CROSS Safety Report
Need for licensed builders
This report is over 2 years old
Overview
A reporter feels certain building work should only be carried out by licensed qualified builders.
Key Learning Outcomes
For all built environment professionals:
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It is important to recognise and know the boundaries of your expertise and work within the limits of your competence
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Be aware that Health and Safety legislation places duties on individuals as well as companies to ensure that they do not put people at risk of harm
Full Report
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Certain building operation should only be carried out by licensed qualified builders, says a reporter. They believed that the creation of a basement below an existing building is far too complicated and dangerous for the inexperienced operatives that abound in this industry.
The photograph (Figure 1) shows inadequate propping of a house and illustrates what happens when inexperienced builders are let loose on a basement excavation. This was two weeks after building control staff served a dangerous structure notice on the builder for undermining the foundations whilst digging the basement.
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Feedback
I agree with Peter Hyatt's suggestion that full plans are desirable for a wider range of work than currently catered for by the Building Act. The sophistication and complexity of basement (and loft) constructions were perhaps not envisaged when this was drafted. This is a subject under review by the Department of Communities and Local Government. Recent research work for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) explores how closer co-operation and effectiveness could be achieved between Building Control, which does visit site during the construction phase, and the HSE. There are now arrangements in place between the Building Control Alliance and HSE to allow this to happen (http://www.buildingcontrolalliance.org/2010/09/hse-bca-sign-new-agreeme…). Notwithstanding, it is not correct to say that safety legislation, and CDM specifically, does not apply to domestic alterations. It applies in full, with the sole exception of the client, who, if a householder, has no duties. Whether duties are discharged is another issue!
Local Authority Building Control are entitled to request additional information, including structural calculations, in connection with Building Notice applications and, in my experience, often do so. Approved Inspectors are not allowed to issue a final notice if they are aware that the works do not comply with the Building Regulations (according to Direct.gov.co.uk) and are entitled to withdraw the Initial Notice under these circumstances. This action would re-assign the Building Control function to the Local Authority, which has enforcement powers. There would appear to be only limited instances where Building Control can require Full Plans applications and these relate to means of escape and building use. It would appear that 'ordinary' residential projects do not fall into this category, even for relatively complex underpinning and basement construction. There would seem to be a good case to make for an amendment to the Building Act to require Full Plans applications for all works involving, say, substantial demolition, underpinning and the construction of basements - maybe in other situations, too. This might particularly apply to residential alterations and refurbishments, carried out for the private owners of the property, where many of the rigors imposed by the CDM regulations are not applied. There might also be a separate case to be made to extend the categories under which the full CDM regulations do apply, to include substantial structural works to privately owned residential properties. It would seem to be a complete anomaly that some of the most challenging building works, at risk of being undertaken by small contractors without adequate experience or resources, are excluded from much of the relevant health & safety controls.
Expert Panel Comments
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Extending accommodation by extending basements is becoming common and in sophisticated cases even double basements may be added. The CROSS Panel is aware of many instances of local collapse and indeed of complete building collapse where this work has not been carried out properly. Not only is there damage but deaths and injuries have resulted from improper basement construction. Older properties are particularly at risk since they often have shallow foundations (or no proper foundations), the brickwork bonding may be poor, and the mortar may be weak.
There can be no guarantee that the foundation level is uniform so leading to a requirement for underpinning. Design issues are carrying vertical load, resisting lateral pressure (for basement wall stability and bending) and assuring that the stability of adjacent property is not jeopardised. Clients should use competent people but too often the cheapest option is chosen.
The DCLG Competent Persons Scheme aims to reduce these risks by giving ‘notified’ organisations under The Building Regulations the powers to provide a building control function for some types of building activity or refurbishment work. Basement work however requires building regulation approval and in many cases the intervention of building control, sometimes by the serving of dangerous building notices, has prevented collapse.
Building control cannot control the qualifications or experience of those carrying out the work indeed they cannot require detailed plans of the work. The applicant often uses a building notice procedure which does not require the deposit of plans.