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Safer building
You have to understand risk to be able to manage it. Here,
Tony Ryan explores how making good choices can help
reduce the impact of fire.
WHEN YOU are considering the impact
of building elements in the context of
fire safety, it is absolutely crucial to
understand the nature of risk – where
risk lies, what are the most likely
scenarios, what will be the greatest
contributor to a fire event etc.? Most
importantly of all, you must consider
how the design and specification of a
building will help to preserve life and
protect property in the event of a fire.
Following recent high-rise building
fires, there has been intense discussion
around these topics, coupled with a
degree of uncertainty about the
direction the government and industry
might take next. We now have a clearer
pathway in terms of regulatory
requirements; however, the situation
unearthed some issues endemic within
the construction industry that are slowly
but surely being addressed, at least with
regard to a specific group of high-risk
buildings. Before looking at the many
different factors that need to be
considered, it may be useful to establish
exactly what the current requirements
are for those high-risk buildings.
England
On 29 November 2018, an amendment
was enacted to Regulation 71 of the
Building Regulations 20102 – Materials
and Workmanship in England,
restricting what materials can be used in
a specific range of buildings with a
storey over 18 metres above ground
level. The restrictions apply only to
buildings which contain one or more
dwellings, an institution, or a room for
residential purposes (not including
rooms in hotels, hostels or offices). The
types of accommodation this covers
currently includes student
accommodation, care homes, sheltered
housing, hospitals and dormitories in
boarding schools. There are also
discussions for this to potentially be
extended to school buildings in the
future. For these buildings, only
materials achieving a European Class A1
or A2-s1, d0 in accordance with BS EN
13501-1:2007+A1:20093, may be used in
the external walls.
There is a long list of exemptions to
this rule, including door frames and
doors, membranes, thermal break
materials, seals, gaskets, fixings,
sealants and backer rods, window
frames and glass.
The changes came into force on 21
December 2018 and apply only to
buildings and building work that fall
within scope in England after that date.
Other types of buildings with a storey
18 metres above ground level, such as
office blocks and hotels, can still use an
alternative route to compliance, by
meeting the requirements of BR 135
using the BS 8414 large scale system
test. Full guidance on how to meet the
regulatory requirements is set out in
the recently revised Approved
Documents B, volumes 1
(dwellinghouses) and 2 (buildings
other than dwellinghouses)4.
Scotland
The Scottish Government has also
recently introduced changes to the
Building Standards5, which are set out in
Section 2 of the Technical Handbooks
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