WEBSJOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND WESEA ISSN: 1974-1400-X,

ENGINEERING APPLICATION Vol 11, No 2, 2022, 630-644

AN EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT OF PARTIAL BUILDING FAILURE IN

ILORIN, KWARA STATE

A. T. Balogun and A. A Adedeji

Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, University of Ilorin
adeola.aa@outlook.com

1. ABSTRACT

Building collapses in Nigeria have been on the increase in recent times. There are frequent media reports of collapsed of
buildings in major Nigerian cities like Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Kwara and Aba. Building failure precedes
collapse. The problems range from the use of substandard materials, faulty design, negligence, incompetence, faulty
construction, foundation failures, extraordinary loads and corruption. In an attempt to tackle the challenges, this paper
examines causes, effects and lasting solutions to building failure in Ilorin, kwara state and also enumerated specific areas
the stakeholders in the building industry and the general public are affected. To investigate these problems, Visual
observation was done and exploratory questionnaires was administered to the local government areas in the Ilorin city.
Data was analyzed with basic descriptive tools such as frequency, percentage, Likert scale, and the Relative importance
index approach. Findings reveal that the Use of substandard Building materials is the most cause of building failure
followed by Engagement of inexperienced personnel and Faulty design. Findings also show the increase in cost of
maintenance and repair, Loss of buildings functionality and Loss of lives/properties and investment are the likely effect
of building failure. This paper seeks to shed further light on that 60% of buildings with failure are prone to total collapse
and the likelihood for the failure of buildings in Ilorin, kwara state to increase by 50% if measures are not urgently and
strategically put in place by all concerned stakeholders. Professions / professionals linked to the problems were also
examined. Recommendations were made in other to stem the tide of the menace and ensure safer and better built
environment based on the findings of the research.

Keywords: Empirical formula, building, construction, failure, collapse

1. INTRODUCTION
Building structure can be defined as an artistically and aesthetically created space that provide home for humans and
other living things for their comfort to prevent the adverse effect of the natural and artificial ecological condition for their
survival (Omenihu, Onundi, & Alkali, 2016). Building is essentially a space that protects man from the natural
environment. These structures serve as place of residence, work, worship etc. or as means. They are so essential to man
just as AIR, WATER and FOOD. It must possess adequate strength and every member of structural system should be
able to resist the applied loads under service conditions without failure or collapse. Buildings through ages have been an
important aspect of the socio-economic development of human beings. Buildings like all structures are designed to
support certain load without deforming excessively.
The process of building construction is constantly changing with the advent of new materials and method of erection.
The work involved in the design and construction stages of building are largely that of selected materials, components
and structure which will meet the expected building standard and aesthetic on economic basis. A high level of skill is
needed in designing and constructing buildings.
Building collapse is the inability of a building component to withstand the loads it was designed to carry. A building is
said to have FAILED when one or more elements of the structure cannot perform its original function proficiently due to
the malfunction of the constituent materials thus leading to collapse. Although Nigeria has good environment and
weather condition when compared with other countries of the world, it is still greatly affected by incessant increase in
building collapse (Omenihu et al., 2016).
Even though the occurrence of building failures are found to be more prevalent in the urban centers of the country,
cases of building collapse in the country are found not to be limited to urban cities as they cut across cultural, ethnic and
geographical barriers in such a manner that their occurrence apparently reflects what can be described as a general
phenomenon (Ayedun et. Al.,2012). In discussing the issue of building collapse, distinction must be made between
buildings which fail during construction or within the service life and to those that fail after the service life, usually 25
years (Olusola et. Al.,2011). It can be deduced that the collapse that cause the greatest loss is that which occurs when a
building has been in use for long a time or shortly after its Construction (Oke, 2011). Adebowale, Gambo, Ankeli, &
Daniel, (2016) carried out analysis and evaluation of the death rate involved in 47 reported cases of building collapses
verified between 2000 and 2010 and over 300 death rates were recorded for Lagos, Abuja and port Harcourt which are
the three major areas with high rate of casualties. The increasing number of cases mandates the need for a wakeup call to
all stakeholders in the industry

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Building collapse may either be due to natural disasters resulting from earthquakes, hurricanes, floods or manmade
factors also known as human errors as a result of poor design and construction methods. There are many factors that
cause building collapse in Nigeria such as poor structural design, poorly skilled workmen, lack of quality material and
lack of quality management (Ayeni & Adedeji, 2015). .
The traditional materials used in previous centuries made buckling not a major structural problem and multi-storey
structures were uncommon during these ages. There is a tendency to make sure important structures do not fail by using
materials generously making many of the roman structures survived till date (Taiwo, A. A., &Afolami, J. A. 2011).
The standard of living has increased over the centuries bringing with it huge strides in technological advancements.
Today, there are better procedures, more durable materials, better construction machinery and more advanced knowledge
on construction. However, with all the advances in technology, there are still cases of collapse in countries of the world,
though more prevalent in developing countries like Nigeria. Collapse in the developed countries is majorly due to natural
causes or man-made causes like bombings like the world trade Centre. However, collapse in developing countries are
usually due to poor quality or substandard materials, poor supervision, non-adherence to standards and regulations,
unqualified professional, overloading, no geotechnical/sub-soil investigation, poor construction procedure, illegal
approval, wrong demolition process, lack of maintenance and numerous others (Odeyemi, S. O., Giwa, Z. T.,
&Abdulwahab, R. 2019)

Figure 1.:Collapse pattern and checkpoints (FEMA, 2009)

In this work, partial failures of buildings in Ilorin, kwara state, Nigeria have been investigated. Published journal
articles, conference proceedings, academic reports, newspapers and personal investigation had been reviewed to obtain
relevant data such as height of the structures, cause of the collapses, the time that the failure occurred etc after which the
data obtained for analyses based on the aforementioned parameters. Ilorin, the state capital of Kwara State is located
between latitude 4035E and longitude 802SN. It is a gateway town to the northern and southern parts of Nigeria. Ilorin
falls within grassland, Notable trees found in the city include share butter, locust beans trees, mango tree etc..
The climate of Ilorin, Kwara State as a whole is characterized by the two district climatic seasons, the dry season and
the wet season with an intervening cold and dry harmattan periods which is usually experienced from December-January.
Ilorin has a total annual rainfall from 300mm-1,200mm. the raining season begins from November to end in early March.
The main monthly temperature is on the highest from February to June at 350c and lowest in December at 300c.

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Ikpo, & Ajayi, (2015) revealed that there was no loss of lives in 20.3% of the occurrences of building collapse, between
one and five lives were lost in 44.4% of the recorded incidents, while the worst-case condition was the death of more
than 21 people in 9.3% of incidents. The amount of death records in building collapse incidents buttress the severity of
the problem, and in cases where deaths are not recorded, physical injuries are just as severe. Still, any event of building
collapse would eventually result in loss of productive time which does not augur well for sustainable development goals
(Windapo& Rotimi, 2012).

Fig .1: Four-storey-building-collapses-on-Zulu-Gambari-Road-in-Ilorin

1.1 Relative Importance Index (RII)

According to ( Aibinu & Jagboro 2002), the Relative Importance Index (RII) approach used to describe the relative
importance of the specific causes and effects based on the likelihood of occurrence and effect on the project using the
Likert scale of five scales. In addition, the higher value of the index of relative importance (RII) is the critical cause or
impact component and is determined by equation

Relative Importance Index (RII) = (.1)

RII = (.2)

Where: RII – is Relative Importance Index, = Number of respondents for strongly agree, = Number of respondents
for Agree, = Number of respondents for Neutral, = Number of respondents for Disagree, = Number of
respondents for strongly disagree, W = is the weight given to each factor by the respondents from 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 for very
low, low, moderate, high and very high, respectively;, A = is the highest weight (i.e., 5 in this case), and; N = is the total
number of respondents.

2. METHODOLOGY
Information gathering is the act of collecting information from various sources through various means. Various
techniques can be utilized for gathering information depending on the type of information to be obtained, these include
interviews, questioning, observation and study of existing organizational documents or reports. Two sources were
explored for the purpose of this study. The first is existing organizational documents about the building Construction, and
the other is first-hand information from building Professionals, the residence and building owners.
For this project work, the techniques used are direct observation or visual inspection of the buildings, administration of
questionnaires to some of the building Professionals, experts and building owners.

2.1 Administration of Questionnaire

In order to determine the causes, prevention and solutions to partial building failure before leading to a major failure or
total collapse in any case, careful observation and collection of detailed information is important. Hence, specific set of

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questions need to be answered. The instrument used for the collection of this information is a structured questionnaire is
shown below;

2.2 Visual Inspection

The initial assessment of the defects is through visual inspection, where the cause, nature and pattern of the defect are
examined and recorded. Some defect are obviously serious judging from the visual appearance; however, some defect
that looks non- structural may turn out to be otherwise. Defects in building require more attention as we move down from
the roof to the foundation, likewise its maintenance too.

2.3 Determination of yhe Structural Strength of the Buildings

The structural strength of some buildings was determined by a non-destructive test. the use of Rebound hammer is one of
the non- destructive method of concrete strength test. For this project, the Rebound hammer method was used and
information gathered was used to determine the structural strength of the buildings in Ilorin.

Figure 2 Rebound hammer parts.

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1. Chart From Results.

The survey results were analyzed and the findings are presented below. An initial observation was a substantial
difference in the response rates for the surveys, where same method of notification and delivery was used. The difference
may potentially be credited to the relevance of the investigation to the parties involved: engineers can be seen more
interested and highly linked to the subject (building failure and collapse), it could also be associated with the number of
disciplines involve in the field of engineering; followed by builders, architects, then quantity surveyors. 115 Stakeholders
across the study area and 81 responses was attained. Figure 4 presented the response percentages as well as roles‟
distribution.

TOWN PLANNER 4

CONTRACTOR 17

CLIENT 6

CIVIL ENGINEER/ BUILDER 21

ARCHITECT 15

QUANTITY SURVEYOR 18

0 5 10 15 20 25

Respondent Profession

Figure 4: Chart showing Respondent‟s Profession

It is very interesting to realize that over 60% holds bachelor‟s degrees and above; and about 30% of the respondents have
over ten years practicing experience and 30% are between 5-10years experience. This could portray clearer indication to
competency level of the respondents. In Fig 5 are charts presenting the educational and experiences of the respondents

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 Academic Qualification

2%
26% OND/HND
37%
Bsc/B.tech
M.sc.
PhD
35%

Figure 5.Respondents Educational Qualification.

Respondent years of Experience

35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Less than 5 years 5 to 10 years More than 10 years

Respondent years of Experience

Figure 6: Respondent‟s Years of Experience.

The survey revealed that over 70% of the buildings analyzed are private own (fig 54). It was revealed that about 70% of
the buildings suffering failure(s) are new buildings (Fig .7) showing a drastic increase in the usage substandard materials
and Poor Construction Techniques Below are charts describing the building status.

Residential Commercial

21, 26% Private own

Government
60, 74% own

Figure 7: Chart showing Building ownership Figure 8: Building purpose.

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 Respondent's Building category
40

35

30

25

20

15

10

0
Bungalow Duplex Single Storey Multi Storey Others

Respondent's Building category

Figure 9: Chart showing Building category

Building Existence

New Building (0 - 10 years) Old Buildiong (10 - 50 years)

Fig 10: Chart showing Building‟s Age

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The survey revealed that over 15% disclosed that buildings fail and collapsed „often‟ while the remaining majority
(55.5%) believed it does but „Rare‟. Buildings collapse in Nigeria is not just limited to buildings in operation but even
buildings under construction. Subsequently, 43.20% considered the impact of this menace as minor while the second
majority (23.45%) believed to have major impact. Below are charts describing the frequency and the impact of the
collapsed due to structural failure.

Frequency of Partial Building Failure

60.00% 55.50%

50.00%

40.00%

30.00%
18.51%
20.00%
8.60% 9.80%
10.00% 7.40%

0.00%
Never Rare Sometimes Often Always

Frequency of Partial Building Failure

Fig 11: Frequency of Building failure.

Erosion of Mortar

Peeling Paints

Dampness of Walls

Roof Defect

Cracks

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Common Building Defect(s)

Fig 12: Chart showing common Building Defects

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 Impact of Building Failure
50.00% 43.20%
40.00%

30.00% 23.45%
18.51%
20.00%

10.00% 7.40% 7.40%

0.00%
Insignificant Minor Moderate Major Catastrophic

Impact of Building Failure

Fig 12: Chart showing Impact of Building failure.

It can be seen (from the literatures) that most findings relate to whether the process or the materials; however, identifying
the main elements of the building associated with the failure would help to determining who is responsible to that and
where attention needed to be focus on. This finding reveals that civil/structural engineering‟s actions or inaction is
heavily responsible for structural failure (see figure 13) that leads to building collapse; furthermore, „structural elements‟
were evenly (between 20% and 40%) received percentages (see figure 4.12) as critical elements to failure and collapse of
buildings; these elements are: foundation and wall in descending order; below are charts representing the findings

35.00%
29.71%
30.00% 28.26%

25.00% 21.73%
20.00%
15.00%
10.00% 7.25%
5.79%
4.34%
5.00% 2.90%

0.00%

Professionals Responsible/Associated with Building Failure

Fig 13: Professionals associated with Building failure.

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 OTHERS 10%
FOUNDAT… 23.33%
COLUMN 3.33%
BEAM 11.11%
WALL 38.88%
SLAB 3.33%
ROOF 10%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%

Components

Fig 14: Building components associated with failure

13, 16%

Yes
No

20, 25% I can't Say

48, 59%

Fig 15: Relating the Structural defect and building collapse.

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Visual Inspection
During the process, some defects were inspected, the images of these defects were taken. Some pictures taken are shown
below;

Fig 16: Review of Building Slab defect. Figure 17: Review of Building column defect.

Fig 18: Review Cracks on Building element. Fig 197: Review of Building Roof defect.
;
The computed Relative Importance Index (RII) for the effect of partial building failure shows that the increase in cost of
maintenance and repair is the most (ranked 1st) effect of building failure followed by Loss of buildings functionality
(ranked 2nd) and Loss of lives/properties and investment (ranked 3rd); these are major burden on the client and the
building itself which if not properly addressed, it become a more catastrophic burden on the environment and populace at
large.

Here, it can been seen that the computed Relative Importance Index (RII) in table 3 is pointing to the improvement in the
quality of building materials as the most (ranked 1st) solution to building failure followed by the provision of laws and
punishment against the production and usage of substandard building materials (ranked 2nd) and the proper monitoring
and supervision of buildin2g construction by only qualified personnel (ranked 3 rd); all these relates to how and with what
the building was made up of. It is obvious that building personnel, materials, purpose and Design, are should be checked
before construction stage and primarily by supervisor and government agents. Therefore supervision is very necessary
and critical to achieving whatever is in the design.

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 Table 1: Suggested solutions to the menace of building failure.
S
D N A SA WEIGHT RII RANK
Suggested solutions D

All Building Construction should be

Monitored by only Qualified personnel?
5 4 6 30 36 331 0.817284 3
Quality of Building Materials Should be
Improved at all cost? 3 4 2 40 32 337 0.832099 1
Laws and punishments Should be made
against the production and usage of
substandard Building Materials?
3 0 5 48 25 335 0.82716 2
Laws and punishment guiding Standard
Construction techniques and practices in
Construction 3 10 6 35 27 316 0.780247 5
Government Should Demolish Old
Buildings and Build New ones?
8 9 14 40 10 278 0.68642 6
Government should interfere in Building
Maintenance at a very fair Tax rate?
3 5 10 32 31 326 0.804938 4

4. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

4.1 Conclusion
From the study carried out, the following conclusion was drawn:
i. The frequency of building collapse is “Rare” with impact as “minor” and sometimes “major”
ii. Poor building personnel and poor (sub-standard) building material remained a major issue to building failure.
iii. Walls, Foundations, beams and roofs, are the critical building components prone to failure that leads to collapse.
iv. It was observed that 60% of buildings with failure are prone to total collapse which makes the need for this
study right.
v. It was observed and concluded that 70% of the Buildings in Ilorin suffer Structural Cracks and Dampness of
walls, implying that the occurrence of Structural cracks and Dampness of walls are predominant in buildings in
Ilorin.
vi. It was also concluded that about 70% of the buildings suffering failure(s) are new buildings showing a drastic
increase in the usage substandard materials and Poor Construction Techniques.
vii. From the observation made, larger proportion of the buildings with defect were private own which makes
uniformity in monitoring the solution to building failure difficult and hence, giving rooms for the increase in the
effect of the defects on buildings.
viii. It was also observed that if proper solutions are not implemented of the issue of partial failures of buildings, the
effect of increasing defects could increase the number of building collapse in Ilorin by 50%.
4.2 Recommendations
To prevent the future occurrence of partial building failures and building Collapse which could have great effect on Ilorin
populace the following actions need to be taken seriously. Although while the issue of the defect cannot be totally
eradicated, the degree can to a large extent be reduced or minimized if the following recommendations are considered:
i. proper site investigation, periodic maintenance of buildings should be considered.
ii. Government should be involved in the implementation of laws that allows Building constructions to be
monitored by only qualified Civil Engineers.
iii. Law should be put in place to totally curb the production and usage of substandard material throughout the
nation.
iv. Proper awareness should be done on the importance and effect of Building maintenance and the use of qualified
professionals for building constructions.
v.
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