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Much debate continues over Modern Methods of Construction. Though modular, off-site builds can result in significant savings to costs and time, many in the fire industry remain concerned that fire safety standards and quality compartmentation methods are left as an afterthought in the process.

Ian King, Chief Commercial Officer, Zeroignition, looks at the benefits of modern methods of construction and how the solutions offered by adopting an off-site approach can be applied to fire protection and safety under a competent, holistic approach.

The recent Building Safety Bill is an essential step towards making homes safer for all. The construction industry shoulders a great deal of responsibility when it comes to the safety of the built environment, so the importance of making fundamental changes to methods of working is immeasurable.

Since the Grenfell tragedy in 2017, the building industry has been working hard behind the scenes to tighten up processes, with new regulations acting as powerful drivers for positive change and innovation.

The addition of meaningful sanctions will act as a powerful deterrent to those few companies who haven’t prioritised safety, and instead remain focused on delivering bigger, quicker and cheaper builds. This approach can result in mistakes being made and sometimes corners being cut, all of which have the potential to cost lives.

The benefits of modular construction

In a typical year, over 200,000 homes are built in the UK, around 15,000 of which are modular. With fewer lorry deliveries driving to and from the building site, modular buildings have a lower carbon footprint than more traditional building methods. Nearby residents can also benefit – being exposed to less noise and pollution. Efficiency is greatly improved – the whole off-site construction process can be completed in roughly half the time of a traditional build, which can have a big impact on a housebuilder’s bottom line

“It’s clear, however, for a system-led approach to fire protection to really work, it is essential that knowledge across the industry is robust and in line with current regulations.”

One of the greatest benefits of modular construction is that it allows for the standardisation of housing design, which makes production quicker, shortening the overall construction journey. Quality control should also be considered – within a ‘factory’ type environment, greater safety checks can be made and monitored, ensuring components and build quality meet acceptable levels of industry standards and performance.

By introducing quality checks and tests during component assembly in the factory setting, it’s easier to develop and implement industry-standard certifications. In turn, this can help raise the bar of the finished product, in all elements of assembly.

When materials are then taken to the construction site for installation, a qualified workforce can execute the final build with greater ease, having up-to-date knowledge of the products and the building as a complete “system”.

This approach can be adopted for fire protection design.

A critical system

A system-led fire protection design method involves checking that the specified components work both individually and holistically. System components will generally include:

• Active fire protection – measures triggering a response, such as sprinkler systems and smoke alarms
• Passive fire protection – measures to slow down or contain fire, such as fire doors and fire-retardant materials

A system-led approach can combine compartmentation – for example, with fire doors, sprinkler systems and FR-rated OSB boards. An assessment can take place where each component can be assessed for its individual performance, as well as how it works in combination with other components.

It’s clear, however, for a system-led approach to fire protection to really work, it is essential that knowledge across the industry is robust and in line with current regulations.

Improving fire protection awareness

Fire safety regulations are notoriously complex and require an in-depth understanding. Research we conducted across the UK, Germany and France in the wake of the Grenfell disaster revealed that knowledge levels surrounding fire and fire protection amongst some of our most trained professionals in architecture, was worryingly low.

Across the three countries, just 3% of architects were able to correctly define the four basic fire protection terms: active fire protection, passive fire protection, fire resistance and reaction to fire.

A mere 2% of the architects interviewed said they’d received comprehensive fire protection training. Whilst most agreed that they had had some sort of training, less than one in ten (8%) said they’ve never had fire protection training. Our findings came as an industry-wide shock and highlighted the clear need for re-education in order to improve expertise and understanding when it comes to fire basics.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, it has been reported that nearly half the British workforce (49%) were intent on investing time to actively further their learning around fire safety.

NBS (formerly National Building Specification) says it saw a dramatic increase in webinar attendance during this time, as more people were working from home and had time to spare without having to spend time out of the office travelling. Eager participants included product manufacturers, as well as architects and specifiers. The online webinars covered a variety of different topics including fire safety.

Modernising traditional approaches

Construction projects are multifaceted and involve various decisions. Each choice has a knock-on effect and there can be unforeseen results when a systematic approach to fire protection isn’t adopted.

While many construction industry professionals understand that this approach works best, there’s still more to be done by manufacturers and architectural bodies to ensure that best practice is fully established and followed.

Modern methods of construction has the ability to appear the obvious solution for future progress unbeatable on paper. However, the systematic approach still stands here, and if not used properly, problems with the build can and will still arise. In some cases, safety oversights have caused the loss of entire buildings. This is why a proactive drive towards increasing the competency and training of all those involved in the building process from architect, designers, installers, and other industry professionals must be seen as essential if standards are to improve.

It’s important that we view buildings holistically, assessing the structure as a whole, rather than in individual stages to ensure that MMC is used as intended and to reduce the risk of fire and improve safety for the end user.

Beyond this, the construction industry needs to learn from other industries, such as automotive and aviation, which focus on a checklist approach to reduce harm to passengers. If people rely on memory, mistakes happen, and the simple action of checking off points can stop fire planning elements being missed. The digital ‘revolution’ that the construction industry is currently experiencing can create ‘digital footprints’ that prove the right building criteria has been adhered to. This will become essential if we’re to successfully implement watertight fire safety checks before it’s handed over to the occupant or end user.

It is encouraging to see the industry come together to propel fire safety up the agenda. The new building safety regulations set to come into effect next month (August 2021) will go a long way to improving current standards. Coupled with keen interest from industry professionals to learn more and improve their knowledge and put safety front of mind, it will be a joint effort that will deliver industry best practice. Manufacturers are also investing heavily in R&D projects, which will help bolster fire safety awareness in construction and provide added protection. After all, it is only when fire protection is taken with seriousness it demands, that we can start looking at new approaches to construction which reinforce a building’s role to keep people safe and secure.

The industry needs to keep engaging in the positive changes which are starting to emerge. I am certain that with a culture that’s willing to learn and improve, the sector will begin to adapt and innovate further. Ensuring that we can demonstrate that safety and wellbeing is being considered at the heart of the building design, will help improve end-user confidence, which as it stands, has a long journey ahead.

Source: IFSEC GLOBAL

 Offering accurate, timely and flexible information management of construction projects

 

The construction management software Gsite by Glodon is now available for the UK and Irish markets through MagiCAD Group. The  platform enables online management of construction site tasks as well as quality and safety issues, document management, BIM, workflows and much more. Glodon Gsite has already been used in more than 30,000 building projects globally in small and large-scale projects.

Glodon Gsite Offering online management of construction site data providing project participants with immediate access to information, such as documents, safety issues, and scheduled activities. As digital solutions have begun transforming construction sites, Gsite introduces more efficient processes and improves collaboration and communication possibilities.

“Developed with construction project teams in mind, Gsite enables them to quickly get started without any previous experience of software and hardware usage”, says Tom Young, Director for Construction Solutions at MagiCAD Group. “In addition, MagiCAD Group offers a generous and well-thought service plan to make sure that the UK customers have the best quality of service we’re known for.”

Gsite is a single source of truth for managing  construction projects. The software provides automatically generated statistics and data from construction projects and enables users to keep track of project events, issues, and overall progress. All project information is stored online and can be accessed on-site or remotely through an application that supports multiple mobile devices.

“A centralized approach to construction site management enables project participants to easily remain in control of tasks and issues and to respond quickly”, explains Young.

Gsite saves time in administration, as information can be updated and recorded on-site. Tracking site data also enables improved visibility into project overhead costs, which are otherwise hard to follow accurately.

Gsite can be used by contractors and construction companies of any type and by  on-site personnel, as well as project management and senior managers.

For more information on Gsite, CLICK HERE

 

About MagiCAD Group

MagiCAD Group specialises in Building Information Modelling software and services. Our team of passionate software professionals provides customers with intelligent solutions that make daily engineering, design and planning work easier, faster and more profitable. Our products are used by thousands of companies in over 80 countries around the world. MagiCAD is headquartered in Turku, Finland and is part of Glodon Group.

About Glodon Group

Established in 1998, Glodon is one of the world’s leading digital building platform providers offering products and services that cover the entire life cycle of buildings. With more than 7,000 employees and 60 branches around the world, it provides services to over 800,000 enterprise customers in over 100 countries and regions reaching 20 million professional engineers and managers globally.

 

 

Wernick Buildings’ factory in Port Talbot welcomed visitors to receive a demonstration of their latest modular building system; HMflex. The four-bed hospital ward allowed visitors to experience the same high-quality environment that healthcare professionals and patients would receive.

A result of meetings over several years, NHS Improvement approached the MPBA (Modular and Portable Building Association) and some of its members (including Wernick) to explore the possibility of creating standardised, modular units which could be more easily deployed at scale within healthcare settings. The result was HMflex, a modular building system designed specifically to meet the spatial and technical requirements of NHS wards, providing ward and clinical spaces via standardised layouts.
HMflex is specifically designed to offer a fast-paced, quality solution to fit the needs and requirements of the healthcare sector: the system delivers a fully fitted, compliant four-bed ward with just two building modules. This means that a four-bed ward can be delivered, installed and ready for fit-out in as little as 24 hours. Designed with scalability in mind, extra storeys can also be added later with ease.

Andy King, Deputy Managing Director of Wernick Buildings, commented: “The whole offsite construction industry has been receiving more attention over the last few years due to press and public interest, and healthcare has been a big sector. One of the key benefits, particularly in light of the increased pressure from the COVID-19 pandemic, is speed: this is where the standardised HMflex will have a major impact.”

Working with NHS trusts and fire engineers, the entire exterior envelope of the building system was designed and tested to meet all of Part B non-combustible building regulations. For ease of maintenance and improved performance, at design stage clients can specify which items they want incorporated into the standard design. These include doors, IPS, plumbing and electrics.  Full bed and passenger lifts are easily incorporated into the modular design, and specialist areas like operating theatres, MRI functions and pathology units can also be catered to. The completed building is both HTN and HBN compliant.

Andy continued, “We can bring the benefits of offsite construction to facilities as complex as inpatient wards and operating theatres. This is all achieved while maintaining compliance throughout. The HMflex ward block is the first of what we hope will be a series of standardised solutions that will support the NHS in meeting pressures moving forwards.”

Visitors who came to experience the demonstration building included local senior politicians such as Stephen Kinnock, Member of Parliament for Aberavon, Edward Latham, Leader of Neath Port Talbot Council, and local AM David Rees.

Commenting on the unit, Aberavon MP, Stephen Kinnock, said: “I was honoured to be able to see first-hand the incredible hi-tech work of one of Port Talbot’s major employers. It is fantastic that our constituency is home to such well-established firms leading the way on the national stage. I was also thrilled to hear about Wernick’s plans for expansion and the long-term career opportunities companies like theirs are providing for the people of our community.”
Proving the flexibility of the building system, the demonstration ward was disassembled in July and relocated to Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, where the two building modules form part of a new 72-bed ward building.

Established in 1934, Wernick are proud to be the most established modular building provider in the UK, with decades of experience providing clients with high quality buildings over almost any sector.

www.wernick.co.uk

 

Skills shortages and COVID-19 disruption are placing pressure on traditional models of construction. We ask can the supply chain be part of the solution?

In his report Modernise or Die, Mark Farmer suggested that a skills crisis in mainstream construction, was likely to result in a decrease of 20-25% in the workforce over the next decade.

Published in 2016, it suggested the construction sector faced a perfect storm of an aging workforce with lower levels of entry into the sector.
This has been compounded by increased demand for construction workers across Europe in the last year and a post-Brexit exodus, with 1.3million construction workers estimated to leave the UK since 2019.

In real terms, this means that employment in the construction sector fell from 2.3m in 2017 to 2.1m at the end of 2020, representing a 4 per cent fall in UK-born workers and a 42 per cent fall in EU workers, according to the Office for National Statistics. More than 500,000 UK-born construction workers are expected to retire in the next 10 to 15 years.

Throw into this mix rapidly increasing material costs and COVID-19 demand and accompanying disruption to supply. With pressure to hit ever increasing levels of performance and project build and costs are soaring, with many warning that the sector needs to build in inflationary costs of at least 5% a year as ‘the new normal’.
Modular offsite and modern methods of construction offers developers a potential solution. While not immune from the pressures on building materials supply, scalability and standardisation, proponents argue, can support main contractors in meeting demand when a skilled workforce and materials are in short supply, and in keeping a lid on costs.

This also means, according to John Duckworth, Head of Commercial Sales, at window and door systems company Deceuninck, a reassessment of the relationship between main-contractor, sub-contractors and the wider supply chain.

“Everyone has been forced to reassess what they do and how they do it”, he says, “That’s not only about what they do on site, how the fabric of buildings are put together. The last 18-months has served to highlight the critical importance of the wider supply chain and how suppliers and contractors work together.”
Deceuninck is a global leader in PVC-U window and door system supply, with extensive experience in the UK commercial sector, partnering with a network of leading commercial window manufacturers. “There is no magic wand”, continues John. “It’s going to take time to address the skills gap and costs of labour are going to remain high for the foreseeable future, which means modular development, which doesn’t require the same skills threshold, will have a key part to play in cost control.
“The other element is better and closer working between main and sub-contractors and suppliers, sitting down earlier in the process to extract better value from specifications.  “There are things that every specification will have, an expected level of energy efficiency, acoustics, security – how you get there can carry very different overheads.
“It’s defined by material, planning and ultimately expertise in delivery.”

Deceuninck offers an extensive commercial window and door range, working with commercial window and door manufacturers specialising in modular builds as well as other specialisms including steel-frame construction.

Its’ flagship commercial system is the 5000 series, which extends the design potential of PVC-U using patented glass fibre technology, removing the requirement for steel reinforcement, increasing thermal efficiency and reducing weight.

Available in Standard, Slim and the ultra-energy efficient Neo option, as a leading edge, tilt-and-turn window it achieves U-values of as low as 0.84W/m2K, air permeability is 600Pa, watertightness of up to 600Pa and wind resistance is 2000 Pa.

The 5000 also delivers a high level of acoustic insulation with a Maximum Rw value of 46db and achieves PAS24 using standard hardware.

“It’s a very flexible window option, sightlines are slim and with a wide range of foil options including a dedicated range to match into aluminium finishes, the 5000 series offers a lot of design potential”, continues John.
“With the significant price inflation that we’ve seen in the last year in steel supply, it’s also worth noting that the 5000 series features Linktrusion our patented and highly thermally efficient glass fibre reinforcement system.
“As strong as steel – it can be specified to manufacturer full height 2,500mm doors – the system delivers 30% thermal efficient gain, up to 40% savings on materials and weight, and is also 100% recyclable.”

Deceuninck’s commercial window and door offer, also includes Casement, Tilt-and-Turn and Fully Reversible Window.

The latter, in common with the 5000 Series, has also been designed specifically for commercial applications, and for modern buildings with large openings.

Featuring a contemporary finish they can be manufactured to a maximum size of 1,400mm x 1,400mm with a weight limit of 80kg. It also offers class 4 air permeability, class E1050 water tightness and class AE 2400Pa exposure along with exceptional energy efficiency, thanks to a double glazed U-value of just 1.3.

“The biggest gains come through partnership. If we can sit down with architects and specifiers early enough in the design process, we can work with them head on, or design-out problems. We have a lot of experience working on modular projects but also steel framed buildings”, John says.
He continues: “With that specialism and experience we can work with main contractors to enhance performance while lowering costs but we need to have that conversation sooner in the design process rather than later.

 

 

 

Case study: Springfield Park, Maidstone

Situated on a former brownfield site overlooking the River Medway, Springfield Park is a landmark development that features 502 luxury, one, two and three bed apartments.
Deceuninck commercial manufacturer, FastFrame was appointed to supply more than 800 windows and doors into the project, achieving a 40% cost saving on the original specification by manufacturing doors in the Linktrusion 5000 Series from Deceuninck, rather than the original aluminium specification. 
These were finished in a combination of Quartz grey foil and the system company’s patented colour coating system, Decoroc.
Offering a highly durable, micro-sprayed matt finish that matches aluminium powder coating for aesthetics and performance, Decoroc is available in a wide choice of RAL colours and comes with a 10-year guarantee.
Two phases have now been completed, a 320 window tower block (phase one), and a 580-window low-rise development (phase two) with windows manufactured for steel frame construction using the systems specialist’s Fully Reversible Window, 2500 casement.
Fastframe has since been awarded the 630 window and door contract for Phase 3 of Springfield Park. This next phase will include three blocks of low rise apartments, which will be built using a modular system, supplied through modular construction specialist, British Offsite.
“It’s a prime example of the kind of savings that can be made. The specification for the doors was originally in aluminium but redrawing it in our 5000 Series door system support the developers in reducing cost of delivery, enhance thermal efficiency and still deliver a very clean aesthetic”, John explains. 

www.deceuninck.com

 

 

 

 

 

Premier Modular has been awarded multi-million pound contracts to provide project offices and welfare facilities for 15 sites that form part of the first phase of HS2 – the high-speed line which will deliver much needed rail capacity across the UK.

 Awarded by Skanska Costain STRABAG Joint Venture (SCS JV), the contracts are for sites along the final 26.4km of HS2 to the southern terminus at London Euston.

Premier is delivering more than 15,000sqm of buildings made up of over 500 modules configured to SCS’s precise requirements and specification. The facilities will accommodate open plan offices, meeting rooms, break-out spaces, showers, drying room, toilets, first aid room, and canteen. Each building is being installed complete with lighting, air conditioning, fire and security alarms, toilets, partitions, and doors.

The buildings will be in use for at least five years and have a number of sustainability features to minimise impact on the environment, including rainwater harvesting to provide water for site operations such as dust suppression, low energy lighting, PIR lighting sensors, low water consumption showers, dual flush toilets, and effluent tanks to minimise discharge into local drainage systems.

Some of the sites are in close proximity to existing railway lines requiring liaison with teams at Network Rail and careful logistical planning particularly for the building installation phases.

Commenting on the contract awards, John Harrison, Section Lead Construction Manager at SCS JV, said, “Premier has developed the most cost-effective building solutions that met our requirements and budget. Their team has been very flexible, adapting the designs to our changing needs, and with a strong emphasis on customer care.”

David Harris, Managing Director of Premier Modular said, “We are delighted to be contributing to this important infrastructure project. As a Yorkshire business we know just how critical HS2 is to rail projects in the North and how it will help to rebalance the UK economy.”

“Our aim is to provide the best quality office and welfare facilities in the construction sector. We were able to offer building solutions to SCS to suit a wide range of sites, in compliance with Building Regulations Part L and to stringent fire ratings because the facilities will be in use for at least five years. On each project we are working to short programmes and on some highly constrained sites near to live railway lines.”

“We have invested £12m in our hire fleet in the last 12 months and have expanded our workforce with an additional 100 people in the same period to meet the rising demand for our building services. The scale of the HS2 projects for Premier is a significant factor in that investment.”

HS2 is a new high-speed railway linking up London, the Midlands, the North and Scotland, serving over 25 stations, including eight of Britain’s 10 largest cities, and connecting around 30 million people. The construction of the new railway is split into three phases, with Phase One linking London and the West Midlands.

SCS JV’s contract will involve the construction of a variety of structures and 21km of the line will be in a tunnel created using six tunnel boring machines.

 

For further information, visit www.premiermodular.co.uk, call 0800 316 0888 or email info@premiermodular.co.uk.