Why do we find so many construction defects? Where was the construction manager?
2020-10-01 Academic Fire engineering Risk assessment
During our inspections and inspections of both new and existing buildings, we find that we find errors in the execution of construction work. When examining damage after fires, we also uncover good and bad solutions, and we find that building details that are exposed to fire are up to standard when the work is carried out correctly.
Text: Anders Arnhus,
Senior consultant at PiD Solutions AS
We find errors that could have been avoided by carrying out an inspection of the construction work. Experience has shown that errors discovered afterwards are costly to rectify, and who should the building owner turn to when the error is discovered after takeover or after the warranty period has expired?
The first thing I would like to say is that the person who had the building constructed primarily has himself to thank when we find construction errors, careless errors or outright fraud from the contractors and suppliers. Because where was the construction manager during the construction period? Or the fire advisor in the DD? A construction manager is in this context the client’s representative on the construction site; a function that is supposed to safeguard the interests of the project owner.
Construction site supervision
The construction case regime under current planning and building legislation is based on documentation and trust. The authorities have confidence in the players in the industry, and the authorities must ensure through their supervision that the regulations are followed. The local supervision activity in the municipalities mainly focuses on documentation and is largely directed at the designers, while construction site supervision seems to have a lower priority than it deserves in my opinion. As a project owner, I would personally be very satisfied if a construction site supervision was notified and carried out.
Construction manager
However, construction site supervision from the authorities is not what is supposed to ensure that you as a project owner receive the quality of the building that is expected. Only you can ensure that you get what you ordered by engaging a construction manager who follows up on the quality of the delivery and that the prerequisites for the building are thus met. Our experience shows that this is necessary to ensure that you receive the building you have ordered and paid for.
Areas of responsibility
In the area of fire, in addition to the challenges of ensuring the correct quality in the execution, there is a particular risk that fire technical considerations fall between areas of responsibility and are thus not taken care of. In my opinion, this can be traced back to the division of responsibility between the consulting engineer fire technology (RIBr) and the other detailed design disciplines such as ARK, RIE, RIV, etc.
Fire concept
RIBr delivers a fire concept that is a statement of requirements and assumptions for the construction project, and what must be met for the finished building to satisfy the fire technical principles of the Planning and Building Act. Our experience is that important information, provisions and assumptions are lost or misunderstood from the fire concept to the detailed design, and through the execution of the construction work.
Control of execution
A good way to ensure that the fire concept strategy is taken care of throughout the construction period is to carry out a coordinated control of fire technical safety measures (KUT). The inspection applies to both passive measures such as the execution of building structures as well as active measures such as sprinklers, emergency lighting and fire alarm systems. It is crucial to be able to carry out a good inspection that the inspector has read and understood the fire concept and has a consistently good knowledge of both building engineering and fire engineering disciplines.
The Fire Consultant
In my opinion, fire consultants in general have been a little reluctant to dare to follow construction projects as fire engineering construction managers / inspectors, which is a shame as this is where there is a real opportunity to really influence fire safety. So now is the time to challenge your fire consultant to carry out fire engineering construction management in projects, and to include the fire consultant in the DD team when selling properties.
