The evidence of poor quality in high rise and medium rise housing units: a case study of mass housing projects in Turkey

Achievement of acceptable levels of quality in the construction industry has long been a problem. Great expenditures of time, money and resources are wasted each year due to inefficient or non-existent quality levels. The situation is even worse in the case of mass housing projects addressed to low and middle income groups. It is the scope of this paper to identify the type of deviations resulting in rework in mass housing projects. For this aim, a general knowledge concerning quality is given at first, and then some related issues like cost of quality and total quality management are discussed. Finally, the quality of mass housing projects in Turkey is examined. In order to achieve this objective, data have been derived from 500 cases in two mass housing regions by means of a questionnaire including 108 questions, and results of this survey were evaluated by t-test and the percentage values calculated by frequencies of the answers. It is concluded that the residents are not adequately satisfied by the quality of products/services provided by their housing units.