Learn from building defects
21/05/2007 The Star

DEFECTS in new buildings or structures are so common that Malaysians do not bat an eye anymore, or one could say they are immune to news of these defects when highlighted.

The conundrums are, firstly, the construction integrity of the structures, shoddy quality of workmanship and supervision, and, secondly, the maintenance of these structures. The construction integrity relates to the ability of the buildings or structures to sustain its loads or function as designed or required structurally.

The quality of the workmanship is another aspect that has been giving contractors a bad name. The Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) is supposed to wrestle this issue by requiring all relevant labourers or those in a similar trade to undergo a skills training programme conducted by the CIDB Academy.

However, it is well established that Malaysia is not only facing an acute shortage of skilled labourers but also unskilled ones as well.

What makes it worse is that most of these labourers are from a foreign country and most likely were farmers all their lives and have never been involved in construction. They probably have never seen a building plan, and now we are expecting them to put the reinforcement steel correctly!

Now one might ask, how were these defective buildings/structures allowed to be occupied assuming that they have met the requirements of building by-laws and are certified fit for occupation.

For one, lack of enforcement and supervision contributed to these defects. However, a good project management team acting on behalf of the client should be able to look after the interest of its clients by making sure the contractors do not compromise on the quality of the workmanship through its resident engineer.

As far as maintenance is concerned, our industry is one step behind the developed countries where service life planning is carried out in accordance to ISO15686 during the design stage. Interestingly enough, Malaysia is a member of the drafting of the ISO through SIRIM.

Traditionally, we are only concerned with the financial burden of getting the building erected and we are not made aware of the yearly maintenance cost, the operational cost and replacement cost.

At times, the total cost of these three elements might surpass the construction cost. Insertion of life cycle assessment and costing during the design stage can save building owners from a lot of trouble and financial burden.

Efforts by Jabatan Perumahan Negara, Ministry of Housing and Local Government, to embark on developing a software to assess the life costing of its multi-storey low-cost housing should be lauded. The first phase of the software, LICCOMS, was launched by the minister himself.

Malaysians should learn from the defects in buildings/structures and include service life planning in the design process. However, this will only be successful if the relevant authorities are willing to change the current practice.


PROF. IR. DR. SITI HAMISAH TAPSIR,
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia,
Skudai, Johor.