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Manufacturer responds to revelations over Grenfell cladding
The manufacturer of the cladding used on Grenfell Tower has said it informed “various customers and certification authorities” that the material met a much lower standard than previously thought in tests.
Arconic, which manufactured a cladding product called Reynobond PE for use on the tower, sent a letter to clients – seen by the BBC – in December 2015 telling them the product had been tested and achieved a Euroclass E, well below the minimum standard for tower blocks.
Since the Grenfell Tower fire, the standard required for blocks over 18 metres has been disputed between the government and experts.
The government maintains that official guidance requires Class A, equivalent to ‘limited combustibility in the UK’, while much of the industry insists the guidance set a standard of Class B, equivalent to Class 0.
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If the product only attained Class E, though, as suggested by this letter, it would not be permitted under either interpretation of the document.
Reynobond PE was said to have achieved a rating of Class 0 from the British Board of Agrément (BBA) in January 2008.
This classification is generally considered to be equivalent to Euroclass B. Arconic’s 2015 letter again claims that the product is Class 0, but then adds that it only achieved Euroclass E when tested to the European standard.
A spokesperson for the BBA said it should have been informed about the test results and it "would have acted on them" if it had been told.
An Arconic spokesperson said: “We previously provided the classification results to various customers and certification authorities, and they were also posted on the [Scientific and Technical Centre for Building]’s publicly available website. As to the BBA certificate itself, Reynobond PE is one component of an overall cladding system, and a BBA certificate is only an indication of certain performance characteristics of a specific product.
“Regardless of the BBA certificate or classification results, the relevant UK building codes and regulations require entities who design the cladding system – such as architects, fabricators, contractors, or building owners – to conduct their own full systems testing or analysis of the entire cladding system.”
Update: at 12.30 on 10.4.2018
This story was updated with a comment from the BBA
