Quality over cost?

Middle East sales manager for Knauf Building Chemicals, Tobias Demel.

Is the construction industry turning its back on quality products in the face of tough economic times? Construction Week talked to two industry insiders to find out.

The property market crisis prompted developers across the region to renegotiate existing contracts and demand contractors come back with better prices. In such a competitive market, are contractors and clients skimping on quality to save a few extra bucks?

Middle East sales manager for Knauf Building Chemicals Tobias Demel says it is a common trend for clients to lower their specifications on commercial buildings to include cheaper products, which are
not always up to the highest of international standards.

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“Let’s say a client writes to 10 subcontractors with specifications for a skim coating material and asks for the price of using this material.

“The subcontractor then gives them the price of the specified product, as well as a price on a cheaper product. On a basic level they are the same product, so naturally they go with the cheapest. But the quality aspect is something different. This is what many subcontractors are doing now.”

Demel, who has been in the region since Knauf launched its Building Chemical Department in Dubai five months ago, says he has noticed a distinct difference in the quality of products used in the UAE, compared to his native Germany.

“What I want to know is what is going to happen to all the buildings in the UAE in 10 years – they’re not going to last,” he says.

“If you use quality products with the right applicator then you will have an almost everlasting building that is also environmentally friendly – these are the products we are selling.”

Demel says many of the large projects, that specify quality products, are on hold and Knauf is shifting its focus to target their interior products at high end private clients in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar.

Ellisdon project director for construction management, Ian Stubbs, agrees that in the current economic climate there is a risk that quality will quickly give way to cost savings.

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