Reverse engineering and development of new cladding in line with post Grenfell regulations

Our client, a prominent engineering company in London, have been at the heart of innovation in fire safe cladding since the Grenfell tragedy in 2017.

A part of their workload has been the analysis of existing tall buildings in and around the city of London and the development of strategies and cladding types to efficiently and cost effectively bring these towers up to the new standards required under fire regulations. Each building is different and has its own unique problems, in addition, all the buildings are occupied. They are working for multiple Housing Associations, Developers and Private Building Owners on schemes at various stages of testing, removal and replacement.

This is a fast-moving and constantly changing area of work, as the Government are constantly introducing new guidelines and advice. They are also “clarifying” existing legislation which has been interpreted by the industry for many years to provide acceptable solutions, but these solutions are now not acceptable. This has a major impact on existing buildings because it has the same effect as a retrospective change to the building regulations.

This is an area in which a lot of engineers are trying to develop concepts and ideas to safely help tenants who may be residing in tall buildings, however, due to constant changes there is no blueprint for success.

We were able to work with the client to identify the baseline of knowledge in both the sector and within their own company on a project by project basis to assess the levels of R&D on each project. This led to a successful claim based on the new and innovative solutions our client developed.