kanga wrote:https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64443282
"Grenfell fire: Michael Gove says government guidance was a factor"
Mr Gove should be reminded that the insulation WAS flammable. There was no wriggle room for a system approach merely because the Buildings Regs state that insulation and not the rain screen should be of limited combustibility (ie it won't support a flame) .
Insulation Materials/Products
12.7 In a building with a storey 18m or more
above ground level any insulation product, filler
material (not including gaskets, sealants and
similar) etc. used in the external wall construction
should be of limited combustibility (see Appendix A).
This restriction does not apply to masonry cavity
wall construction which complies with Diagram 34
in Section 9.
The entire cladding system failed because the entire installation wasn't suitable for the application from the fixings to the fire stopping to the composite insulated aluminium cladding. Yes, the Regs were carp and a bit loose but that doesn't excuse Kingspan and BRE for their lack of care and misrepresentation.
It shouldn't have happened no matter what the Building Regs say. The outcome was predictable and the circumstances were inevitable, eventually.
Genghis the Engineer wrote:eltonioni wrote:Back in the day, I would give clients (esp public sector ones) lots of choices of paint/carpet/curtain colours to keep them busy doing things that they thought were important while we got on with the real work. My apologies to any forumites who've just realised why their architect kept sending samples boards for their approval.
Clearly that's what happened at Grenfell too isn't it. The "Grownups" made decisions to save money by cutting safety standards, but have ultimately left the bewildered local politicians to carry much of the can for it.
G
Some of the 'grownups' were specifying components and systems which had been brought to them by people who were incompetent and/or bringing products to market with what will probably be proven in court to be illegally obtained fire certification.
You won't find more of critic of Design and Build procurement than myself - especially in the hands of the public sector- but people who specify for a living should ask themselves what checks beyond the data sheet they make when using certified products offered by the world's largest and most prestigious materials suppliers. Our dirty secret is that we, in every industry from buildings to rocket surgery don't make any extra day-to-day checks, ever. We all rely on manufacturers, suppliers and specialists to do
their job correctly.
As an aside and in general, just what role should a councillor / CEO take other than ensuring that a professional team is appointed and maintained, and then picking pretty colours? Councillors might have been negligent in various ways (and maybe even on the take during procurement) but they are so far down the technical pecking order that they are amoeba to the rough-arrissed crew on the cherry picker.
Middle East Peace Expert. Military strategist. Former economist and epidemiologist.
Not always entirely serious.
-Still learning -