LOW COST HOUSING: POOR SUPERVISION

Welcome to Sharp Edge Design Ltd…

Kindly refer to our website (www.sharpedgedesignltd.com) to know what we are about.

In previous posts, we have talked about how POOR DESIGN and BAD WORKMANSHIP can negatively affect the cost of a project, today we will be looking at another major bane of low cost housing in Nigeria and that is:

POOR SUPERVISION:

In construction, supervision is key to the success of any project.

The importance of a very good site architect or engineer cannot be overemphasized because if you get it wrong, you are sure to have major problems on the project.

From experience, we have discovered that even the best of artisans CANNOT produce excellent workmanship without supervision.

Sometimes I am amazed at how bereft of innovative solutions an artisan can be.

The supervising architect or engineer is responsible for managing the artisans and making sure they work at their optimum level.

This he does in several ways which I would not want to go into on this platform.

He also ensures that time and materials are prudently managed for optimum results.

Obviously if you are going to remain within your budget, then you have to manage your materials very well and there are several ways to achieve this…

He ensures that there is little or no waste of materials.

A good project supervisor is wired to detect construction flaws even with a glance, when he walks into a space.

Equally important is Time management because in construction, every additional day on site increases the project cost; so the earlier the project is handed over, the better for all concerned hence the importance of time management.

“Crashing” is one of the many ways of managing time on a project…

Years ago, we did a design for a client (which as expected he loved), it was a grandiose 5 bdr bungalow that was to be built somewhere in Lagos.

We pleaded with the client to let us handle the project or at least supervise it but he refused saying that he had a mason that had over 17 years experience and that he would prefer for the mason to handle the project.

The client did not call us until they did the casting of the ground floor slab; when we got to the site, we discovered that the floor slab was slanted to about 7 degrees.

The client said he felt there was something wrong with the work that was why he called us.

Of course there was something wrong with it!!!

When we confronted the mason, he gave us the funniest possible excuse for his error; “the slab is slanted because the Land is also slanted”. Can you imagine?

We took the liberty of sending him out of the site and we were consequently commissioned to handle the project which we have since completed.

Note that we had to completely re-cast the floor slab and you can guess the implications of that with regards to materials, labour, time and ultimately the project cost.

We at Sharp Edge Design Ltd are well aware of how sacrosanct project supervision is, hence we have very competent and experienced architects and engineers on our team for best results.

Please join us in our next post as we continue with our series on the factors that affect low cost housing in Nigeria…

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One of our self given goals is to demystify the prevalent belief that you must have millions and millions of naira before you can build your own house.