Clayton Kingman is the UK head of building envelope at SIG Distribution
In an industry where cost is always a priority, we’ve developed a culture of doing just enough to meet standards, but we’re not focused on developing the expertise or investment to do better than “just enough.”
The recently introduced Construction Safety Act is an opportunity for the construction industry to literally rebuild its reputation by proving that it is much more than the fastest and cheapest.
The event offers the entire construction supply chain the opportunity to change their culture from doing just enough to delivering better and safer buildings in the best possible way.
“The design of any building envelope system will inevitably involve bringing together products that were not originally designed to work together for a specific application”
Although the Act’s primary target is Higher Risk Buildings (HRBs), I believe it gives us an opportunity to apply additional rigor to the delivery of all buildings.
It’s a big shift in mindset, but as suppliers, installers and designers we need to ask ourselves: have we done everything we can to deliver the best possible result under the circumstances?
In considering the answer to this question, it may be helpful to think about how you might explain your specification decision to a judge. If you read the Building Safety Act as you would the Health and Safety Regulations, it’s terrifying. Did you follow the correct procedures? Did that lead you to make the right spec decisions? If so, you should be able to justify why you made that decision.
This is not an easy scenario: no one can realistically expect to have an expert understanding of every product or combination of products available.
Work with the supply chain
The design and specification of any building envelope system, for example, will inevitably involve bringing together products and components that were not originally designed to work together for a specific application. Selecting and combining the different elements that make up the envelope without compromising the performance of any of them is not simple.
Achieving the right solution requires the entire supply chain to work together to deliver the best possible outcome. Following the Code for Construction Product Information ensures that product information is up-to-date, accurate and supported by relevant performance test data.
Another key element of the Building Safety Act is competition. The law requires everyone working in the construction industry (and not just those working in HRB) to be competent to do their job properly, which includes designers, contractors and anyone carrying out any design work or construction, including product distributors and manufacturers. . A competent person must be able to demonstrate the skills, knowledge, experience and behavior necessary to design, construct and supply a plan in accordance with all relevant requirements.
Of course, for HRBs the choice of envelope system is even more critical. This is because once a design has received gateway two approval from the building safety regulator, any subsequent changes to the specification may also need approval from the regulator (a process that can take up to six weeks) before work can continue on site.
While this may make the threat and cost of potential delay through value engineering less attractive, it also places the responsibility on procurement teams to ensure that the products specified for an HRB are available when is necessary as last minute substitutions will not be an option.
