The rate at which buildings are collapsing/distressing is alarming especially in Lagos, Nigeria where land is very limited in supply and it seems unabated. This incessant occurrence of building collapse is highly prevalent at Oke-Ira area of Lagos State, which informed the choice of the site as the study area. Geophysical and geotechnical methods were conducted to characterize the sub surface layers of the soil at the location to ascertain the soil profile and the possible causes of structural failures at the site. Six vertical Electrical Soundings, VES were employed using Schlumberger arrays and five Cone penetration tests, CPT were also carried out at the location. The result of the VES showed layers of top soil, silt, clay, peat and sand. The VES soundings indicated there was incompetent layer of peat/clay with resistivity ranges between 5.31 – 16.04Ωm with depth between 0.77 – 14.15m. This aligned with the result of CPT that showed the peat thickness to be between 0 – 12m. The investigations revealed that the study area was underlain by weak materials which progressively got stronger as the depth increased. This peat and soft clay have high compressibility, high void, and low load bearing capacity thereby unsuitable for foundation. The thickness of the peat layer is much, therefore, the usage of shallow foundation within the site location is precluded. But unfortunately, most structures around the study area had shallow foundations and this might be the possible cause of the structural failures noticed at the study area. However, deep foundation with piling up to 15m is recommended at the site.