Civil and Environmental Research www.iiste.
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ISSN 2224-5790 (Paper) ISSN 2225-0514 (Online)
Vol.3, No.8, 2013
Evaluation of Factors Affecting Residential Building Maintenance
in Nigeria: Users’ Perspective
Baba Shehu Waziri1* Buba Abraham Vanduhe2
1. Department of Civil and Water Resources Engineering, University of Maiduguri, P.M.B. 1069,
Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria
2. Civil Strut Associates Kaduna, Kaduna State Nigeria.
*E-mail of corresponding author:
[email protected]Abstract
The study focused on the evaluation of some selected factors affecting residential building maintenance based on
the perception of users with the view to developing a strategy for effective residential building maintenance.
Relevant nineteen relevant factors surveyed from related literatures were subjected to the users’ scrutiny and
assessment of their impacts on the maintenance of such facilities. Relative Importance Index (RII) was used to
determine the significance of each factor based on the respondents’ rating. From the study lack of preventive
maintenance, faulty workmanship, design resolution factor and the use of substandard materials were ranked as
the most significant factors with RII of 0.84, 0.80, 0.79 and 0.76 respectively. The least significant factors are
lack of communication between maintenance contractors and clients, lack of understanding the benefits of
maintenance, non availability of replacement parts and components, technological change with RII of 0.51, 0.48,
0.47 and 0.47 respectively.
Keywords: Residential Building, Maintenance, Users, Nigeria.
1. Introduction
Building maintenance is an important programme for the sustainability of infrastructural development. It plays
an important role among other activities in the building operations (Zulkarnain et al., 2011). Maintenance
according to BS 3811(1984) is the combination of all technical and associated actions intended to retain an item
or restore it to a state in which it can perform its required function. Work carried out in anticipation of failure is
referred to as preventive maintenance and those carried out for restoring after failure is referred to as corrective
maintenance. It is a well known fact that the primary objective of building maintenance is to preserve buildings
in their initial functional, structural and aesthetic states (Adejimi, 2005). This is to ensure that such facility
continue to remain in such state and retain their investment value over a long period of existence. Buildings are
generally required to provide safe and conducive environment for the performance of various human activities.
Odediran et al. (2012) stated that the ability of a building to provide the required environment for a particular
activity is a measure of its functionality. Therefore as the components of a building begins to deteriorate, it
becomes necessary to take measures to ensure that the desired characteristics of that facility which provides
safety and convenience are retained.
Maintenance programme in Nigeria according to Ahmed (2000) and Odediran et al. (2012) has not received
much attention in the past as the emphasis is on the development of new properties. This is also in line with the
statement of Kunya et al. (2007) who observed that there is apparent lack of maintenance culture in Nigeria, and
that emphasis is placed on the construction of new buildings for public sector and neglecting the aspect of
maintenance which commences immediately the builder leaves the site. This is also corroborated by Olagunju
(2012) who opined that there is lack of maintenance set up in Nigeria that can sustain the current inadequate
housing provision in the country. Olagunju (2012) further stated that lack of appropriate tool for predictive
maintenance of the existing buildings can have a detrimental effect on future housing development. Zubairu
(1998) stated that the country does not have a maintenance policy which resulted in the persistent problems of
building maintenance. Execution for maintenance work is mostly left for the maintenance department to handle
on direct labour basis or contract. Jobs of higher amounts according to Kunya et al. 2007) are given out in form
of maintenance contracts to mostly unqualified maintenance contractors. Abiodun (1996) also observed that
lucrative building maintenance contracts are awarded without due process which also contributes to poor
maintenance of buildings. Adejimi (2005) attributed the array of abandoned and epileptically functioning
facilities in Nigeria due to poor or lack of maintenance. This therefore presents the need for studying the various
factors affecting residential building maintenance with the view to proffering relevant solutions.
2.0 Factors Affecting Building Maintenance
Previous studies revealed the effects of numerous factors affecting residential building maintenance. Assaf (1996)
opined that design and construction faults that affect maintenance of buildings are defects in civil design, defects
in architectural design, defects due to consultants firm’s administration and staff, defects due to construction
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Civil and Environmental Research www.iiste.org
ISSN 2224-5790 (Paper) ISSN 2225-0514 (Online)
Vol.3, No.8, 2013
drawings, defects due to construction inspections, defects due to construction, defects due to contractual
administration, defects of construction materials, defects due to construction equipment, defects arising from
specifications and design defects in maintenance practicability and adequacy. Adejimi (2005) asserted that to a
large extent, building maintenance problems can be attributed to problems originating from poor design. Adejimi
(2005) further stated that the design process could be optimised to achieve adequate planning in choosing the
right materials, good workmanship, plants and equipment and labour in order to reduce maintenance problem.
Adejimi (2005) in his study identified twelve relevant factors affecting the maintenance strength of buildings as
design resolution, structural strength, specified material strength, maintenance manual, safety measures, skill
maintenance personnel, maintenance plants, environmental factors, usage factors, quality control factors and post
construction prevention strength. Kiong and Akasah (2012) analyse the maintenance factors for IBS precast
structural system in Malaysia in order to produce a better quality of the IBS precast building. They identify
design aspect as an important factor of the building quality. Zulkarnain et al. (2011) reviewed the critical success
factor in building maintenance management practice for University sector under four perspectives; customer
(customer satisfaction, service quality, customer complaint, reaction to customer needs), internal processes
(service excellence, technology capability, customer employee, competence, process efficiency, e.t.c.), financial
perspective (management expectations, financial growth, cost reduction, productivity improvement, e.t.c.) and
learning and growth perspective (technology leadership, continuous service improvement, upgrading staff
competence, e.t.c.). They concluded that critical success factor can help in providing a successful competitive
performance for the university sector in the area of maintenance management. Olagunju (2012) identified factors
that influence the level of maintenance of residential building standard. In the study eight factors were identified
to be significant to physical condition of building in Niger State, Nigeria. The variables are structural
components condition, roof components, toilet facilities, discharge of waste water component, exterior wall
condition, condition of walkway within the building premises, electrical wire and switches conditions, interior
walls surface condition.
3.0 Research Methods
The data for the research work was obtained through the use of structured questionnaires from the users of
residential quarters in the university of Maiduguri staff quarters. Questionnaire survey was found effective
because of the relative ease of obtaining appropriate data for achieving the study objectives. The survey presents
19 relevant building maintenance factors generated on the basis of related research works together with revision
and modifications by experts. 50 structured questionnaires were distributed which comprised of two sections.
Section one captures the demographic profile of the respondents and the second section consists of twenty
building maintenance factors to be scored on a likert scale of 1-5 based on their significance. Descriptive
statistics was used to analyse the demographic data of the respondents while Relative Importance Index (RII)
was used to analyse the respondents’ scores of the basic maintenance factors. In this study, an ordinal
measurement scale 1 to 5 was used to determine the effect level. Respondents were asked to score factors
affecting residential building according to the degree of importance; where 1 = affects with little degree; 2 =
affects something; 3 = affects with average degree; 4= affects with large degree; 5 = affects with very large
degree. The relative importance index (RII) is given by equation (1)
Relative importance index =
∑w (i)
AN
Where w is the weighting given to each factor by the respondents, ranging from 1 to 5, A is the highest weight
(i.e. 5 in the study) and N is the total number of samples. The rating of all the factors for degree of significance
was based on the value of their respective relative importance index (RII). The guide for the rating is given in
Table 1
Table 1Guide to degree of significance
Degree of significant Rating
Most significant 0.76 above
Significant 0.67-0.75
Less significant 0.45-0.67
Not significant 0.44 below
Source: Vanduhe (2012)
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4.0 Results and Discussions
4.1 Profile of Respondents’
The demographical profile of the respondents indicated that 44% of the respondents have PhD as their highest
qualification, 32% have Master Degree while 16% and 8% have BSc. and HND respectively. The result is
presented in Fig.1.
The results of the duration of occupancy of the respondents presented in Fig 2 indicates that majority (36%) of
the respondents have stayed for well over 8 years in the residential quarters while 8% have stayed for 7-8 years
and 28% have occupied the residential quarters for about 3-4 years. this indicates that the respondents are in a
good position to comment on the maintenance of the residential facilities.
The results of the categories of residential quarters occupied by respondents revealed that majority (56%) are
occupying the senior staff quatters category while 44% are occupying the junior quarters category.
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4.2Factors affecting building Maintenance
The study presents the analysis of the 19 factors affecting the building maintenance. These factors have been
identified and ranked according to their relative importance Index (RII). The result is presented in Table 2.
Table 2 Users Response to the factor affecting residential building maintenance scored on the degree of
importance
S/No FACTORS RII RANK RATING
1 Lack of preventive maintenance (maintenance culture) 0.84 1 Most Significant
2. Faulty workmanship during construction/maintenance 0.80 2 Most significant
3. Design deficiency affecting building resolution 0.79 3 Most significant
4. Use of substandard of materials and building components 0.76 4 Most significant
5. Insufficient fund to maintain the building 0.74 5 Significant
6. Ignorance about the basic properties of building materials 0.69 6 Significant
and components.
7. Unavailability of skilled maintenance personnel. 0.69 6 Significant
8. Lack of building maintenance standard and policy 0.63 7 Less significant
9. Client attitude to maintenance 0.62 8 Less significant
10. Poor management of maintenance group 0.60 9 Less Significant
11. Use of new material and components in buildings 0.60 9 Less significant
12. Low concern to future maintenance 0.59 10 Less significant
13. Delay in occupancy after completion 0.57 11 Less significant
14. Incorrect selection of building material component and 0.56 12 Less significant
system
15. Wrong behaviour of occupants 0.56 12 Less significant
16. Lack of communication between maintenance contractors, 0.51 13 Less significant
clients and users.
17. Technological change and fashion 0.48 14 Less significant
18. Non availability of replacement parts and components 0.47 15 Less significant
19. Lack of understanding the importance of maintenance work 0.47 15 Less significant
The first most important factor is lack of preventive maintenance with RII of 0.84. Maintenance culture is an
attitude which is lacking in Nigeria in both the private and public sectors. Poor maintenance culture has been
widely recognised problem in Nigeria (Mbamali, 2003; Adejimi, 2005; Usman et al., 2012). Lack of
maintenance culture was also attributed to lack of maintenance policy in Nigeria by Faworaja (1996). Lack of
maintenance culture reduces the life of buildings before the obsolescence state.
Faulty workmanship was ranked second with RII of 0.80 which also indicates a most significant rating. Faulty
workmanship is also considered a significant factor by Assaf (1996) and Adejimi (2005) that defects due to
construction inspection, defects due to inaccurate measurements among others leads to poor workmanship.
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Adejimi (2005) earlier confirmed that many buildings suffer serious maintenance problems due to the
incompetence of those who maintain such buildings. He further recommended that engaging qualified and
skilled personnel will go a long way in reducing maintenance problems.
Design resolution is a very important factor that affects building maintenance. From the study it was ranked third
with RII of 0.79. Adejimi (2005) considers this as a maintenance strength factor in his study. Adejimi (2005)
asserted that a poorly resolved building design eventually results in severe maintenance problems. A poorly
resolved building design does not suit the owner and are unliveable as conversions of the functional spaces go on
daily in order to adjust to satisfy the user’s needs. This was also corroborated by the findings of Usman et al.
(2012) in which they rated the design resolution factor as the third most important factor out of the 22 factors
investigated.
The use of substandard materials and building components was ranked fourth with an RII of 0.76 this is also
considered an important factor affecting building maintenance by Usman et al. (2012). The use of substandard
materials and components no doubts affects maintenance to a large extent because such materials have lower life
and durability than standard materials and components. Therefore frequent maintenance is required in situations
where substandard materials are use to preserve the building over its lifespan.
5.0 Conclusion
Building maintenance management ensures that building facilities retain their structural, functional and aesthetic
conditions throughout their lifespan and reduce unnecessary expenditures. It is evident that in Nigeria both
public and private sector buildings face neglect due to lack of maintenance and as a result they are subjected to
rapid deterioration. The study revealed lack of preventive maintenance for public residential buildings and this
presents threats to the functional, structural and aesthetic conditions of such buildings. Users of the surveyed
residential buildings perceived that faulty workmanship, design resolution that suits users needs and the use of
cheap and substandard materials also contribute to the maintenance problems. Another factor found to have a
significant influence on the maintenance of residential buildings is the lack of fund for the maintenance of
buildings.
6.0 Recommendations
From the study the following recommendations were made.
i. Preventive maintenance of buildings should be encouraged in order to avoid building failure before the
designed life of such buildings.
ii. Building designs should be resolved to suite owners’ requirements to avoid conversions during
occupancy. As unresolved buildings are frequently converted to suit other uses through which the
building face failures.
iii. Clients of residential building quarters should ensure that specified materials are used during
construction and thereafter make funds available for periodic and corrective maintenance
iv. Qualified and experienced personnel should be engaged in the construction and maintenance of public
buildings.
References
Abiodun, (1996). Civil and Building Engineering Contracts in Nigeria. Sabon Dale Journal of Science and
Engineering Vol.1. paraclete, Publishers, Yola Nigeria.
Adejimi, A. (2005). Poor Building Maintenance are Architects Free from Blames? A Paper Presented at the
ENHR International Conference on Housing: New Challenges and Innovations in Tomorrow’s Cities.
Iceland 2005.
Ahmed, A. (2000). Management System in maintenance of Infrastructure. Fahimta Publishing Company,
Kaduna, Nigeria.
Assaf, S. (1996). Effects of Faulty Design and Construction in Building Maintenance. Journal of Performance of
Constructed Facilities. 1996 (171).
British Standard Institution (1984). BS3811. Glossary of Maintenance Management Terms in Technology.
London
Dekker, R. (2002). Application of Maintenance Optimisation Models: A Review and Analysis. Reliability
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Derek, G.A. (1987). Building Maintenance Management. Macmillan Press Limited London.
Kiong, N.B. and Akasah, Z.B. (2012). Analysis of Building Maintenance Factors for IBS Precast Concrete
system: A Review. International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications. 2(6):878-883
Kunya, S.U., Achuenu, E.A. and Kolawale, J.O. (2007). Evaluation of Factors Affecting Maintenance
Expenditures of Federal Tertiary Institution in Nigeria. Construction Focus. 1(1):98-105
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ISSN 2224-5790 (Paper) ISSN 2225-0514 (Online)
Vol.3, No.8, 2013
Mbamali, I. (2003). The Impact of Accumulation of Deferred Maintenance on Selected Buildings of Two
Federal Universities in the Northwest Zone of Nigeria. Journal of Environmental Sciences. 5(1):77-83.
Odediran, S.J., Opatunji, O.Y. and Eghnure, F. O. (2012). Maintenance of Residential Buildings: Users’
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Usman, N.D., Gambo, M.J. and Chen J.A. (2012). Maintenance Culture and its Impact on the Construction of
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Nigeria. NIAJ 11(136):8-12
First author Dr. Baba Shehu Waziri has been a lecturer in the Department of Civil and Water Resources
Engineering, University of Maiduguri since 2003. He was born at Bama, Borno State, Nigeria. He went to the
University of Maiduguri between 1991 and 1998, University of Jos between 2001 and 2003 and the Ahmadu
Bello University Zaria between 2007 and 2011. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering Degree (B.Eng.) in Civil
and Water Resource Engineering, Master Degree (M.Sc) and Doctor of philosophy (Ph.D) in Construction
Management. Dr. B. S Waziri is a corporate member of the Nigerian Society of Engineers and a member of the
International Research and Development Institute Research and Development Network. He is also a registered
engineer with the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN).
Second author Buba Abraham Vaduhe was born in Kaduna North, Kaduna State Nigeria. He graduated from
the Department of Civil and Water Resources Engineering in 2012. He is currently a site engineer with Civil
Strut Associates Kaduna, Nigeria.
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