7 Factors That Effect Quality of Commercial Construction Projects

 Construction quality is essential in growing your business, maintaining a professional reputation, and staying profitable. However, not everyone can control the quality of their projects. Research shows that over half of construction defects can be attributed to human factors like insufficient supervision or unskilled workers.

In this blog, we will discuss the top 7 factors that affect the quality of commercial construction projects:

1. Low-Quality and Damaged Materials

The sand/water ratio is not correct in the concrete mix. Lumber cut from the undersized trees and improperly graded steel may all result in significant construction quality issues. Not only do these materials fail early, but they also create construction safety hazards by reacting unpredictably during the building process.

2. Vendor and Supplier Failures

Even when the materials are not the cause of the quality issue, problems with vendors and suppliers may raise costs and lower the quality levels. If you replace the requested building supplies with other materials and brands not offering the same quality, it may result in time-consuming and unsatisfied clients’ rework requests.

3. Subcontractor Mishandling

You can attribute over half of the construction defects to human error. If a subcontractor hires an employee without the right skills and fails to train them, workmanship errors may go unnoticed for years. Screening subcontractors and other labor providers are crucial in verifying the supply of skilled labor in catching their own mistakes.

4. Failure in Documenting Practices and Changes

Few quality issues are not directly related to the design change or mistake but rather to the lack of documentation of the change. If material is substituted for another with a completely different replacement and maintenance cycle, failure to update the final documents may result in improper handling from the maintenance team. It is best to use a digital file management system that can simplify the process of updating project documentation, so there’s no reason to delay updates to drawings and other related files.

5. Last-Minute Changes

When essential features are discussed or engineered at the last stage of the construction process, the last-minute changes may often lead to serious quality issues. Setting deadlines through which you cannot alter the designs or make arrangements to extend the deadlines and setting plenty of time aside to test and verify any changes to the existing designs.

6. Scope Creep

Construction projects start out much smaller compared to the finished projects. If you are wondering about converting the primary bridge into a multi-lane highway or a retail center into a three-story mall, then you must know that it is an unplanned expansion. It is also referred to as scope creep. While it is natural for the projects to keep changing with time, new facts about site limitations, time constraints, and costs are discovered. The problem comes when the expansion in scope leads to cutting corners and stretching the time frame and limited budget.

7. Miscommunication Between People

Studies of the construction industry have noticed how project managers feel about communication issues. These are the number one cause of quality issues. Miscommunication leads to the misapplication of new techniques, unsuitable materials, and a lack of tertiary and secondary testing in discovering the existing problems.

Conclusion

Quality construction is essential. Excellent construction requires skilled workers, team efforts, good commercial contractors, subcontractors, reliable suppliers, and committed management. Identify the above points and eliminate the factors that affect construction projects’ quality.