CROSS Safety Report
Design deficiencies in calculations submitted to a Local Authority
This report is over 2 years old
Overview
A Local Authority Building Control manager has sent a list which gives twenty nine of the more serious design review queries raised by the building control structural checking process over the last five years.
Key Learning Outcomes
For civil and structural design engineers:
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A quality assurance system within your organisation, that includes the internal checking of calculations, can help prevent safety issues from occurring
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Competent supervision of design by experienced personnel can allow less experienced engineers to develop a feel for the right solution
Full Report
Find out more about the Full Report
The Full Report below has been submitted to CROSS and describes the reporter’s experience. The text has been edited for clarity and to ensure anonymity and confidentiality by removing any identifiable details. If you would like to know more about our secure reporting process or submit a report yourself, please visit the reporting to CROSS-UK page.
A Local Authority Building Control manager has sent a list which gives twenty nine of the more serious (and most typical) design-review queries raised by the building control structural checking process in their area over the last five years. This is within a predominantly rural council. A third of the projects represent more serious risks to longer term safety.
It is interesting to note, says the reporter, that all but two of the designers whose work was incomplete in some way, were Chartered Engineers and members of either the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) or the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE). The suggestion from other quarters would seem to be, says the reporter, that it is only amateurs producing beam calculations who pose any real danger.
They continue: ‘Please understand, I am in no way criticising the status, qualification or technical excellence of a Chartered Engineer. I am, however, making the point that in a commercial world, where time is money, there is no real substitute for a genuine, independent third party check.’
From the detailed facts provided the following have been extracted:
Type of building |
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|
Problem |
|
|
Materials involved* |
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new build |
12 |
|
dangerous structures |
10 |
|
steelwork |
13
|
modifications and conversions
|
17 |
|
design defects |
9 |
|
timber |
7 |
other | 10 | masonry | 5 | ||||
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|
|
|
|
|
concrete |
4 |
*May be more than one material involved |
|
|
Of the 13 steelwork cases 4 were new build and 9 were modifications and conversions whilst of the 4 concrete cases 3 were in foundations. Nine examples were from sole practitioners, 13 were from what are described as small practices, 5 from medium sized practices, and 2 were from ‘top 10’ practices.
Some quotations from the report:
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New 35m span portal. Secondary moments in bracing connections, out of plane buckling restraint to main stanchions - too far from haunch and missing in some locations, fitted stiffeners designed (in calcs), but not on drawings, un-tied bases adjacent to service trenches
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Loft conversion. 254 UC section primary beams seated on timber head-plate spreader with only single stud adjacent. No stud continuity to foundation level
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New school hall. Gable end wall panel unrestrained - vaulted roof. No buttressing or wind posts - remedial work required
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Timber framed warehouse. Post and beam structure provided with only 50% of required wind bracing
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New public office building. Load bearing masonry design - 15m square. Engineer shows no buttressing walls or wind posts - inner skin 100mm. Also, no overall designer (as required by BS) - trussed rafter design, bracing details and girder fixings all inadequate
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Feedback
Some of the issues raised in this report resonate with what I and colleagues have been discussing recently. In my experience, engineers do not carry out sufficient checking. I would go further and say that some, especially sole practitioners and small firms, rely on Building Control as their checking engineer. I think it is often the case that Building Control do not have the resources to carry out proper checking themselves and I know of cases where the commercial structure of how checking is sub-contracted out to consulting engineers by Building Control is not viable (e.g. contracts for checking let on ridiculously low hourly rates). One might see this as an argument for self-certification but my experience of working in such an environment saps still furher my confidence that checking is properly carried out. In this case, firms check and certify their own work (actually they employ certifiers) when they are under certainly no less commercial pressure to issue their design than when they were being checked by Building Control. In the case of 'self-certification', the certifiers are audited but our experiences of this does nothing to reassure. Audits seem to have focussed on minor or secondary issues such as the certifiers failure to specifically cerftify nailed fixings of domestic stud partitions and not looking at the certifiers' competence and dilligence in a broader sense. My belief is that independent review is a better system and should perhaps be mandatory.
Expert Panel Comments
Expert Panels comment on the reports we receive. They use their experience to help you understand what can be learned from the reports. If you would like to know more, please visit the CROSS-UK Expert Panels page.
These demonstrate that problems can occur whatever the material used and whether or not the designer, or at least the person submitting the scheme, is qualified. This is not the usual view which is that unqualified persons are most likely to get it wrong, and it would be interesting to know how many of these examples had proper checking before submission.
CROSS has previously recommended that calculations have a front sheet giving the fundamentals of the design assumptions and a brief description of the structure so that those who check know what to look for (see SCOSS Biennial Report 16 Appendix C).