Do you remember when the cost of laying a brick during COVID jumped from $1.20 to $3 a brick – and that’s when you could get a brickie at all.

That was a simple case of supply and demand – but a West Australian building company reckons it’s discovered a solution to that problem.

Contec Director Mark D’Alessandro said his business has just bought its first 3D concrete printing robot with a claim it’s 5 times faster and 22 per cent cheaper than a brickie.

“It’s just plain old concrete, it’s just a different method of delivery,” Mr D’Alessandro said.

“Instead of forming up formwork, putting in Rio and then filling it with concrete, the machine extrudes a proprietary mix of concrete, kind of like a piping bag when you’re icing a cake is probably the best analogy for it, and puts it into layers.

“All jobs are primarily designed in CAD these days, and any CAD model our software can take can process it into a printable format.

“The robot deciphers that and puts the concrete in the precise location that’s needed.

“We did some checks on the walls that were just printed on the project out there and tapping and the wall was within three millimeters, over three meters, which is kind of unheard of from a tolerance point of view.”

Contec mainly builds commercial buildings but it’s using the robot on a luxury family home in Perth to demonstrate the robot’s capabilities.

D’Alessandro said the machine could be particularly useful in areas where it’s difficult to get tradies such as remote mine sites which require many homes to be built quickly.

“This robot can come into its own where it’s got inquiry from regional work.

“We see it doing everything from printing homes or villages up for mine sites all the way down to doing a luxury home in the city.”

“We’re completing this affordable product right now, a two story home. It’s jumping straight onto a three story home in Perth, straight after it’s doing retaining walls and then a pool.

But the million dollar question (although to be honest we don’t know how expensive that questions is because the builder and the Dutch company that sells the robot won’t reveal the price tag) is could the 3D printer replace the brickie on job site?

D’Allesandro said no – but he seemed to argue the case of the robot in favour of the human.

“The concrete walls compared to double brick are about 22% cheaper, but there’s no real hard and fast difference in price.

“A brick layer may charge you more for a curved wall, whereas our robot doesn’t discriminate and charges the same for a curve wall as it does a square wall.

“Brick layers don’t really work in the rain. The robot can work in the rain.”

But you don’t have to pay a huge upfront capital cost for a bricklayer and if the there’s an error in the building plan the brickie can adapt the design on the run – the robot will just deliver what its programmed to do.

Bundaberg bricklayer Gordon Cooper who has been on job sites for 50 years said the robot sounds good in theory, but he doubts it would work in Queensland. Mr Cooper said.

“It looks good on paper, but everything has to be set up for the machine.”

“And it doesn’t work like that when you get a sloping block – if you have flat blocks and a level ground it may work wonders, but as a full time thing for every sort of site, it will never, never work.”

“…as a full time thing for every sort of site, it will never, never work.”

“Like today we’re doing a block shed, but you wouldn’t get the machine in this location here, and it’s got a rebate of 30 mill on the slab, so it has to be set out somewhere close by and then you’ve already got the other building set close to the boundary, so whether you get it into the site would be another thing.”

Over in Perth Contec has a couple more robots coming before the end of the year.

“I don’t think it’s stealing anyone’s jobs anytime soon, because the market’s huge and there’s such a pent-up demand,” D’Alessandro said.

“I wouldn’t be worried if I was a bricklayer. If anything, I’d be kind of happy that we’d be able to work together and deliver more homes.

“I’ve spoken to a couple of bricklayers, and they’re not concerned, and rightly so.”

Bricklayers don’t seem to be worried about robots taking over, but many are concerned about the future of the industry.

“I don’t see a long term future for it (the 3D printing bricklaying robot), but in saying that, trying to get brick layers to come through the trade is a disaster,” Cooper said.

“At the moment, bricklayers are nearly non-existent as far as coming through – something in the trade is going to have to change.

“Bricks and mortar are just, I don’t say they’re on their way out, but you’re just not going to have tradies for them.

“There’s a shortage of those people and they’re not coming through – they’re just not interested, because that works too hard.”

What do you think?

Could this 3D printer replace brickies on job sites – are bricks and mortar on the way out anyway? Would love to hear your thoughts.

Author: Richard O'Leary

Experienced writer, commentator and political advisor, Richard held a raft of journalism and editorial roles before taking executive communication roles for multiple Premiers, Chief Ministers and even NBN Co. He grew up in his father’s construction business and joins The Good Builder as its founding Editor.