A selection of readers’ comments about news and issues in the industry from across the CIOB community.
Quality of residential construction in the UK
CM April
I am a retired construction professional and would like to raise my concern at the apparent lack of quality control over residential construction. I hear so many stories of first-time buyers moving into new properties and being confronted with no end of problems which in my opinion should have been identified by the developer before handing over the property.
Recently I saw on the news that there is talk of identifying ‘professional snaggers’ which housebuyers can employ to find any faults with their newly acquired properties. Is this not a reflection on how poor quality control is within the industry at the current moment?
For years, industry bodies have been patting themselves on the back with all the advances in management practice, quality assurance, quality control. However, in reality the housebuilding sector seems to be going backwards.
Paul Constable MCIOB
Hackitt sets out new performance framework for construction products
A build-up of an external wall can react differently to fire under different circumstances.
A combination of products for various systems can make the difference to a
non-combustible external wall and a combustible external wall, notwithstanding its attachments.
The justification of materials used in an external wall must not just rely on the testing of individual components but also the testing of unstandardised and standardised external wall systems prior to their construction. The inspection during the installation of the external wall system is also a significant part of the process and must be recorded at every stage.
If designers wish to provide future high, medium and low-rise buildings outside the norm, the need for fire safety and the saving of people’s lives would need to meet stringent laws with no wiggle room. Buildings should be built so that should there be a fire, the risk of the external wall causing fire spread is non-existent.
Failure to do so should be seen as a failure of the designers and the construction team. Such failures should be met with stringent fines that would ensure failure is not a possibility/acceptable.
Loy Gusthoff
Attracting the workforce of the future
What about thinking about the work-life balance element? In construction, we work the workers too hard in terms of hours. Early starts with late finishes make for extremely poor output in terms of productivity.
Psychologically, the workforce is tired and disillusioned. The UK construction industry is bottom of the table in terms of productivity across other European countries.
Incentivise the workers with shorter hours with fewer breaks. Get in and get gone: Saturday morning ‘job and knock’ type approach during the week.
It would require a step up in management to plan and organise the work. If the client isn’t content with early finishes, then move to a two-shift system.
Fewer hours for the worker but more productivity for the client and business seems a no-brainer to me. Sadly, nowhere in this article or the government’s strategy for the future is the workforce incentive to work addressed.
Steve Kell
