Who should be responsible for

The Grenfell Tower ill-fated refurbishment inquiry remains very much in the news in the world of construction.

The hearings in October focused on the role and responsibilities of the Clerk of Works and how thorough checks were made to ensure the project complied with all aspects of Building Regulations.  It appears that no expert façade engineer was employed to check the external cladding and no red flags were raised regarding allocation of this responsibility.

Roles and responsibilities regarding “site monitoring and supervision services” indicates that it is not always crystal clear on construction projects, who undertakes the role of site inspector and to provide site monitoring and supervision services.  Should this be the role of the Clerk of Works or if the contract has been award a under a “design and build” should this role be the contractors?

What is clear, is the lack of questions being asked.  Is simply asking “have you checked this material is compliant and building control approval” enough?

Where projects have five or six different aspects to it, there needs to be a crystal-clear exchange of information and focus very much needs to be on introducing the “golden thread”.

The main drive behind the “golden thread” is that from the Hackett report, but by promoting and retaining a clear, current and accessible record of information relevant to projects is only a positive one.

The “golden thread” of information is a term used across many disciplines within construction.  An accurate and up to date and live record of building’s data.  Whilst not currently an industry standard, we envisage it will be very much a future one.  A live document held digitally to capture the full digital footprint of people, decisions made and a clear accountability trail.

There are already unlimited benefits to having a “golden thread” in construction.  A readily available document, that easily details how a building was designed, built and maintained.  From here on in when buildings change ownership or management, there will always be a clear path for corrective action, refurbishment or renovation.

Technical Menu

One of the main benefits to going digital is the ability to make easily available to all, product information.  From our BIM drawings (a digital model used by architects) which uses ‘smart objects’ to create intuitive assembles of our products to our material safety data sheets.

The Technical Menu of our website houses all this information.  Set into 12 clever categories:

• Technical Drawings
• Brochures and Guides
• Technical Guidance
• Video Suite
• MSDS
• Product Data Sheets
• Independent Test Data and Approvals
• The NBS Building Specification Library
• The NBS BIM Library
• Delta’s Feature Articles
• Product References
• Frequently Asked Questions

Don’t be afraid to ask

You don’t need to be an expert engineer ask about a product.  A few well-phrased questions can yield fantastic results and you might even find a better, more appropriate product along the way.

Here are Delta we see time spent seeing, hearing, and talking with our customers as the most valuable service we offer.