Ninety-five per cent of houses in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, risks collapse, said Akinsola Olufemi, a construction expert.

This is so, Mr Olufemi noted, because the buildings were constructed without soil tests.

“Almost 95 per cent of construction done in Lagos are done without soil test. No matter what you are constructing, do a soil test,” Mr Olufemi said.

“The significance of soil test is, it lets you know the capacity of the soil and the load it can carry. So that it should not carry more load than it can,’’ he added.

Mr Olufemi, the director, of Applied Research and Technology Innovation (ARTI), Yaba College of Science and Technology (Yabatech), spoke at a builders’ conference in Ikeja.

The expert stressed the need to determine the load-bearing capacity of any soil through tests before actual construction to prevent building collapse due to excess weight.

Mr Olufemi said that recent research by his team revealed that 80 per cent of Nigerians built their houses without engaging the services of qualified developers.

This, according to him, resulted in various construction errors.

“A lot of buildings are collapsing today because we do not do things right in Nigeria,’’ he said.

The Chairman of the Lagos chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB), Lucky Isename, stressed that construction methodology was part of the four important elements needed for quality construction.

(NAN)