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Cladding Inspections

External Cladding Inspection

Noor Fire Engineering are competent building surveyors and fire engineers – ensuring that we can technically analyze and inspect buildings for cladding, façade and external wall system defects, failures and non-compliance in accordance to latest government guidance, approved documents, building regulations and government advice notes.

NON-INVASIVE CLADDING INSPECTION

A non-invasive cladding inspection normally involves a site visit to inspect the external cladding. Usually, specialist access solutions such as scaffolding and mobile elevated working platforms are not required. Operation and maintenance (O&M) manuals (if available) are studied alongside relevant technical drawings and a report is produced with key recommendations on the external cladding.

INVASIVE CLADDING INSPECTION

An invasive cladding inspection normally requires for multiple areas of the external cladding to be exposed so a more precise understanding of the construction detail, cladding materials, fire cavity barriers and insulation is ascertained. This usually requires specialist access solutions such as scaffolding and mobile elevated working platforms to enable access to the external cladding of the building. Noor Construction Consultants can arrange for bespoke access solutions and enable the relevant inspection of the cladding. Operation and maintenance (O&M) manuals (if available) are studied alongside relevant technical drawings and a report is produced with key recommendations on the external cladding.

RICS EWS1 SURVEY

London is a location where residents living in newly built high rise blocks of flats are “Imprisoned by cladding”. This is where flat owners with combustible cladding on their building are unable to sell their flat, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) have made a collaborative effort to address this issue by publishing the External Wall Fire Review form (EWS1). A competent person is required to complete a block-wide assessment of the external wall system and populate the EWS1 form.

Noor Construction Consultants meet the requirement to complete the EWS1 form and have engineers and surveyors who hold full membership of relevant professional bodies including the Institute of Fire Engineers (IFE), Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), Chartered Association of Building Engineers (CABE), Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), Association for Project Management (APM)and the Institution of Fire Safety Managers (IFSM).

FAQ

The external wall system is made up of the outside wall of a residential building, including cladding, insulation, fire break systems, etc. The EWS1 form checks these for safety, if that is required. Buildings in scope are blocks of flats, student accommodation, dormitories, care homes and HMOs exc hotels.
The seller can request that their building owner or managing agent commission an EWS assessment, and / or enquire as to the make up of the wall system. The building owner or managing agent is responsible for confirming what materials are on their building, and in respect to the EWS form, the person responsible for the building needs to confirm what the wall system is made up of and whether an assessment is required.
The EWS process/ form is for building owners to undertake. Both sellers and buyers should be in contact with the building owner or their agent to ensure this takes place as quickly as possible.

An EWS assessment is required every five years for each building or block. This means multiple sellers located in one block can use the same assessment to assist with the sale of their property.

Five years is intended to capture any renovation or adaptation work done to the building, as well as maintenance over that period.

However, a new EWS may be required within the five-year period if substantial works have been completed to a property, affecting the original conclusions.

The EWS assessment is about the safety of different types of external wall systems used in residential buildings in scope located across the United Kingdom. It is not designed to assess other fire safety features or risks.

The person responsible for the building should have a fire risk assessment (FRA) for the building as this is an independent legal requirement that is already in place and does not commonly incorporate assessment of external wall materials. Note this will change with the Fire Safety Bill coming into force in England and FRAs will need to cover the external cladding.

No. ‘Nil valuations’ are used in the process of valuing a property for mortgage lending purposes, where a valuer is unable to provide a value at that moment in time i.e. when the valuers’ inspection takes place due to insufficient information being available. Often a nil valuation signals that the lender requires further information before a valuation can be made, rather than a property being unsellable.