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The Building Consultant: Quality Assurance
April 14, 2010 Author: Tony Ransley
Building Consultants assess and report on the condition of buildings and quality of building work. In practice, this requires objectivity, an extensive knowledge of common faults and the ability to identify unexpected or likely failures in many different types of buildings. To prepare authoritative advice, Consultants consider their client’s instructions and the perspectives of all ‘players’, analyse relevant documents, interpret Codes and Standards, and consider industry best practice. This article is the first in a series, where Tony Ransley examines the criteria and outcomes expected from work undertaken by Building Consultants.
NO. 1. QUALITY ASSURANCE OF NEW RESIDENTIAL BUILDING WORK
Buying a new house or apartment ‘off the plan’ is not like shopping for other products. At the time of ‘purchase’ nothing exists except vacant land and a set of drawings pending approval by Authorities.
Months later, if all goes well, the drawings will have been transformed into a building – preferably constructed and finished to industry standards and complying with the relevant 1Codes and Standards. By this time the future owner will have paid most of the total cost to the builder. Hopefully, the end result at 2practical completion is what the owner intended.
3Building Consultants are commonly engaged by either builders or owners to assess building work at practical completion. They are asked to inspect the works and provide 4objective views about the construction quality, completeness and standards of finishes. These are known as 5final inspections and identify the faults and unfinished work at the end of the building process. Many building industry practitioners contend that these inspections are the best way to ensure everyone is getting what they paid for.
While Building Consultants consider final inspections important they are only a part of an overall 6quality assurance process. The experience of most Consultants is that faults at completion could have been prevented by minimizing defects, mistakes or omissions before and during construction. In fact, quality assurance starts with obtaining accurate contract documents (approved plans and specification). Builders who have their work independently assessed throughout the project understand the value of continued quality assurance.
Building Consultants are trained to be objective, including avoiding bias because of their own trade or professional experience. They should provide consistent, 7fair and reasonable advice. They understand that proper sequencing of the works, careful storage of goods on-site, constructing major elements level, plumb, straight and true, ensuring individual tasks are properly completed and keeping communication open between the parties are among numerous ways to achieve satisfactory delivery of a quality building on time.
Training and continual emphasis on quality allows Consultants to help Builders obtain successful outcomes and manage the minefield of issues in most projects. Building Consultants who focus resolutely on clarifying or simplifying high risk building details and issues such as structural integrity, weather resistance, durability, serviceability, 8compliance and appearance will invariably help to achieve above average quality building work.
Short cut creeper rafter which will fail under roof tile load
Water penetration as a result of defective box gutter and flashing intersection
Defective setting out of concrete stairs
- Mostly contained in the Building Code of Australia (BCA) in force at the time of approval of the proposed work and the specific Australian Standards called up by the BCA. ↩
- Practical completion is defined in the building industry as “the stage reached when a project has been essentially completed and is fit for its intended purpose, except for minor omissions and defects that do not prevent its use, and with tests required by the contract having been carried out”. Legal interpretations are varied but seem to turn mainly on ‘de minimus’ principles. That is “the law cares not for small things”. In a lawsuit, Courts apply the de minimis doctrine to avoid the resolution of trivial matters that are not worthy of judicial scrutiny. Its application sometimes results in the dismissal of an action. ↩
- Building Consultants are generally persons with extensive practical building, architectural or engineering backgrounds who regularly train to develop and maintain objectivity, dispute resolution and communication skills. The best consultants have timber pest qualifications. ↩
- Objective – unbiased identification of key workmanship issues on the basis of repeatable and standardised inspection and assessment methodology. Professionals with a general understanding of the building process should arrive at similar opinions when viewing the same piece of work. ↩
- Final inspection reports provide well laid out lists of the faults and incomplete issues that require attention prior to handing over the building and payment of final claims. Final inspections should always be regarded as first round advice to navigate any outstanding issues. Final Inspection Reports are prepared to assist and instruct the contractor and are unsuitable for use in litigation. ↩
- Quality Assurance is a program of inspections undertaken at critical stages during a building project designed to make it more likely, than not, that expected standards of quality will be met. ↩
- Fair and reasonable -means ‘general compliance with codes and industry acceptable practice, at the time of doing the work, taking account of relevant circumstances and considering what tribunals or courts would consider fair and reasonable in similar circumstances’. ↩
- Compliance – is achieved when work reproduces the intention of the Contract. This may make reference to construction design requirements as defined in the Building Code of Australia and Australian Standards and manufacturer’s building systems (accredited by an approval authority under the BCA). ↩
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