This terrible incident happened in June 2017 where a fire spread from one apartment in a high 24-storey tower block in London, to affect the rest of the block and end in numerous deaths and injuries. Simply horrendous to see, and worrying to contemplate as the story unfolds about what not only caused this, but why the fire spread so seriously throughout the whole property.

 

There are already countless reports of this through the news and investigations, with a focus on looking at similar tower blocks for potentially dangerous materials like external cladding, in addition to a continued investigations into the site and situation. The technicalities will continue to unfold, which will hopefully lead to people being accountable for...

The Construction (Design & Management) Regulations 2015 are the latest 'CDM' regs you might hear mentioned as being needed for construction works. They originate from back in the early nineties and EU directives, with a re-vamp in the 2007 version of these, and then again in the 2015 ones.

 

In short, they encourage construction and building works to be safe, and reduce the accidents and deaths caused from these works. The emphasis is on all those involved, from the client right down to the actual contractor, to make sure things are done correctly and safely.

 

It's part of the whole 'health and safety' compliance side of things, and one of many specific pieces of ‘H&S’ legislation and angles that need to be...

Most people will have heard of asbestos issues within properties, although often not the complete story. This therefore can result in people panicking over the wrong issues about asbestos, and under-rating those that do in actual fact count.

 

This all stems from some materials being constructed from certain fibrous materials, namely chrysotile, crocidolite, amosite, anthophyllite, tremolite, and actinolite. So building materials like roofing tiles, floor tiles, ceiling and artex materials, and general boarding can all have this within them. 

 

From around the 1970s people began to realise that these toxic elements can cause life-threatening illnesses like lung and respiratory conditions. In short, if these are inhaled...