Assessment of Defects at Construction and Occupancy Stages

Abstract

Construction inspection can take place only during the construction phase of a project. This imposes limitations on what the building inspector can detect, and thus there is often a gap between perceived construction quality and the defects the occupants suffer from later. This research paper looks into the differences among the defects that occurred during construction and 2 to 6 years after initial occupancy and finds that the defects at both periods were very different. Defects found during the occupancy stage are commonly known as latent defects, most of which were rarely found during the construction stage and are thus rarely accounted for by the designers and building developers. This paper confirms the need to look at defects in another way and to establish more effective methods to reduce latent defects.