CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
Over the years, there has been increasing abandonment of building projects and infrastructural facilities which has led to the dilapidation, degradation and deterioration of these building structures within the Nigerian contemporary urban metropolis.
Recently there has been a lot of research investigations and analysis of which points unshakeable to the fact that certain features such as client’s perception, cost of maintenance works, unskilled maintenance technicians, inflation rates, effect of taxation on building owners, Government policies, inability to prepare and follow maintenance schedules are direct causes of neglect which leads to dilapidations and deterioration of building structures (onibokun 1997). There are also the remote causes of lack maintenance such as force majeur, cultural problems, state of the economy, the receding global economic meltdown, lack of time and general illiteracy of the occupants of the building or structure and users of the facilities.
However there has also been growth in the significance of building maintenance as a proportion of the output of the construction industry which takes place against a backdrop of mounting pressure on new build activity and a growing awareness of the need to manage the condition of the nation’s building and infrastructure more effectively (chanter 2007).
Though, it is still the case that such maintenance activity takes place in a context that does not create a fully integrated approach to managing building performance and thus the full potential of many buildings and infrastructures are never wholly realized.
Basically in virtually all the towns and city centers within the Nigerian, buildings and infrastructural facilities are gradually and systematically decaying, dilapidating and deteriorating with reduced or no degree of maintenance programme and activity.
From a normal visual perception in the urban metropolis, it can be noted that majority of the.
