FOCUS


Building risks


and quite often different ways of working. Yet the main process of construction can be quite standard. A project is designed and specified by the


architect before being signed off by the client who puts it out to tender. Different contractors will price packages that will be required within the project, be it the external envelope, internal lining, fire protection, electrics, or even a complete solution that cuts down the chain and risk and can work out to be the most cost effective solution. After the subcontractor package prices


are gathered and reviewed, the contractor will compare these to the architect’s initial designs and see if they marry up. A final price is then submitted for the client and their architect to approve. If this seems too high, alterations may be made to the building design to reduce the overall cost – which may or may not fit within compliance, let alone take into account the safety performance of the finished property. Finally, the main contractor will issue the jobs


to the approved build teams and subcontractors who pitched the various complementing packages. Depending upon the approval, this could end up being a fairly high number, which can have negative impacts such as too many tradesmen on site simultaneously, knock on effects on timelines if there are delays, and of course on health and safety. But essentially, cost is the driver for most decisions throughout the process, and this is what is preventing change.


24 JUNE 2019 www.frmjournal.com


Knock-on impact


Following the Grenfell Tower fire, it was reported that the intumescent cavity closers, installed as part of the external elevation, were the wrong way round. This meant that the under fire barrier could not react to the fire in the correct way and close the cavity to prevent it from moving upwards throughout the building. This mistake begs the question of how it could actually have happened if the fire protection or cladding company was qualified and its personnel doing their jobs competently. Whose responsibility was it to check the work of subcontractors? That is where there appears to be a glaring


problem in the industry – clearly insufficient policing of what is being installed and how it is being carried out. In times gone by there would be a clerk of works, but it seems now that this role has almost died out, once more because of cost cutting. So where does the responsibility now lie: with the project or site manager, the sub contractor or the main contractor? The truth is that nobody knows the


answer, and that’s the root of the problem. Liability dodging, cost cutting and pure lack of organisation in the chain of command between specification, installation and maintenance is, in my opinion, the most significant problem that is facing our industry and which it is currently ignoring – which is lethal.


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