Fire safety of external balcony steelwork and timber cladding of 6-storey residential block, London E3

Following receipt of a fire safety enforcement notice from the LFEPA my building management client asked me for a professional opinion  a) on the need to fire protect the external steelwork on this residential building and b) if the extensive external timber cladding on the building needed to have treatment to improve the resistance to spread of flame. The building was 6 storeys and had, on one face, external open-to-the-air timber walkways supported on unprotected steel balconies which formed the ...

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Fire safety report on external balcony steelwork and timber cladding of 6-storey residential block, London E3

 

I was asked by my client to inspect and report on this existing block following comments by the local fire service. Calculations by a structural engineer assumed that the steel I-sections were exposed to the standard BS 476 fire resistance heating conditions in which the steel is totally engulfed in the fire, which may be a very severe environment if the steel is outside the fire compartment. I said that if any calculation method should be employed it should use ...

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Report on proposed fire curtain including calculation of radiation tenability and proposed alternative solution to the means of escape problem in Stanford Court, Cornwall Gardens, London, SW7.

My client, the flat owner, was refurbishing a 4th floor flat. RBKC building control had provided a guidance document on the criteria that needed to be satisfied when fire curtains are to be deployed, and this required information on insulation against radiation so that flat occupants could pass by the hot curtain in a fire without suffering radiation burns

I was asked to make a calculation of tenability on the assumption that a 7m wide Coopers fire insulating curtain would be ...

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