Roy Buckingham - Next steps from DCW roundtables-20220616
Post DCW Feedback
Roy Buckingham
Roy Buckingham - Next steps from DCW roundtables-20220616
ROY BUCKINGHAM thought it was a good exercise despite the fact the time was limited and therefore they could not achieve a huge amount. RICHARD says it was a bit more challenging than maybe they had intended it to be, particularly as there were walk-ins who were obviously not familiar with the exercise. ROY thinks the RACI methodology is a good idea, but he thought from his perspective that the escape-ability from the building was missing.
ROY considers more collaboration meetings would be the best next step, whether face-to-face or virtual. He mentions a colleague, Douglas Masterson, who works closely with the Guild of Architectural ironmongers (GAI) who has been adopted onto the BIM BSI framework and maybe he should be included in future discussions.
GEORGE says they want to continue to follow the model used at DCW. The leader of the Construction group, Steve Coppin, is an advisor to the HSE and has a strong understanding of the process that the regulator is following. Gordon Crick from the HSE attended. The HSE are quite nervous about getting involved in certain things right now. Steve organised a session yesterday with 4 breakout groups, taking 4 asset types that make up a compartment and then did a deep-dive to see what information should be coming from who - a bit like the RACI but simpler. The data points were turned into questions.
The new digital information for fire is coming out next week with a large amount of new terminology - it will address some of the points Roy made about escape. ROY thinks ultimately, he’d be led by the contractors, stakeholders that operate the buildings, as to how they want the digital information, but first you have to identify what information is needed. GEORGE has learnt in the last year it’s essential to simplify the questions. roy makes the point that they need to be aware of which standards are relevant so when they need to they can go off and read it, but they don’t need it in the answer at that point. ROY says one of the biggest issues now is that everything is open to interpretation.
GEORGE says that MACE are looking at it as that a lot more of this needs to be prescriptive. Contractors often tell ROY that there are too many variables so they are not sure of what solution to use. Elliot Dawson (door manufacturer) says the challenge to make it interchangeable is that you’d have to have it tested with that particular manufacturer. The door assembly method in the UK (unlike EU) means different elements of the door come from different sources and is then put together on-site and ‘claim’ it’s a fire door. Also, cheaper doors often don’t natch the performance criteria of more costly doors.
After Grenfell, building control changed their approach of looking at the fire test evidence - suddenly they wanted primary test evidence with more specific details. The UK is moving a little bit more towards the door set supply, but there are still projects delivered with door assemblies, particularly small to medium size projects, but big hospitals and high rises use door sets. The question can be simpler with a door set than with a door assembly, which is more complicated.
GEORGE will arrange a 1-to-1 meeting with roy, who is also happy to participate in future group meetings. ROY thinks you need collaborations outside of the particular group specialities because you need interaction between them to understand the difficulties and the challenges the other groups have.