Nagas, once known for our hardworking nature and our friendly demeanor, are now fast losing our identity with our depleting work culture and with our dependency on the works of others. Over the years we’ve seen tremendous progress in our neighboring states and also development and the promise of more in our home state as well.
With the development, an astounding amount of buildings have come up over the past few years and with the buildings comes problems which look trivial to the eye but can cause a lot of problem in the near future if left unattended to.
One of the main causes for the problems is poor workmanship and it arises because we are so concerned with finding cheap labour for completing our buildings that we don’t bother to check whether or not the workers are as skilled as they profess to be.
That we would lax so much to check our home which houses our family is not only surprising but also scary because we live in a region prone to earthquakes and landslides.
We invest so much on our homes before consulting engineers to check the soil stability and to see if the soil we are planning to build our homes on can take the load or not; So much that we see buildings getting abandoned because of the cracks that have started to appear even before commissioning.
There are cracks which appear on a building due to poor finishing and curing which, in some cases, can be corrected.
However, there are also structural cracks in which, by definition, the building has already failed and living in such poor buildings poses a threat to the inhabitants, which can be your family or tenants.
Also, in some buildings we find that the specification and the structural design are improper and the use of cheap building materials and poor upkeeping and maintenance has reduced the lifespan of the building as a whole.
Therefore, it’s necessary and practical to get your home supervised and inspected by an engineer to make sure that it is safe to dwell right after construction, before moving in, and also in homes which have become dilapidated over time, that timely corrective measures may be given before it leads to life threatening situations or major disasters.
Have a look around your house and if you see any defects, get your home supervised and inspected by a qualified professional today.
(Nzanbeni Okhyopvui is a Home Inspector and can be contacted at okhyopvui@gmail.com)
