This study was undertaken to identify key stress factors among professionals in the building construction industry in Nigeria. This is in view of the fact that to date, very little is known about work stress among professionals in the building construction industry in this country. The study involved the administration of a questionnaire to 107 professionals including architects, builders, civil/structural engineers and quantity surveyors randomly selected from 60 ongoing building projects in Anambra, Ogun and Kaduna States, Nigeria. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, and findings show that the principal sources of stress were high volume of work, uncomfortable site offices, lack of feedback on previous and ongoing building projects, and variations in the scope of work in ongoing building projects. The paper suggests that taking responsibility for work which one has adequate capacity to handle, establishing realistic budgets and time frames for project delivery, provision of spatially adequate, visually and thermally comfortable site offices, adoption of appropriate job design practices and education of professionals in stress management will reduce the incidence of stress among professionals in the building industry in Nigeria.

Over 90% of physical infrastructures in Nigeria are being constructed using sandcrete blocks making it a very important material in building construction. It is widely used in Nigeria, Ghana, and other African countries as load bearing and non-load bearing walling units. For a long time in Nigeria, sandcrete blocks are manufactured in many parts of the country without any reference to suit local building requirements or good quality work. The Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) developed a reference document which prescribed the compressive strength and water absorption properties standard requirements for different kinds of sandcrete blocks. The objective of this research is to ensure that all block manufacturers meets a minimum specified standard. The study appraised this objective using field study, sampling and laboratory experimentation and results obtained revealed very low compliance with as low as 0.66N/mm2 compressive strength value and as much as 16.95% water absorption capacity. The study revealed that poor quality control, poor selection of constituent materials and inadequate curing period by the manufacturers contributed to the negative results obtained.