TYPE OF CONTRACTORS IN NIGERIA CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

TYPE OF CONTRACTORS IN NIGERIA CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

The following are the two types of contractors in Nigeria construction industry:
1. Indigenous Contractors
2. Foreign Contractors

Indigenous Contractors

This is the type of contractors that are Nigerian whether he/she trained in Nigeria or not.Most Indigenous Contractor are owned and managed by sole trader type entrepreneurs with little knowledge of the workings of the Nigeria Construction Industry.

They operate largely in the informal sector of the economy and are usually small, unregistered, labour intensive and their workers are unprotected. They often don’t have premises, equipment or permanent workforce.

The Indigenous Contractor are known for their short-term orientation and unwillingness to employ qualified personnel. This explains the lack of corporate approach to management(Ofori, 1991; Wells, 2001).

This casual nature of employment in the Indigenous Contractor have affected long term plan for the workers. This invariably, affects the motivation and incentive provision by the management to workers and hence poor productivity. On the average, craftsmen receive little or no recognition for their efforts.

However, Fagbenle, (2009) finds that non-financial incentives to be more employed by management of in Indigenous Contractor Nigeria and that the applied non-financial incentives had significant positive effect on worker performance.

Foreign Contractors

These are contractors who are not Nigerians but come to work in Nigeria.Multinational Corporations [MNC] in Nigeria are normally characterized by structured management, huge capital base, wider area of network and cut across various sectors of the economy including construction (Amao, 2008).

One of the basic features of MNCs is that they have well managed human capital bases that are responsible for carrying out the various activities of their corporations. The personnel in MNCs are well motivated with various incentives schemes to boost the commitment of their workers. Incentive design and plan of the MNCs are in long, medium and short terms.

The long term incentive plan runs for a good number of years and may be in form of free flight for an employee for ten years. The short terms are mostly financial in nature, like bonuses and the medium term are an intermediate between the long and short term incentive plan and can be the promotion of workers. MNCs usually adopt incentive plan builder which is a step-by-step, on-line incentive plan design tool for managers (Olusola, 1999).

REFERENCES

Adeyemi A.Y. (2004). Financial Performance of Construction Contractors in Nigeria, Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, Building Dept. O.A.U., Ile-Ife, Nigeria, 20-43.

 

Campbell, J. D. (1995). Uptime :Strategies for Excellence in Maintenance Management. Productivity Press, Cambridge, M.A.

 

Chauchan, R.L. and Chiang, W.C. (1989). Weighing Factors in Construction Management Performance Evaluation, Proceedings of International Conference on Applied Construction Management, University of NSW, Sydney, February, 137-145.

 

Chimwaso, D. K. (2000). An Evaluation of Cost Performance of Public Projects: Case Study of Botswana, Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Construction in Developing Countries, CIB Task Group 29, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, University of Botswana, 15-17 November, 50-65.

 

Dada, M.O. (2003). Perceptions on Measures of Contracting/Contractor’s Performance: A Lagos State Survey of Nigerian Indigenous Contractors, Proceedings of 1st International Conference on Global Construction 2003, University of Lagos, Lagos, 59-68.

 

Fagbenle, O.I. (1997). The Use of Large Unskilled Labour Force for Non-Traditional Residentail Projects in Nigeria, Unpublished Seminar paper, Department of Building, OAU. Ile –Ife, 2-10.

 

Fagbenle, O.I. (2000). The Impact of Non-Financial Incentives on the Productivity of Construction Operatives In Southwestern Nigeria, Unpublished M.Sc. Thesis, Building Department, OAU., Ile-Ife, 5-215.

 

Hartush, Z. Z. and Skitmore, M. (1997). Criteria for Selection, Construction Management and Economics, University of Reading, UK, 15, 19-38.

 

Husseini, A.A. (1991). The Importance of Manpower Training and Management to the Construction Industry, Proceedings of the National Seminar on Effective Contract Management in the Construction Industry.Organized by the Nigeria Institute of Building, 22nd to 23rd August, 119-131.

 

Ojo, S.O. (2009). An Identification of Clients’ Needs for Building Projects: A Nigerian Study, Ife Journal of Environmental Design and Management, O.A.U., Ile-Ife, 2(1), 20-30.

 

Olateju, B. (1991). Enhancing the Contract Management Capabilities of the Indigenous Contactors, Proceedings of the National Seminar on Effective Contract Management in the Construction Industry, a.b.d., 132 – 143.

 

Olubodun, O. (1985). Low Productivity of the Nigerian Construction Workers, Unpublished Seminar Paper, Building Department, OAU., Ile-Ife, 1-21.

 

Parker, N.A. Lema, N.M and Mligwa, O. (1986). An Analysis of Labour Productivity in Tanzania, University of Dares Salam and National Construction Council.

 

Sediary, S.T. (1994). Management of Conflicts: Public Sector Construction in Suadi Arabia, International Journal of Project Management, 12(3), 143-151.

THE NIGERIA CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

THE NIGERIA CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

In Nigeria, like most developing countries, the construction industry plays a dominant role in the economic activities of the country. According to Olowo (1988) the construction industry accounts for about 60 percent of the Nation’s capital investment and 30 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (G.D.P).

Furthermore, the construction industry is said to have contributed about half of the total stock of fixed capital investment in the Nigeria economy (Olaloku, 1987).The industry also generates employment opportunities which place it second to the Government in the employment of labour (Husseini, 1991). When the construction industry was booming in the 1970’s, the country’s economy experienced similar effects during that period. However, from early to mid 1980’s, the industry experienced a jolt and its effect was felt in all spheres of national life (Isiadinso, 1988) Buhari (1991) reported that the lull in construction of early 80’s was not limited to Nigeria alone.

The lull also occurred in Western Europe and America. But the parent companies of these big timers in our midst were not only able to stay afloat the stormy ocean but were able to expand their sales. They were able to do this by initiative, creativity and research. Consequently, the Federal and State governments resorted to taking foreign loans as a quick solution to the problem. However, some of the measures taken by Government in order to revitalize the economy have further aggravated the situation. One obvious implication of this development is that the cost of imported raw materials and subsequently of the finished products has substantially increased (Husseini, 1991).

These substantial increases as reported by Mbachu&Nkado (2004) have obvious negative implications for the major players and the industry; undermining the viability and sustainability of the industry.

THE ROLES OF CONSTRUCTION ACTOR IN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

There are diverse interests in the construction industry. The principal interest or actors in the construction industry are:

• The Client
• The Consultant
• The Contractor

The Client

The Client is, by far, the single most important member of the construction team. He is the initiator and financier of all the projects. Omole (1986) noted that the major contribution the client can make to the successful operations of the construction industry lies in his skill in specifying his needs prior to the preparation of the design. It is also important for the client to set cost limits of the project at the briefing .He should also ensure that adequate financial provisions are made prior to the commencement of any project.

The Consultant

Cost and advise on client desire design are among the most important and basic considerations that Consultants must deal with. It is essential to see that projects are contained within the client’s budget and cost forecasts. Cost has the final control over virtually every project.

Accurate cost analysis and control is one of the necessary services the client requires from the consultants (Omole, 1986).

 The Contractor

Omole (1986) further reveals that the major task of Contractors is to assemble and allocate the resources of labour, equipment and materials to the project in order to achieve completion at maximum efficiency in terms of time, quality and cost.

Classification and Properties of Oyster shells

Classification of Oyster shells

Due to the unreliable morphological characters of oyster shells, they are difficult to classify. So, classifications are made according to their shell morphology which varies with environmental conditions and where it seems to be difficult, DNA sequence data has been used to resolve the issue, Reece et al (2008), Wang et al(2008).

Therefore, Oyster shells as classified by Guo et al; (1999) is given below:

True oysters: are mollusks, of the family Ostreidae which mainly belong to the genera Ostrea, Crassostrea (cupped Oyster), Ostreola, and Saccostrea. They are mostly edible and examples include the; Belon Oyster, eastern Oyster, Olympia Oyster, Pacific Oyster, and the Sydney rock oyster.

Pearl oysters: are not closely related to true oysters as they possess feathers, being members of a different family (Pteriidae), they can be obtained naturally or cultured.Others are Thorny oysters (Spondylidae), Pilgrim oysters (a kind of scallop), Saddle oysters (Anomia ephippium)

Oyster shells as coarse aggregates

Several common physical properties of aggregates are relevant to their behavior in concrete and to the properties of the concrete they are made with, therefore, the suitability of oyster shells as light aggregates will be checked by the physical properties as follows;

a) Particle shape: The shape of aggregate can be regarded as regular or smooth aggregate and irregular and angular aggregate as differentiated by Neville and Brooks, (1987).

Flynn (2000) also said the shape of an aggregate influences paste placement characteristics such as workability and pump ability, strength and cost. Shape is related to sphericity, form, angularity, and roundness Quiroga and Fowler (2004); Galloway (1994).

The shape of natural aggregates depends on the strength, abrasion resistance, and on the degree of wear to which they have been subject in their depositional environment. Natural aggregates tend to be more spherical and less angular.

On the other hand the shape of manufactured aggregates depends on the rock type and the crushing equipment. The shape of an aggregate influences the workability of the mixture as well as the void content and packing density. For some amount of paste, a mixture with round or cubical-shaped aggregate will have better workability than a mixture with flaky and elongated aggregates. More over; for the same mass of aggregate, round and cubical aggregate produce mixture with higher packing, which results in a lower void content.

b) Particle surface texture: The surface texture of aggregate is based on the degree to which the particle surface is polished or dull, smooth or rough. These usually affect the bond between aggregate and cement paste, and thus influence the water demand of the mix.

It also influences the workability, quantity of cement and bond between particles and the cement paste. Two independent geometric properties are the roughness or rugosity [degree of surface relief] and the roughness factor [the amount of surface area per unit of dimensional or projected area] [Graves 2006]. Natural aggregate have a smooth surface [Lamond and Pielert 2006]. Natural gravel subject to transport mechanisms tends to be smoother than manufactured aggregates. For instance, gravel would have a surface smoother than a crushed limestone. Nevertheless, there is no reliable method to determine the surface texture of manufactured aggregate [Alin and Fowler 2001]. An improvement in the bond to the matrix is obtained as the surface texture increases [Alin and Fowler 2001].

Rough-texture angular grains bond better with the cement paste to generate higher tensile strengths [O’ Flynn 2000]. Although rough textures lead to better bond between paste and aggregate, they also leads to harsher mixture, as texture roughness increases, the internal friction increases between the aggregates and therefore more paste is needed to achieve a given workability.

c) Soundness of aggregate: This is the ability of the aggregate to resist excessive changes in volume as a result of changes in physical conditions. So aggregate is said to be unsound when its volume changes [Neville, 2000]. Moisture content: The moisture absorbed with the surface water content of aggregate used for making concrete varies considerably.

The water added when mixing must be adjusted to take account of the changes if the surface water content must be kept constant and the required workability and strength of concrete maintained. Coarse aggregate rarely contain more than 1% of surface moisture while fine aggregate can contain excess surface moisture of 10% [Neville, 2000].

d) Grading: The gradation of an aggregate is defined as the frequency of a distribution of the particle size of a particular aggregate [Lamond and Pielert 2006]. Grading limits are specified in ASTM C 33 section 6[ASTM C 33]. Gradation plays an important role in workability, segregation, and pump ability of the concrete. Grading changes are more prevalent than shape and surface texture in the case of coarse aggregate.

For example, uniformly distributed aggregate require less paste which will also decrease bleeding, creep and shrinkage while producing better workability, more durable concrete and higher packing [Quiroga and Fowler 2004]. A graded aggregate, as opposed to a single-size aggregate, will have a greater packing density.

The smaller aggregate will fill in the voids created by the larger aggregates [Lamond and Pielert 2006]. Optimization by blending more than two aggregates at a time is not recommended, especially if each fraction complies with ASTM C 33 grading separately [Quiroga and Fowler 2004].

The void content is affected by the particle size, grading and packing efficiency. When a portion of two aggregates are combined and placed in a single container, the quantity of water needed to fill the voids for the same volume decreases. Thus, combining aggregates of different size fractions reduces the void ratio.

Thermal properties: The three thermal properties of aggregate that can be significant in the performance of concrete are specific heat, coefficient of thermal expansion and conductivity.

The specific heat and conductivity are important in mass concrete while the coefficient of thermal expansion of aggregate influence the value of such coefficient of concrete. The coefficient of concrete depends on the aggregate content that is content on the mix because the higher the coefficient of thermal expansion of aggregate the higher the coefficient of thermal expansion of the concrete [Neville, 2000].

Mechanical properties: Mechanical properties are very important properties in the determination of aggregate and the production of concrete.Below are some of the mechanical properties;

Hardness: This is an important property of concrete used in floor slab subjected to heavy loads.

Toughness: The resistance of aggregate to failure by impact is referred as toughness and it’s determined by aggregate impact value of bulk aggregate.

Oyster shells as substitute for coarse aggregates in normal concrete

Experiences and research studies have shown that under specific conditions, oyster shells has the potential to produce strong, durable structural members suitable for use in the construction industries. The coarse aggregate portion of concrete made with oyster shells has no significant adverse effects on desirable mixture proportions.

From the investigations of Yang et al, (2005); Crushed oyster shells were substituted for fine aggregate in concrete and the investigation revealed that the concrete mixture made with oyster shell did not cause reduction in the compressive strength of concrete at 28 days. Furthermore, it was reported that development of compressive strength was faster as substitution rate of oyster shell increased.It has also been discovered that waste shells such as oyster shells has been in use for civil construction activities like columns, lintels (beams), septic tanks, water well casing ring, bridges, shoreline protection, elevated concrete slabs, speed breaks, road constructions etc as a complete replacements for granite, due to erosion, flooding and lack of granite chippings in the coastal communities thereby, managing the wastes effectively without failure.

Oyster shells as structural member

In the early 1950s, the use of lightweight concrete blocks was accepted in the UK for load bearing inner leaf of cavity walls. Soon thereafter the development and production of new types of artificial LWA (Lightweight aggregate) made it possible to introduce LWC of high strength, suitable for structural work. These achievements further encouraged the structural use of LWA concrete, particularly, where the need to reduce the weight of a structure is essential, for consideration of economy in design.Concrete with full structural efficiency contain aggregates which fall on the other end of the spectrum scale and which are generally made with expanded shale, clay, slates, slag, and fly-ash. Minimum compressive strength is 17.24 N/mm².

REFERENCES

Aitcin, P. C. (2000). Cements of yesterday and today, concrete of tomorrow. Cement and Concrete Research, 30, 1349-1359.

ASTM C330-78, “Standard specification for lightweight aggregate for structural Concrete”, Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Vol. 02-04, pp. 190-192, 1989.

ASTM C204-84, “Standard test method for fineness of Portland cement by air Permeability apparatus”, Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Vol. 04-02, pp. 157-162,1989.

Bf/lGGILD, O. B. 1930.The shell structure of the mollusks.DetKongeligeDanskeVidenskabernesSelskabsSkrifter, raekke 9, bind 2, part 2, pp. 233-326.

 

Bondar, D., Lynsdale, C. J., Milestone, N. B., Hassani, N., &Ramezanianpour, A. A. (2011).Engineering properties of alkali-activated natural pozzolanconcrete.ACI Materials Journal, 108 (1), 64-72.

Bondar, A., Bouchard, C. and Bellemare, G. (2011) case studies in construction materials Vol. 1, pp. 1-9, 2014.

BS.882, “Specification for aggregates from natural sources for concrete”, BritishStandards Institution, pp 8,1992.

Chandra, S. and Leif, H.B. (2002) historical background of light weight aggregates concrete, science Technology and application, Vol. 1, pp. 5-19

Dahunsi, B. I. O., Properties of Periwinkle-Granite Concretes, Journal of Civil Engineering

2003, 8, p. 27-35.

Harry, H. W. (1985), Synopsis of the super specific classification of living oysters (Bivalvia: Gryphaeidae and Ostreidae). Veliger 28:121-158.

Limbachiya, M., Meddah, M. S. and Ouchagour, Y. (2012). Performance of Portland/silica fume cement concrete produced with recycled concrete aggregate. ACI Materials Journal, 109 (1), 91-100.

Meyer, C. (2009). The greening of the concrete industry.Cement & Concrete Composites, 31, 601-605.

Mobasher, B. (2008). USA-concrete construction industry-cement based materials and civil infrastructure. CBM-CI International Workshop, Karachi, Pakistan, 73-90.

Neville, A.M. (2005).Properties of concrete, Pitman publishing Ltd,London, fourth edition.

 

Osarenmwinda, J.O. and Awaro, A.O. (2009).The potential use of periwinkle shell as coarse aggregate for concrete. Adv. Mat. Res., 62, 64: 39-43. http://www. Scientific.net/AMR.62-64.39/preview.

Satish Chandra, Leif Berntsson (2002) Lightweight aggregate concrete: science, technology, and applications Construction materials science and technology seriesBuilding materials science series Noyes Publications/William Andrew Pub., 2002 pp. 430

Topcu, I. B. and Boga, A. R. (2010). Effect of boron waste on the properties of mortar and concrete.Waste Management & Research, 28, 626-633.

Yang, E. I., Yi, S. T. and Leem, Y. M. (2005). Effect of oyster shell substituted for fine aggregate on concrete characteristics: Part I. fundamental properties. Cement and Concrete Research, 35(11), 2175-2182.

Yoon, H.¸ S. Park, K. Lee and J. Park, 2004, Oyster shell waste as substitute for aggregate in mortar.Res.,22(3):158-170. http://www.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/22/3/158?ck=nck

 

Types of concrete

Types of concrete

Different types of concrete are produced depending upon the end application. The various types of concrete include the ones listed below:

• High strength concrete
• Precast concrete
• Pre-stressed concrete
• Green concrete
• Hardened concrete
• Ready mix concrete
• Reinforced concrete
• Fresh concrete
• Light weight concrete

Pre-stressed Concrete:

These are the types of reinforced concrete which the steel reinforcements are controlled in a tension when production so as to attain stiffness. By such doing, a lesser amount of steel used and concrete is kept in compression, allowing it to take more loads before overcoming the compression. The procedure of pre-stressing of concrete eliminates cracks. Pre-stressed concrete use little steel compare with reinforced concrete and it is commonly used. This is durable and free of maintenance.

Glass concrete:

Recycled glass used to replace an aggregate in concrete is now more accepted in present days. It brings down the aesthetic request of the concrete. Research has indicates improve elongated strength and enhanced thermal insulation because of its good thermal characteristics of the glass aggregate, (Poutos et al., 2008).

High performance concrete (HPC)

These kind of concrete go beyond the characteristics and construction of plain concrete. Plain and exceptional materials are made to construct these particularly design concretes which should fit up a combining of execution needs. Particular mixing, placing and curing patterns is required to make a treated high performance concrete. General execution tests which typically essential that show fulfilment on precise task desires ASCE (1993), Russel (1999), and Mitchell (2001). In it strength, durability and high modulus of elasticity, high performance concretes have been mainly applied in tunnels, bridges and high structures therefore; strength is not at all times the main essential characteristics. For instance, a normal strength concrete which has higher durability and has lower permeability is referred to have high performance characteristics, Bickly and Fung,(2001) shown that 40mpa (6000psi) high performance concrete for bridges can be efficiently made by attaining durability components for air void system and resistance to chloride infiltration.

Roller compacted concrete:

This type of concrete is also referred to as rollcrete, is a small cement firm concrete placed by skills lent by earthmoving and paving. The concrete is put outside to be covered, and is compressed in place by huge weighty rollers usually for earthwork. concrete mix attain a lofty density and cures for some time in a well-built monolithic block, (Portland cement Association, 2008).

Pervious concrete:

This is the combination of particularly placed coarse aggregate, cement, water with few   or excluding fine aggregates. Pervious concrete can be referred to as no fines or porous concrete mixing aggregates by cautiously controlled procedure produce a paste which coats and binds aggregate molecules. The set concrete comprises interrelated air spaces calculation roughly fifteen to twenty-five per cent. Water enters into the void in a pathway to the soil beneath, Lancaster L. (2005).

Light weight concrete

Structural light weight concrete (LWC) are usually produced by replacing a whole or a part of natural normal weight aggregate by artificial or natural light weight aggregate (LWA).There are many types of lightweight concrete and their properties cover wide ranges, such as: elastic properties, compressive and tensile strength, time dependent properties, durability, fire resistance, etcas dependent on the type of aggregate utilized in the concrete. Structural lightweight aggregate concrete is defined as concrete which is made with lightweight aggregates conforming to ASTM C 330.

It has a compressive strength of 2,500 psi (17MPa) at 28 days of age when tested in accordance with methods stated inASTM C 330 and has a dry density not exceeding 1,840 kg/m3 as determined by ASTM C 567, but job specifications gives room for unit weights up to 1,920 kg/m3 or more. Such aggregates are either natural or artificial and are available in various parts of the world. Oyster shell is a type of natural lightweight aggregates used to lighten in this study, and it is found abundantly in coastal areas of the world e.g. in countries like Chile, China, Ethiopia, Greece, Nigeria and Spain as stated by Guo et al; (1999).

Glenn (2004); in his statement describe Lightweight Aggregates as aggregates with special use that have an apparent specific gravity considerably below the normal conventional concrete that were used before, which made it obvious that lightweight aggregate is one of the critical elements that makes concrete flexible and versatile in making the overall structural design and specifications as to meet the construction requirements as argued by Chandra (2002).

The range of lightweight aggregate is extensive in nature from extremely light materials used for non-structural concrete and insulation, all the way to expanded clays and shales used for structural concrete as stated byNeville and Brooks, (1987).

This makes it clear that the lightweight aggregate in the concrete is mainly aimed to achieve high level of physical stability and compressibility through effectively utilization of the physical qualities of the aggregate materials.

This is further justified in the arguments of Chandra (2002) who argues that the lightweight aggregate in the concrete is a major step towards innovation in the field of engineering.

Also, the strength and the air trapped in each individual particle of the components of the aggregate materials are inversely proportional to each other thus making it clear that in order to gain lightweight aggregate the amount of air trapped in the individual particles must be high thus making it clear that the strength of the concrete thus obtained is low. The above relationship stated provides the guidance to ensure the balance between the air trapped and the strength required in the concrete mix thus making the overall lightweight aggregate concrete customizable to meet the structural requirements of the application on hand.

Concrete

Concrete

Concrete is a rock-like solid mass,formed from the mixture of cement, fine and coarse aggregates and water, in a particular proportion, with a particular strength at a particular age. The cement and water reacttogether chemically (in hydration process) to form a paste, which binds the aggregate particles together.

The paste could be poured into a mould and compacted by vibration or ramming to entrapped air. After setting, the mould or formwork is removed, for the concrete to have its shape.

The qualities of the constituent proportions in which they are mixed determine the strength and properties of the resulting products.

In ordinary structural concretes, the aggregates occupy about 70 to 75% of the volume of the hardened mass while cement, water, and air constitute the remaining volume as stated by Neville and Brooks, (1987).

Hence, a good knowledge of the properties of cement, aggregates and water is required in understanding the behaviour of concretes.

The concretes mass, though, have a considerable compressive strength but little resistance in tension and as a result of this,steel bars are introduced at appropriate places to increase its resistance to tensile force, thus, increasing the strength qualities and the resulting composite structure is called Reinforced concrete.

Sometimes, external stabilizers are added to concrete to give it a desired characteristic and this explains how the current mixtures of concrete has catered for various engineering requirements with the developments in science and the innovations in engineering, as argued by Chandra et al; (2002).

In their argument above, concretes was described as not being a component in the construction fields only, but also as a design ingredient in deciding upon the strength and other physical properties that govern the stability of a given building.

History of concretes

According to (Mark and Hutchison, 1986), in (Wikipedia, 2009), in Roman Empire, roman concrete was produced from quicklime, aggregate of pumice and pozzolanic materials. Many Roman structure use it. The main events in Architectural history termed Revolution of concretes, freed Roman construction from the restrictions of brick material and atone and allow for new design revolution in terms of both dimension and structural complexity.

However due to the absence of reinforced steel, the mode of application was different tensile strength was far lower. (Mark and Hutchison, 1986). The concrete secrete was lost for 13 centuries until 1756, when the British Engineer John Smeaton, first to make the use of hydraulic lime in concrete using powered brick as aggregate. In the Early 1840s Portland cement was used first. However the version of history has been challenged, as Canal Dumidi was constructed using concrete in 1670 (Donald, 1984).

Recently, the use of materials as concretes ingredient, because of increasingly enforced environmental legislation is gaining popularity.

 

Properties of concrete

The properties of concretes are too many. Few discussed include compressive strength, cracking and shrinkage.

 

Compressive and tensile strength of concretes

Concretes has relatively high compressive strength, but significantly lower tensile strength. According (ACI 318 – 08, 2008) it is fair to assume that a concretes tensile strength sample is about 10% to 15% of its compressive strength.

Expansion and shrinkage

Concrete has a very low coefficient of thermal expansion. However if no provision is made for expansion, forces causing cracks in parts of the structure that are not capable of resisting the forces or expansion and contraction repeated cycle. (Wikipedia, 2009)

 

Cracking of concretes

Crack will result to some extent in all structure of concrete due to tensile stress concrete cracks induced by shrinkage or stresses occur during setting or use. Water tank and highways are examples of structure requiring crack control. (Wikipedia, 2009)

 

Creep of concretes

This creep is used to describe permanent deformation and movement of a material in order to reduce stress within the material. Concrete which is subjected to forces of long time is prone to creep. Short time forced (such as wind or earth quakes) do not cause creep. Creep sometimes relieves the amount of crack that occurs in structure of concretes. (Wikipedia, 2009).

 

Composition of concrete

Concrete is made up of cement, water, aggregate (sand and gravels) and in some cases reinforcement (Wikipedia, 2009).

Historical background of light weight concrete

Historical background of light weight concrete

Concrete is referred to as a composite building material made from the combination of aggregate and cement binder. A classical example for the evolution of concrete since the ancient history as reviewed by Chandra (2002), is the use of concrete by Romans in 300 BC when they found that mixing a pink sand-like material which was volcanic ash they obtained from Pozzuoli with their normal lime-based concretes resulted in a far stronger material, this innovative methods was used in preparing concrete mixes with different aggregate materials to suit the structural requirements and strength and these developments in the quality of cement has a direct influence on the development of the concrete technology although the aggregate component of the concrete composition plays an equally important role in various mixes of concrete that serve a desired purpose as argued by Chandra (2002).

The classical examples for the above statement include the use of lightweight aggregates as in the roof of the Pantheon, and embedded reinforcement in the form of bronze bars as argued by Berntsson (2002).

Another element of greater significance to the development of concrete technology in the recent years as early as the 1900s, is the development of concrete boats during the second world war, where the lightweight aggregate concrete played a vital role in the design and construction of the ships itself as argued by Glenn (2004).

It is also interesting to note that, the importance of concrete has increased with the need for refined purpose and specific concrete mixes, which has not only been to provide the structural support but also the desired strength at the required physical conditions in the given geographical location as argued by Glenn (2002), of expanded clay and shale industry. The usage growth and development of lightweight aggregate concrete was accelerated at the dawn of the 20th century, as argued by Glenn (2004),during the second world war, when war ships was constructed from lightweight concrete produced from clay and shale.

In 1984, Thomas A. Holm estimated that there were over 400 LWC bridges throughout the world especially in USA and Canada. The research carried out by The Expanded Clay and Slate Institute proves that, most of the bridges appeared to be in good condition. According to ACI Material Journal by Diona et al; (1994), it was found that in Japan LWC had been used since 1964 as a railway station platform. The study on durability of LWC, carried out in 1983 has proven that LWC exhibitssome cracks, but these posed no structural problems.

References

Aitcin, P. C. (2000). Cements of yesterday and today, concrete of tomorrow. Cement and Concrete Research, 30, 1349-1359.

ASTM C330-78, “Standard specification for lightweight aggregate for structural Concrete”, Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Vol. 02-04, pp. 190-192, 1989.

ASTM C204-84, “Standard test method for fineness of Portland cement by air Permeability apparatus”, Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Vol. 04-02, pp. 157-162,1989.

Bf/lGGILD, O. B. 1930.The shell structure of the mollusks.DetKongeligeDanskeVidenskabernesSelskabsSkrifter, raekke 9, bind 2, part 2, pp. 233-326.

 

Bondar, D., Lynsdale, C. J., Milestone, N. B., Hassani, N., &Ramezanianpour, A. A. (2011).Engineering properties of alkali-activated natural pozzolanconcrete.ACI Materials Journal, 108 (1), 64-72.

Bondar, A., Bouchard, C. and Bellemare, G. (2011) case studies in construction materials Vol. 1, pp. 1-9, 2014.

BS.882, “Specification for aggregates from natural sources for concrete”, BritishStandards Institution, pp 8,1992.

Chandra, S. and Leif, H.B. (2002) historical background of light weight aggregates concrete, science Technology and application, Vol. 1, pp. 5-19

Dahunsi, B. I. O., Properties of Periwinkle-Granite Concretes, Journal of Civil Engineering

2003, 8, p. 27-35.

EFFECTS OF INSOLVENCY

EFFECTS OF INSOLVENCY

Construction projects embarked upon by either the private or public sector are meant to improve the general standard of living of the people and enhance economic activities generally. Realization of these is hinged to the frame work of adequate financial capacity of the employer as well as the contractor Burnett R.G (1991).

Burnett R. (1991) opined that insolvency create the following effects:

1. Higher cost of completion of manpower resources.
2. Reduction in employment opportunities.
3. Under-utilization of equipment and plant purchased for the project.
4. Late realization of profit in the project.
5. Lowering the standard of living.
6. Decrease in the tempo of economic activities.

These effects of insolvency (factors) will now be examined in details;

1. Higher Cost of Completion of Capital Projects

Increase in cost of completion is one of the effects (effects of insolvency) associated with the advent of insolvency. Before commencement of any capital project, there must be budgetary processes to regulate the permissive increase in the total cost of the project. These costs might include the cost of protective work, remedial work, and extra professional fees, Burnett R. (1991). All these costs will be aggregated to give the final cost of the project.

2. Wasting in the Utilization of Manpower Resources

Advent of insolvency will require additional utilization of manpower resources which arises from extra works. These include the preparation of new tender document, evaluation of work at the time of insolvency, selection of new contractor etc. The time spent on these can be utilized some where in another project Clough, R. and Sears, G. (1994)..

3. Reduction In employment Opportunities

In a depressed economy, insolvency can result in increase in the number of abandoned projects which in turn leads to reduction in employment opportunities. The participants in such a project will be discharged and the employment of more workers by the contractor will be reduced. The contractor is therefore compelled to lay-off some of his workers for some time until when there will be improvement, Burnett R. (1991).

4. Under-Utilization of Equipment and Plant Purchased for the Project

When there are more contracts of the same nature which need a particular type of equipment or plants, it is a common practice for the contractor to purchase such equipment or plant so that it will be used for such project rather than to hire. In the advent of insolvency which might lead to suspension of the project for certain period or abandonment of the project, such equipment or plant would be under-utilized, Burnett R. (1991).

5. Late Realization of Profit on the Capital Projects

The objective of any investment is to make profit. The realization of this objective depends immensely on the time of completion of the project. In a situation where insolvency occurs during the project execution period, this will result in extension of the construction time provided by the contract. This will have bearing on the starting period of realizing profit on the project, Burnett R. (1991).

6. Lowering the Standard of Living

Since one of the resultant effects of insolvency is abandonment of projects, this may lead to increase in unemployment rate and people would be forced to live below their means.

CAUSES OF INSOLVENCY

CAUSES OF INSOLVENCY

The main reasons for the advent of insolvency, which in turn hinder the successful completion of capital projects, are many and varied depending on the parties and extraneous factors involved in the contract.

Frankly speaking, insolvency is a product of mismanagement in all its ramification. Some of the major causes are listed below as noted by Hall G. (1992):

1. Inadequate financial provision for the project.
2. Inadequate planning of project or faulty feasibility studies and implementation.
3. Inflation in project cost.
4. Lack of executive capacity of the contractor.
5. Variations in project scope.
6. Administration action/regulation.
7. Inability to procure relevant materials and equipment.
8. External forces/foreign exchange market.
9. Abuse of mobilization payment.
10. Faulty design and/or supervision.
11. Inadequate Financial Provision for the Project

This is a very common problem in both the private and public sectors and occurs as a result of any or all of the following circumstances.

1. Inadequate cash-flow forecast: This may occur as a result of wrong projection of eventual cost of project at inception and the client’s inability to fund future cost expended on the project by the contractor.
2. Clients’ over optimistic projection of their revenue expectations during the period of project execution, and the actual revenue generated falling short of original expectations.
3. Reliance on procurement of funds from financial institutions which later fails to materialize.
4. Inadequate Planning of Project of Faulty Feasibility Studies and Implementation

In this country, many public and private organizations do not allow sufficient time for project planning. During the execution of such projects, major issues, which were not adequately analyzed and tackled crop up and may adversely affect the total cost of the project. If the client has no avenue for procuring further funds, this can eventually lead to the insolvency of the client.

A faulty initial feasibility study of a project might lead to insolvency. This is usually as a result of consultants not having adequate date for the exercise.

3. Unsteady Inflation of Project Costs

One major reason responsible for insolvency is the escalating cost of building materials. Most projects have a factor of cost escalation allowed for at inception stage based on historical cost data. The client is able to meet reasonable cost inflation from such provision.

As with the current circumstance, the rate of cost escalation is much more than could have been reasonably envisaged by any budget planner.

4. Lack of Executive Capacity of the Contractor

Insolvency as earlier stated is a product of mismanagement in all its ramifications, obviously if the affairs of the firm will prosper, a competent and experienced estimator would ensure that the estimate for the project was well thought out and the cost to the contractor kept within expected profit margins.

Unfortunately, most indigenous contractors, out of ignorance consider the employment of an estimator or quantity surveyor a waste of money because they cannot physically see the financial reward. After the estimator has prepared for tendering, some indigenous contractors lobby for award of contract from all the people that have a role to play in the award of the contract. They even make false claims as to their technical, financial and executive capacity. After the award of the contract, their inadequacy becomes obvious making it impossible for them to execute the project as planned financially.

5. Variation to Project Scope

Almost all projects are varied in scope, Fisk, E. (1997). A project may be completed at a higher cost than originally planned. Inability of the clients to procure more funds can result to insolvency. Some variations are politically induced. A development plan may call for three new hospitals to be sited in certain areas but political expediency may dictate the inclusion of other areas not favoured in the original scheme. The fund embarked for three projects may then be used for eight instead of four without a corresponding increase in budget allocation. The result would be inadequate finance to complete any of the projects. Our Universities, Polytechnics, Secondary Schools, etc are filled with uncompleted projects arising out of “variation” to development plan programme without adequate financial backing, Fisk, E. (1997).

6. Administration Actions / Regulation

Delays in taking vital decision on project at various levels of the client organization lead to slow-down starting and completion of projects. When final decision are eventually taken, the funds required to implement them are much higher than originally provided for which in turn requires further approvals and search for additional funding. Considering the galloping inflation ravaging the country, coupled with government economic measures, if a project was commissioned in 1987 it would cost about six times initial cost of the project to complete it now. In depressed economy like this, this will lead to unavailability of enough funds to finance project, which in turn results to insolvency Fisk, E. (1997).

7. External Forces / Foreign Exchange Market

Not all the problems are caused by the government programme; events taking place outside the border of Nigeria also have serious impacts in the country.

The economic decision taken by the Western World also affect the ability to raise loan to complete some of the cherished projects in the country, upward revision in the interest rates of the Western Banks would mean increase in the costs of on-going projects which would then affect the payment of loan that have already been made.

8. Local Borrowing Rates

Local rate of borrowing is another factor which must be addressed. Increase in local borrowing rate also affects the financial projection of both the client and the contractor. Thus, the future cash-flow projection based on the previous rate of interest might not materialize in depressed economy like this, increase in rate of borrowing will hinder the procurement of loan for project financing and adversely affect the on-going projects. This will eventually lead to client not having enough funds to meet the project requirements.

9. Abuse of Mobilization Payment

The idea of giving mobilization payment came into being especially to enable our indigenous contractors to compete favourably with their foreign counterparts based in Nigeria, unfortunately, some of the Nigerian contractors who were supported to benefit most from the schemes abused the system. It is pertinent to note that some of these contractors do not have enough financial capital to execute the project. Project embarked upon with the mobilization payment assistance might be stopped halfway due to unavailability of enough funds to execute the project before honoring the certificate.

10. Faulty Design and Supervision

Poor design makes execution of project very difficult for the contractor; it wastes time and resources especially where work executed would have to be totally demolished before the correction can be done. Since this might not be the responsibility of the contractor, the employer has to be responsible for the cost of demolition, cost of materials and labour including associated costs. If the client has no avenue of procuring additional funds this might result in insolvency, Clough, R. and Sears, G. (1994).

A poor supervision of a project may also cause insolvency, proper supervision is essential to impact cost system so as to reduce the advent of excessive increase in completion cost compared with the budget. It is essential to employ a good contractor that can easily detect the faults in the design and make correction to avoid demolition and waste of materials and resources, Clough, R. and Sears, G. (1994).

References

Burnett R.G (1991) Insolvency and the sub-contractor, Occasional Paper 48. Chartered

Clough, R.H. and Sears, G. A. (1994) Construction Contracting. (6th edition) John Wiley & Sons Inc., New York

De Valence (1994.)Douglas, C. (1985).Burnett, R. (1991).

Douglas, C.R. (1985) An Investigation into Some of the Major Problems Facing Small Building Firms, Unpublished B.Sc. Dissertation, University of Cape Town.

Fisk, E. R. (1997) Construction Project Administration. (5th edition) Prentice Hall, New Jersey.

Hall G. (1992) Reasons for Insolvency amongst Small Firms – Reviews and Fresh

PACKAGING

PACKAGING

PACKAGING is the technology of enclosing or protecting product for distribution, sales and use. Packaging also refers to the process of designing and evaluating.

TYPES OF PACKAGING

It is sometime convenient to categorize packaging by layer or function; primary, secondary and tertiary.

1. Primary packag-ing: Is the material that first encloses the product. E.g the bottle containing soft drink.
2. Secondary packaging: The second phase layer packaging that encloses the primary package E.g. the create that contain the bottle
3. Tertiary packaging: Is used for bulk handling, warehouse storage and transport shipping

PROCESS INVOLVED IN PACKAGING

• When introducing a packaging innovation or as a marketers you are trying to improve or upgrade an existing packaged product. As similar fundamental development process is followed to bring the finished solution to the market.
• Strategy: as marketers you desire a wining packaging strategies for your products, encompassing your unique current and potential objectives.
• Concept: great concept is the basis of great packaging. It all begins from the mind you picture it, and you capture it.
• Design: design agencies are not left and as they are the perfect people to improve you with right colours at the right place in other for it to be appealing.
• Phototypes; experts helps to produce the phototypes for all types of packaging requirement from rough to ready. It access consumer acceptance.

 PACKAGING DECISIONS

Another set of questions to consider involves the packag-ing on which a brand’s marks and name will be prominently displayed. Sometimes the package itself is part of the brand. For example, the curvaceous shape of Coca-Cola’s Coke bottle is a registered trademark. If you decide to market your beverage in a similar-shaped bottle, Coca-Cola’s attorneys will have grounds to sue you.

Packaging has to fulfill a number of important functions, including

• Communicating the brand and its benefits;

• Protecting the product from damage and contamination during shipment, as well as damage and tampering once it’s in retail outlets;

• Preventing leakage of the contents;

• Presenting government-required warning and information labels.

Sometimes packaging can fulfill other functions, such as serving as part of an in-store display designed to promote the offering.

Primary packag-ing holds a single retail unit of a product. For example, bottles of Coke, a bag of rice, or reams of printer paper (five hundred sheets) are all examples of primary packages. Primary packaging can be used to protect and promote products and get the attention of consumers. Primary packaging can also be used to demonstrate the proper use of an offering, provide instructions on how to assemble the product, or any other needed information. If warning or nutrition labels are required, they must be on the primary packaging. Primary packaging can be bundled together as well. Consumers can buy bottles of Coke sold in six-packs or cans of Coke in twelve-packs, for example.

Secondary packag-ing holds a single wholesale unit of a product. A case of M&M bags is an example, as are cartons of reams of paper. Secondary packaging is designed more for retailers than consumers. It does not have to carry warning or nutrition labels but is still likely to have brand marks and labels. Secondary packaging further protects the individual products during shipping.

Tertiary packag-ing is packaging designed specifically for shipping and efficiently handling large quantities. When a Coca-Cola bottler ships cases of Cokes to a grocery store, they are stacked on pallets (wooden platforms) and then wrapped in plastic. Pallets can be easily moved by a forklift truck and can even be moved within the grocery store by a small forklift.

PURPOSES

With the increased importance placed on self-service marketing, the role of packaging is becoming quite significant. For example, in a typical supermarket a shopper passes about 600 items per minute or one item every tenth of a second.

Thus, the only way to get some consumers to notice the product is through displays, shelf hangers, tear-off coupon blocks, other point-of-purchase devices, and, last but not least, effective packages.

Considering the importance placed on the package, it is not surprising that a great deal of research is spent on motivational research, color testing, psychological manipulation, and so forth, in order to ascertain how the majority of consumers will react to a new package.

Based on the results of this research, past experience, and the current and anticipated decisions of competitors, the marketer will initially determine the primary role of the package relative to the product. Should it include quality, safety, distinction, affordability, convenience, or aesthetic beauty?

 

USES

• Physical protection: The objects enclosed in the package may require protection from, among other things, mechanical shock, vibration, electrostatic discharge, compression, temperature, etc.

• Information transmission: Packages and labels communicate how to use, transport, recycle, or dispose of the package or product. With pharmaceuticals, food, medical, and chemical products, some types of information are required by governments. Some packages and labels also are used for track and trace purposes.

• Marketing: The packag-ing and labels can be used by marketers to encourage potential buyers to purchase the product. Package graphic design and physical design have been important and constantly evolving phenomenon for several decades. Marketing communications and graphic design are applied to the surface of the package and (in many cases) the point of sale display.

• Convenience: Packages can have features that add convenience in distribution, handling, stacking, display, sale, opening, re-closing, use, dispensing, reuse, recycling, and ease of disposal.

• Barrier protection: A barrier from oxygen, water vapor, dust, etc., is often required. Permeation is a critical factor in design. Some packages contain desiccants or oxygen absorbency to help extend shelf life. Modified atmospheres or controlled atmospheres are also maintained in some food packages. Keeping the contents clean, fresh, sterile and safe for the intended shelf life is a primary function.

• Security: Packag-ing can play an important role in reducing the security risks of shipment. Packages can be made with improved tamper resistance to deter tampering and also can have tamper-evident features to help indicate tampering. Packages can be engineered to help reduce the risks of package pilferage.

REFERENCES

INSOLVENCY IN CONSTRUCTION FIRMS

INSOLVENCY IN CONSTRUCTION FIRMS

Insolvency may be broadly defined as an inability of a business entity to meet pending financial commitments. For a construction firm, such a situation creates conditions whereby a business entity is unable to fulfill its contractual obligations with regard to work-in-progress or creditors owing De Valence (1994.)

The term “insolvency” means the financial failure of individuals and companies and their position before and after the start of a formal insolvency procedure, Douglas, C. (1985).

Insolvency may also be described as the inability to pay one’s debt as and when they become due, Burnett, R. (1991). This means that if a creditor calls upon a debtor to pay his debts and there is insufficient cash to meet the payment, the creditor may take legal action for pay payment of such debt from the debtor.

There are indications to suggest that during times of adverse conditions, the occurrence of insolvent conditions seem to be on the increase. Whether such adverse conditions and mounting insolvencies are mutually exclusive remains a subject of debate. The occurrence of these financial failures seems to have adversely affected business concerns operating within the Nigeria civil engineering construction sector.

The term “insolvency” means the financial failure of individuals and companies and their position before and after the start of a formal insolvency procedure Fisk, E. R. (1997) . There are two different categories of insolvencies, namely short term insolvency and long term insolvency. The former means that there is a cash flow crisis where not enough money is coming in to meet a company’s outgoings and the latter means that the company is able to pay its debts as they fall due but its balance sheet shows a deficiency of assets over liabilities, Clough, R.H. and Sears, G. A. (1994).

Contractors in the building industry are known to have low profit margins, low fixed assets and low capital but high cash flow and high return on capital employed, Fisk, E. R. (1997). Financing of contractors is generated internally from positive cash flow and retained profits and externally from short term finance, which is usually an overdraft repayable on demand. The short term finance will be able to support items such as working capital, stock and work in progress.

However, for growth, there is a need for long term external finance in the form of equity investments and long term loans.

The unique nature of the construction industry has caused a large number of insolvencies each year [6]. Due to high interest rates and a generally poor economic climate, significant financial pressures are imposed on many companies in the construction industry. Companies with high levels of borrowing and an insufficient capital base are therefore forced into liquidation. The construction industry always ranks high among the annual number of liquidation. There are two

striking features of insolvency in the construction industry Hall G. (1992). Firstly, a fifth of the bankrupts were builders. Secondly, the building trade is the only sector that has displayed obvious vulnerability towards insolvency.

Two forms of insolvency exist as recognised by law, namely commercial and factual insolvency.

Commercial insolvency occurs where a business entity is unable to service its debts even though its assets may exceed its liabilities, whereas factual insolvency is where a firm’s liabilities exceeds its assets.

References

Burnett R.G (1991) Insolvency and the sub-contractor, Occasional Paper 48. Chartered

Clough, R.H. and Sears, G. A. (1994) Construction Contracting. (6th edition) John Wiley & Sons Inc., New York

De Valence (1994.)Douglas, C. (1985).Burnett, R. (1991).

Douglas, C.R. (1985) An Investigation into Some of the Major Problems Facing Small Building Firms, Unpublished B.Sc. Dissertation, University of Cape Town.

Fisk, E. R. (1997) Construction Project Administration. (5th edition) Prentice Hall, New Jersey.

Hall G. (1992) Reasons for Insolvency amongst Small Firms – Reviews and Fresh

 

 

 

List of Building Materials

List of Building Materials

Building materials are any material which is used for construction purposes. Many naturally occurring substances, such as clay, rocks, sand, and wood, even twigs and leaves, have been used to construct buildings.

 The following the mostly commonly used building materials

Brush: Brush structures are built entirely from plant parts and were used in primitive cultures such as Native Americans,^[2] pygmy peoples in Africa^[3] These are built mostly with branches, twigs and leaves, and bark, similar to a beaver’s lodge. These were variously named wikiups, lean-tos, and so forth.

Ice and snow: Snow and occasionally ice,^[5] were used by the Inuit peoples for igloos and snow is used to build a shelter called a quinzhee. Ice has also been used for ice hotels as a tourist attraction in northern climates

Mud / Clay is one of the most commonly used building materials which consist of clay in addition to mud. Both products are utilized to construct homes or houses. Clay based building usually come in two distinct types, one being when the wall are made directly with the mud mixture and the other being walls built by stacking air-dried building block called mud bricks. Other uses of clay in building is combined with straws to create light clay, wattle and daub, also mud plaster. Clay usually means using the cob style, while low clay soil is usually associated with sod building. The other main ingredients include more or less sand or gravel and straw or gases.

Rock: has been considered as the oldest building materials made use of for building houses. It is the greatest and most long lasting material utilized for construction. Though it was commonly made use of in old time. It is now not in used but used as facing materials. Rock is the longest lasting building material available and is used usually readily available. Rock is very dense material so it gives a lot of protection. Its main draw back as a material is its weight and that it is hard to keep warm with using large amounts of heating resources.

Sand: Sand is used with cement and sometimes, lime to make mortar for mansonry work and plaster sand is also used as a part of the concrete mix. An important low-cost building material in the countries with high sand content soils is the sandcrete block, which is whether weaker but cheaper than fired clay brick.

Wood and Timber: Wood has been used as a building material for thousands of years in its natural state. Today, engineered wood is becoming very common in industrialized countries. Wood is a product of trees, and sometimes other fibrous plants, used for construction purposes when cut or pressed into lumber and timber such as board, planks and similar materials. It is generic building material and it is used in building just about any types of structure in most climates.

Wood can be very flexible under loads, keeping strength, while bending, and is incredibly strong when compressed There are many differing qualities to the different types of wood, even among same trees species. This means specific species are better suited for various uses than others. And growing condition are important for deciding quality.

Timber is the term used for construction purposes except the term is used in the united states. Raw wood becomes timber when the wood has been converted (split, hewn, sawn) in the forms of minimally processed logs stacked on top of each other, timber frames construction, and light-frame construction. The main problem with timber structure are fire risk and moisture-related problem.

THATCH : Thatch is one of the oldest of building materials known, grass is a good insulator and easily harvested, many African tribes have lived in homes made completely of grasses and sand year-round.

In Europe, thatch roofs on homes were once prevalent but the material fell out of favour as industrialization and improved transport increased the availability of other materials.

Today, though the practice is undergoing a revived. In the Netherlands, for instance, many new building have thatched roofs with special ridge tiles on top.

Twigs and leaves: These Are also one of the oldest of building materials. Leaves is a good conductor of fire resistance and can easily harvested.

Concrete: Concrete structures are also durable and strong. It is been made of gravel, sand, cement and a little water. Concrete is made use for construction of homes and work places. Concrete is a composite building materials made from the combination of aggregate and a binder such as cement.

The most common form of concrete is Portland cement, concrete, which consists of mineral aggregate (generally gravel) and sands, Portland cement and water. After mixing, the cement hydrates and eventually hardens into a stone-like material. When used in the generic sense, this is the material referred to by the term concrete.

CEMENT COMPOSITES: Cement bonded composites are made of hydrated cement paste that binds wood, particles or fibers to make pre-cast building components. Various fibrous materials including paper fiber plants and carbon-fiber have been used as binders.

FIRED BRICK AND CLAY BLOCKS : Bricks are made in a similar way to mud-bricks except without the fibrous binder such as strew and are fired (burned in a blick clamp or klin) after they have air dried to permanently harden them. Klin fired clay bricks are a ceramic material.

Fired bricks can be solid or have hollow cavities to aid in drying and make them lighter and easier to transport. The individual bricks are placed upon each other in courses using mortar. Successive courses being used to build up wells arches, and other architectural element.

Fired brick wells are usually substantially thinner than cab/adobe while keeping the same vertical strength.

They require more energy to create but are easier to transport and store, are lighter than stone blocks. Romans extensively used fired brick of a shapes and types now called Roman bricks.

Building with brick gained much popularity in the mid 18^th century and 19^th This was due to lower cost with increases in brick manufacturing and fire-safety in the over crowding cities.

METAL: Metal is used as structural framework for large building such as skyscrapers or as an external surface covering. There are many types of metal used for building. Metal figures quite prominently in prefabricated structure such as the Quonset hut, can be seen used in most cosmopolitan cities. It requires a great deal of human labour to produce metal especially in the large amounts needed for the building industries. Corrosion is metal prime enemy when it comes to longevity. Steel is a metal alloy whose major component is iron, and is the usual choice for metal structural building materials. It is strong flexible, and if refined well or treated lasts a long time.

1. Plastics: The term plastics covers a ranges of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic condensation or polymerization products that can be molded or extroded into objects, films or fibers. Their name is derived from the fact that in their semi-liquid state they are malleable, or have the property of plasticity. Plastics very immensely in heat tolerance, hardness, and resilience, combined with this adaptability the general uniformity of compensation and lightness of characteristics ensures their use in almost all industrial application today. High performance plastics, such as ETFE have become an ideal building material due to its high abrasion resistance and chemical inertness. Notable building that feature it include the Bejing National Aquatic Center and the Eden project biomas. Plastic is also commonly use for building materials such as plastic pipelines, tubes etc are also important for any home or office.

Glass: Glass making is considered an art form as well as an industrial process or material. Clear windows have been used since the invention of glass to cover small opening in a building. Glass panel provided human with the ability to both let light into rooms while at the same time keeping inclement weather outside. Glass is generally made from mixture of sand and silicates, in a very hot fire stove called a kiln and is very brittle. Additives are often included the mixture used to produces glass with shades of cokers or various characteristics (such as bullet proof glass or light emittance). The use of glass in architectural buildings has become very popular in the modern culture, glass curtain wells can be sued to cover the entire facade of a building or it can be used to span over a wide roof structure in a space frame. These uses though require some sort of frame to hold section of glass together, as glass by itself is too brittle and would require an overly large kiln to be used to span such large areas by itself.

GYPCRETE: Gypcrete is a mixture of gypsum plaster and fibre glass rovings. Although plaster and fibrous plaster have been used for many years, especially for ceiling, it was not until the early 1990s that serious studies of the strength and qualities of a walling system. Rapid wall, using a mixture of gypsum plaster and 300mm pluss fibre glass rovings, were investigated. It was discovered, through testing of the University of Adelaide, that these wall had significant, load bearing shear and lateral resistance together with earthquake – resistance, fire resistance and thermal properties.

FABRIC: The tent is the home of choice among nomadic groups all over the world. The well known types include the conical teepee and the circular yart. The tent has been revived as a major construction techniques with the development of tensile architecture and synthetic fabrics. Modern buildings can be made of flexible materials such as fabric membranes and supported by a system of steel cables, rigid or internal or by air pressure.

FOAM: Recently, synthetic polystyrene or polyarethane foam has been used in combination with structural materials, such as concrete. It is lightweight, easily shaped and excellent insulator. Foam is usually used as part of a structural insulated panel, where in the foam is sandwiched between wood or cement or insulating concrete forms.

ICE AND SNOW: Snow and occasionally ice were used by the Inuit people for igloos and snow is used to built a shelter called a quinzhere. Ice has also been used for ice hotels as a tourist attraction in northern climate. It is materials which is used by the Inuits.

BRUSH: Bruch structure are built entirely from plant parts and were used in primitive cultures such as Native Americans, pyging peoples in Africa. These are built mostly with branches twigs and leaves and bark, similar to a beaver’s ledge. There were variously named lean-tos and so forth. An extension on the brush building ideas is the wattle and daub process in which clay soil or dung usually cow, are used to fill in and cover a woven brush structure. This gives the structure more thermal mass and strength. Wattle and daub is one of the oldest building techniques. Many older timber frame building  incorporate wattle and daub as non load bearing walls between the timber frames.

PAPERS AND MEMBRANES: Building papers and membranes are used for many reason in construction. One of the oldest building papers is red rosin paper which was known to be in used before 1850 and was used as an underlayment in exterior walls, roofs and floors and for protecting a jobsite during construction. Tar paper was invented late in the 19^th century and was used for similar purposes as rosin paper and far gravel roofs. Tar paper has largely fallen out of use supplanted by asphalt felt paper. Felt paper has been supplanted in some uses by systematic underlayment particularly in roofing by synthetic underlayment’s and siding by house wraps. There are  a wide variety of damp proofing and waterproofing membranes used for roofing basement waterproofing and geomembranes.

CERAMICS: Fire clay bricks have been used since the time of the Roman. Special tiles are used for roofing, siding, flooring, ceiling, pipes, flue liners and more.

 

REFERENCES

Kent, Susan. Domestic architecture and the use of space: an interdisciplinary cross-cultural study. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1990. 131.Print.

Sandermann, W. and Kohler, R. (1964) Studies on mineral-bonded wood materials. IV. A short test of the aptitudes of woods for cement-bonded materials. Holzforschung 18, 53:59.

Weatherwax, R.C. and Tarkow, H. (1964) Effect of wood on setting of Portland cement. For. Prod. J. 14(12), 567-570.

Karade SR, Irle M, Maher K (2003) Assessment of wood-cement compatibility: A new approach. Holzforschung, 57: 672-680.

THE IMPACT OF RECAPITALIZATION ON NIGERIA BANKING SECTOR

THE IMPACT OF RECAPITALIZATION ON NIGERIA BANKING SECTOR

Recapitalization is a type of corporate reorganization involving substantial change in a company’s capital structure. Recapitalization may be motivated by a number of reasons. Usually, the large part of equity is replaced with debt or vice versa (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recapitalization).

The Nigerian banking sectors has undergone remarkable changes over the years, in terms of the number of institutions, ownership structure, the depth and breadth of instruments employed, the economic environment and the regulatory framework within which the system operates.

The N25 billion re-capitalization of banking sector in 6th July, 2004 was designed to ensure a diversified, strong and reliable banking sector which will ensure safety of depositors’ money, play active developmental roles in the Nigerian economy and be competent and competitive players in the Africa regional and global financial system, Soludo, (2004).

The goals of the re-capitalization is well set out, towards the emergence of big, strong but fewer banking institutions from the crowd of 89 in the market. Re-capitalization has resulted in the shrinkage of the number of banks from 89 to 25 through merger/acquisition involving 76 banks which altogether account for 93.5% of the deposit share of the market. Twenty-five banks emerged from 75 banks out of a total of 89, while 14 banks failed to meet the new capital requirement deadline of 31st December 2005, (Edame, 2010) The impact of N25 billion recapitalization on the Nigerian banking sector in the economy cannot be overemphasized.

The following are the impacts recapitalization on Nigeria economy:

1. BIGGER, STRONGER AND BETTER BANKING: In the emerging global financial world, there would be no room for small banks and this makes it imperative on the bank management to have a solid capital base for it to have the ability to muscle other international banks and withstand the rigors of doing business on such scale thus benefiting Nigerian economy.

2. IMPROVED FINANCIAL INTERMEDIATION: The core activities of banks are to be a financial intermediate that is, to mobilize funds from surplus ends to deficit units. To be prudent and avoid recklessness in lending, there are regulations on the percentage of banks capital base that can be borrowed by the public. An increase in the capital base would, therefore translate to more funds been available to the banks for onward lending to the public translating to the fact that sufficient funds will be available to the real or productive sector.

3. PUBLIC CONFIDENCE AND BANKING HABIT RESTORED: The Nigerian public will again trust banks and begin transacting business with banks based on the confidence that such banks are indeed strong and healthy and won’t go into distress.

This will also improve the banking habit of the majority of Nigerians as all banking relationships is based or established and flourishes on trust.

4. DEVELOPMENTAL NEEDS: Nigeria as a developing country desires a strong financial system that will aid it in achieving her economic aspirations of growth and development. Since banks are the core of any financial system, the stronger and better their ability to provide funds to meet the development needs of the country, the greater it will be the ability of the country to achieve its economic and financial objectives.
5. BETTER REGULATION: The smaller the number of banks, which is the imminent result of the increase in capital base of banks to N25 billion, the regulatory body, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will find it easier to monitor and regulate the banks and scrutinize their records respectively, thereby reducing the practicing of dubious banking activities by the management of certain banks where any found wanting, adequate punishment/penalty will be given and also cases of insider credit abuses a major reason for bank distress will be dealt with.

6. EMPLOYMENT: It is myopic for anybody to feel that the increase to N25 billion capital base of banks will lead to unemployment due to closure of certain banks or the reduction on the number of banks in the country. The truth is that on the long-run the strong bank will get bigger and expand in branch network to enable them cover the nation effectively and do good business and also if more money is made available to the real productive sector, more job will be created.

7. PETTY BANKING: The increase in the capital base of banks would make the operation of banks as it should be for serious minded businessmen/entrepreneurs unlike what obtains previously in Nigeria where banks are operated for other motives than the core business of financial intermediation.

8. INTEREST RATE: The synergy that will result from combined efforts in sourcing for funds as result of merger and acquisition to raise the capital base, will drastically reduce the cost of capital or interest rate (Soludo, 2004).

REFERENCES

Soludo, C. C. (2004). Briefing on Current Reforms in the Nigerian Banking sectors. Being a paper presented to foreign diplomats and other nationals in the country at the wake of the recent banking industry reforms, Abuja.

Soludo, C. C. (2004). Consolidating the Nigerian Banking Industry to meet the Development Challenges of the 21st Century. Being an address delivered to the special meeting of the Bankers’ committee, held on July 6th at the CBN Headquarters, Abuja.

Recapitalization retrieved from:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recapitalization.

Central Bank of Nigeria (2004). Facts File on Bank Re-capitalization. A Publication of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Economic stabilization

Economic stabilization

Economic stabilization means the maintenance of a relatively stable and favorably level of economic indicators.

 A stabilization policy is a package or set of measures introduced to stabilize a financial system or economy. The term can refer to policies in two distinct sets of circumstances: business cycle stabilization and crisis stabilization.

Economic stabilization is the result of the governmental use of direct and indirect controls to maintain and stabilize the nation’s economy during emergency conditions. The direct control measures employed by the government include setting or freezing of wages, prices, and rents or the direct rationing of goods. Indirect controls measures include monetary, credit, tax, or other policy measures.

Economic stabilization is achieved through a combination of monetary and other policy actions of the government.

Therefore monetary policy measures involve deliberate changes in government policy instrument in response to changes in macroeconomic condition in order to stabilize the economic.

Macroeconomic stability is reflected by a low level of inflation and sustainable growth rate and current balance. In the short run, macro –economic stability is the emphasis of monetary policy.

However, it is also called open to ensure wider range of other objectives which includes the restoration of external balance maintenance.

Debates about the theory of stabilization policy operation at two levels.

At one level, there are discussions about the kind of policy, which a government possesses on economy issues such as objectiveness and instruments which it should use for example Keynesian versus monetarist policy. At another 49 level, there are discussions about the technical details of a governments chosen kind of policy for about whether instrument should be assigned to targets and about how policy can be prevented from actually amplifying.

BRANDING

BRANDING

Branding being one of the major marketing concept and process which has been accepted as useful tools for differentiation of firm’s product from another. This makes it easier for individual or customers to identify the product of different firms.

In manufacturing industries today, a lot of important is attached to branding and packaging for it significant role the sale product.

In developing a strategy for a product the seller has to conduct the branding expert because of the major role it played in product strategy.

A brand is a name, picture, design, or symbol, or combination of those items, used by a seller to identify its offerings and to differentiate them from competitors’ offerings. Branding is the set of activities designed to create a brand and position it in the minds of consumers. Did you know that The Beatles started a recording studio called Apple? When Apple Computer (the iPod company) was formed, Apple Corp., Ltd. (the Beatles’ recording studio), sued Apple Computer because two companies with the same name can create confusion among consumers.

KINDS/TYPES OF BRANDS

1. National Brand (N.B): A N.B is a manufacturer’s brand a successful national brand builds not only the image of the product but also the image of the company.
2. Individual Brand: An individual brand means that each product of a company has an individual brand name.
3. Blanket Band: it usually the company or producer family name.
4. Multiple Brands: A M.B gives different names of the product having only minor difference. The idea is to accept to different segments of all the market and have a larger market share.
5. Private Brand: are brand that producers mostly hand over to distributor for cost saving they are distributors brand. The producers do not usually get all the benefit access from it.

STEPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL BRAND BUILDING PROCESS

The following steps for building a successful brand:

Step 1: Determine your brand’s target audience.

The foundation for building your brand is to determine the targeted audience that you’ll be focusing on.

Step 2: Define a branding mission statement.

Before you can build a brand that your target audience trusts, you need to know what value your business provides. The mission statement basically defines a purpose for existing. It will inform every other aspect of your brand building.

Step 3: Research brands within your industry niche.

You should never imitate exactly what the big brands are doing in your industry. But, you should be aware of what they do well (or where they fail).

Step 4: Outline the key qualities & benefits your brand offers.

There will always be brands with bigger budgets and more resources to command their industry. Your products, services, and benefits belong solely to you. You have to delve down deep and figure out what you offer, that no one else is offering.

Step 5: Create a great brand logo & tagline.

The most basic (and arguably the most important piece) of brand building, is the creation of your company logo and tagline. This graphic will appear on everything that relates to your small business. It will become your calling card, and the visual recognition of your promise.

 

References

William H. Chaloner (1963). People and Industries. Routledge. p. 107. ISBN 0-7146-1284-7.

Lee, Ki-Eun; Kim, An, Lyu, Lee (1998). “Effectiveness of modified atmosphere packaging in preserving a prepared ready-to-eat food”. Packaging Technology and Science 21 (7): 417.

Franklin (April 2004). “Life Cycle Inventory of Packaging Options for Shipment of Retail Mail-Order Soft Goods” (PDF). Retrieved December 13, 2008.

Yoxall, A.; Janson, R.; Bradbury, S.R.; Langley, J.; Wearn, J.; Hayes, S. (2006). “Openability: producing design limits for consumer packaging”. Packaging Technology and Science 16 (4): 183–243. doi:10.1002/pts.725.

PUBLIC HOUSING

PUBLIC HOUSING

Public housing refers to a form of housing provision, which emphasizes the role of the State (government and its agencies) in helping to provide housing, particularly for poor, low-income and more vulnerable groups in the society (Towry-Coker, L., 2009). It has taken varied forms in different geographical contexts and other descriptive terms are sometimes used in its place – such as social housing, state-housing, state-sponsored housing, welfare housing, non-profit housing, low-cost housing, affordable housing, and mass housing.

Two broad approaches to public housing have been identified: Government-provided housing and Government-sponsored housing (Power, 1993). Public housing programmes have been criticized for failing to provide quality, affordable and adequate housing units to target population in most developing countries (Mukhija, 2004). Yet studies have indicated that governments in developing countries are not relenting in their efforts at addressing the problem of providing adequate, affordable and sustainable housing.

Public housing programmes have been criticised for failing to provide quality, affordable and adequate housing units to target population in most developing countries (Mukhija, 2004);

This is probably in recognition of government’s social responsibility in providing housing for its citizens and the fact that adequate housing provision is a key component of sustainable development. However, in more recent time, it is observed that the outcome of government efforts in addressing the housing challenge in many developing countries such as Nigeria is not well understood. According to the 1991 Nigerian National Housing Policy (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1991), lack of adequate monitoring and evaluation of housing policy implementation have contributed to failure of public housing programmes in this country. This assertion was corroborated by Obashoro (2002) who noted that proper programme evaluation was rarely done in Nigeria, and as a result, it is very difficult to assess the real outcome of programmes in this country.

ADVANTAGES

Public housing is one of the most affordable accommodations available to the impoverished, senior citizens and the disabled. According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, “There are approximately 1.2 million households living in public housing units, managed by some 3,300 [housing agencies].” In a public housing development, the property is owned and managed by local or state government authorities, who also set regulations that govern the complex’s tenants.

The following are possible advantages of public housing in Nigeria:

1. Rental Prices: It offers adequate, economical accommodation for senior citizens, low-wage workers and people with disabilities.

To make units affordable, estimated rents for public housing are always below the regular market rent in that particular area, helping to increase the total disposable income of the residents. This, in turn, allows residents to pump cash into the local economy.

Disadvantages:

However, the lower rents can also impact the surrounding community negatively, as communal resources are stretched to more people, leaving fewer dollars per person. David Stanowski writes in the Aug. 19, 2010, edition of the “Galveston County Daily News” that “[City governments] see it as a liability because the resources needed to support public housing far exceed the taxes that public housing residents pay to the city plus federal subsidies.”

2. Safety and Property Maintenance: The residents enjoy certain benefits like child protection, government-regulated cleaning and property maintenance. There are also safety measures like 24-hour security, video suveillance, and visitor screening. Still, these measures don’t mitigate the high crime rates of public housing.

Disadvantages:

A Justice Policy Institute report on Housing and Public Safety states that there is “strong evidence of an association between low-quality housing and a number of social consequences, including decreased educational performance and negatively influenced health conditions.” Violence and a lack of privacy due to crowded conditions is also a concern.

3. Land and Resource Utilization: Public housing makes economically sound use of land and urban resources. In a study published in 2008 and sponsored by the Housing Authority Insurance Group, the Council of Large Public Housing and the Public Housing Authorities Directors Association, it was found that “it would take approximately $162 billion to replace the existing 1.2 million units of public housing” of their 10 focus group cities.

 

Disadvantage: Even though the community may profit from the new real estate and increased jobs, there’s still the possibility that residents could be ex-convicts or other undesirable sorts, the study noted.

 

REFERENCES

Ali, I. (1996) The National Housing Programme-The Way Forward. Housing Today- The Journal of the Association of Housing Corporations of Nigeria 11 (2), 16-19

Mukhija, V. (2004): The Contradictions in Enabling Private Developer of Affordable Housing: a Cautionary Case from India. Urban Studies. 4(11), 2231-2244.

Towry-Coker, L. (2009) “Housing policy and dynamics of housing delivery in Nigeria”: A case study of Lagos. Unpublished PhD Thesis, Lagos State University Ojo, Lagos.

Pros & Cons of Public Housing retrieved from http://homeguides.sfgate.com/pros-cons-public-housing-8497.html