Building collapse

This might not be my usual genre but by profession, it is my field.  Currently studying Quantity Surveying with a few years of experience after completion of my ND programme, I can say I have enough knowledge of the construction industry, especially the Lagos state construction industry. I know enough to know that the constant collapse of building in different states across the country is a result of the input of the professionals, clients and non-professionals.

The last few years have seen numerous cases of buildings collapsing. Just last year a 21 storey building under construction collapsed in Lagos Nigeria with 45 people dying in the process. Innocent workers and even trainees lost their lives due to the negligence or greediness of certain people.

When a building collapses the first person everyone attacks is the contractor or builder, everyone tries to blame them while justifying their actions. The questions people fail to ask after a building collapse are:

- Is the contractor in charge a professional?

- Are there no regulations against the use of developers and uneducated men?

- Should the builder alone take the fault?

I believe to understand the reasons why these questions should be asked one needs to understand how construction works. It’s common to see clients acting as the Architect, structural engineer, and Contractor. They tend to write off the impact of professionals either due to cost or ignorance.

The Architect is most times regarded as the first point of connection between the Client and the construction team, but before that, so many other things have been done. So many professionals have done their work like testing the soil, surveying, planning and many more. The Architect is the one the client goes to first after getting a piece of land is trusted and acts as the link between the client and other professionals.

The structural engineer deals with the structural stability of the building. The importance of beams and columns in a building cannot be overemphasized. If a structural engineer doesn’t do his work as it should be then the building has just one end. It will collapse. So when a building collapses the Structural engineer is one of those that needs to worry.

Though the job of the Quantity Surveyor is related to the financial aspect of the building, the onus is on him to pay the site constant visits to check if the material he quantified is what the workers are using. The use of substandard materials does lead to building collapse. Therefore the Quantity surveyor is also questioned when any mishap happens.

Contractors and builders aren’t much appreciated but they have one of the biggest responsibilities in construction. They supervise and allocate work to different experts. When a building collapses, they are the first people fingers are pointed at. Now, this is where the problem lies. So many projects are given out based on connections. People believe with little knowledge or experience in construction, they are fit to supervise a project.

Why then do people give jobs to people with no knowledge of construction?

As said earlier, most jobs are given out based on connection and not based on expertise. Another reason why people give out jobs to these “developers” as they call themselves is that they do offer to carry out a project at a cheaper rate compared to professionals. The clients not knowing that professionals offer quality and not just quantity give out the job to these people.

The way out of this problem is to have regulation. As Architects and quantity surveyors do have stamps that are binding when seeking approval, contractors and builders should have a regulation that binds them. Any site where someone with no qualification is found should be closed down. This way we can reduce the number of disasters we have in our country.

Thanks for Reading! 🏠💚🏨