Confirming the quality and building standards remains a tedious challenge for most people looking to buy a constructed home. However, many simple tests, tasks, and procedures can be used to ascertain the construction quality.
If you are looking to buy a constructed home and want to know How to check house construction quality, or if you have doubts regarding the quality of construction of your ongoing renovation works, you can use these assessment methods or use the services of experts like Fittra House Construction Company to confirm the quality standards.
This article can shed some light on assessing and comparing construction quality. Let’s dive into the article and explore some of the widely used tests and procedures to ascertain the quality standards of buildings.
What Is Quality Construction
Construction quality refers to the adherence of building materials, specifications, and standards to the guidelines and safety policies set out by different government entities. This conformance to guidelines ensures that the building can safely be sustained for a longer period without having to undergo constant maintenance.
You can define quality construction as the building practices and methods to create a sustainable building by using quality materials at the ratio and specifications approved by different safety organizations and government entities.
How To Get Started With Construction Quality Assessment
To start with a construction quality assessment, you have to finalize the design requirements and guidelines you want to see within your house. You can also look for the different industry standard designs and determine the extent of compliance you deem fit.
This will help you shortlist prospective houses and builders and make a choice quickly and easily. Once you have all the requirements and prospective opportunities, you can use our checklist or create a checklist to perform the assessment. You can even outsource the quality assessment to a certified testing and inspection agency for your convenience.
Essential Checklist For Evaluation Of Construction Quality
1. Understand the soil type
Different areas have different soils, and depending on the region, soil’s load-bearing capacity differs. If the area consists of loose soil, it is necessary to create deep reinforced concretes and perform piling to improve the house’s structural integrity.
2. Know the structural design
Try to understand the house’s structural design and the load-bearing pillars, walls, and beams. Identifying the critical structures will help you focus your quality testing on integral parts.
This will help ensure the house can withstand pertinent issues or scenarios that harm your safety. With the recent catastrophic events and natural disasters happening around you, it is important to understand the limits of safety and the factors of safety your house has.
3. Inspect the thickness of the walls
Wall thickness is a critical factor influencing ventilation, insulation, and other factors determining the quality of life. Therefore, you should inspect the thickness of every wall structure for cracks.
Cracks on the walls can be an indicator of decaying strength and is a genuine point of concern regarding your safety.
4. Check the quality of plastering
The plastering on the walls and ceiling should be smooth and free of cracks. You can shine the flashlight across the walls to look for cracks and uneven surfaces.
1. Look for signs of moisture
To get a better idea about the quality of plastering and if the roof or windows have cracks, you can look for signs of moisture on the wall. It will help you better understand the quality of materials used for construction.
2. Inspection Of Plumbing, Electrical And Ventilation Systems
Inspecting and ensuring the quality of plumbing equipment, joints, electrical systems, wiring, heating, and HVAC ventilation systems is important. These are the areas that can have a lot of issues due to the aging process.
This equipment may get old and near the failure point as time passes. Therefore, testing out this equipment for issues and clearing such issues is critical in ensuring an error-free life.
In addition, knowing the limits of these machineries will help you understand how to and when to expect critical issues and replacements.
3. Get a professional inspection
Even with all the checklists, some of the areas to be inspected might be inaccessible, or the equipment can be quite costly. Therefore, it is advisable to get a certified testing and inspection agency to conduct a professional inspection of the house.
This can ensure that the house is ready to move in, and you can enjoy the stay without worrying about anything else.
In addition to the checklist, you should be careful with the paperwork and the certificates and title deeds concerning your house. You should also ensure that the builder responsible for construction has a good reputation in the market; this will help avoid any critical issues in the future.
Common Construction Defects And How To Find Them
| Common Construction Defects | Ways To Assess And Inspect Quality |
| Leakage | On-Site InspectionComprehensive Real-time testing |
| Damaged FlooringDamaged Roofing | NDT TestingVisual Inspection |
| Cracks In Roof Cracks In Plastering Of Walls | NDT TestingVisual Inspection |
| Interior Quality Of Plumbing And WiringExterior Quality Of Plumbing | Earth testingInspecting all connection points and joints |
| Faulty Alignment Of Doors And Windows | Enlisting the service of professional builders certified for testing and inspection |
| Infractions With Permits | Measuring the limits and specifications of the house and comparison with paperwork |
Conclusion
Checking the quality of a house under construction is a great way to ensure adherence to quality standards. If you are looking to purchase a house, ascertaining the quality standards of the house ensures that you can readily move in without performing any additional renovations.
Buying a new house and moving in is quite an extensive task that requires some monetary investment. Therefore, ensuring the quality of house and construction materials is important to avoid any extra investments. This will help you reduce the cost of purchase and the time delay required during new renovation works.
