at a time as often as a full load. Potchefstroom, Klerksdorp and Mahikeng have older suburbs in face brick and new housing on their edges, while Lichtenburg and Vryburg serve maize and cattle farms. Dry heat cures cement bricks too fast if they are not kept damp, and the plains get sharp winter frost.
Limpopo
Village by village, Limpopo builds its homes one course at a time. In Vhembe, Mopani and Sekhukhune, families put up rooms and then whole houses as money comes in, often with cement blocks from a yard down the road, which makes the province full of small brick-making businesses. Polokwane, Seshego, Mokopane, Tzaneen and Thohoyandou add suburbs, shopping centres and government buildings, and Lephalale and Steelpoort have mine and power station housing. Lodges in the Waterberg and near Hoedspruit build in face brick, stone and thatch. The heat is the big caution here: fresh cement bricks dry out and crack in a day unless they are shaded and kept damp.
Northern Cape
Distance is part of the price of every brick in the Northern Cape. Kimberley and Upington have the bigger yards, but a farmhouse near Carnarvon or a school extension in Pofadder may be hundreds of kilometres from the nearest pallet, so many towns make their own cement bricks locally with a small machine and Orange River or pit sand. Mining towns such as Kathu, Postmasburg and Kuruman add rented housing and new extensions, and the Karoo towns of De Aar and Colesberg build farm sheds, dams and kraals. Kimberley's older suburbs still have red face brick to match. Fierce sun and dry wind crack fresh bricks, and the Karoo gets hard winter frost.
Free State
Sandstone farmhouses in the eastern Free State and red face brick in Bloemfontein tell you the province has always built with what the ground offers. Today the busiest orders come from the townships and new housing around Bloemfontein, Botshabelo and Thaba Nchu, from Welkom and Virginia where old mine houses are extended and rented, and from Phuthaditjhaba in Qwaqwa where families build in stages. Kroonstad, Bethlehem and Sasolburg have their own yards and builders, and grain and cattle farms order blocks for sheds and staff housing. Cement brick and block yards work the edges of most towns. Hard winter frost and summer hail are real threats to bricks that have not cured.
KwaZulu-Natal
Steep hills, coastal damp and a huge rural population make KwaZulu-Natal a province of hollow blocks and retaining walls. Across the hills of Ndwedwe, Msinga and Nongoma, homesteads are built in cement blocks from small local yards, often with the blocks made on site. Durban's townships of Umlazi, KwaMashu and Inanda keep adding rooms, while Umhlanga, Ballito and Cornubia take estate and complex work with face brick and paving. Pietermaritzburg, Newcastle and Richards Bay each have their own yards. On the coast, salt and humidity bring white efflorescence on face brick and rust on machine parts, and summer downpours wash out uncovered bricks. The Midlands and Drakensberg get winter frost.
Eastern Cape
Two very different building worlds sit side by side in the Eastern Cape. Along the coast, Gqeberha and East London build suburbs, complexes and factories, holiday homes go up at Jeffreys Bay, Kenton-on-Sea and Port Alfred, and townships such as Motherwell, Kwazakhele and Mdantsane keep extending. Inland and in the former Transkei, around Mthatha, Butterworth, Lusikisiki and Mount Frere, rural homes and rondavels are built in cement blocks from village yards, many of them one-machine businesses. The Karoo towns of Graaff-Reinet and Cradock build farm sheds and match old brickwork. Strong wind dries fresh bricks fast, salt air stains face brick on the coast, and the high ground near Komani gets frost.
Western Cape
Winter rain, not frost, is the main enemy of fresh bricks in the Western Cape. From May to August, curing rows in the Cape Flats and Winelands need covering, and bricklayers plan around wet weeks. The metro builds everywhere at once: backyard rooms in Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain and Delft, complexes in Parklands, Kraaifontein and Somerset West, and alterations to Victorian homes in the Southern Suburbs. Sand has long come from the Philippi area and the dunes of the Cape Flats, and clay brickyards work the shale belt north of the city. Stellenbosch, Paarl, Worcester and George add wine farms, student housing and Garden Route homes, and the south easter carries salt spray well inland.