The collapsing rubbles :

 Oh! Not another building collapse!!!

 

Oh! Not Another Building Collapse!!!

Hope you're not about to jump off this topic or sneer to skip any part of it with the assumption that "you know your stuff for years and you have your own great builder and architect"... 

Dear property investors, developers, and buyers… as long as you have an encounter with "structures" either for your personal purpose or business, collapse is no joke, e no be anybody mate and it could affect even the most experienced in the field.

Recently, building collapse has become a recurring event in our society. We have seen buildings collapse at different stages; construction, finished, and already occupied stages.

Some people say it is because the buildings are old.

 News flash!!!

Some of these collapses are of new buildings, very new sef, it's all around you.

In fact, a 4-storey building that's still under construction while the workers are there just collapsed recently. Thankfully, no person was injured.

And even with the old building theory, it is very possible to build a house that would last over 100s of years without collapsing. 

As a matter of fact, when a building collapse, no matter how old it is, it simply means that it wasn't built-to-last and/or maintained-to-last.

Having said that, we would share some tips on  

1. The causes of collapse

2. Signs of collapse in an existing building

3. How to ensure you own a lasting building with no potential for collapse even after a century😋😋😋

So right here, it is time to sit back to pick a lesson or two for your use now and in the future.

 Let's dive right in! 

1. Causes of Building Collapse.

A lot of factors can cause a building to collapse, we’ll talk about some very important ones here. 

A. Bad or No Structural Design: Most investors pay more attention to aesthetics and beautiful facade forgetting that there have to be solid supports for their desired design to stay in shape for many years. When these structural supports are not painstakingly consolidated into the design at the planning stage, it may require some form of patching to make it up at the construction stage and if that is not done, the building after construction would begin to fall apart in no time.

B. Faulty Construction: this may come in the form of the strength of materials used like using 4mm iron instead of 8mm, rushing the construction, reducing material resting time in the process, or oversight in construction. When the building is completed this way, the material begins to disintegrate little by little till the entire building can not hold together anymore. 

C. Extra Loading: Putting too much load on a building than its intended load-bearing capacity is another very common cause of building collapse. What do we mean by load? Now, when a building is constructed, it is designed to be able to perform certain functions and carry a certain weight. For instance, a building designed to house 2 families at most, this building is then converted into a school that later grew into a population of 100 pupils, the activities carried out in that building has obviously been altered and so is the load in terms of numbers of people using that building. Before you know it, the load-bearing components of the building begin to get weaker and weaker by the day till it comes crashing down.

D. Foundation Fault: it is common knowledge that the foundation of any building is the most critical part of it. That is because it is the part that bores all the weight of the building and everything in it. So, in a situation where the wrong foundation type was used perhaps because soil tests were not conducted before construction or due to negligence, or the soil below the foundation is not properly compacted, or where substandard materials are used, … these and more would make the foundation weaken and then result in collapse.

E. Employing Quacks: When you entrust the entire execution of your projects to a "bricklayer" or "draughtsman", you've only made your project to be a "not-made-to-last" structure because although these guys know the rudiment of construction and would definitely be on site, they still need the supervision of an experienced professional to oversee the project.. 

Though there are also some natural causes of building collapse including landslides, earthquakes, and so on. However, most building collapses are caused by some of the factors stated earlier and more.