An Evaluation of Cost of Quality Failure for Building Projects in Nigeria

The overall aim of any construction project is the design and construction of a building that meet the specific requirement of the owner at optimal quality and cost. Many problems occur during the design and execution of construction project, which consume substantial amount of money for their rectification. The study identified various failure incidents and their respective costs within the construction process of a building project. To achieve this, case study of a construction project was carried out. The construction manager was required to monitor record and cost any failure incident that arose during the construction. The data collected was analyzed with the aid of simple statistical tools that include means and percentages. The findings reveal that about 5.8% of the total contract sum is used for the rectification of such failures. Plant and equipment, personnel, design, force majeure and suppliers are causes attributed to these. The study found that 20% of the incidents contributed about 75% of the total cost of failure. It was also revealed that the cost of failures was greater in the roof as it constituted 22.55% of the total cost of failure; the least cost was in staircases constituting only 0.86% of the cost. The study recommended that, Changes in design during the construction process should be avoided by ensuring that all anticipated causes of such changes are considered appropriately at inception stage. Moreover, Construction Managers should ensure that the work on site complies with specifications in terms of materials and workmanship, to minimize the extent of rework during construction.