If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The paper seeks to identify the major factors causing delay in building construction projects in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach -A questionnaire survey was used to carry out the study. The questionnaire consisted of 31 factors which were grouped into four major categories by responsibility -contractor factors, owner factors, consultant factors and external factors. The level of importance of the categories was measured and the relative importance of weights was ranked. Findings -The study finds that financial problems are the main factor and coordination problems are the second most important factor causing delay in construction projects in Malaysia. The results were analyzed to rank the causes of delay and further classify the types of delay.Research limitations/implications -The scope of this study is limited to building projects in the Klang Valley area, where major Malaysian cities such as Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Petaling Jaya, Shah Alam and Seremban are located. The data for this study was gathered through a detailed questionnaire survey. Originality/value -Based on the analysis of the ranking and intensity of causes of delay, this paper suggests possible improvements that could be made in order to reduce delays in the construction industry.

PurposeConstruction labour productivity is of great interest to practitioners and researchers because it affects project cost and time overrun. This paper evaluates and ranks the importance, frequency and severity of project delay factors that affect the construction labour productivity for Malaysian residential projects.Design/methodology/approachA total of 100 respondents consisting of 70 contractors, 11 developers and 19 consultants participated in this study. The respondents were asked to indicate how important each item of a list of 50 project related factors was to construction labour productivity. The data were then subjected to the calculation of importat indices which enabled the factors to be ranked.FindingsThe five most important factors identified by them were: material shortage at site; non‐payment to suppliers causing the stoppage of material delivery to site; change order by consultants; late issuance of construction drawing by consultants; and incapability of contractors' site management to organise site activities. On the other hand, the five most frequent factors were: material shortage at project site; non‐payment to suppliers causing the stoppage of material delivery to site; late issuance of progress payment by the client to main contractor; lack of foreign and local workers in the market; and coordination problem between the main contractor and subcontractor.Originality/valueThe inferences drawn from this study could be used by the project managers to take account of these factors at an early stage, hence minimising the time and cost overrun.

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Crack is one of the most common defects observed in reinforced concrete slabs and beams. Major cracks in concrete structures may occur due to overloading, corrosion of reinforcement or differential settlement of support. To restore the structural capacity of the distressed elements, retrofitting and/or strengthening are needed. There are different techniques available for retrofitting and strengthening of different reinforced concrete structural elements reported in the literature. This paper investigates the structural behaviour of cracked reinforced concrete one-way slab, which is repaired using different techniques. Five different techniques are used for the purpose of repair in the cracked concrete slab namely; cement grout, epoxy injection, ferrocement layer, carbon fibre strip and section enlargement. The slabs were loaded to failure stage and the structural response of each slab specimens have been predicted in terms of deflection, variation of strain in concrete and steel, collapse loads and the failure modes. The efficiency of different repair and strengthening techniques and their effects on the structural behaviour of cracked one-way reinforced concrete slab had been analyzed. It was observed that the type of repair technique used will affect the load carrying capacity of the slab and will lead to a redistribution of the strains and hence stresses in both concrete and steel reinforcement. All repair techniques are found to be able to restore or enhance the structural capacity of cracked concrete slabs.

The paper describes the development of a new interlocking hollow block masonry system appropriate for load bearing masonry wall construction. The developed system is an alternative to the traditional bonded masonry system where the blocks in the wall are integrated through mortar layers. In the system developed, the blocks are stacked on one another and three-dimensional interlocking protrusions are provided in the blocks to integrate the blocks into walls. This paper includes the background, concept and procedure used to develop an efficient interlocking hollow block system, which may be used in the construction of load bearing walls. Twenty-one different block models have been investigated and analysed with respect to weight, bearing and shear areas, shape, ease of production, ability to accommodate vertical and horizontal reinforcing stabilising ties and efficiency of the interlocking mechanism under imposed loads. The blocks, developed under the name 'PUTRA BLOCK', have been used to construct a single-storey house at Universiti Putra Malaysia. The system provides a fast, easy and an accurate building system.