The Boardwalk, Eastbourne
The Boardwalk Directors Ltd
The Boardwalk Directors Ltd appointed Podium Surveying to conduct a cladding review on six residential buildings in Sovereign Harbour, Eastbourne. The Boardwalk is a development of six leasehold residential buildings, managed by Fell Reynolds on behalf of the Leaseholders.
All six buildings that form the Boardwalk have a top floor above 18m and are classed as “relevant buildings” under Part B of the current Building Regulations. Furthermore, the Fire Safety Act received royal assent on 29 April 2021 and came into force on 16 May 2022, amending the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. The Act seeks to extend the scope of existing fire risk assessments and the obligations of the Responsible Person to include external walls (including balconies and, in some circumstances, building structure) on any building of two or more residential premises. The Act also introduces a requirement to assess fire doors in both communal and individual flat entrances.
The Boardwalk project has involved a full desktop cladding review, intrusive investigation and report, and fire risk assessments for all buildings. We have also carried out a compartmentation survey and are currently designing the internal remediation of the compartments and fire doors within the buildings.
Our role includes providing a complete Design and Contract Administration service for the resultant remedial cladding, balcony, and car park soffit remedial works that have been identified. In all these locations, we identified combustible materials that did not comply with the Building Regulations at the time of construction.
Our brief is to ensure that any new cladding applied is compliant with the Part B of the current Building Regulations and other relevant legislation, thus ensuring minimal risk to its residents concerning the spread of fire.
We have also achieved 81% funding for the works through the Building Safety Fund. Following the completion of the works, we will assist in the provision of a signed EWS1 form for each building using a Fire Engineer who is employed by the client. The works are being carried out over a phased, two-year approach. Our role includes the full consultation with the Planning Department, Building Control, the Health and Safety Executive and the East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service.
Our regular on-site attendance has been crucial in identifying defects in the existing construction and developing innovative techniques and designs to repair these hidden defects. Many of the defects included compartmentation and water penetration issues.
The works are currently at the mid-way point, with five buildings currently at some stage of repair and recladding.