Development of a quality assessment scoring framework for residential buildings

Purpose – Quality plays a vital role in the durability of constructed facilities and lifecycle costs. Correspondingly, inspection and assessment are essential tools for managing and improving construction quality, for which rating systems have been developed in multiple countries to evaluate quality and sustainability. However, the materials and methods used in developed countries differ from those in India and other developing nations, where construction practices remain largely labour-intensive. As a result, the assessment criteria used in existing rating systems are not directly applicable to the context of developing countries. Thus, this research seeks to develop a tailored quality assessment framework suitable for evaluating construction quality in India. Design/methodology/approach – A comprehensive list of quality-related attributes was identified using a triangulation approach, drawing from literature review, site inspections and interviews with homeowners and industry experts. To evaluate the relative importance of these attributes in influencing building performance, weightages were determined through the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Insights from 35 experts in the construction industry and academia were incorporated to derive these weightages and ensure the framework's robustness. Findings – The study identified a comprehensive set of factors influencing construction quality, comprising four major components, 15 sub-components and 69 specific attributes. The components were ranked by their relative impact on quality in the following order: structural, non-structural, services and finishes. Originality/value – This research identifies and contextualises quality-related factors unique to the Indian construction industry. It compares the relative influence of these factors and presents a framework to assess construction quality.