Building defects can be simply defined as non-compliance to bye-laws, standards and requirements, that taking place when conducting the building inspection. Building defects is not just putting the photograph all together. The reporting style is most important, and many more. My presentation about Defective Construction Work during LPhyD BS CPD Talk series on 13 Feb 2014 describe further important aspect in dealing with building defects, especially when there is no contract among parties involved in the building works. Careful attention should be given to patent defect, and not to forget the latent defect as well. Latent defect is most critical, when it is normally discovered after the Defect Liability Period (DLP). Related reading for protecting house buyers in relation to patent defect is described by Zolkafli (2014).
Common building defects as per follows.
1. Condensation is one of the major problem to building. The info about condensation can be follow through my linked in pages about excessive condensation.
In legal perspective, we have to be able to highlight the non-compliance when reporting the building defects. The list below is a non-compliance issue, particularly in Malaysia.
1. Fire extinguisher not hang up: UBBL 1984 (Sec. 227), MS1539: Part 3 & 4. UBBL 1984 (Sec. 227): Portable extinguishers shall be provided in accordance with the relevant codes of practice (in this case MS1539: Part 3 & 4) and shall be sited in prominent positions on exit routes to be visible from all directions and similar extinguishers in a building shall be of the same method of operation. MS1539: Part 3: 2003: Specification for Portable Fire Extinguishers (Selection & Installation) & Part 4: 2004: Specification for Portable Fire Extinguishers (Maintenance of Portable Fire Extinguishers).
Related publication:
2019: Mechanism to prevent rising dampness
2019: Managing dampness in buildings
This is to complement the typical visual inspection, which tends to have qualitative (and subjective) building defects evaluation.
2023: Damage indices of steel moment-resisting frames equipped with fluid viscous dampers
2021: Classifying apartment defect repair task in South Korea: A machine learning approach