Preparing safety case reports structural water ingress

Help to prepare safety case reports

This information is for Accountable Persons (APs) of high-rise buildings to assist them in preparing safety case reports for Building Assessment Certificates that include prolonged or uncontrolled water ingress

The safety case report must demonstrate that all reasonable steps have been taken to prevent building safety risks happening from water ingress and reduce the seriousness if they do.

Scenario

Evidence of prolonged or uncontrolled water ingress.

Background and possible reasons

Evidence could include:

spalling of concrete. Spalling is different from cracking.
- concrete spalling is when a piece of concrete breaks away from the main structure.
- a common cause for this is corrosion of the steel reinforcement
water damage, mould etc.
water or damage in plant rooms/other seldom visited areas

Short term responses

The first thing to do is inspect/investigate what has happened.

You should:

identify where the water is coming from
Identify where the water is going to.
- If it isn’t obviously pooling, it must be going somewhere. This could cause further problems
Assess the damage the water ingress has caused

You may be able to do this yourself. If you suspect there may be structural damage (for example if the ingress is serious or has been going on for a long-time) you may need a structural engineer to help assess what has happened.

You should then identify and take any urgent action needed.

Additional responses

Prioritise the measures you need to take prevent more damage occurring and to repair any damage already caused. Put plans in place to deliver this work.

Make sure any work is carried out by competent people and to any relevant standards.