Construction Defects and Disputes in Low-Rise Residential Buildings

A vast number of studies about construction defects have been published in different countries, confirming that construction defects are a global issue. This problem often adversely affects the budgets, timing, and quality of construction projects. The lack of understanding about which construction tasks are prone to defects make implementation more uncertain and increases the chances of defects. This study seeks to identify and understand the behavior and pattern of task actions that are more prone to defects through the anatomy process of a specific task. The first objective in this study was to identify, track, and record construction defects during the execution of a number of actions within a specified task. The second objective was quantifying which actions are more prone to construction defects and determining the reasons why. Fifteen case studies were conducted on residential buildings, which included 45 items focusing on the column sub-task. Initial results suggest that some actions within specific sub-tasks are more susceptible to defects. This research aims to improve the understanding of construction defects and solutions, enhance cost controls, reduce time overruns, and improve execution quality.

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Building Envelope Thermal Defects in Existing and Under-Construction Housing in the UAE; Infrared Thermography Diagnosis and Qualitative Impacts Analysis

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13042230 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (4) ◽

pp. 2230

Author(s):

Kheira Anissa Tabet Aoul ◽

Rahma Hagi ◽

Rahma Abdelghani ◽

Monaya Syam ◽

Boshra Akhozheya

Keyword(s):

United Arab Emirates ◽

Residential Buildings ◽

Building Envelope ◽

Mitigation Measures ◽

Building Energy Efficiency ◽

Building Stock ◽

Management Procedures ◽

Thermal Bridging ◽

Under Construction ◽

Construction Defects

The built environment accounts for the highest share of energy use and carbon emissions, particularly in emerging economies, caused by population growth and fast urbanization. This phenomenon is further exacerbated under extreme climatic conditions such as those of the United Arab Emirates, the context of this study, where the highest energy share is consumed in buildings, mostly used in the residential sector for cooling purposes. Despite efforts to curb energy consumption through building energy efficiency measures in new construction, substantial existing building stock and construction quality are left out. Construction defects, particularly in the building envelope, are recognized to affect its thermal integrity. This paper aims, first, to detect through thermography field investigation audit construction defects bearing thermal impacts in existing and under-construction residential buildings. Then, through a qualitative analysis, we identify the resulting energy, cost, and health impacts of the identified defects. Results indicate that lack or discontinuity of insulation, thermal bridging through building elements, blockwork defects, and design change discrepancies are the recurrent building and construction defects. The qualitative review analysis indicates substantial energy loss due to lack of insulation, thermal bridging with cost and health implications, while beneficial mitigation measures include consideration of building envelope retrofitting, skilled workmanship, and the call for quality management procedures during construction.

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The Concept of Method of Detecting and Analyzing Construction Defects in Residential Buildings

Archives of Civil Engineering ◽

10.2478/ace-2019-0048 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 65 (4) ◽

pp. 81-95

Author(s):

K. Zima ◽

S. Biel

Keyword(s):

Residential Buildings ◽

Weighted Sums ◽

Case Based Reasoning ◽

Repair Cost ◽

Defect Management ◽

Criteria Weights ◽

Definition Of ◽

Global Similarity ◽

Case Based ◽

Construction Defects

AbstractThe authors developed the definition of construction defect and fault and construction defect management based on Polish and foreign publications. In order to assist identification of faults and their analysis in the process of home collection, the authors applied the Case Based Reasoning (CBR) method. In the paper, the authors used Case Based Reasoning (CBR) to support acceptance of apartments. The CBR method allows to determine the magnitude of global similarity for the problem under consideration between the new and old case from the Case Base, using weighted sums of local similarities using criteria weights as coefficients. As a result of CBR-based solutions, an Employer’s representative receives information about the type of construction defects that can be expected, their location and significance, occurrence frequency, and estimated repair cost.

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CBA-Based Evaluation Method of the Impact of Defects in Residential Buildings: Assessing Risks towards Making Sustainable Decisions on Continuous Improvement Activities

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13126597 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (12) ◽

pp. 6597

Author(s):

Raphael N. Milion ◽

Thaís da C. L. Alves ◽

José Carlos Paliari ◽

Luisa H. B. Liboni

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Customer Satisfaction ◽

Continuous Improvement ◽

Evaluation Method ◽

Residential Buildings ◽

Construction Company ◽

Use Of Resources ◽

Study Results ◽

The Impact ◽

Construction Defects

Evaluating the impact of defects in buildings and ranking the most impactful ones enables construction companies to better choose which paths to take in light of continuous improvement activities to support more sustainable decisions regarding the design and operation of buildings. As a result, the risks of the different choices are more clearly identified while assessing all tangible and intangible aspects of residential building defects in a structured way. Although recent studies on managing construction defects in residential buildings have focused on monetary losses associated with maintenance activities based on the defect’s frequency and severity, these studies do not take into account the levels of customer satisfaction. To address this gap, this paper proposes a novel evaluation method of the impact of defects to support decision-making in managing defect occurrences in residential buildings. The goal is to rank the defects’ impact based on a combination of some critical aspects: frequency of occurrence, financial considerations on repairing such defects, the impact that these defects have on customer satisfaction, and the cost and complexity of preventing and minimizing these defect occurrences through continuous improvement activities. The method consists of a structured set of steps that use data from technical assistance departments and customer satisfaction surveys, where information about the users’ level of satisfaction and the occurrence of defects is available. In this paper, data obtained from a construction company were used to test and validate the proposed method. The method also examines the challenges and barriers associated with the technique and points out that difficulties in acquiring reliable data are a bottleneck for making conscious and sustainable decisions to address construciton defects. Moreover, the case study results highlight essential capabilities needed by companies to correctly assess the impact of defects, such as correctly logging data in a structured database and having skilled personnel to verify defects users might have complained about. The paper ends by proposing a set of guidelines to use the method and stressing that structured methods for decision-making are crucial to analyze construction defects in a structured way while also incorporating the user’s perspective. The proposed method is expected to improve sustainable managerial decisions where economic, environmental, social, and technical risks can be accounted for to enhance the quality of projects from the customer’s perspective. Such analysis can help optimize and prioritize the use of resources and minimize the economic impact of activities on the construction company.

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