Building failure
Failure occurs when the desired outcomes are not achieved. It is the opposite of success.
Culvert, screen and outfall manual, (CIRIA C786) published by CIRIA in 2019, defines failure as: ‘Inability to achieve a defined performance threshold.’ And catastrophic failure as: ‘…the situation where the consequences are immediate and severe.’
Construction projects are costly, complex and often involve a large number of different stakeholders, suppliers and technologies, meaning that the potential for failure is considerable. Failures can occur at a project level, typically resulting in cost or time overruns, or disputes, or they can occur at a construction level, generally caused by deficiencies in design, products, specifications or workmanship.
Some of the most common reasons for project failure include:
- Cost overruns due to inaccurate estimates and budgets, changing market conditions, and so on.
- Poor briefing.
- Scope creep, where the extent of the work expands beyond the original agreement.
- Delays due to incomplete or unclear information.
- Break down in the relationship between the parties to the project.
- Site conditions.
- Design errors, lack of co-ordination or clashes.
- Insolvency of contractors or suppliers.
- Variations.
- Financing.
- Lack of qualified and available workers, specialists, materials, plant, and so on.
Common construction failures include:
- Cracking and building movement.
- Dry rot, wet rot, woodworm and mould.
- Damp.
- Condensation.
- Structural failure.
- Metal fatigue.
- Window and door failure.
- Defects in brickwork (see also: Efflorescence / Spalling).
- Defects in stonework.
- Flooring defects.
- Roofing defects (See also: Flat roof defects).
- Sick building syndrome.
- Wall tie failure.
A structure will fail when a material or system is put under strain at the limit of its strength, resulting in cracks or deformation. Once it surpasses its ability to endure the loads, it will fail. When designing structures, the ultimate failure strength of a material or element must be taken into consideration, with a factor of safety integrated into the design analysis, enabling it to take certain stresses and strains without failing.
Building defects can be 'patent' or 'latent'. Patent defects are those which can be discovered by reasonable inspection. Latent defects are those which cannot be discovered by reasonable inspection, for example problems with foundations which may not become apparent for several years after completion when settlement causes cracking in the building. When a latent defect becomes apparent, it becomes patent rather than latent.
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings
- Cascade failure.
- Consolidation.
- Cracking and building movement.
- Defects.
- Defects in brickwork.
- Defects in dot and dab.
- Defects in stonework.
- Deterioration.
- Failure modes and effect analysis (FMEA).
- Failure of cast iron beams.
- Failure to mention asbestos.
- Flat roof defects.
- Flooring defects.
- Ground heave.
- Housing defects.
- In Plain Sight: reducing the risk of infrastructure failure.
- Latent defects.
- Mechanisms of structural failure.
- Patent defects.
- Progressive failure.
- Roofing defects.
- Smarter systems predicting failure.
- Structural failures.
- Wall tie failure.
Featured articles and news
The average kinetic energy of molecules
Temperature in buildings, explained on DB
Women and unequal pay in project management
Main barrier to entering the profession, new study reveals.
IHBC’s response to Parliamentary Committee
On Levelling-Up and Regeneration Bill.
Finalists for 2022 CIOB Awards revealed
Over 70 managers and organisations shortlisted for the 14 awards.
Types of building sensors on BD
From biometric to electrical current, chemical and more.
Government mandates detectors in rented homes
Changes are due to come into force on 1st October 2022.
80% of major government projects are rated red or amber
Heed advice and insight of this report IPA tells the government.
The end of the games but continued calls for action
From the Commonwealth Association of Architects.
CIOB respond to the government call for evidence
For the Levelling Up, Housing & Communities Committee.
How are buildings and their occupants responding to extreme heat?
BSRIA's Technical Director reflects on recent weather patterns.
Landownership in England in 1909
A national valuation to fund old-age pensions.
The world’s largest Commonwealth memorial to the missing.
Long after the end of the defects liability period.
BSRIA Occupant Wellbeing survey BOW
Occupant satisfaction and wellbeing in buildings.
Geometric form and buildings in brief
From the simple to the complex.
Understanding the changing nature of insulation
And the UK Government guidelines.
Three year action plan to improve equity, diversity and inclusion
Commitment agreed to by major built environment bodies.
The Construction Route – what needs to change?
Electrical skills, low carbon, high-tech and the building services revolution.
Deep geothermal power possibilities
Ultra-deep drilling with millimeter-wave beam technology.
BSRIA Briefing 2022- From the outside looking in
Looking at the built environment from space.
Competence requirements for principal contractors and designers
BSI standards 8671, 8672 and 8673.
Bringing life to burial grounds.
From failed modernism to twenty-minute neighbourhoods.
Design chill and design freeze
The gates process and change control.