SFPE Construction Monitoring Guide

Three years in the making and published in August 2021, the SFPE Construction Monitoring Guide has been written by an SFPE (NZ) working group comprising representatives from several experienced fire engineering practitioners.

A purpose of the Building Act 2004 is that people who use buildings can do so safely. Achieving this means buildings need fire safety features that will permit people to escape from the building if it is on fire.

This level of safety requires building owners, designers, contractors, and BCAs to work together. Buildings must be designed, constructed, and maintained throughout their life in a suitable way. Key to achieving this is having a complete and coordinated building design that is fully implemented by the contractor(s).

At the completion of these stages, the BCA should grant a Code Compliance Certificate (CCC). A CCC provides assurance, on reasonable grounds, to the building owner (and the building occupants) that the construction work meets the Building Code to the extent required by the Building Act. Finally, sufficient documentation should be recorded on the building’s Compliance Schedule, including inspection, maintenance, and reporting procedures, to enable ongoing compliance and certification of any building safety systems or features (Specified Systems).

This document considers how designers should monitor construction work undertaken by the contractor. It focuses specifically on fire engineering issues, which typically relate to the following Building Code clauses:

• C1 Objectives of Clauses C2-C6

• C2 Prevention of fire occurring

• C3 Fire affecting areas beyond the fire source

• C4 Movement to a place of safety

• C5 Access and safety for firefighting operations

• C6 Structural stability

It is also relevant to the following clauses to the extent they relate to ‘means of escape from fire’:

• D1 – Access routes (e.g. escape route design)

• F6 – Visibility in escape routes (e.g. emergency lighting systems)

• F7 – Warning Systems (e.g. fire alarm systems)

• F8 – Signs (e.g. EXIT signs, fire door labels etc.)

The purpose of construction monitoring is to confirm that the building work has been completed in accordance with the building consent documentation (e.g. the fire engineering design). This gives the client and the BCA independent verification on reasonable grounds (to the extent of the consultant’s engagement) that the works by the contractor have been completed in accordance with specified requirements.

Existing guidance on undertaking construction monitoring activities in New Zealand has been published by Engineering New Zealand and the New Zealand Construction Industry Council (CIC).

The Engineering New Zealand guideline is general, covering all types of engineering services, and providing a way to define the appropriate level of construction monitoring (CM) service. It suggests the CM service will be influenced by the size, the importance and the complexity of the construction works, as well as the experience and demonstrated skill in quality management of the constructor.

The CIC Guidelines seek to enhance the quality of our built environment by providing general checklists and benchmarks to define the design and construction process for all design disciplines.

While these existing guidelines are useful, the building industry lacks specific guidance to support fire engineering construction monitoring.

Achieving quality building and quality fire safety outcomes

The purpose of the Construction Monitoring Guide is to achieve quality fire safety outcomes for buildings during the construction stage. It suggests detailed actions for the fire engineer and highlights clear and reasonable expectations of other people who may influence these outcomes.

One of the purposes of the Building Act is that people who use buildings can do so safely. This means completed buildings need to be compliant with the safety provisions of the Act. This is only possible if quality is integral to both the design and construction stages (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: The Pathway towards a Completed Compliant Building

It is important to remember that even a simple building is a complex system comprising many elements. Construction relies on many people with various skills, knowledge, and experience. Factors such as timeframes, commercial pressures, labour shortages, and climate further complicate the construction process.

Constructing a building of the necessary quality, which meets Building Code requirements, requires each member of the team to do their job well and work together.

Achieving a quality building means ‘quality’ is embedded throughout the construction phase, from start to finish. Beyond having skilled and competent builders, this expectation includes the administrative and procedural activities of the construction company. Assigning construction monitoring to an impartial third party like a designer (e.g. architect or engineer) contributes to the quality of the project.

A further layer of quality control relies on the actions of the BCA in inspecting the construction works as they exercise their responsibilities under the Building Act. BCA officers must obtain necessary evidence to satisfy themselves that the construction works are compliant, and a Code Compliance Certificate can be issued.

Third party construction monitoring (e.g. by a designer or BCA) is not intended to check every element onsite. It is a ‘spot checking’ task where random samples of critical work are checked. The quality of these third-party checks is limited by the quantity and duration of inspections and the number of work samples checked.

This monitoring is not intended to replace the contractor’s responsibility to continually monitor the quality of the construction work undertaken. The contractor’s quality processes are to span from their project planning stage (before beginning work on site) through to their final day on-site.

The NZ Chapter of the SPFE encourages all participants in the fire safety industry and built environment sector to inform themselves of their obligations during the construction phases of a project. This new Guide provides a fantastic resource for gaining a better understanding, and some useful tools for planning and documenting construction observation work.

The Guide is available for FREE at www.sfpe.org.nz/resources