Building Technology

Cost overruns leading to delays are common in building construction projects in Ghana. A construction project comprises of two distinct phases: the pre-contract phase - the period between the initial conceptions of the project and the signing of the contract and the post-contract phase – the period after the award of the contract when actual construction begins through to its completion. Although cost overruns occur in both phases, majority of the causes occur in the post contract phase. This paper focuses on the post-contract phase of the building project and the initiation for this was due largely to personal observation and the low performance of the building project in terms of cost, time and quality. The paper seeks to identify factors contributing to high cost overruns in the renovation of a building project in order to investigate the extent of possible impact on building projects. Results from the study indicate that several factors contributed to the high cost overruns but ...

The research emphasized the retention concept and how it affects the contractual process in the construction industry. Retention is often not released on time which is in contrast with the contract. This is a problem for all parties in the contractual chain. In a typical construction contract, the level of retention can often be more than the level of profit margin; therefore, until retention is paid, it essentially means that the party having their retention withheld may be in loss. As a result, they opt for an effective solution. The paper seeks to identify the detriments and benefits of retention for members of the construction team and to suggest alternatives that will minimize the detrimental impact of retention. Results from the study indicate that most often than not, clients deliberately or for other reasons best known to them, delay retention payments to contractors. Most construction companies are often uncertain in obtaining retention from their clients or being refused w...

ABSRTACT ADR is a term used to describe several different methods of resolving legal disputes without going to court. It is mostly classified into four basic types namely negotiation, mediation, conciliation and arbitration. Beyond these basic types, there are the hybrid forms: mediation-arbitration (med-arb), executive tribunal, case evaluation/early neutral evaluation and court ordered arbitration. It was to avoid some of the deficiencies of the court system that arbitration became widely adopted for the resolution of disputes. The adoption was because of its many inherent advantages especially where the relevant dispute was technical. The whole arbitration process is now expensive, time consuming and devoid of privacy and emotional expressions. This paper therefore investigates the various alternative dispute resolution methods that are used in the Ghanaian construction industry and how they contribute effectively towards the settlement of disputes. It also identifies the factors...

The presence of many abandoned construction projects scattered all over Accra presents an ugly image on the outset of architectural performance in the city. Observing this from one point of view, one would attribute the failure to poverty, but looking at it from a different perspective, one would see that, the luxurious and expensive architectural provision on the abandoned buildings have a significant role to play in the frustrations of the project. It is common in Ghana especially in the Accra metropolis to see projects which have taken off quite well only to be abandoned at the later stages. The main objective of the research is to identify the causes of project abandonment with the aim of identifying the effects of these abandoned projects and their possible cost implications.

The construction industry is a competitive environment which influences contractors in using low mark-ups in bidding for jobs to afford great chance of job acquisition. This makes contractors experience challenges of profitability management due to the risk associated with construction activities resulting in construction failures. The risk noted with construction, therefore requires effective management of cash flow and profit with the use of an appropriate tools. The purpose of this paper is to establish an appropriate tool to predict profit and aid in its effective management. Searches of predictive models undertaken unraveled numerous models and reviewed abstracts and conclusion to screen to relevant once. Critical examination of these models established three techniques namely: regression; optimization and hybrid. An evaluation of these techniques identified hybrid and optimization techniques possessing high predictive powers and accuracies. However, hybrid techniques are used to enhance performance of either the regression or optimization techniques. Since a novel model is being proposed with respect to variables and yet to establish the performance, the optimization technique is best suited for the model. Besides support vector regression demonstrated high predictive powers and accuracy than other optimization tools therefore, recognized to be the appropriate tool to predict profit.

The competitive construction industry is vital to a nation's economy. Low mark-ups are introduced by contractors in job biddings to afford chance of job acquisition. This results in cash flow challenges and profitability that lead to company failing. This paper tries to determine the cost contribution of established significant cash flow factors on building contracts to aid in the effective cash flow and profit management. Purposive and census sampling techniques were employed which resulted in 39 D1 contractors and a response rate of 87.18% was obtained. It was established that wages of labour and staff and replacement of defective work accounts for 26.75% and 3.53% respectively of contract sums. It was therefore established that projects are mostly financed with short-term loans from banks and contractors' own financing due to late payment. Late payment issue motivates contractors to seek for various funding options and it was established that this contributes 20.44% average loss of projected profit and that affect quality delivery. Consequently, this results in defective works which was established to accounts for 3.53% of the contracts sum. The onus therefore rests on management to effectively manage these factors through application of suitable techniques to enhance profit through effective cost minimization.

enables stakeholders in construction industries to be mindful of the way and manner construction is undertaken, in order to minimise the misuse of natural resources and pollution of the environment. Buildings in Ghana which is in a tropical climatic region were tailored to make the most use of the climatic elements to give comfort to occupants. However with the advent of mechanical aids like air-conditioning, extractor fans and artificial lighting, these climatic conditions have been relegated to the background, whilst building styles from other climatic regions have been copied. Glass is now being used extensively on facades of buildings, especially office buildings. This raises a few questions in relation to sustainable construction. In order to answer these questions there is the need to find out why the increase in extensive use of glass in buildings.