Hello there,

Hope you are having a beautiful month of August and are looking forward to an even better month of September especially as it touches the real sector?

Today we will be looking at some major mistakes commonly made in the construction industry in Nigeria and also the stakeholders responsible for them.
Now, on any given project, all of the stakeholders have their own individual responsibilities, expectations and more importantly, mentalities.
If the mentality of any major stakeholder is not right, it can spell doom for the project; i will explain this further as we progress.

There are a plethora of mistakes that can occur on a building project especially in Nigeria and we are going to just gloss through a few of them.
The first possible mistake we will be looking at is:

1. NOT ENGAGING PROFESSIONALS FOR YOUR PROJECT.
The effect or result of this wrong decision/mistake in summary will include but not limited to:

a. Spending much more than you should on the project owing to Poor Design
b. Extravagant and inefficient utilization of very expensive land space
c. The erection of a non-functional building/structure akin to a picture i saw recently on social media of a building where residents had to access their rooms on the first floor with a wooden ladder because there was no provision for a staircase.
d. Working without structural drawings that may eventually lead to building collapse

WHO IS TO BLAME?
The primary stakeholder responsible for this costly mistake would be the client because he did not carry out his due diligence before contracting the project.

Also in a lot of cases, prospective clients just refuse to engage professionals because they think "they are too expensive". They prefer to opt for quacks who at the initial stage seem to be cheaper.
When considering Consultants / Contractors to handle your Project, the last thing that should influence your decision should be their charge.. First be convinced of their capacity to deliver, then negotiate their charge to a reasonable level.
It is always better to do it right the first time... It might appear to be more expensive to go with a Professional but i can assure you that in the long run, it is always more expensive engaging quacks.

All of these mistakes can be traced back to the "mentality" of some client who in a bid to save money, make a mistake that may eventually cost the lives of innocent people.

The second common mistake we will be looking at is:

2. WRONGLY BUILDING YOUR STRUCTURE ON AN UNSTABLE SOIL.
The effect of this poor decision/mistake is "Settlement" which more often than not eventually results in the collapse of the structure.
The mere fact that a building has been completed and occupants have taken it over does not mean that it was well built; it may still fail/collapse over time.

There is this trend of people buying plots of land, sand filling and developing it immediately - IT IS WRONG and i can't say it enough.
If you must develop immediately, then your foundation MUST go beyond the filling sand.
Engineers will tell you that when you sand fill, you should give the land a minimum of 2 years to compact before you start construction works; to avoid settlement and eventual collapse.

Please don't get me wrong, i am not saying it is impossible to build on an unstable soil but there is a "RIGHT" way of building on an unstable soil; there are things to do to make for a successful construction process...
For instance, carrying out a comprehensive soil test is necessary to give you an accurate knowledge of the type, depth, etc of foundation to employ for the Project. This will go a long way in determining if the building will fail after time or not.

WHO IS TO BLAME?
For this mistake, the blame should rest primarily with the contractor/builder because as a professional, he should have educated the client and if the client insists on building on unstable soil without doing the needful, he should have walked away to maintain his integrity.
Unfortunately, the mentality that most contractors have is money, money and more money.
They seem to think that if they don't submit to the whims of the client, they will not get another contract, so they compromise their integrity on the altar of "hunger".

Another common mistake is:

3. NOT ADHERING STRICTLY TO SPECIFICATIONS.

The price for this mistake can sometimes be very grave such that when fake materials are used, it can result in just about any degree of damage to the project.

Once heard of a block of luxury flats that burnt to the ground because the specified cable was not used. The contractor used inferior cables just so he could keep some extra cash for himself but alas! the building went up in smoke.

WHO IS TO BLAME?

I would say the builder and in some cases the client should take full responsibility for this mistake because when specifications are made, it is the responsibility of the builder to buy the right materials and also that of the client to release the money to buy same.
The above listed are just a few out of the very many construction mistakes we get to see daily but we have put this article together to make you wiser as it relates to construction matters.

Remember, not all that glitters is gold... ensure that you are not deceived by the bright coloured painting of that building...There's more to a building than just beautiful painting...

Until our next post, please take good care of yourself.