IDENTIFICATION OF DEFECTIVE CONSTRUCTION WORKS DURING BUILDING INSPECTIONS

Abstract

Meeting the quality requirements in construction works is critical for structural safety of the buildings, particularly in seismically active regions with old building stocks. Code compliance through strict inspections is essential not only for reliable structures, but also for prevention of cost and time overruns causing financial losses. In Turkey, building inspections are mandatory during the construction phase of the projects and building inspectors are responsible from the inspection of the construction works to ensure code compliance. Building inspectors are frequently subjected to different type of problems due several defects during inspections. This study aims to identify the frequently encountered defective construction works based on a quantitative study. A questionnaire was administered to 57 building inspectors by using 1-5 Likert scale to evaluate 20 critical construction work items. The results, which were ranked according to the Relative Importance Index (RII) showed that concrete works, reinforcement works, and HVAC are the top three works where problems were frequently observed during inspections. On the other hand, less problems were observed in painting, landscaping works and prefabricated construction works.