Cladding used on council homes that have been, or are being, refurbished comply with all the necessary building standards, Caerphilly County Borough Council has said, after fears were raised over its fire safety.
Questions have been raised by residents over the external insulation cladding used on council homes following the Grenfell Tower fire in London.
Various fire and building experts in the national media have speculated the cladding used on the building may not have been as fire resistant as it could have been.
Posting on the council’s Facebook page, Lansbury Park Resident Rhys Walby asked whether the cladding used on the estate was made from a similar material to the insulation used on Grenfell Tower.
A spokesman for Caerphilly County Borough Council said: “Caerphilly County Borough Council’s thoughts are with all those affected by the tragic fire in West London.
“Tenants living in council properties within the Caerphilly area may be concerned to hear unconfirmed reports that Grenfell Tower’s exterior cladding may have helped spread the fire.
“There are a number of external cladding schemes taking place across the county borough at the moment as part of widespread housing improvement works, but the council is keen to reassure its tenants that the cladding being installed meets all the necessary standards.
“Our supplier has confirmed that it completes in-depth fire testing on their products to achieve the highest industry standards and meet current building regulations with regard to fire resistance and spread of flame.”
Caerphilly County Borough Council declined to name the exact product used at Lansbury Park and the contractor installing it as they were a commercial third party.
The spokesman did state that the type of cladding system used on the council homes was different to the one used on Grenfell Tower.
The same issue with the insulation boards underneath the rendering or pebble dash is not fire resistant. These boards burn at quick pace with black toxic smoke.
Jason is correct, it is very likely that the insulation cladding at the fatal Grenfell Tower complied with current building regulations. As well as what Jason mentions what about the adhesive used underneath the boards?
I am not a qualified structural engineer but have worked as a Domestic Energy Surveyer and can’t help wondering whether it is a good idea to retrofit insulation cladding. The buildings of the 1960’s and 1970’s may well fall short of modern standards of insulation but as designed and built are very much safer when fire occurs than if they have been upgraded.
What happened at Grenfell Tower was truly horrific.
We will have to wait for the official verdict on what the initial cause of the fire was and why it spread so quickly.
However we are hearing all these concerns regarding the various forms of insulation / cladding ,with it seeming that some materials seem to be less fire resistant than others.
There should be calls for a worldwide industry standard, using materials that are either totally fireproof or at the very least,highly fire resistant – with relevant products being required to carry the relevant markings to this effect.( Such as the “CE” or BSI kitemark or similar )
The products should undergo tests by and be approved by the Fire Service as part of this process.
Here here, totally agree with you John.
As usual, there’s a lot of wild speculation and pre-judging in progress long before any conclusions from the investigations are available.
It’s not as though the Grenfell cladding was some sort of back-street lash-up using cheap materials bodged together. The insulation and cladding panels are from big players who both do a wide selection of products of varying performance.
The investigation should hopefully determine whether the specification wasn’t stringent enough or whether the installation wasn’t in accordance with the manufacturer’s details.
What we don’t need is ‘cladding panic’, especially as there is ongoing national programme of overcladding to improve the performance and efficiency of below-standard properties.
I agree that there should be no panic, this was a tragic incident that probably will not happen again. I do stand by my statement, though, that we very cautious before retro fitting cladding to 1960’s and 1970’s buildings.
These were built to fairly good fire safety standards but fitting them with insulation they were never intended to have may compromise their fire resistance. This is a matter for structural engineers and fire safety experts to decide and I’m sure they will incorpoate the findings of the report on Grenfell Tower in their deliberations and come up with good recommendations.