_____________________________________________________________________________________________________ *Corresponding author: Email: co.okechukwu@unizik.edu.ng; Journal of Engineering Research and Reports 22(1): 1-11, 2022; Article no.JERR.82108 ISSN: 2582-2926 An Assessment of Causative Factors of Building Collapse using Physical Analysis Tests: The Case of Oko, Anambra State, Nigeria C. O. Obiora a , I. S. Ezennia b , C. B. N. Bert-Okonkwo a and O. E. Chukwuemerie a* a Department of Building, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, P.M.B 5025, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria. b Department of Architecture, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, P.M.B 5025, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria. Authors’ contributions This work was carried out in collaboration among all authors. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Article Information DOI: 10.9734/JERR/2022/v22i117512 Open Peer Review History: This journal follows the Advanced Open Peer Review policy. Identity of the Reviewers, Editor(s) and additional Reviewers, peer review comments, different versions of the manuscript, comments of the editors, etc are available here: https://www.sdiarticle5.com/review-history/82108 Received 25 October 2021 Accepted 27 December 2021 Published 05 January 2022 ABSTRACT Incessant building collapses in Anambra State Nigeria is posing serious challenges to all the stakeholders in the building industry - building consultants, governments, developers, landlords and users. This has evoked great concern to all key players of the building industry. Thus, this study assessed the causative factors of building collapses in one of the cases, a collapsed uncompleted 3-story building which was reported in Oko town, Anambra State, Nigeria. A qualitative methodology involving subsoil and geotechnical investigation and also destructive testing of collapsed structural elements including sandcrete blocks, concrete and reinforcement bars; to establish the subsoil conditions, compressive strength, the yield stress as well as ductility of the reinforcements bars was adopted for this study. The results of the test carried out on the mass concrete, revealed a compressive strength ranging from 1.4N/mm 2 to 3.1N/mm 2 (standard compressive strength of 25N/mm 2 ), 6” solid block ranging from 0.3N/mm 2 to 0.4N/mm 2 and 6” hollow block ranging from 0.2N/mm 2 , (standard strength value of 1.5 N/mm 2 for a non-load bearing sandcrete block in accordance to NIS: 587:2007). The tensile stress of the reinforcement bars (12mm and 16mm) ranging from 280.29N/mm 2 to 303.91N/mm 2 (According to NIS: 117:2004, standard yield stress value of 410N/mm 2 and ductility of 12%). The CPT revealed that the subsoil is generally too soft and the fine aggregate (sand) was poor for concreting. The findings suggest that poor foundation structure, inappropriate mix of concrete, the use of substandard materials, inadequate Original Research Article