Saxonbury House,
Albion Estate, Brighton
Podium Surveying was appointed to survey and provide a condition report on cracking to a brick panel noted to the Saxonbury block, Albion Hill Estate. The defect was identified during the replacement balcony railings and concrete repair works but is otherwise unconnected to this contract.
The building has a reinforced concrete frame with cavity masonry infill panels supported at each floor level on a projecting concrete support shelf to the floor slab. However, it was soon evident that the defect was part of a broader problem which meant that the external skin of the brickwork to this building was failing due to two historical faults, these being:
At the time of construction, poor building practices have meant that the panels have not been constructed with sufficient restraint, i.e., wall ties correctly fitted or room for expansion vertically between floor slabs.
Poor site practices led to mortar failure; the cavity wall ties provided little restraint to the facing brickwork panels. The scheme which flowed from this process involved the removal and replacement of the whole external brick skin of the building, including the renewal of cavity barriers using a lightweight SFS supported cladding system.
Stakeholder Feedback Process: There are two main types of occupant stakeholders within this building: residents and leaseholders. Their considerations and concerns would have been very different, and as such, it was agreed that two separate consultation processes would need to be carried out. We were invited to present our proposals to both groups, and evening meetings were held to allow the occupants to attend. In both cases, we prepared and presented our proposals and why the work needed to take place. Additionally, as the leaseholders would be expected to financially contribute to the works, this consultation event had a Local Authority leasehold specialist in attendance to answer questions on cost and payment terms.
Each evening meeting had minutes taken, and questions asked were taken and recorded. The records of these meetings were then circulated to all parties involved. As the scheme progressed, it was essential to keep the residents and leaseholders informed. So we planned and attended regular drop-in sessions and circulated newsletters for all the flats involved. These newsletters kept the occupants appraised on the construction works and the timescales and set key targets.
Statutory Approvals: The Planning Department and Building Control are critical statutory requirements in the construction process. Podium Surveying prepared all detailed documentation for the planning and building control processes and made the applications. We also followed this process to success and ensured that any questions and conditions were answered, resolved and discharged to ensure regulatory compliance.
General: Before construction, we needed to feed into internal client approval processes; this included board approval. Whilst we were not directly in attendance in this process, we completed various reports and financial responses to the client for feeding into these processes. Through the construction phase, it was important that client’s key reporting stages were met, and due to this, monthly progress meetings were held so that the client could be kept full appraised of the progress of the works, complaints, delays etc. and the normal construction matters that we would expect to monitor as works progress.
We were also the appointed Principal Designer on this project, so we needed to ensure compliance with the H&S requirement for the works, including all statutory notifications, i.e., F10 and completion of the H&S file at the end of the project.