Identification and Categorization of Building Defects

Omar Mostafa Alomari

doi:10.13189/cea.2022.100204

Abstract

The problem of building defects is one of the common problems that occur throughout the lifecycle of the building. The construction stakeholders consider it a critical issue that led to costs and time implications of reworks. Mostly, repairing construction defects requires a cost approximately ranging from 2.4% to 3.15% of the total cost of building. Therefore, the current study looks forward to discovering and classifying the common factors contributing to construction defects. To achieve this objective, the researcher adopted a qualitative method to collect and analyze the needed data through deep review of several previous studies that focused on the causes of building defects. Accordingly, this study identified 57 common contributing factors of building defects, which are classified into five groups according to their sources. These groups are Factors related to design, Factors related to construction, Factors related to materials, Factors related to human and External factors. Understanding the contributing factors of the building defects can help construction stakeholders take and develop various strategies to reduce the existence of defects in newly constructed buildings. Positively, the findings of this study could upgrade the management efficiency of the building defects assessment process in the future, which will help to avoid them as much as possible.

Highlights

This paper presents the most prominent causes of construction defects by grouping them into main groups according to the sources of these causes
According to an in-depth review of previous studies that investigated factors contributing to construction defects, 57 critical factors were collected and categorized into various groups according to their source
This study shows that several building defects differ in their source and effects

Summary

Introduction

The demand for buildings has increased globally due to the growth of the population around the world [1]. The past years have seen many technological developments, which encourage the building occupants to focus more on the safety and suitability of the buildings to achieve the requirements of satisfactory living. The fundamental purpose of a building is to protect its users and contents from various external elements, wind, extremes of temperature and rain [3]. This requires that all elements of the building be able to achieve the required protection. To ensure the long-term safety and quality of the building, the causes of defects must be avoided [5]

Methods

Results

Conclusion