A building owner’s guide to flammable cladding
What types of cladding are there on my building? Is it flammable? How much is there? Is it safe to leave? What are my legal obligations? Are there any options other than having to remove it? Will the replacement look and perform the same?
These and many other questions have been confronting property owners and facility managers over the past couple of years, with the Grenfell fire bringing the issue into particularly stark focus. Without a technical background, understanding even where to start can be daunting, especially when the outcome of such a process could potentially be an expensive burden on the asset owner.
YOUR RESPONSIBILITY
The presence of flammable cladding on your building is not just an abstract concept. More than 90 deaths have been directly attributed to external combustible cladding fires over the last decade.
The division of responsibility between designers, architects, builders, contractors and owners is not the same for new and existing builds, nor is it uniform from state to state.
In Australia, the builder of the 21-storey Lacrosse Apartments in Victoria experienced a near fatal fire in November 2014 and will likely pay the approximately $AUD16 million in costs to replace the cladding. However, the liability for who is responsible for ensuring the safety of a building and its occupants is falling increasingly
