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Fire safety experts slam official guidance on cladding

Fire safety experts have lashed out at government guidance on cladding in the aftermath of last week’s devastating fire at Grenfell Tower.

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The 24-storey building was clad with panels made from two thin aluminium sheets bonded to plastic polyethylene in a major refurbishment project completed in 2016.

Although the cause of the fire’s rapid spread has not been officially confirmed, eyewitnesses and experts have pointed to the cladding as a likely explanation, with the relevant building regulations falling into the spotlight as a result.

Despite claims from ministers that the panels used at Grenfell were not compliant, Arnold Tarling, fire safety expert and chartered surveyor at Hindwoods, told Inside Housing the cladding would in fact have satisfied current building regulations.

 


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So far government testing has revealed seven buildings with cladding similar to Grenfell Tower, and 600 across England with cladding of some sort.

Government guidance only relates to the surface of composite materials, not their cores, meaning only the alumninium and not the flammable plastic would have been considered.

However, since aluminium sheets can melt or fall away in a fire, the flammability of the core is important. The National House Building Council, in response to a lack of action from the government over fire safety, has produced its own guidance on insulation materials.

Garry White, a fire engineer at fire safety consultancy BB7, advised councils to seek out this guidance.

Michael Carlish, a construction project manager who led refurbishment work to the Charecroft Estate in Hammersmith & Fulham a decade ago, warned that there is a “flaw in the industry’s thinking” over panels and cladding.

That regeneration work involved steel window panels with plywood and polystyrene backings being attached to four high rises, one of which caught fire last August and saw flames spread across five floors.

Mr White said the guidance, Approved Document B, which came into effect in 2007, is out of date.

“A lot has happened in the industry,” he said. “That particular document should be updated accordingly – it won’t mention all of these polycore materials.”

Mr White also encouraged landlords to be more proactive in their approach to checking materials for fire safety. He advised that a material should not necessarily be considered fire safe just because it is compliant with government guidance, and recommended the use of professional fire engineers to check materials specifically.

Various other groups, such as the Building Control Alliance, have come up with more rigorous testing methods for external cladding materials than those specified in government guidance. The guidance states that in a building that is at least 18 metres tall, insulation materials “should be of limited combustibility” – although this only refers to the surface material and not the core.

Fathi Tarada, managing director at fire safety engineering consultancy Mosen, said aluminium will burn at the temperatures reached at Grenfell.

“I advise that any material [not just the surface layer] attached to the outside of a building should be class zero rated, so it would not catch fire even if fire was applied to it,” he added.

Professor Rudi Klein, barrister and chief executive of subcontractor body Specialist Engineering Contractors’ Group, said even if materials are fully compliant with building regulations, there is still a legal duty of care to residents.

“Relying on standards, or saying something was specified by someone else, will not always be a defence,” he said.

At the time of writing, 79 people were either dead or missing and presumed dead as a result of the blaze at Grenfell Tower.

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