Defects in affordable housing projects in Klang Valley, Malaysia

Date
2012-10-05
Authors
Abdul-Rahman, H
Wang, C
Wood, LC
Khoo, YM
Supervisor
Item type
Journal Article
Degree name
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
Abstract

Several affordable housing programs have been introduced by the government to achieve the objectives of several Malaysia Plans; however, the success of the housing programs has been reduced due to readily reported quality problems and defects. This research aims to identify the types of defects in affordable housing and determine what is causing the defects, so that solutions may be devised to raise the quality of housing stock in Malaysia. A questionnaire survey was distributed to 310 residents of affordable housing, located in four different regions in Klang Valley, Malaysia. The most commonly occurring defects in affordable housing are leaking pipes, total failure of water supply systems, cracking in concrete walls, faulty door knobs, and dampness to concrete walls. This suggests that improvements in workmanship, the use of superior materials, and changes to more customer-oriented supervision and monitoring may reduce the incidence of defects. Local conditions, such as heavy rainfall, may influence dampness, and may reduce the generalizability of findings to other areas with different weather patterns. The findings have been reported to the Construction Industry Development Board of Malaysia to improve the quality of affordable housing.

Description
Keywords
Defects dissection , Low cost housing , affordable housing , Building defects , Building quality
Source
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, vol.28(2), pp.272 - 285
Rights statement
Authors may post the final draft of their work on open, unrestricted Internet sites or deposit it in an institutional repository when the draft contains a link to the bibliographic record of the published version in the ASCE Civil Engineering Database. "Final draft" means the version submitted to ASCE after peer review and prior to copyediting or other ASCE production activities; it does not include the copyedited version, the page proof, or a PDF of the published version.