Common structural issues in Lagos Real Estate Development, and how to address them
Lagos is often referred to as the commercial nerve center of the country, rightly so because of the sheer volume of commerce taking place daily in the bustling city. In like manner, the city is often referred to as a construction site given the volume of building projects progressively taking place at various sites across the megacity. But despite these encouraging figures and trends, the Lagos real estate industry is still burdened by several issues that are hindering its growth.
The rate at which structures, some under construction and even completed, have been failing has become a great source of concern. Year-in year-out, building collapse is now a recurring phenomenon in Lagos, resulting in the loss of lives and billions of Naira in investments. At the core of the problem is a clash of long overdue urban development and protection of natural ecosystems, a sprawling real estate industry, and a government unwilling to confront climate realities. Since we didn’t have our own natural disasters to bring down our buildings, we simply created our own version through sheer negligence. Privately owned buildings both commercial and residential account for the highest number of collapsed buildings in Lagos. These are some of the causes of structural issues in Lagos and solutions to them.
Poor Structural Design
These are not only errors of computation, but a failure to take into account the loads the structure will support, erroneous theories, reliance on inaccurate data, ignorance of the effects of repeated or impulsive stresses, and improper choice of materials or misunderstanding of their properties. However, before the structural design is concluded, there are different stages of Quality Assurance and Quality Control QA/QC reviews through the Concept/Preliminary Design, Design Development, and Construction Documentation stages.
Use of sub‐standard building material
In order to avoid the use of substandard material, samples of materials to be used for construction should be subjected to all the compliance tests, viz chemical, strength, composition, etc., to ascertain the integrity of the materials. For example, aggregates to be used for construction should be checked for contaminants like chloride and other impurities. No material with chloride should be used to prevent retardation of the compressive strength of concrete. Also, steel reinforcement should be tested for compliance with standards regarding its tensile strength and ductility
Illegal conversion/alteration/addition to the existing structure
The illegal conversion of an existing structure for uses other than the original design intention and use. For example, a building that was originally designed to bear three floors and later converted to bear two additional floors, without consulting a structural engineer, may collapse due to overload and consequent over-stress of the foundation. The foundation may have been designed to bear only three floors without taking future expansion into consideration. It is pertinent to note that the Structural Engineer must certify a structure’s structural integrity, especially when it comes to changing its use.
Limited Source of Funding
Nigeria possesses all the key factors for real estate investment — a growing middle-class population, growth in consumption, rapid urbanization, and a young demographic compared to more mature economies. Yet, financing remains a problem for developers and homeowners. Because of these developers can decide to manage resources or use substandard quality materials.
Natural disaster
In Nigeria, the most common natural events are heavy winds, rain storms, floods, earth tremors, etc. Unanticipated impact loading from these different causes and the erosion from flooding have been recorded as contributory natural causes
Lack of genuine geotechnical information about the underlying soil
A reputable Geotechnical expert should be consulted when a soil test is needed. This is because the structural engineer will solely rely on this result to design a suitable foundation based on the recommendation of the geotechnical engineer. Even an excellently designed and constructed structure will not stand on a faulty foundation. Although the structure may bear the loads, the earth beneath may not. The displacement due to faulty foundations may alter the stress distribution significantly. Soil investigation, material tests, and environmental impact assessment (E.I.A) should be made mandatory for all institutional, industrial, and commercial buildings.
Owning a house in Lagos is the dream of most entrepreneurs, but it is quite unfortunate that investors or first-time homebuyers do experience challenges after buying their dream house. Such challenges range from poor plumbing works, and cracking walls, to poor drainage systems which result in flooding of the vicinity. As Lagos floods every rainy season, attention heightens around the city’s plan to tackle the challenge. Experts say the floods resulted from a lack of drainage services, vanishing green areas, an unorganized waste delivery system, and most importantly, vastly depleted wetlands.
In conclusion, Kerae Homes Limited is committed to delivering quality building projects, and sales of land and homes, with authentic verified documents. We are structured in estate development with Hamlet Apartments being our maiden project and a customer partnership approach at heart.
Our objective is to provide individuals and organizations with quality homes with vintage designs, modern smart features, state-of-the-art estate facilities, and luxury finishes. To us, creating luxury is not only on the façade but rooted in the foundation and can stand for a lifetime.
