Issues in small sector housing construction in Sri Lanka : case of services installation

Abstract

Building a house is a life time venture and a dream of many individuals. However, constructing a house is a complicated process which involves interpreting various ideas and collection of number of people’s effort. In such away, building services carry a significant role and efficient services installation leads to a long life of any building types. Moreover, cost of services installation represents considerable amount from the total project cost. It is notable, improper installation of services lead to an increased cost of maintenance and repair cost while dissatisfying the user. This is the common issue seen in the small sector housing construction.Therefore, the aim of this paper is to address “ common issues in small sector housing construction in case of services installation”. Apart from that the study analyses the informal and formal sector involvement in the housing construction. The structured questionnaire survey was carried out with house owners. The survey results analyzed using SPSS software. Electrical and plumbing are more demanding services and mechanical systems were received less demand in the small sector houses. The survey results show electrical problems are being the worst followed by plumbing and mechanical problems. Trip switch failure, power leakage and damages to equipment due to excessive power are some common dilemmas faced by the house owners regarding the electrical system. Water leakage and water seepage through walls are common issues with in the plumbing system. The study was enable to identify informal sector and formal sector involvement in installation of services in small sector housing construction as 87.64% and 12.36% respectively. Further, the suggestions and recommendations were made in order to overcome the identified issuses in case of services insatalltion in small sector housing construction in Sri Lanka addresses in the paper.