EFFECTS OF FAULTY DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION ON BUILDING MAINTENANCE

Thesis Overview

<p><b>1.0 INTRODUCTION</b></p><p><b>1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY</b></p><p>The relationship between design, construction and maintenance is closely related but not easily distinguished. Hardy and lammers (1996: cited in maisarah 2012) explained the vital role of design in the early stage of project management. They stated that a functional design can promote skill; economy, conveniences, and comforts while a non-functional design can impeded activities of all types of detract from quality of care, and raise cost to intolerable levels. A typical saying by Vonnegut (1922-2007)’ every body want to build and no body want to do maintenance. In Nigeria building design are copied from other countries without considering the conditions that lead to such design, hence maintenance experts are seldom included to advice on maintenance efficiency of such design. In a related development iyagba (2005) reveal that there are substantial numbers of people who do not know the meaning of maintenance. The mistakes most designer made is believing that a building that is design with the best aesthetics materials requires little or no maintenance, but such notion or argument are wrong because The maintenance of a building begins after the construction is completed (Haniff, 2007).</p><p>&nbsp;Eizzatul ‘Ain (2012) observed that the maintainability aspect at the design stage is often ignored and this has contributed to future problems when implementing maintenance work. He further explained that this happens when the aesthetics value has become more important in the design of asset, besides the design factor, site selection, apparatus, tools or facilities to maintain the asset are hard to obtain or very costly. According to Rozita (2006) the effectiveness of the building is not dependent on its aesthetic value but on the ability to perform maintenance works on the building in the future. Just like the military slogan that if you fail to plan, and then you are planning to fail. That is, if a building is design and constructed without any plan for maintenance the building is hovering towards failure.&nbsp;</p><p>According Norhaniza etal(2007) if the designer failed to plan well the entire plan would also fail. Every decision made during the building design and construction has its own impact, too often the professionals that constructs and design don’t worry whether the building they design and build will work properly, their major concern is just to complete the project and move to the next job while the consequence is left for the client to handle. The effect of faulty building design and construction has become one of the major issues in maintaining building in Nigeria. United nation (1992) mentioned that the world as pass a demographic milestone i.e. for the first time in the history of mankind. World Bank suggested that urbanization and resulting housing problems are the most dominant phenomenon in all developing countries. But a fact indicated that urban population forms an overwhelming majority in all developed countries, (World Bank, 1990). Nigeria has a population estimated to be around 150 million which has the largest black populace in the world and as such new building are being built daily to accommodate the demands of the teeming population, this has lead to the desperation of every single individual to have a building of his own , the consequence is that an inexperience designer is given a contract to design and same to another to construct in a short period of time which will result in many defects especially during the design and construction stage and this will inevitably result in high maintenance cost.</p><p>&nbsp;Abdulmohsen and sadi, (1997) stated that the increase in maintenance cost is attributed to the failure of the building design. If we compare the production of as cars, for example a car is designed and then built; it is tested exhaustively, fault identified and then rectified. If we relate this to building work, we need to construct a building, test if overtime and then demolish and rebuild, removing all problem in the next design. Faulty construction also accounts for many building failure, if a new copied design has not been specified or built previously(most especially designed copied from abroad) the builder will have no experience of this design and may build it incorrectly resulting in high cost of maintenance with inherent defects. It is therefore sacrosanct for both the designer and the builder to consider the importance of maintenance at the onset of the design because decision made at the planning stage have a large effect on the maintenance of the building and the cost. It is most times worry some that most building expert that suppose to educate the public on the importance of building maintenance will say age building result in high cost of maintenance. It is most time correct but we should also know that there are some new building with numerous defect as a result of faulty design and construction which previous research work estimated to&nbsp; surpass the cost of maintaining the age building. Dauda and muyiwa (2010) found out that defects within new building are area of non compliance with the building code of practice older buildings or building out of warranty period may not comply with theses standards but must be judged against the standard at the time of construction or refurbishment. <br></p><p> <b>1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM</b></p><p>&nbsp;Most public buildings in Nigeria are in a state of derelict conditions of structural and aesthetic disrepair and if corrective measures are not properly carried out, it could results in a total breakdown of structural component. Despite the various strategies being adopted by the government for the maintenance of those facilities, the buildings remain a home for defects that should have been avoided if proper feasibility planning on maintenance has been given cognizance right from the design and construction stage of the project. This has led to unnecessary expenditure from the various authorities in carrying out remedial work to curb the effects. Brennan (2000) opined that the main purpose of maintenance of property is essentially to retain it values for investment, aesthetics, safety and durability with a view to ensuring that the property is continually used for habitation and to satisfaction of the owner. It was even observed that majority of the new construction were being built up with defects which later transpire into substantial expenses on maintenance <br></p><p> <b>1.3 AIM OF STUDY</b>&nbsp;</p><p>The aim of this study is to gain an understanding if the Effects of faulty design and construction on Building maintenance&nbsp;</p><p><b><i>1.3.1 Objectives of the study</i>&nbsp;</b></p><p>1. To identify the building defects caused by faulty design and construction on building maintenance</p><p>&nbsp;2. To assess the effects of the building defects caused by faulty design and construction on maintenance</p>