Latent and Non-latent Building Defects: A Literature Review

Abstract

The alleged building defects are adversely affected starting from the design part as the first defect possibly to have emerged. So far, there is no genuine comprehensive guide that has been carefully gathered in an organized manner to comparatively table out the design part focusing on building defects: latent or non. As usual, the defects are expected to be existing right after the building’s rigorous examination, especially during the building inspection period. It is invariably the ambitious target of this empirical research to accumulate all the essential parts and key pieces in an organized way, which is caused and found within the identified twelve equivalent categories such as on building construction components that produce defects effect; indisputably seen or cleverly hidden or covered up. It is the key target of the mission, anticipating to produce referred guidelines so that the people involved within the building industry can look upon. The research intention, somehow, is to look for the gap which, so far, nobody in the industry has attended to. Once the gap has been positively identified, the proper and systematic cataloging system can be undoubtedly produced and the fewer defects, latent or non-latent, can be squeezed out and the construction process will be obtained at its excellent quality by eliminating building defects. The paper concluded five main factors that greatly contributed to cause the defects which are design factors, lacking referred data, water seepage, dampness, and defects caused by fire.