Good form

Contractors were getting away with using inferior quality formwork on construction sites in the UAE, but with health and safety rules coming into play, times are changing, discovers Shikha Mishra.

With contractors in the UAE becoming increasingly aware of international safety standards, the problem of inferior formwork being used in construction sites might soon be history.

Until a few years ago, contractors in the UAE were notorious about cutting costs when it came to formwork. A number of projects in Sharjah and Ajman used substandard formwork, and accidents due to formwork failure were common.

"In the UAE, some sites still use conventional timber formwork, which tends to be unstable. Timber formwork is also damaging to the environment as thousands of cubic feet of timber gets wasted after just one use. This also adds to the recurring costs of contractor," says Shalin Adiparambil, technical department of Peri Formwork and Shoring.

In the European market, formwork that offers ease of installation with minimum labour input is commonly used, even though it might add to the target formwork cost.

Erecting traditional types of formwork is labour and time intensive and requires hand lifting from floor to floor.

The popularity of traditional formwork in the region is due to the fact that contracting companies can afford the added labour costs thanks to the low wages paid to construction workers in the Middle East market.

"Cheaper systems translate to higher profits. But companies don't compare the actual cost. For example, good formwork might cost around US $ .27 million (AED1 million). The cheaper one might be around US $136,184 (AED500,000). What companies don't factor in is that they spend additional $136,184 on labour costs. By investing in a superior quality formwork, the company can save time and money in the long run," says Ina Juenemann, marketing coordinator of Peri Formwork Shoring Engineering.

All construction projects operate on a strict budget, which is an easy way to keep project costs under control, is for the manager to opt for an inexpensive and poor quality formwork.

"Most managers in the region don't think of the big picture, and by choosing cheaper formwork, they can save money on the current project. In all probability, before the next project starts up, he might have switched jobs anyway," says Juenemann.

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