•ADRON Boss Advocates Need For Re-Certification
A few days ago, Aare Oba Adetola EmmanuelKing the GMD/CEO of Adron Homes & Properties delivered a detailed paper on How To Stop Building Collapse at the Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting held at the Oriental Hotel, Lekki; in Lagos. Below are excerpts of his speech.
A building is a human aesthetically and artistically created space that provides habitat for humans and other living things for their comfort to prevent the adverse effects of the natural artificial environmental conditions for their survival. Although, Nigeria has relatively good weather conditions when compared with many countries of the world;
What is building collapse? Collapse is a state of complete failure, when the structure has literally given way and most members have caved in, crumbled or buckled, and the building can no longer stand as originally built. Therefore, building collapse is the extreme state of building failure, when a structure cannot continue to perform its intended purpose.
The recent increase in the rate of structural deficiencies and collapse of buildings is worrisome for the nations building industry, its causes and implications is therefore worth discussing about and the “need for re certification”.
It may be a surprise to many that most buildings in Lagos state for example are not constructed by the professional trained to do so. Architects, Civil, Structural, Mechanical and Electrical, Quantity surveyors, builders and land surveyors are vitual on-lookers on the building construction and procurement scene as they participate in less than 20% of the total volume of construction activities going on in the country.
A survey by the Building Collapse Prevention Guild (BCPG) has revealed that out of over 45,000 sites existing in Lagos for example, only 20 percent is being handled by the right professional, with 80persent left for Quacks to handle. The implication of that is that over 36,000 potential collapse is waiting to happen in Lagos State. There we shall be discussing about the major causes of building collapse and recommend possible solutions
*Faulty design *Copied design *Lack of comprehensive sub soil investigation *Non adherence to design and professional advice during Construction *Lack of effectiveness of government agencies charged with the monitoring of the building procurement and production process. Quackery at both pre and post contract stages. *Use of substandard materials. *Poor workmanship. *Professional incompetence. *Lack of maintenance. *Greed by developers and contractors. *Unrealistic construction time line. *Unrealistic desires of clients *Non compliance with building code *Corruption by government monitoring officialsv
Solution to Building collapse
*Frequent mentainance *Building plan approval *Lubrication soil test *Quality material *Good design *Involvement of professionals.
RECOMMENDATIONS
In order not to put the square pipe in a round hole, the building professionals should equip themselves with a detailed geographical and climatic data of their site of interest for a robust consideration of environmental factors especially the geographical consideration. *Developer should not be in a hurry and also keep enough funds for development and deal directly with professionals with good track records and credibility instead of quacks. *Professionals in the built environment such as Architects, engineers, builders and quantity surveyors need to come together periodically to discuss the problem facing the industry and suggest way forward. *The issuance of Certificate of commencement of construction of work should be in place, issuance for stages of construction works based on application by builders in charge on site. Government should also apply strict development measures to avert any incidence of building collapse.
*Adequate and proper test should be carried out for properties that havev reached old age, and if defects were numerous occupants should be advised to vacate the building premises. *In case of collapse, appropriate core built environment professionalsv should conduct the investigation. *In the absence of specialized building collapse courts, any courtv handling building collapse cases should be given a time frame to finish; it should not be allowed to linger endlessly. *Government should mount vigorous sensitization and awarenessv campaign to educate and inform the general public to use only qualified and registered professionals to handle their building procurement process.
*Only qualified and registered professionals in the built environment bev allowed to carry out construction activities. *All approvals as well as proper soil investigation must be gotten beforev commencement of any construction activities. Reliability Check should be carried out on every structural design tov ascertain the level of their safety.
CONCLUSION
In view of this, we at ADRON HOMES have programmed our self to be and do the best. We ensure that only qualified personnel’s in the built environment are engaged to carry out construction activities in all our estates and projects, proper soil investigation, standard material usage and strict adherence to health and safety standards.
