Impact of Quality on Building Costs

Abstract

Quality of design, material used and workmanship, affects the future operating, maintenance and rehabilitation costs of infrastructure; however, the extent to which quality affects these costs has never been explicitly quantified. The research described in this paper represents a major study in this area and significantly advances the understanding of the impact of quality upon building costs. Building design, construction, operating, maintenance and rehabilitation cost data for 215 buildings were collected from all available sources in the Canadian Department of National Defence. A metric was developed to measure quality in the design, construction, and operating and maintenance phases of a building’s service life. An analysis of variance of annual equivalent total costs, for the first