high-rise residential buildings

Dan Court is a U-shaped seven storey building containing 138 one, two, and three-bedroom apartments in Wembley, London.

Following the ban on combustible materials in the external walls of relevant buildings over 18m1 in England which came into force in 2018, Catalyst Housing appointed Higgins Partnerships to undertake the reclad works and deliver a safe and compliant estate.

Façade systems, and especially the cladding of high-rise buildings, have been, and continue to be, the topic of increased discussion and scrutiny in the construction industry and beyond. Due to recent changes in building regulations, the main driver for recladding projects has been the improvement of fire performance, although new, modern cladding can also improve other aspects of the environment for the users of the building like the thermal and acoustic performance with the added benefit of an updated, aesthetically pleasing design.

Stone wool insulation manufacturer, ROCKWOOL®, has added to its suite of industry support resources with the launch of the Recladding with ROCKWOOL guide for specifiers.

Following the ban on combustible materials in relevant new buildings over 18 metres (ADB updated for England June 2022), many building owners are recladding existing buildings with non-combustible materials that comply with the updated regulations.

From January 23, 2023 all firefighter and evacuation lifts in high rise residential buildings are now subject to an additional new monthly check. Lee Dean director of LECS UK looks at the implications and new responsibilities for owners/ managers of high-rise buildings
The Grenfell Tower Inquiry noted in the Phase 1 report that “When the firefighters attended the fire at Grenfell Tower, they were unable to operate the mechanism that should have allowed them to take control of the lifts.”
The Inquiry recommended that the owner and manager of every high-rise residential building be required by law to carry out regular inspections of any lifts that are designed to be used by firefighters and to report these results to the fire and rescue service at monthly intervals.  They are also required to undertake tests of the mechanism that allows firefighters to take control of the lifts and to inform the fire rescue service monthly that they have undertaken.

The majority of Britain’s tower blocks have originally been designed to provide affordable and safe housing to a large number of residents. With great views and surrounding public open spaces, many of them were created to replace damaged or unsanitary pre-war dwellings, with the aim of modernising our cities and improving the living conditions of many.

However, despite the designers original intentions, tower blocks are now notorious for high energy bills. This is due to the fact that most of these high-rise, multi-occupancy buildings use electric storage heaters that are expensive to run and don’t provide adequate temperature control. This challenge is especially serious in the case of social housing blocks, where residents are particularly vulnerable to fuel poverty.

Fire protection solutions manufacturer, Advanced, has supplied its EvacGo evacuation alert system to two high-rise residential tower blocks in Huyton, Merseyside following a series of fire safety improvements to the buildings.

Following a significant programme of compartmentation works undertaken in 2018, the 11-storey Knowsley Heights buildings have benefitted from a refit that includes installation of Advanced’s EvacGo system, which is compliant with the BS 8629 Code of Practice, for the design, installation, commissioning, and maintenance of evacuation alert systems for use by fire and rescue services in England and Wales.

Polypipe Building Services has provided a complex drainage solution for the refurbishment of an ageing tower block with minimal disruption by manufacturing bespoke drainage stacks offsite.

Collaborating with contractors Mulalley and consultants John Rowan & Partners, the Kent-based drainage system company provided prefabricated products adapted to meet the challenges of this 50-year-old building which had been subject to several adaptations over the years.