Vaglica, J (2018) Investigation of factors contributing to building code violations in residential construction. PhD thesis, Wayne State University, USA.
Abstract
A research project was conducted aimed to investigate and understand the factors that contribute to residential code violations and to develop recommendation to improve residential code applications. Our research focus was on residential structural building code violations. Data was collected from an opinion survey from 195 industry related stakeholders (design professional, builders, and building officials). Our research findings suggest that the contributing factors for code violations in residential construction fall into four main categories: 1) limited education and training; 2) unclear roles and responsibilities; 3) limited resources; 4) legal and regulatory. We concluded that lack of education and or training is a major contributing factor and we found a correlation between educations and the understanding of the building code. In addition, we gained insight in roles and responsibilities, we learned that the building culture lacks from a clear understanding of roles and accountability among the key stakeholders. Limited resource can always be an issue in any industry. Competitive pricing usually forces builders to take shortcuts, use inadequate materials, hire lowest bidder sacrificing quality. Finally, the industry needs an overhaul on its legal and regulatory system. Today, we have very little accountability over tracking violations and violators.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Usmen, M |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | accountability; culture; education; residential; pricing; training; builder; professional; stakeholder |
| Index terms: | builder, accountability, survey, regulatory system, violation, building code, pricing, education and training, investigation, residential construction, bidder |
| Subjects: | liability law, professional education, economic analysis, bidding, practitioner, political science, regulatory law, construction integration, data collection methods |
| Topics: | Roles and Professions, Governance, Business Strategy, Research Practice, Education, Legal Issues, Procurement |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here