Homes should be constructed with fire safety in mind

15 March 2010

My first mentor as a chartered surveyor was a lovely old bloke called Barry Bracegirdle, who was 70 if he was a day, when I kicked off my so-called career some 30 years ago.

Out of respect, during the five years we worked together I never called him anything other than Mr Bracegirdle and he taught me much of what I know about old buildings.

One thing he said to me has always stuck - that one day houses will be constructed to be self-maintaining and as a consequence the surveying industry will cease to exist.

I think old Barry may have been exaggerating a bit but his comments resonated with me last week.

I was pleased to read about a product which has been developed that falls into the category of ’why on earth didn’t anyone think of it before?’.

It seems a clever company has come up with a one-piece chimney stack constructed of lightweight concrete but made to replicate brickwork and stone.

Because of their exposed location chimney stacks are forever needing to be repointed and repaired but now you can simply demolish and replace the whole unit with a structure that should not need maintenance for decades.

Of course, we are already in similar territory with external joinery that can be replaced with plastic - particularly fascias, barge boards and soffits.

Sprinkler systems are required in commercial buildings that are less at risk of fire than houses

All these features are prone to hidden decay as they are usually high up and nobody examines them closely.

Replacing features is all well and good unless you happen to own a listed building, in which case you are stuffed.

If I had a pound for every time I’ve cautioned people against buying listed buildings I would be as wealthy as an MP who has just received their expenses cheque.

Owning a listed pile may be an interesting subject of dinner party conversation but only until you are faced with the expense of having to renew features like-for-like.

At this point you will find yourself at the beck and call of a pimply conservation officer with no sense of humour.

Despite the fact that some regulations can be irksome I was pleased that the Welsh Assembly voted last week to make fire-preventing sprinkler systems mandatory in new homes.

Again, I had to wonder why this was not legislation already. After all, regulations regarding fire compartmentation are exceedingly complicated.

For example, all new loft conversion have to include self-closing fire doors and low-level velux windows to the front of the building for escape purposes.

So why not sprinkler systems? These are required in new commercial buildings that are usually only occupied during the day and are probably less at risk of fire than houses.

It seems like common sense to me so let’s hope this excellent initiative is introduced throughout the UK in the near future.