Case Studies

Clear has ‘Golden Thread’ requirements sewn up.

National House Builder appoints Clear to collect and collate evidence ahead of legislation

Background

Following the Grenfell Tower tragedy, and the review of building regulations and fire safety led by Dame Judith Hackitt, the Building Safety Bill has received Royal Assent and is currently into Phase 2 Secondary Legislation. The Bill covers the requirement for a ‘Golden Thread’ of information, with safety considered at every stage of a building’s life cycle.

Duty holders are now responsible for creating, maintaining, and communicating the golden thread of building information in relation to fire and structural safety.

This includes the necessity to demonstrate a building’s compliance with applicable building regulations during its construction and throughout its lifespan. As buildings are maintained and responsibility for the building transfers between different organisations, this safety information must be practically and demonstrably available.

Reason for contacting Clear

A national house builder demonstrated foresight and a customer care centred approach to their development by wanting to collect and collate the evidence from site to demonstrate the level of works undertaken in areas of the building that would subsequently only be capable of inspection via a destructive survey. As a result, the client was commencing their own ‘Golden Thread’ of building information ahead of the legislation coming into force.

Clear was asked to devise a plan for inspection of various passive fire stopping works at numerous sites across the UK.

Problems/issues identified by Clear

Quality of works – Identification of any works not completed to required standards, tracking of these ‘remedial items’ and evidential completion of any remedial items identified.

Timescale – Building work had already commenced at some of the sites and inspections had to be carried out ahead of work being progressed on the next floor.

Geographics – Sites were located across the whole of England.

Recording of information – There was no existing methodology or capture template devised for this type of specialist work.

Logistics – each site, and each block within, had to be inspected numerous times at various stages of the construction. Any delay in the capture of relevant information would hinder the build project, with resulting financial ramifications.

Skill set– Clear’s inspectors needed to be up to speed with the latest NHBC standards for fire stopping and cavity barriers.

The Clear response

After gaining access to the relevant client portal, the Clear team familiarised themselves with the specific construction programme and the unique types of building.

Clear then developed a passive fire protection inspection report template, including the clients’ requirements and subsequent requests, until the report was fit for purpose.

During this process Clear also concentrated on sourcing suitably competent inspectors, with the relevant site experience and qualifications, who would deliver an appropriate and timely report to suit the demands of the client.

Finally, Clear conducted an initial site survey to gain valuable information in advance of proceeding with the project.

End result

The client is able to easily access valuable and uniform records supporting every stage of the build project, for each block, on each site within their portfolio. This can be fed into the existing digital system for storage of building information, the ‘Golden Thread’, together with the passive fire contractors’ certification. This will establish evidence of compliance to building regulations (gained via an independent source), safeguarding the future residents from substandard works, and protecting the developer from any future challenges regarding the standard of construction at any property, to any potential purchaser.

This initiative could also save on costly future remedial or investigative works and enables the client to demonstrate an industry leading response to forthcoming legislation.

Clear rises to the challenge for Harrison Housing

Lift upgrade for apartment block.

Reason for contacting Clear:

Harrison Housing is a provider of high quality housing and support for older people of limited means in London. Their housing portfolio includes sheltered housing for the retired, at St James’s Gardens, London W11, near Holland Park.

The registered charity had identified the need for a lift upgrade for the St James’s block of apartments which served 10 properties and approached Clear with a view to the consultancy project managing and validating the entire process, including witness testing and supply of all relevant commissioning documents.

Problems / issues identified by Clear

While there were no major problems or issues in relation to this project, clearly, there was a requirement to ensure the lift installation ran smoothly to avoid any unnecessary inconvenience to the residents, whose age indicated a dependence on the continued reliability and safety of the lift.

The Clear Response

Clear provided a dedicated team to project manage the new lift installation. This included validating the original design and associated costs, making regular site visits to oversee the actual installation and sourcing a renowned independent lift expert to undertake the required witness test to evidence compliance and best practice.

End result

The client - and residents were - delighted with the seamless installation, completed on time and within budget. Harrison Housing was reassured that all works had been completed to a standard befitting of the charity’s over-riding commitment to providing a safe and secure living environment that reflects the charity’s ethos to regularly review the quality of housing and service that they offer.

Clear powers through logistics problem

Lifts upgrade in line with fire safety requirements.

Reason for contacting Clear:

Notting Hill Genesis is one of the largest housing associations in South East England, with around 55,000 properties in London and a further 9,000 in the home counties and East Anglia, providing affordable homes for approximately 170,000 people.

A fire risk assessment had identified the requirement for two lifts at the Notting Hill Genesis Bakersfield site, Crayford, North London, to be upgraded to ensure their suitability as firefighting lifts, providing a facility to assist firefighters to move vertically with more ease through a building in the event of a fire.

Problems / issues identified by Clear

A priority for any firefighter lift is to always ensure a seamless power supply with no outages, regardless of if the building is affected by fire. Naturally this requires a secondary power source which will be immediately activated should the primary power source fail. Clear was tasked with identifying the optimum solution to deliver the required uninterrupted power supply.

The Clear Response

Clear critiqued the fire risk assessment that had been undertaken and reviewed the various options. Rather than opting for a generator which could be prone to error and requires additional storage space, Clear recommended a dedicated secondary power supply directly from a separate UK Power Networks transformer.

Clear worked on the design and specification of the power supplies from the new UKPN service into the changeover swich and distribution boards. The required works were put out to tender to various contractors and Clear was responsible for appointing the contractor most suited to undertake the project. Clear was actively involved in all phases of the installation and ensured the project ran on time and within the agreed budget.

Once the works had been completed, Clear liaised with a specialist lifts consultant to ensure that all electrical lift requirements had been met.

End result

Both lifts were signed off by the independent specialist lift consultant having met all the criteria consistent with the provision of a firefighter lift facility, providing added peace of mind to the housing association that the appropriate steps had been taken to safeguard residents.

Sanctuary Project

Urgent requirement for fire risk assessments within a tight schedule.

Reason for contacting Clear:

The undertaking of fire risk assessments for residential housing stock across a large area of Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex. This was an urgent project due to the legalities of an impending sale of this portfolio of 67 properties of various size and occupancy type including homeless & female shelters, supported living, sheltered accommodation and drink/drug dependency units.

Following on from the risk assessments, Clear was then asked to project manage the high-risk actions across the portfolio to achieve handover and sale. A challenging six-week deadline was imposed to complete the risk assessments and a further two months was available to complete the entire remedial works.

Problems / issues identified by Clear

Timescale - Clear was given less than six weeks from instruction to completion of the fire risk assessments. The business then had an eight-week period within which all works were to be completed.

Geographics - The properties were spread over an expansive area of the east of England.

Logistics - It is notoriously difficult to make contact and bookings with housing officers, particularly as this work needed to be completed over December and early January, representing the holiday season.

Demographics of residents - most of the properties housed vulnerable adults so great care and sensitivity was required by Clear’s team of fire risk assessors.

The Clear Response

The client was concerned that the very tight timescale would render the project not viable. However, a co-ordinated effort between Clear’s admin team, our fire assessors and the Housing Officers allowed for fire risk assessments to be carried out and reviewed, via Clear’s on-line system, meeting the strict deadline. The subsequent works identified were tracked and successfully managed to hit the required completion date.

End result

Clear actually completed all the fire risk assessments a week ahead of the target date set. Contractor works for high-risk actions were also completed within the deadline. The sale of the property portfolio went ahead on time, resulting in a very satisfactory conclusion for the client.

Clear has since established an ongoing working relationship with the client’s fire safety team.

Central London, fire safety guidance

Urgent requirement for fire safety survey following a fire risk assessment.

Reason for contacting Clear:

Requirement to undertake a survey to establish travel distances, exit widths and occupancy levels within a large multi-company office block in the heart of London. This work was requested following a recommendation within a fire risk assessment that highlighted potential compartmentation issues which could necessitate a substantial amount of remedial work and/or a reduction in the numbers of workers using the entire building.

Problems / issues identified by Clear

Access - Due to the size and complexity of the building and given its multi-occupancy status, various security passes had to be obtained.

Size - The building comprised over 13 storeys with each one representing approximately 1350 m2. The space was utilised for various functions including offices, restaurant, postal services, printing areas, server rooms, atrium and mezzanine floors, glass meeting cubicles and storage.

Use of building - There were many open plan office spaces which dictated a sympathetic inspection during working hours.

Site complexities - various applications of fire safety guidance, including occupancy figures on each floor, travel distance in various directions and suitable exit widths had to be correctly interpreted to provide accurate reporting of any potential issues

The Clear Response

A co-ordinated effort between Clear’s fire safety inspection team and the facilities management of the building meant a timely report on all floors was carried out. All travel distances and exit widths in numerous areas were accurately measured combined with an expected occupancy for each.

The comprehensive report included a background to various fire safety laws and guidance documents, together with explanations of alternative means of escape and definitions on travel distance, storey exits and protected stairways and lobbies.

End result

Clear’s report established that the current building layout and occupancy was adequate. This meant the client was satisfied that no capital expenditure was required since the building was deemed fit for purpose for its current use.

Ultimately, Clear’s findings provided solid evidence that no additional expenditure - nor the associated disruption to personnel - was necessary.

Full services upgrade with mininimum disruption to residents

Client:

Notting Hill Genesis

Reason for contacting Clear:

To provide a specification for the upgrade of services to an historic building.

Problems / issues identified by Clear:

The building featured an end-of-life plant room, which as well as supplying inefficient heating and hot water, was proving unreliable.

During Clear’s investigation it also became evident that the electrical supply to the building was not compliant with the current legislative criteria.

Replacing the plant room and the electrical supply signaled the potential for outages and corresponding significant disruption to the residents.

The Clear response:

Clear produced a specification for the entire works to be undertaken simultaneously, introducing a temporary plant room to enable the seamless supply of heating/hot water and electricity.

The specification was issued to a shortlist of competent contractors and Clear negotiated the best price on behalf of the client.

End result:

The specification of the plant room put forward by Clear resulted in a modernized supply of heating and hot water, which was energy efficient and controllable via a computer-based Building Management System (BMS) system. The new system has the capability to immediately notify the maintenance contractor of any outages, ensuring a more reliable and uninterrupted service.

In addition, the installation of the new energy efficient system has resulted in a reduction in heating and hot water bills, thereby enabling residents to make cost savings.

While maintaining no disruption to service, the entire electrical supply to the building was also upgraded, bringing it up to standard with current legislative requirements.

Asbestos was also discovered within the plant room area, and this was successfully removed and responsibly disposed of.

The above actions were progressed without any outward detrimental aesthetic changes to the building which is sited in a conservation area.

Data cleansing & migration

Client:

Notting Hill Genesis

Reason for contacting Clear:

Client required the seamless migration of data from a previous compliance provider to a new compliance reporting system.

Problems / issues identified by Clear:

The existing data was filed in a way that made data investigations extremely difficult and slow. The new system, although capable of receiving bulk data, was unable to process the older compliance records due to formatting issues, and therefore had to be supported by other data provisions.

The Clear response:

Clear provided data summaries and also identified a competent data processing contractor to analyse the existing poorly filed data. Through meticulous investigation, all data was cleansed and any gaps identified were handed to the relevant compliance teams to resolve. Clear was able to ensure the successful transfer of all historical information.

In addition, Clear was able to facilitate a smooth and seamless transition to working with the new technology.

End result:

The new reporting system was able to receive the bulk historical data over a period of time. Once the process was complete the compliance data on the new reporting system accurately reflected the actual compliance rates, while the historical data remained available for potential interrogation and audit.

Water hygiene compliance on show

Client:

Notting Hill Genesis

Reason for contacting Clear:

Clear was asked to review the quality of service provided by a client's incumbent legionella management contractor, as there had been concerns regarding the robustness of the evidential compliance trail.

Problems / issues identified by Clear:

After a thorough audit of the contractor's online management system and the associated paperwork and on-site documentation, Clear was able to ascertain that there were gaps in the recording of compliance information. Where issues were being identified on-site by technicians, these were not being flagged to the client and were being left unaddressed. Furthermore, where work was being completed to address the remedial actions from legionella risk assessments, evidence was not being provided to demonstrate that the issues had be adequately addressed. A the client has a large estate with many hundreds of properties, these left them 'blind' to their true compliance position.

The Clear response:

Clear worked with the client to identify a suitable reporting system and detailed the evidence that needed to be provided. Clear engaged with the existing contractor to encourage a change in behaviour that facilitated the creation of an evidential audit trail of all works completed, along with cost control oversight.

End result:

The client was able to move from a situation of having limited visibility of the maintenance regimes in place, to having an accurate, fully 'live' and transparent compliance reporting process, whilst reducing costs due to robust oversight of the contractor.

Working to a tight deadline to mitigate external cladding risk

Client:

Notting Hill Genesis

Reason for contacting Clear:

Urgent requirement to install multiple temporary fire alarms at sites identified as those at risk from external cladding.

Problems / issues identified by Clear:

Clear was handed a project that was already behind schedule, with no detailed specification in place or any contractors earmarked to complete the work.

The rollout of a time efficient schedule of works was critical in order to reduce the cost of the waking watch service which was currently in place.

The Clear response:

Clear contacted a manufacturer and arranged a site survey and manufacture-led specification within one week of being commissioned to handle the project. Concurrent to this activity, appropriate contractors were identified and invited to attend site to facilitate an accurately priced estimate for the works. Clear managed the process of contractor pricing and selection; project oversight and commissioning as well as quality assurance of all contractor works.

End result:

The aggressive lead-time for having contractors on site within a few weeks was achieved. The manufacturer chosen was able to supply materials without any delay to allow all four sites to commence on schedule.

The projects were managed with all works evidenced and tabulated for audit review, as well as an onsite post inspection regime.

The final installations were successfully signed off and correctly commissioned to allow the safe stand down of the waking watch service.