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POOR QUALITY BLAMED

Saudi buildings life span ‘25 -50 years’

Riyadh, February 2, 2014

The average life span of buildings in Saudi Arabia is between 25 and 50 years, as against 100 years in other countries, a top official was quoted as saying.

Poor design and implementation, absence of regular maintenance work, and low quality of building materials were cited as reasons for the short life by Talal Samarkandi, head of Jeddah branch of the Saudi Council of Engineers (SCE) and board member of Al-Umran Saudi Association, said the Arab News report.

“There are many methods and techniques for buildings which are bound to raise their virtual life span, depending on the materials used in the green building methodology, recycling the building materials, and counting on an accredited engineering office to supervise construction and maintenance works,” he said.

The buildings constructed in the early eighties are better than some of the buildings being constructed currently, Hamad Al-Shagawi, chairman of the board of directors of the SCE, was quoted as saying in the report.

“Now we find cheating and fraud in the raw materials such as iron and cement to the degree that some buildings collapse during construction itself,” he added.

He highlighted that regular maintenance of buildings, good quality work, and following comprehensive methods of construction will even increase a building’s market value in the long run, the report said.
 




Tags: Construction | Saudi | Buildings | Life span |

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