Chapter 8
Inspection and quality
Concept of quality
Quality in construction is defined as ‘meeting or exceeding the requirement of client/owners’. I
n construction industry, quality is used in different way than that in production industry. In the production industry, quality
of some product is better than the other. Whereas, in construction industry, a particular grade of concrete means that it
meets the requirement of that grade as laid down by corresponding codes of practice. Quality in construction is treated
as conformity to specifications.
Quality in construction is related to;
• Satisfying the specification mentioned in the contract
• Completing the project time
• Fulfilling the owner's requirement within budget
• Avoiding disputes claims and
• Ensuring the faculties performs its intended purpose.
Majority of construction projects are executed through contracts and monitored through third party agency.
Hence quality in construction ensures that the project is executed in a smooth manner and without scope for
disputes.
Supervision techniques to establish dimensional control such as line, Level, Gradient, Slope, Plumb
Camber.
Supervision is an important aspect in ensuring quality in construction work. The actual work force on
the site adopts checks and measures as far as conformity to line, level, gradient, slope, plumb, camber.
• They adopt reference line threads, LASER devices for line conformity. The work of workers is inspected
by supervisors on site. The consultant from owner’s side carries out sample checks for conformity to lines.
Non conformity needs to be rectified promptly and the ideal manner for rectification is to reconstruct
rather than adjustments.
• Levels are checked by accurate instruments like total station strict conformity to design values shall be
ensured.
• Gradients and slopes are checked similar to level.
• Plumb is continuously evaluated through plumb lines and transiting optical instruments like theodolites.
• Cambers are checked during construction with the help of templates and rectified during construction
itself.
Functions of Inspection Department
Inspection department is an important wing in the organization structure of construction industry. It plays
an important role in maintaining quality through strict quality control steps. The major functions of inspection
department are as under;
• Lays down the quality control guide lines for the execution department.
• Specifies the real-time quality record keeping methodology for compiling vital information needed for
ensuring quality.
• Conducts periodic and surprise quality inspections to ensure conformity to quality.
• Reviews the findings from quality inspections and issue feedback to the execution department.
• Works to attain recognition to the inspection department of the industry through accreditation and
certification by reputed organizations for quality.
• Passionately work to ensure and improve quality by raising the bar from time to time.
Quality assurance and quality control
Quality assurance is that step in the project planning stage wherein the required level of quality for the
project is ascertained through specification for each work element in the project. Hence the specification of work
ensures that the required level of quality is expressly spelt in the specifications of the contract. Hence quality
assurance is basically the goal set for quality.
Quality control is the methodology adopted to ensure that the executed work conforms to the quality laid
in the quality assurance. Hence the quality control is the action taken in execution of the work to make it to
conform to the specifications.
Sampling Techniques
Construction industry involves consumption of huge quantities raw materials and construction of
components in large numbers and huge volumes. Hence the quality checks for conformity to set quality standards
can be done on samples only.
Sampling is done in in various manner as under;
Random sampling: In this method, samples are picked randomly from the population. It is subjected to quality
checks and its conformity to quality standards is taken as the conformity of population for the quality.
Representative sampling: In this method, samples are collected representatively from the population like
collecting cement samples from different bags in a stack or aggregate samples from different parts of the stockpile
of the aggregate.
Sampling of finished work is done by collecting samples in the form of moulds during construction stage and
subjecting to quality checks or in the form of core samples from structural elements and subjecting the samples
for quality checks.
Note: Students are expected to narrate field tests on materials like cement, brick, timber, aggregates etc.
They are also expected to narrate various tests like tests on cement, concrete, bricks, aggregates, bitumen,
bitumen mix.
