Perceptions on construction-related factors that affect concrete quality, costs and production

Structured and unstructured factors affect concrete product. Structured factors are related to concrete production and unstructured factors are related to the construction process. This study focuses on examining the perceived importance of unstructured factors (i.e., construction-related factors) on concrete compressive strength, concrete costs and production rates on the jobsite and understanding the influence of construction experts’ characteristics, such as profession, on their perceptions. A comprehensive literature review was performed to identify unstructured factors. A survey was then designed and deployed to 297 experts from the construction industry and academia to examine the importance of the identified factors through the relative importance index (RII) method and to further identify additional unstructured factors. Likert aggregation and tests for equality of odds were used to compare and analyze responses of two groups of participants, namely architects and engineers. Curing humidity, crew experience and compaction method are the top three factors perceived to affect concrete compressive strength, whereas crew experience, mixing time and compaction method are the factors perceived to affect concrete costs and production rates the most. Crew experience, compaction method and mixing time dominate the global ranking of perceived affecting factors for concrete compressive strength, costs and production rates. Architects were found to be more likely to perceive high or very high impacts of these factors on concrete. The present study increases our understanding of construction-related factors to facilitate project management and preserve concrete characteristics.