Professionals’ views of material wastage on construction sites and cost overruns

Abstract

It is believed that building material wastage on construction sites account for cost overruns and any improvement in building materials management on construction sites has the potential to enhance the construction industry's performance with cost-saving benefits. The purpose of this study is to identify the most wasteful building material during construction operation. It also sets out to assess the level of material wastage with various subcontracting options, the percentage contribution of material wastage to project cost overrun, identify factors contributing to material waste on building sites and to examine the relationship between subcontracting options, project cost overrun and the level of waste generated from building material. A survey research design was employed. Responses from 56 site based professionals representing 70% of the respondents were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Results indicate that the most wasteful building material during construction operation is mortar from plastering/rendering; labour-only subcontracting options have high contribution to material wastage. Furthermore, the study revealed that the average percentage contribution of building material wastage to project cost overrun is between 21-30%; Poor supervision, re-work, and poor material handling were identified as dominant factors that have high contribution to material wastage on sites. Finally, the result also shows that there is a relationship between subcontracting options, cost overrun and waste generated from building material during construction. Measures to reduce material wastage on construction sites were proposed.Improvement in building materials management on construction sites has the potential to enhance the construction industry's performance with cost-saving benefits.

Managerial Practitioners’ Perspectives on Quality Performance of Green-Building Projects

“…[18,55] Cost overruns in rectifying mistakes: cost increases over the original contract value owing to rectifications of non-conformances during design and construction. [56,57] Material loss: replacing defected products or quantities that deviate from what was stipulated in the design.…”

Factors Influencing Construction Waste Generation in Building Construction: Thailand’s Perspective

“…Karim and Marosszeky [52] indicated that waste during the construction phase was largely caused by pre-construction preparations, but there were still many other factors that caused waste in the construction process. Waste during the construction process could be generated as the result of bad coordination and control [38,43,44,48], wrong choice of construction methods [7,41], and reworks [46,50].…”

“…The study by Mbote et al [45], which conducted research in Kenya, showed that complex or poor designs, inadequate security, poor work conditions, and topography were the major causes of construction waste. John and Itodo [46] showed that inefficient job control, re-work, and bad material management were the important factors contributing to high material waste. Adewuyi and Otali [47] assessed the factors causing waste from construction in Nigeria.…”

Comparison of modular and traditional UK housing construction: a bibliometric analysis

“…Modular homes can be designed to be highly insulated and very air-tight, alongside being lightweight, where the modular arrangement of a house can weigh less than 30% of a typical concrete frame (Frigione et al , 2019). According to the Building Research Establishment, an average of 13% of material wastage on site is stated in the UK construction industry (John and Itodo, 2013). Subsequently, this is reduced greatly in modular construction with all off-cuts entirely recycled in the factory.…”