On Tuesday FIS hosted its Commercial Fit-out Industry Day (kindly hosted by Hill Dickinson and sponsored by FireDNA.
The current legal and regulatory backdrop
At the meeting FIS CEO, Iain McIlwee covered the current impact of the Building Safety Act on the market, some of the challenges and key findings from the Grenfell Inquiry and how this is likely to impact further change. Sarah from Hill Dickinson helped contextualise this with details of current cases and how things are starting to be interpreted. Key takeaways were that the impact is starting to be felt, but not always in a complex way with difficult compliance issues and risk being forced down. There is a danger things are getting worse before they get better. The free FIS E-Learning course on the Building Safety Act was recommended for more detailed briefing. FIS Training Modules
Technical challenges in the fit-out process
The next session was opened by James Parlour, FIS Technical and Vetting Manager who looked at competency requirements and changes in the Building Regulations. He went on to draw out some of the core details from the recent work FIS has done on understanding systems and compatibility issues within the construction of the fit-out. The presentation was based on the latest guide FIS has collaborated on with a variety of organisations from across construction – https://www.thefis.org/membership-hub/publications/best-practice-guides/walls-as-a-system/. Hannah Mansell of consultancy Adoorability and Elliott Brown of The FDI helped to get into the detail of fire doors in this context. A key stat that was included was that of 40,000 doors surveyed, 32,595 doors failed due to the gap between the frame and leaf not being within tolerance and 14,729 doors failed due to incorrect lineal seal fire stopping method! The key concern raised in questions is it is still the case that we find ourselves on site with partly designed buildings and unresolved details where it is very challenging to prove compliance.
Reframing fit-out and the importance of the Responsible No
The session then moved on to explore the FIS work around the Responsible No, with Anthony Armitage of Thirdway talking about the devil in the detail of contracts and why we need to be pushing harder than ever to revert to standard form contracts unamended. He looked at the most common and concerning areas of amendment and the importance of our sector in getting behind the Conflict Avoidance Process. Iain McIlwee looked specifically at challenges in design intent and the consequences of tendering and procurement not being integrated into the design development process. The session concluded with a small group working session where attendees were asked to consider irresponsible asks and three key requests for our clients. The results of this are being reviewed and will be worked up as part of the development of the FIS Responsible No campaign.
Ahead of lunch the group had a demonstration of the OpenSpace Tool
After lunch the group had a demonstration of the FireDNA Tool and the exciting news that FireDNA has expanded their offering to cover partitions and fire stopping of penetrations.
Sustainability reducing the industry’s environmental impact
The first session of the afternoon looked at how we start to better measure the impact of our works. The Net Zero Carbon Building Standard was presented by Dan Doran, this described how the wider construction sector is starting to adopt a more common approach and how FIS members have fed into this process to ensure that the refurbishment of buildings is effectively considered. The impact of multiple fit-outs is significant!! The need to measure more effectively was picked up by Matt Robinson of Ambit who updated those assembled on an FIS Sustainability Working Group looking at more consistent measurement of impact of CAT A to CAT B transitions (and how starting to adopt standard definitions helps). Joe Croft of Overbury picked up here to look at how CAT B impacts with a new “median fit-out” measure now being available to support benchmarking. Rachel Hoolahan of Orms concluded this session by providing a designer’s perspective pulling out some fascinating case studies and perceptions.
The potential for re-use
The final session was an engaging panel discussion led by Paul Gaughan of Lumybel. The topic of re-use was then explored from multiple perspectives. Nicola Forest provided a contractor perspective and Katherine Adams of Reusefully then looked at the requirements of pre-refurbishment audits. A manufacturers perspective came from Nigel Harvey of Recolight and Tim Phillpot of SAS International and Dilush Selva of TP Bennet provided an architect’s perspective. Whilst challenging, it is clear as we gain greater understanding of the impact that re-use is paramount for helping to hit net-zero targets. Whilst challenging to both commercial models and programmes, real progress is being made. Flavie Lowres (FIS Sustainability Champion) finished the session by presenting progress on the FIS Physical Re-use Hub.
In this session Recolight announced a new opportunity for FIS members to get EPDs produced for their products by opening up their partnership with One Click LCA – online LCA and EPD software. If you are interested in finding out more contact LCA@Recolight.co.uk
Finishing on re-use felt like bringing the event full circle and leant into presentations throughout the day (such as FireDNA), construction is moving to a new model of asset management or perhaps a better phrase coined by Rachel Hoolahan, “custodianship”. Across the themes of Compliance, Safety, Productivity and Sustainability, the need for better collaboration and clearer contracts built around better defined duties, ultimately being clear about what is possible in the time and resource allowed and crucially what is impossible. The session finished with a reminder from FIS CEO Iain McIlwee that whilst our focus is getting rid of the culture of amendment, contracts must still be checked – “the devil is the details and if we are not careful the contracts are the gateway to hell!” FIS offers a subsidised contract review service for members here Contractual and Legal – FIS
https://www.thefis.org/industry-day-fit-out/
Thank you to FireDNA for supporting the day
