Effects of bad Workmanship on a Building

Due to ignorance some clients go for a very low fee at the expense of quality. Unknowingly at long run you will ends up spending more for engaging an unqualified/ unverified tradesman or builder . using less qualified tradesmen will cost you much more.

In otherwords this topic highlights the importance of getting a professional to handle your building project.

(1) Non sustainable workmanship-By this I mean a poor workman is likely to mess up your job and you will discover as the project progresses which will results into termination of contract and you have to look for someone else to continue, this inconsistency in persons handling your job will affect the overall product as each tradesman has different approach and ideas to achieve their goals. So allowing anybody nobody can vouch for simply for low cost will mess up your project because you ill need to keep changing hands.

(2)Unsafe structure- Bad workmanship will give you a structure you cant vouch for because you have not done your homework well by engaging unqualified tradesmen which often is due to money and ignorance. Unsafe structure can lead to imminent collapse of building. Saving money by cutting corners employing poorly qualified workers will only make you lose your entire investments if not life.

(3)If you have someone that doesn’t have a good grasp of the job at hand will cause delays.

Inability to plan and using trial by error will be the order of the day in such site. Time is money, not finishing your project in a record time will cost you much more, especially with fluctuations of cost of materials due to inflation.

(4)Cost Overruns-Bad workmanship gives poor products which requires ammendments that will cost much more than the budgeted expenditures to repair the errors.

(5)Disputes in Contract- Definitely for a poor tradesman, probability of underquoting or overquoting is very rife, cost of correcting costly mistakes, omissions or ignorance of the steps and challenges on the task ahead will cause constant review in contract sum.

(6)Long term cost of maintenance- For a bad product periodic maintenance will cost more in long term because of quick to appear defects due to bad workmanship.

(7)self focus-A bad workman doesnt really care about the job since he is aware is less qualified but needs the money. The overall good of the building is not his priority unlike a qualified tradesman that wants refferal knowing fully well that a good product is the best way to market himself and get other jobs.

(8)No obsession for quality-As stated above the love for the project is hardly in the heart of someone giving bad workmanship.

(9)No interest in Continual improvements on project- for a terrible workmanship, the business of correcting and making atleast good a bad job will overshadow the task of improving on already good job. Excellence does not arise when you assemble less qualified or poor tradesman to save money.

(10)No unity of purpose-An assembly of poor tradesman is very chaotic, everybody does his or her own task without looking at the general outcome of project. of course someone with less experience and skill will find it hard synergising his tasks with other for a mutually benefitting result.

(11)Lack of teamwork- For the point above, the site won’t be able to progress effectively because no motivation and understanding of the project to be able to have teamwork.

(12)No interest in education and retraining-A bad tradesman has no motivation other than money. There is absolute no interest in improving themselves.

(13)Low or no interest in scientific approach- Bad workman relies on buildings around as a case study to make decisions on their projects. meanwhile, no land building or projects are exactly the same by weather or soil condition.

You can have buildings just 3 meters apart and one may require strip foundation while the other will need a pile foundation for it to stand structurally. unfortunately a less qualified tradesman will not request for a soil test but rather takes decisions based on a standing building close by.

An architect with decades of experience

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *