Building Construction Costs Research Articles

Application of small-diameter round timber as structural members in light frame construction

ABSTRACT Small-diameter round timber is a kind of by-product mainly from the thinning operation of the plantations. It is plentiful and inexpensive, and is generally destined for non-structural applications. The small-diameter round timber is rarely used as structural members. This study was aimed to provide an innovative but simple way to use the small-diameter round timber as structural members. Three kinds of composite members were developed to be used in light frame wood construction, i.e. the built-up studs, the wood-steel joists and the wood-steel roof trusses. The shearwalls and diaphragms made of the developed composite members were also examined. To facilitate the fabrication, the configurations of these members were described in details. Efforts were also made to investigate the structural performances of these members via full-scale tests. It was found that the developed composite members could be used as substitutes of dimension lumber in the framework of light frame construction. The developed members could be also pre-fabricated as standard components in a mill and assembled on site. As a result, application of small-diameter round timber as structural members developed would be an efficient way to increase use of forest resource from plantation and lower the construction cost of light frame buildings.

A Review of Building Construction Cost Research: Current Status, Gaps and Green Buildings

An overall scoping review was conducted to examine research on building construction costs in the past decades. The aim is to provide a better understanding of conventional building construction cost estimation methods, gaps and potential improvement strategies that may mitigate the high risk of the cost overrun in conventional and sustainable building. This study first examined the components included in a building's construction cost and the commonly used calculation methods for cost estimation. Then, additional components included for sustainable buildings were identified and explained. The causal factors for construction cost overruns in sustainable building werediscussed as well. The findings concluded the following: (a) there is no consistent cost definition used in the industry; (b) a variety of cost estimation methods create ambiguity and confusion; and (c) newer cost estimating methods and tools, such as parametric cost estimation, which integrate risk and uncertainties have not been broadly adopted by the building industry. The current practice used to determine a sustainable building's cost estimation is the same traditional method that has been used over several decades, which is based on the material and labor costs. Such a conventional approach does not consider other factors, including the complexity of the sustainable building system, an organization's environment, and the capability of teams, among others. To respond to such a knowledge gap, a comprehensive and consistent cost estimation framework was proposed to integrate risk and uncertainty consideration, which is particularly prevalent in sustainable building.

Detection of price bubbles in Istanbul housing market using LSTM autoencoders: a district-based approach.

Since the early 2000s, there has been a long-term price increase trend in the Istanbul housing market, and this situation also has led to price bubble speculations. Since the housing sector was caught with a high level of unsold housing stock to the economic slowdown emerging in the second half of 2018, housing price bubble speculations have increased even more, especially for the Istanbul market. In this period, housing loan interest reduction campaigns were implemented by the government through state banks to stimulate the housing demand, and a probable collapse in the housing market was prevented. On the other hand, house prices continued to rise during this period due to the stimulated demand. In this paper, we perform a price bubble research on the selected districts in the Istanbul housing market over the 2007–2019 period using LSTM autoencoder model. The first analysis on monthly data is performed by using housing price index, housing rent index, consumer prices index, stock market index, return on government debt securities, USD/TRY exchange rates, BIST price index, monthly deposit interest rates, mortgage interest rates and consumer confidence index, and the second analysis on quarterly data is carried out by adding building construction cost index and GDP data to the previous dataset. In the first analysis, the bubble formations differ regionally and periodically and disappeared toward the end of 2019 in some districts, while in the second analysis, the housing bubble formations have a more common and continuous appearance. Experimental results show that LSTM autoencoder model can be used to detect housing bubbles effectively.

Proposal of a new automated workflow for the computational performance-driven design optimization of building energy need and construction cost

Delaying the analysis of the building performance to the final stages of the design process can often cause the actual results to differ from the expected ones, with the issue of significant redesign costs. The aim of this work is to improve the designer’s control on thermal and geometric variables of the building in the first stages of the design process, to obtain an optimized building from different points of view. An innovative computational performance-driven design optimization workflow is proposed. The integration of a parametric algorithmic modelling tool in a genetic algorithm powered performance optimization procedure allows to minimize energy need and construction cost of the building, and to optimize the natural illumination levels, affecting several geometric variables. This approach is tested on the early design stages for the new construction of an educational building located in the centre of Italy (L’Aquila). The results are post-processed in order to provide an innovative graphical visualization of the outputs to improve the decision-making process. Useful insights on the influence of different design choices on three key performance indicators can be drawn for the case study building, by comparison of the Pareto solutions: optimization results highlight the strongest influence of window-to-wall ratio, among the other variables, on energy need and useful daylight illuminance.

Comparative Cost Analysis of Reinforced Concrete and Timber Floor System for Effective Low Housing Scheme

In Nigeria, housing is grossly inadequate especially in urban area due to migration from rural area to urban area which results in poor environmental quality. In this paper, the cost analysis of 6 m x 6 m square suspended floor, constructed with reinforced concrete and wooden floor for housing units was carried out. The results show that wooden floor system is 21.6% cheaper than using reinforced concrete in construction. The use of timber in building construction should be encourage, as it will minimize the dead load and reduces the cost of building construction that will be sustainable and affordable for the low income earners.

FACILITIES AND INFRASTRUCTURE DESIGN OF BULAKSETRA MANGROVE EDU-ECOTOURISM, PANGANDARAN DISTRICT

Mangrove ecosystems in coastal areas play an important role in supporting physical, biological, and environmental economic functions. One of the alternatives to preserve the mangrove ecosystem is integrated area management. Bulaksetra Beach is a mangrove area located on the East Coast of Pangandaran which has the potential to be developed as an ecotourism area. The Edu-ecotourism area which combines conservation, education, research, and economy requires good and appropriate management. Analysis of land suitability, vegetation types and environmental conditions is important in making decisions and determining the feasibility of an area. Facilities and infrastructure are one of the elements and indicators that support the success of an Edu-ecotourism area. Observations on water conditions, types of mangrove vegetation, water substrate, weather and topography were carried out to determine the feasibility of developing facilities and infrastructure in the Bulaksetra area. The results showed that the Bulaksetra area was feasible to be developed into an Edu-ecotourism area with an average salinity measurement of 14 ppt, an average rainfall of 46.4 mm - 81.3 mm, a sandy mud substrate and a gentle topography. The zoning of the mangrove ecosystem was carried out based on the main mangrove vegetation in Bulaksetra, namely Avicennia alba and Rhizophora apiculata. The selection of vegetation in the landscape design is adjusted to the natural vegetation and topography in the Bulaksetra area. The supporting facilities for Bulaksetra Edu-ecotourism were designed include mangrove trekking, canoeing docks and mangrove galleries. Facilities are designed according to area size, landscape, and suitability of location. Further studies such as the selection of design and building materials, material costs, construction costs, operational costs and maintenance costs need to be carried out to determine the appropriate building construction. The development of Bulaksetra Edu-ecotourism facilities and infrastructure is expected to contribute to the development of the mangrove ecosystem so that it becomes a center for information, education, and conservation for the public, especially in Pangandaran Regency.

Essential services provided and costs of facility-based maternity waiting homes in Ethiopia.

Introductionthe objective was to describe establishment cost, essential services provided and operating costs of maternity waiting homes (MWH) in Ethiopia.Methodsa cross-sectional study was carried out from December 2017 to June 2018 in eight health facilities with maternity waiting homes (MWH) in the Gurage Zone of Ethiopia. MWH users exit interviews and observational checklists were used to collect data on essential services provided. Cost-related data were retrieved from relevant records in the health facilities.Resultsmost clinical services and basic amenities were available and provided for MWH users. The average capital costs of a MWH were $2,245 US with fixed costs of $1,476 US per year. The personnel cost for a MWH was $1,439 US per year. The average annual running cost of a MWH was $1,303 US per year. The average estimated MWH utilization and delivery costs was $16.9 US per woman.Conclusionmost MWHs provided essential clinical services and basic amenities. The majority of the cost of a MWH was attributed to building construction costs. If building cost is annualized, the unit cost of a MWH service is in an acceptable range which encourage government considering expansion of the service in rural area.

Seasonal variations of the impact of urban aerosol pollution on distributed solar photovoltaic generation of nine megacities in China

Distributed solar photovoltaic (DSPV) generation is the most important component of renewable energy in cities. Due to the severe aerosol pollution, solar energy resources in central and eastern China have been lower than theoretical values for decades, resulting in lower efficiency of DSPV generation. The current DSPV design standards for building surfaces implemented in China are based on surface solar radiation data over the past three decades, which can no longer accurately reflect the current radiation intensity. In this study, multivariate regression analysis was conducted, and it was found that the solar radiation reduction by aerosol in nine megacities in China in winter was 0.3-0.4 kWh/m2/day. Due to the rapid decline of aerosol concentration since 2013, the average annual radiation value was 7.0%~21.8% higher than the standard value. The annual loss of DSPV generation caused by aerosol pollution may be as high as (7.4 ~ 13.5) ·109 kWh in China. Low-level design criteria will lead to excessive design redundancy, the reduced utilization rate of DSPV and higher construction cost of buildings. The research results will provide data reference and theoretical support for the evaluation of energy loss from aerosol pollution and the revision of related building codes.

Analysis of cost comparison and effects of change orders during construction: Study of a mass timber and a concrete building project

In recent years, timber has been considered as an alternative source of building material because of its sustainability and design efficiency. However, the cost competitiveness of timber buildings is still under study due to the lack of available cost information. This paper presents a comprehensive cost comparative analysis of a mass timber building mainly developed with cross-laminated timber (CLT). The actual construction cost of the project is compared with the modeled cost of the same building designed as a concrete option. The result shows that the construction cost of timber building is 6.43% higher than the modeled concrete building. The study further investigated the change orders associated with the project and found that the total cost of change orders contributed 5.62% to the final construction cost of mass timber building. The study is helpful to provide insight into the construction cost of typical mass timber buildings. It also can be used as a guide for the project owners to make decisions regarding their initial investments on a mass timber project.

Initial cost forecasting model of mid-rise green office buildings

ABSTRACT Green building has witnessed significant growth in the North American market in recent years. Since the construction cost of green office buildings represents a significant impact on the life cycle costs in office buildings in North America, and since green building costs are still not well understood by building owners, a linear regression model is developed in this study to enable office building owners to predict the initial cost based on the structural and envelope materials used. A multi-regression model is then developed to forecast the initial construction cost based on the use of different combinations of materials, such as concrete and steel, for the envelope and structural systems. This model estimates the cost per square foot of mid-rise office buildings according to specified predictor parameters such as building structural system, number of floors, total floor area, and floor height. The process followed modal development consists of three main phases: preliminary quality diagnostics of gathered data, model development, and model testing and validation. This model can assist office building owners in estimating the initial cost of new buildings using green structural and envelope systems, and to provide decision support in the selection among alternatives from the economic point of view.

Choosing the rational management of high­rise building construction projects

The approach to the choice of rational management of high-rise building construction, which ensures the effective use of resources, was developed. This approach is aimed at ensuring cost-effectiveness, energy-saving, quality, safety, and environmental friendliness of high-rise buildings. It was proposed to solve such tasks based on the search for rational decisions that correspond most to desirable (assigned) technical and economic characteristics (indicators), based on the application of statistical modeling of projects as manageable processes. At the same time, it is advisable to take into consideration the influence of determining organizational-technological, technical, and managerial factors. To assess decisions regarding these factors, it is necessary to find a rational value of management efficiency criterion. From the customer’s (investor’s) position, it is advisable to consider the minimum cost of high-rise building construction. It was proposed to consider the impact of the factors of quality, safety, energy efficiency, environmental friendliness, optimal maintenance of a high-rise building. The sufficiency and essence of the impact of these factors on making rational decisions in the management of high-rise building construction projects were substantiated by the results of the expert questioning. Mathematical models, based on the consideration of the systemic influence of determining factors, were obtained. These models provide an opportunity to assess numerically the level of achievement of the assigned results, in particular, by the criterion of high-rise building construction, at various stages of project management. The obtained results are relevant because they make it possible to reach the rational values of the desired indicators under specific conditions of execution of construction and mounting works within specified resource restrictions. By operating predictive estimates of the expected results, investors have the opportunity to adjust their goals and choose the most rational variant of the investment-construction project.

Implications of sustainable features on life‐cycle costs of green buildings

AbstractThe green buildings seem unattractive to developers who prioritize fast investment returns, due to costs attributed to implementing sustainable features and consequently, only 19% of existing buildings are certified for green, globally. Furthermore, green buildings are aimed at achieving a minimum sustainability level in certification. Therefore, the current study aims to investigate the significant sustainable features and the implications of those features on green buildings' life‐cycle costs. The study involved a preliminary investigation to find the significant sustainable features implemented. Subsequently, two green buildings were carefully selected, and a detailed analysis was performed. The data relating to the green building construction, operation and maintenance costs were collected and analysed using Net Present Value. The features have varying degree of contribution to sustainability in terms of the achievement of allocated points in the rating system. The certified buildings have achieved over 75% of allocated points in terms of water efficiency and sustainable sites features, while the achievement level of other features is below average level. Further, highly achieved features are more economical in terms of their less contribution to construction and maintenance costs. On the other hand, the features with lower achievement in certification, contribute significantly to construction and maintenance costs, while providing higher savings during operation. Therefore, the current study recommends, green building investors to select the most suitable features for a given construction based on their respective contributions to the life‐cycle cost of green buildings.

COMPARATIVE STUDY ON PRECAST BUILDING CONSTRUCTION AND CONVENTIONAL BUILDING CONSTRUCTION FOR HOUSING PROJECT IN SARAWAK

This paper presents an overview on the comparative study between the precast and conventional building construction methods for housing project in Sarawak. In this study, a residential building project with double-storey terrace houses was chosen for the comparative study as they have typical structural layout plans with minor variation. The same building was designed into both conventional and precast structural layout respectively in order to obtain direct comparison results. To ensure the results obtained are representative and unbiased, the structural components integrated in both construction methods are listed and each critical cost component, for instance the project direct and indirect costs were broken down further in order to evaluate the total building construction costs. From the research results, it can induce the relationship between the time and costs evaluation. The overall construction period for the conventional building construction method was 240 days while the precast building construction method was 82 days. As compared across the results for the project construction costs, it shows that precast construction method with RM 354,969.50 is more cost effective with about 19% less than the conventional building method with total amount of RM 422,687.85. The results reflect the significance on selection of the construction method, namely the precast building construction method not only can shorter the construction periods but also reduce the construction costs since it reduces greatly the expenses on the project direct costs particularly the machineries costs.

Factors affecting the accuracy of cost estimate during various design stages

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify factors affecting cost estimate accuracy in each of five design stages preceding building construction: order of magnitude, conceptual/schematic, detailed design, construction document and bid phase. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected using an online survey completed by 138 respondents who work in design consultancy firms in Jordan, including project managers, architects and quantity surveyors (QSs). Survey responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Confirmatory interviews and case study comparisons were used to confirm the statistical analysis results. Findings The results of this study indicated that each design stage’s cost estimate was affected by several factors. Two significant factors were common across four of the five design stages: client experience and project team experience. In addition, a high level of agreement was observed among the project managers, architects and QSs regarding the factors affecting cost estimate accuracy. Originality/value Accurately estimating building construction costs during the design process has posed a challenge for designers and their clients in Jordan. Despite the care and effort involved in preparing cost estimates in each of the five design stages, deviations are commonly observed. Because the accuracy of building construction cost estimates directly affect the success or failure of a project, the results of this study can be used to reduce uncertainties in building construction cost estimation and subsequently increase the likelihood of project success

Improvement of urban flood damage estimation using a high‐resolution digital terrain

AbstractBecause urban flooding occurs frequently, it is important to calculate the areal extent of flooding based on flood volumes and water levels, and thus, the extent of expected damage can be effectively estimated. In this study, urban inundation from heavy rainfall and the contribution of topographic scales to urban river drainage basins in Seoul, Korea are simulated. A light detection and ranging (LiDAR)‐based 1× 1 m digital elevation model (DEM) and a 1:5,000 digital map‐based 10 × 10 m DEM are used in this study for the storm water management model (SWMM). Using a multi‐dimensional flood damage analysis to estimate economic damage, the asset value of each building type is analyzed in connection with the construction cost of buildings, household ratio, and building area, and then, the building damage is calculated at each flood level based on the percentage of building damage. Based on the analysis, 119.6 and 55.8 M USD in damages are expected to occur according to the 1 and 10 m DEMs, respectively. The results of this study can be used to evaluate alternatives for urban flooding mitigation and an optimal mitigation measure can be suggested among the alternatives because the methods used for predicting floods are examined and the associated damages are accurately estimated using digital terrain data at precise scales.

Use of hygrothermal modeling to validate the application of an open-cell spray-foam insulation application to a high-rise heritage building in Winnipeg, Manitoba

The increasing cost of new building construction has made repurposing existing building stock economically more viable compared with a green site new build. In addition to capital cost benefits, increasing urban densification through repurposing existing buildings is one of the solutions for enhancing the urban environment. This paper summarizes the investigative work completed to substantially improve the energy efficiency of a heritage 10 storey building in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The investigative work for the remediation involved hygrothermal modeling to rationalize the introduction of thermal insulation to the interior face of the exterior walls. Based on the modelling, an open-cell spray foam was applied to the interior face of the masonry walls. Temperature, moisture, and relative humidity sensors were placed in various locations throughout the building to monitor the exterior walls, primarily to identify if deleterious levels of moisture were accumulating in the masonry. The results were also used to compare the in-situ performance of the building with the predicted performance from the hygrothermal models. The investigation confirmed that obtaining accurate in-situ moisture readings in masonry products is significantly impacted by initial internal moisture levels, necessitating pre-test calibration. Regardless, moisture sensor data accumulated to date indicate that after six years of monitoring, deleterious levels of moisture in the masonry and plaster are not occurring in the exterior walls, which is in good agreement with hygrothermal model results for open-cell foam. The results of this investigation confirm that the implementation of hygrothermal modeling is an effective and accurate analysis tool in the long-term durability assessment of building envelopes for heritage buildings.

Computing the maximum value engineering for a building construction costs using linear programming applications.

Value Engineering is an effective technique for reducing costs, increasing productivity and improving quality. Value engineering is a technique directed toward analyzing the functions of an item or process to determine best value or the best relationship between worth and cost functions. Building construction costs comprises 2 major components as materials cost and labor cost. Linear Programming (LP) is a quantitative technique by means of a mathematical modeling technique designs to solve allocation problem (resource allocation) to achieve the maximum profit or lowest cost. Therefore the authors bringing the advantages of both as value engineering and linear programming combined to work together in order to be able to effectively reduced building construction costs or create maximum value engineering that can be best used in the construction projects. Aim of this paper shows the reduction of building construction cost as to achieved the targets for reducing building construction cost or maximum value engineering as much as possible that leads to efficiency of cost reduction by used of principles of value engineering to apply with using linear programming for the reduction of building construction costs based on the material costs and labor costs to serve construction resource reallocation by consideration is made only 3 type construction materials as concrete, rebar and formwork because of 3 type are main component of building construction materials.

The Impacts of the Exterior Glazed Structures and Orientation on the Energy Consumption of the Building

Buildings use about 40% of the national energy consumption, and approximately 25-30% of this energy is wasted due to inefficient windows. Installation of energy efficient glazing allows significant reduction of cooling load. While increase of hat consumption can be observed in heating period due to significant reduction of solar heat gains. On the basis of computer simulations there were found dependences between overall energy efficiency of the building and such parameters as its orientation, urbanization, and the types of glazing. Building energy modelling (BEM) allows to predict the energy consumption of the building, to find and correct the weak spots in terms of energy consumption and to find the most effective way to use energy saving technologies. The IDA-ICE, chosen as the BEM in the research, is a whole-year detailed and dynamic multi-zone simulation application for study of thermal indoor climate and the entire building energy consumption. The main advantage of the software package is a detailed report for each of the building zones and for the whole building, which includes calculation of heat flows and inflows, maintained temperatures, sources of heat losses and energy costs to maintain a comfort temperature. The variable data are the type of glazing (different window types chosen, with special emphasis on g-value of glass and coefficient of shading) and building’s orientation to the world sides. The research demonstrates the effectiveness of using particular glazing types depending on the building conditions. The developed recommendations allow to reduce energy consumption in existing buildings and to reduce construction costs of new office buildings at the design stage.

Historical analysis of the economic life-cycle performance of public school buildings

ABSTRACTScientific community and practitioners of the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector have been developing life-cycle cost (LCC) concept for the past decades. However, information on a building’s economic performance throughout its life-cycle is seldom readily available or accurate. This hinders the fulfilment of recommendations of international and regional standards, procurement guidelines and regulations, and for building management (BM) professionals to fully incorporate the LCC concept into their daily practice. This paper seeks to contribute to solving these difficulties by presenting a conceptual framework that enables LCC-informed decisions in BM, together with its empirical application to a portfolio of 158 public school buildings in Portugal (constructed area of 1,437,594 m2). It involved the gathering, organization and treatment of historical data of school buildings originally constructed from 1942 onwards. The historical analysis is presented in the form of three types of economic life-cycle key performance indicators (time series, indexes and relative ratios). It originated a database with more than 1.4 million results that offer a profound understanding of historical economic performance of this portfolio. The results can be adapted and used to benchmark or estimate construction, operation, maintenance, repair, replacement, rehabilitation, energy consumption, water consumption and deconstruction costs of buildings throughout the world.

Distribution of Load Forces in Hollow Core Slabs of Precast Solid Floor Supported on Bearing Walls

The need to cut construction cost of residential and public buildings and provide them with a free and transformable planning structure during their operation cause interest in building wall systems with a large step of bearing walls. In order to reduce labor inputs and increase rate of construction in such building load-bearing system it is also necessary to maximize the use of large-sized prefabricated products and minimize consumption of in-situ concrete. In this case prefabricated products should be substituted according to the conditions of local (regional) construction industry base and volume of in-situ concrete must be sufficient to ensure a complete redistribution of internal forces between elements of the bearing system under load. As for the described bearing wall system of a multi-storey building the paper presents a flat precast solid floor formed by hollow-core slabs and monolithic crossbars supported by load-bearing walls. The hollow-core slabs supported at the ends on cast-in-place crossbars in the planes of bearing walls are arranged in dense groups between cast-in-place braced cross-beams. Dense contacts between overlapping elements are fixed by internal bonds. New data on distribution of forces in floor elements under the action of a vertical load have been obtained on the basis of full-scale tests and existing theoretical assumptions. It has been established that due to this load reactive thrust forces ensuring an operation of every hollow-core slab group in the floor as an effective solid plate supported along the contour have been originated in the floor plane along two main axes. Calculation of the reactive thrust forces makes it possible more accurately to assess a load-bearing capacity and rigidity of the precast solid floor and to increase a step of bearing walls up to 8 m and more while having hollow-core slabs with a thickness of 220 mm.