Case Study Flashcards
What was the health and safety incident?
- Slipped roof tile into external nursery courtyard on 1st floor
How did you ensure health and safety of the site?
- Erected a scaffold in the area of incident and along severely cracked parapets
- Ensured scaffold had debris netting and monoflex, safe access ladders and was checked weekly
- Visited site to assess the condition of the building to provide recommendations to the client
A structural report was commissioned before your involvement. Why did you visit with another structural engineer?
- To provide clarity on the 1st engineer’s report
- To confirm my recommendation of Roof 1 replacement and parapet repairs
- To ensure the building was structurally sound
What considerations did you undertake in respect of the local listing?
- Liaised with LBH’s conservation officer (CO) and issued schedule of works
- CO advised:
o Planning permission not required for repairs
o Inclusion of lime mortars only for brickwork / repointing
How can you tell the building is constructed of solid walls?
- 2 bricks wide, interlocking bricks with no gap in the middle
- Mixture of header and stretcher bricks
What is clinker? How did you establish it was clinker?
- A fused material produced at high temperatures – a waste material from coal-fired glass furnaces
- Produced by heating limestone and clay to liquefaction around 1,400-1,500 degrees
- Composition of the slab typical for age of building
- Could have sent the clinker to a lab for testing, however I considered the time and cost implications and advised the client this was not necessary
What procurement route did you use and why?
- Traditional, single-stage
- Fully designed when going to tender, allowing for the client to secure a competitive price
- Allowed for cost certainty before works commenced
Why did you choose a minor works contract?
- Works simple in nature
- Lasted less than 12 months (8 months in total)
- Client / consultant responsible for procuring all of the design
- No requirement for bonds or completing work in sections
What cause the significant cost increase from Contract Sum to final account?
- Change of personnel within the client – new client was more involved in the process and so secured a larger budget
- Some of the areas of the building only reached after full scaffold erected
- Original scope of H&S was expanded to undertake maintenance works
- Included rates within the contract – e.g. for repointing, rebuilding brickwork, additional windows, replacement of coping stones
o Ensured priced given were fair and reasonable
How did you select the contractors?
- Proposed 3no. contractors to client who undertake works of this nature / size
- Barker have vetting process which requests they submit details of their:
o Turnover
o Company information – directors
o Similar case studies with references
o Information on typical size of projects - Client put forward 3no. contractors of their own
- All had to be accredited on Constructionline
How did you provide regular updates?
- Visited site weekly and issued inspection reports
- Called the client / stakeholders every 2 weeks
- Monthly formal progress meetings with project team
What was included in your site inspection reports?
- Labour levels on site
- Progress of work
- Weather details
- Any requests for further information with the site manager
- Any contract instructions discussed / proposed
- Photos detailing progress
- Items with specific actions for members of the project team
Why were the works notifiable?
- Last longer than 30 working days AND have more than 20 workers on site, OR
- Exceed 500 person days
Why did you choose to appoint an approved inspector?
- Cheaper than council-appointed building control
- Able to get quicker responses
What pre-construction risks did your designers identify?
- Unauthorised access onto site – specified fencing / hoarding, signing in/out system
- Falls from height – erecting safe platforms / scaffolding that were checked weekly
- Dust – using monoflex / debris netting when undertaking repointing. Undertaking on days when building less busy. Uisng dust suppression on power tools.
- Potential asbestos – undertake R&D survey before works commence on site
- Manual handling - hoist for scaffold, sharing heavy loads, wearing appropriate PPE
- Noisy works - appropriate PPE, noise suppresion on tools, notifying tenants of when noisy works were being undertaken throughout the week
What residual risks did you identify?
- Future use of terrace areas – incorporated railings
- Inspection of Roof 1 & Roof 4 – installed new railings with access ladders
- Monitoring of chimney leaning into building
o Referred to structural engineer who recommended 3-monthly monitoring - Asbestos – undertook a Refurbishment & demolition survey to advise on locations of asbestos (nothing). Advised building manager to update their asbestos management survey
- Flat roofs - to ensure compliance with the gurantee, advised that the building undertakes maintenance such as clearing the roof and RWGs of dirt / debris
What defects did you identify? How?
- Undertook opening up works using a jackhammer
o Revealed double-skin brickwork with the steel joist embedded – no joist hangers or waterproofing present - Identified severely corroded steel with delamination
- Observed severe cracking above the steel on the asphalt roof covering, and through the parapet soldier course
- Identified slipped, missing and cracked ridge and roof tiles
- Cracking and blisters across each of the asphalt roof coverings
- Observed all defects via safe access from scaffold platforms
Can you describe delamination of steel joists? How did you establish this?
- Delamination – separation of layers of the steel joist due to corrosion
- Delaminated section was embedded into inner brick skin – I judged this to be very risky in respect of being structurally sound
- Internally, acro props had been installed behind plasterboard – opening up works revealed this
- Intrusive inspection revealed this
Why was a timber frame used over steel or traditional construction?
- Quick construction time
- Manufactured off site, quality control etc. no on site cutting or storage
- Lower embodied energy
How did you select the joists and centres for Roof 1?
- C24 is strongest and for external uses
- Checked stipulations in Approved Document A
- Centres – checked the NHBC guidelines which advises:
o Minimum centres of 450mm for 15mm deck
o Minimum centres 600mm for 18mm deck - Selected 400mm centres due to potential future loading of roof
- Checked all proposals / measurements with structural engineer before proceeding
What is the difference between C16 and C24?
- Used to grade softwood, under BS EN 338
- C24 can take a higher point load and has fewer, and smaller knots in the timber
- Timbers are evaluated after being kiln dried to 20% moisture content.
How were the joists supported?
- Installed timber wall plate bedded into mortar on top of the inner skin using galvanised holding-down straps using M10 steel bolts
- Joists installed onto joist hangers, fixed onto the wall plate using M10 steel bolts
How did the contractor carry out the joist & deck installation?
- Joists as above
- Deck embedded into brickwork and fixed onto joists using screw fixing of 53mm allowing embedding into joist of 35mm
- Minimum fastener edge distance 8mm
- Minimum bearing distance 18mm
- Panels fastened to joists at 300mm centres
What was the roof build-up?
- 48x220mm timber joists
- 70mm firings
- 18mm plywood deck
- VCL
- 120mm PIR insulation
- Underlay sheet
- Cap sheet
How did you select the specific felt system?
- Checked requirements in Approved Document L (conservation of fuel and power) to ensure U-value met
- Selected 3-layer system for full waterproofing – incorporating VCL, underlay and felt cap sheet
- Felt chose for ease of installation, allowing to chase into parapet brickwork, cost and appearance
Did you check any specific certification?
- Adhered to Approved Doc L – 0.16 U-value
- For installation – checked Safe2Torch guidelines, hot works permit when on site
- Ensured appropriate edge protection present for installation
- Specified a 25-year insurance backed guarantee was in place
- Building regulations sign off
How was the U-value calculated?
- Provided by IKO, the manufacturer of the roof coverings and warranty provider.
What is PIR Insulation?
- Polyisocyanurate (poly-iso-cyanurate)
- More efficient than PUR insulation
- A type of rigid board insulations, sandwiched between aluminium foil facing
What was the roof fall?
- 1-80
What is Safe2Torch?
- National Federation of Roofing Contractors (NFRC) using gas torches
- Guidelines of safe use of hot works – e.g. not allowing gas torch at least 1m away from timber upstands, hanging tiles, rooflight kerbs, cladding, etc.
How did you know the scaffold was safe to use?
- Ensured the scaffold was checked weekly by the scaffolding company and the scaffold tag was updated
- Received scaffold designs before installation and checked:
- Ensures platforms are fully boarded and wide enough for access
- Scaffold boards are properly supported and not overhanging excessively (e.g. no more than 4 times thickness of the board) Check loading bays fitted with fall protection (gates) that can safely be moved in and out of position
- Ensure provision of debris netting and monoflex
- Ensuring guard rails and toe boards fitted
Did the final rates of provisional quantities vary significantly?
- No – I set out rates (e.g. for repointing, replacement of soldier courses, parapets, etc) as according to rates set out in SPONS / BCIS
- Received rates quantities from each contractor, enabled me to assess I had received a fair price
- Used the rates when receiving variations to ensure contractor submitted fair price
- For non-rated items (e.g. anti-slip for external stairs), I requested 3no. quotes from the contractor
How did you deal with programme change?
- Ensured additional prices were received as quickly as possible
- Assessed and issued to client within good time (e.g. 3 days)
- Discussed potential impact on programme with contractor and notified client
- Additional works instructed towards end of contractor resulted in EoT being claimed
What are typical defects of the construction type?
Concrete
- Clinker concrete – damp conditions produce sulphuric acid from coal in clinker which corrodes steel joists, leads to loss of section
- Masonry encased steel – corrosion of steel frame due to poor protection against moisture, leads to cracking / dislodgement of masonry
Timber
- External sash windows – susceptible to broke sash cords, damaged counter-weights, lack of maintenance and potential external rot
Brickwork
- Eroded mortar joints and soft London brickwork
- Replacement of defective bricks and repointing with NHL 3.5 for external walls, NHL 5 for ridge / verge tiles, soldier courses on parapets
- Damp – penetrating damp through brickwork via defective rainwater goods, parapet wall cracking
Roof spread
- Occurs when downward pressure of weight of the roof pushes against rafters, moving the structure of the roof
- Often occurs when original slate tiles are replaced with concrete, adding weight onto roof
Roof defects
- Nail sickness - corrosion of nail fixings causes slippage of roof tiles
Did you consider additional storeys for concrete / steel frame?
- It was discounted as there is vacant space elsewhere within the building
- The building will be redeveloped (new lift, develop top flat) so future planning considered focus on other areas of the building instead
o Lift would serve the other side of the building
What type of plywood did you specify? Why?
- 18mm plywood
- Class II (Humid use) – Structural EN 636-2 S, grade
- Protective against potential water ingress, for use externally
- Plywood is covered by roof covering, but still at risk of wetting
What are the types of plywood grade / class?
Class
- Class I – dry interior use
- Class II – humid areas, occasional wetting
- Class III – unprotected exterior use, frequent wetting
Grade
- AB grade – high quality, small pint knots, no variation in colour
- B grade – change in colour, smooth knots 15mm-35mm
- BR ‘veneer’ grade – thinner sheets, knots 7-8mm
- BB grade – larger knots than B, suitable where appearance not important
- C grade – used when strength important, discolouration, open knots
What was the felt roof system build-up?
- 3-layer system incorporating roof deck, VCL, insulation, 2-layer felt
- Upstands w/ felt terminating 150mm, termination bar, ubiflex chased into brickwork
What was the liquid roof system build-up?
- Roof deck
- Liquid primer for VCL
- VCL
- Liquid primer
- Insulation – 120mm thick
- Liquid waterproofing incorporating reinforcement fleece
- Top liquid waterproofing layer
- Anti-slip sand / fine stone on walkway areas
What are the grades of timber joists?
- C16 & C24 – C= conifer
- C16 – internal projects such as walls, flooring and roof joists. Allows for grain deviations that can impact strength
- C24 – highest quality, kiln-dried, fewer defects so stronger / more resilient
What timber joists did you specify? Why?
- 48mm x 220mm at 400mm centres, fitted onto timber wall plate bedded into mortar, strapped down using galvanised holding-down straps
- C24 provides strength for roof covering and future-loading – provides the best quality for the client
- 400mm centres was checked with structural engineer and agreed