Image: Hazlewood Tower (RKBC)
Emergency work to strip dangerously flammable cladding from two blocks near Grenfell Tower in London has been deemed so urgent that a contractor has been appointed to carry out the work without a tender process being put in place.
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has engaged Salisbury-based D+B Facades to carry out the work at Adair and Hazlewood Towers, which will begin tomorrow. Residents were informed last week.
The contractor is to start setting up equipment to the rear and side elevation of Adair Tower before removing the external wall insulation system (EWI) made up of polystyrene interlocking boards.
It will remove the cladding from one block at a time, with work on Hazlewood Tower following on from Adair Tower.
The move follows an executive decision taken by the council in October regarding the buildings, which were constructed in 1958 and each contain 78 one- and two-bedroom flats.
A fire risk assessment undertaken by Turner & Townsend in February determined that the render system was a potential fire hazard, which resulted in round-the-clock fire wardens being deployed at both blocks at a cost of around £26,000 a week.
The council decided that the cladding system needed to be removed “as soon as practically possible” and waived the contract regulations for competitive bidding, approving instead a direct contract award for the removal of the render system to D+B Facades UK in a deal worth £500,000 plus professional fees.
The work on both towers is expected to take five months.
Polystyrene test concern
Council documents revealed that while no laboratory tests on the flammability of the materials currently in place on the buildings has been carried out, a sample of polystyrene was subjected to a small flame and while no burning was noticed, the material shrank from the flame.
Meanwhile, Turner & Townsend and the fire brigade sought guarantees regarding the presence and integrity of the vertical and horizontal fire barriers but were unable to secure any.
Listing the advantages of carrying out the work straight away, the council cited the fact that it was the quickest option to remove the hazard from the building and the quickest option to remove the requirement for fire wardens and associated costs.
However, it also acknowledged that there will be potentially higher overall costs to replace the system, which could be mitigated through a careful procurement strategy, that structures will be left vulnerable to the weather and will need temporary protection (costing another estimated £250,000), and that disruption and the unsightly appearance of the building was likely to result in “resident dissatisfaction”.
The installation of a new external insulated render system is estimated to cost £2.5m. The council indicated it would waive leaseholder contributions towards costs associated with the replacement of the external cladding system, estimated at £350,000.
