Journal of Geography, Environment and Earth Science International

In this present study area, most building failures often start with minor/major cracks which widen over time, and it is often followed by post construction remedial measures which fail after sometime, thereby leading to total collapse and sinking of such buildings. The research was carried out in order to be able to unravel the causes of major cracks along the side of a major class room block at Ikekogbe, UBE Primary School, Ekpoma, Edo State, Nigeria in less than five (5) years after it was constructed. The cracks were visible both at the front and at the back of the building along the same axis and almost at this same distance as it was at the front of the building. The investigation involved Electrical Resistivity method using three techniques; Vertical Electrical Sounding (VES), 2-D Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) and Horizontal Profiling (HP). The traverses were established along E-W directions and Eight (8) VES were carried out using Schlumberger array with current electrode spacing varying from 1 to 40 m, with 2-D ERT using Dipole-Dipole electrode array with inter-station separation of 5 m and an expansion factor that varied from 1 to 5 and HP using Wenner array with an electrode spacing of 5 m interval. The VES interpretation results were used to determine the second order parameters for modeling of subsurface integrity/competence. The 2 D imaging (Dipole-Dipole) gave information on the subsurface characteristic and the Wenner profile was characterised by low resistivity at the region of 30 to 45 m considered as the weak zone. Correlating the results with subsurface integrity model along traverses one and three, there was a high degree of correlation as this region coincides with the very low/low integrity/competence with the foundation of the classroom overlying this layers. The research revealed that the problem of structural failures/crack noticed along the building walls and axis was not as a result of human problem alone but mainly the existence of very low/low integrity/competence layers which contributed greatly to the cracks observed on the classroom block. These results reveal that the three Electrical resistivity techniques used for this study are complimentary to each other.