How green are our waterproofing materials? Towards practicing sustainable building defects

Abstract

In Malaysia, buildings defects are part of a major construction problem. Still, sustainable construction practice is not easy to keep track with even we already well into in IR4.0 era. From the hypotheses and research questions analysis, there is still a deep gap concerning current construction practice by not fully emphasizing the use of sustainable material especially on the building's waterproofing part of the construction. The aim and objective of the study are to identify on the building's construction materials and defects concerning the waterproofing technique done and to relate it to the use on green materials product to emphasise on practising green sustainable construction technique. The study using the qualitative method by surveying local Waterproofing Specialist Contractors (WSC) experience (from the pilot test) on using the sustainable waterproofing product materials through real waterproofing construction projects focusing throughout the western part of peninsular Malaysia. Microsoft's Excel tables and Likert Scale analysis using SPSS Ver. 24 is a medium to analyse the finding data. Green construction products on the waterproofing part as well as building defects (next phase) also to be identified. The conclusion is that local and imported building's waterproofing materials must be identified and labelled as green product and must be incorporated to be as compulsory building materials used for waterproofing related construction project. This practice helps to reduce defects whether it's latent or non-latent.