Greetings Nairalanders!!

Once again, I bring to you another topic geared towards helping us achieve the best results in our projects. I had earlier posted these thoughts on my main thread.
I decided to make comments on this topic due to the occurrences and recurrences I have observed on this forum as well as out there in the field and also based on my experience as a Professional Quantity Surveyor.

Cutting costs in all fairness, is a necessity for many building clients especially in these harsh economic times. However, cutting costs should not be done to the detriment of the integrity and lifespan of the building. Cutting costs should not lead to cutting corners because cutting corners always leaves a sour taste in the final analysis.

Why, you may ask? The reason is simple - Cutting costs in a building project is like a diminishing returns or diminishing marginal utility or elasticity curve...when you start, you get some immediate gain but when you continue for a while, when the red line (breaking point) is crossed, you begin to incur losses, even when you are injecting resources into it to make amends.

The point I am trying to establish here is that in trying to cut costs in your building project, you must strike a balance i.e. there is always a breaking point or elastic limit, beyond which things will begin to go wrong.

What Will Happen If We Don't Strike A Balance In Cutting Costs?

1. The client/building owner will spend more funds on repair and remedial work throughout the lifespan of the building. Aside from spending more funds, the client would also pay more interest to the bank if he has taken a bank loan to fund the project.

2. The client may lose the entire property and thus, his/her investment if the damage to the building is beyond a remedy which is financially feasible.

3. Client and contractor begin to trade blames on each other, rightly or wrongly. We all are witnesses to many of such cases here on Nairaland properties section.

4. The final product (the building) may be a far cry, in terms of quality & aesthetics, from what the client was expecting due to the effect of the remedial work.

5. Poor grade of materials and workmanship would be used in the project, resulting in poor quality of work as mentioned above and shorter overall lifespan of the building

I have property for sale 6 two bedroom Bundalow appartment

j

A plot of land located at Akesan Lagos state Along Lasu iyana iba going for 1.5m negotiable

Direct seller...

Serious buyer should call/whatsapp 08085310359, 09054800167


Hello Nairalanders, i have this land facing Lasu iba express way all round fenced for sale at rate of 70million Naira Negotiable,

Available document: Family Receipt, survey plan,

Side attract: facing expressway, close to Lagos state university, close to Iba New site estate and alot more

NOTE: This is dry Land...

Good for filling Station, churches, shopping mall,event center,schools and lot more..

Serious Buyer should contact Call/Whatsapp 08085310359 For inspection or call 08033588797

The fact remains that a lot of property developers are only after maximum profit. They are only concerned about the building standing till it's sold. And this brings to the fore, the fact that we have no enforced building standards in Nigeria. They all tend to get away with it. An example is the recent collapsed Lekki Gardens building. The builder and contractor are yet to be prosecuted. I am sure Mr Richard is walking free and probably still being escorted by policemen as he used to.
This cut costing is not limited to estate developers alone. Even some individuals do a lot of cutting corners with their builds. And then cover their rubbish builds with beautiful aesthetics thus hidden far away from the ordinary eyes.
A lot of blame goes to the system. To get c of o is war. To get approved building plan takes ages. And if you don't develop ur land on time, these omoniles may sell your land to someone else so it is best to build as fast as possible.
My submission is for government to make getting documentation easier and faster. Because as far as I am concerned ,the current process is rubbish.

Nice one op

Following.

Surveyors they build house now? Just asking oh

ok implement solar into ur building as well do contact us at my signature

saxwizard:
ok
implement solar into ur building as well
do contact us at my signature

What's the cost to install a solar power system for a 3 bedroom that has load of about 4KW

samadola:
I have property for sale 6 two bedroom Bundalow appartment

cost?

Noted OP.

Kindly contact for your latest quality stone coated roofing tiles, step-tile roofing sheets.

You can as well click on my signature below to view some of our quality roofing projects spread all across Nigeria.

I agree totaly with you, I went to repair an aluminium door in a prof's house somewhere in Lagos, I noticed that all the materials, d wall and d aluminium profile were very strong. I was told d house was built in 1977, it's incomparable to many new sites I've been to. People dont really think of longevity anymore, all they want is to be house owners. Nice write up

2 Plots of land for sale in enugu, at rehab road emene, 100 by 60ft, 3 million each, if you are interested mention this post

You are very correct. Most clients end up jeopardizing job quality and at the end spend more just because they want to cut cost.

Check the following thread for a constructed 5 bedroom Duplex: https://www.nairaland.com/3075906/construction-5-bedroom-duplex-ibadan

Contact me for ur building designs,site development,general advice etc. U can email me on evagreen4real29@yahoo.com.

Simply put: u can't eat ur cake and ve it





-------
Some things were not expected to be done anyhow in construction

A 3 bedroom, 1 room self contain and 2 shops on a half plot of land fenced with water is available for sale in Akute direct seller
Pls contact 08183056881

Jovie:


What's the cost to install a solar power system for a 3 bedroom that has load of about 4KW

the closest to it- 3.5kva

3.5kva/48V with 4 200ah battery
4 solar panels of 200W
48V charge controller

thats wat we would be supplying
or you go for 5kva.

u can contact us on 07030306355 lets talk price

NOTE u can increase the numbers of batteries and solar panels for more efficiency.


thanks

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Our thread: www.nairaland.com/1880959/hire-dump-trucks-cheap-rate/8#38939707


Also our signature says it all.

ok

[b]How Can We Strike A Balance in Cutting Costs?

Always involve a construction professional or professionals (Architect, Quantity Surveyor, Structural Engineer) on your project. Don't make use of quacks. A trained & experienced construction professional (most especially a Quantity Surveyor) always knows the boundary line between safe and dangerous when it comes to Cutting Costs in construction and will be bold to tell you that though you are the client and as such calls the shots, your cost-cutting measures are going into the danger zone & as such, would advise you to desist from such measures.
A quack on the other hand, will always concur to whatever the client wants irrespective of the dangers, simply because he just after the money & has no career or name to protect. Lets liken the professional and the quack to the shepherd & the hired hand as referred to by Jesus Christ in John 10:11-13. The shepherd cares for the client and will do his/her best to protect the client's interests while the hired hand cares less because all he/she is concerned about is the money.

If the clients on Nairaland and elsewhere who have had or are presently having troubles on their projects had gone the extra mile of involving a professional on their projects, the final results would most likely have been different.
I hope I haven't bored you but you have learnt a thing or two.

Stay tuned and keep following this topic. I shall speak next on the ways by which clients and/or builders try to cut costs and their positives and negatives.

Remain blessed!
[/b]

[b]2. REDUCING THE MIX

This involves reducing the cement-aggregates ratio of concrete with the aim of producing larger quantity of concrete with less cement content and thus, less bags of cement used.

Prescribed concrete mixes like 1:4:8 (1 bag of cement: 4 head pans of sand: 8 head pans of granite) and 1:6:12 (1 bag of cement: 6 head pans of sand: 12 head pans of granite) can be changed to 1:8:8, 1:10:10, 1:10:12, etc.

Some clients do this in conjunction with their builders all in the bid to save cost. However, in most cases, it is the builders who carry out this act in order to reduce costs. They do this either to intentionally scam the client when they would have collected funds to deliver the prescribed mixes OR to make up for the enormous discounts they have earlier given to the client, just to get the job from the client.

This is the reason why in previous discourse, clients have been advised not to just accept fantastically low offers from builders for their projects, e.g. N3 million for an all-ensuite 3-bedroom bungalow. The builder(s) would surely look for some areas to short-change the client in order to at least break even on the project.

It should also be noted that having a consultant (either architect, quantity surveyor or engineer) on a project prevents these anomalies from being perpetrated, due to their effective supervision of the builder and/or artisans.

POSITIVES
It saves the client and/or builder some money only in the short-term

NEGATIVES
Substandard quality of concrete resulting in failed material (cube) tests, building collapse, cracking and flaking[/b]

Excellent piece, very succinctly. put.
The importance of quality materials cannot be over emphasized .
People complain about markets flooded with fake, yet all they wana hear is cheap ... importers are simlply in business to make money and will practically be falling over themselves in strong competition to import the cheapest... but at the expense of who??

In other countries people are competing to manufacture or import the best, here we're competing to import the cheapest .....and the trend of diminishing standards and diminishing value continues.
once upon a time any bulb you buy on the street could easily give you over two years lamp life,.... today, many of the cheap bulbs cmmnly sold everywhere dnt even last a month. Which way Nigeria