How to remediate combustible timber or composite balconies after failed EWS1 survey

Leaseholders up and down the country have been caught in an incredibly frustrating and difficult situation across the last 18 months. In the aftermath of the Grenfell fire, mortgage lenders became increasingly reluctant to provide loans on properties in high-rise buildings.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the BSA, and UK Finance developed the External Wall Fire Review scheme (and the EWS1 survey form) in an attempt to provide an industry-led solution. Sadly, the scheme was derailed almost immediately after launch when the Government amended its building safety guidance in the MHCLG Consolidated Advice Note of January 2020.

Since then, leaseholders have faced demands from lenders for completed and passing EWS1 forms for seemingly all multi-occupancy buildings. The result of this has been utter chaos, with long waits for surveys (often estimated in years rather than months) and many buildings failing EWS1 for the presence of flammable cladding or combustible materials on balconies. For failed buildings, the only solution is to fully remediate all fire safety issues, replacing combustible materials with non-combustible alternatives.

So, if you live in a building that has failed EWS1 due to the balconies you will be asking the question; “how can I resolve this?”.

Unfortunately, individual leaseholders in a block are actually unable to independently remediate their own balconies to resolve the problem; the EWS1 failure applies to the whole building and a passing survey will not be achieved until all fire safety defects in the whole block are remediated.

Our advice to leaseholders is to gather as much information about potential solutions as possible, such as collating product datasheets for our aluminium decking from our downloads page, for example. Armed with this firm detail, leaseholders or residents associations are then much more able to engage productively with their building management companies in moving solutions forward.

As a trade only and supply only business, and also bearing in mind the whole-block status of EWS1 failures, AliDeck is only able to provide EWS1 remediation quotes to building management companies or their contractors.

We require detailed architectural plans of the full balcony package on the building, along with as many photographs showing the current condition of the combustible decking, support beams, and steel framework. A site visit may be required for larger scale developments.

Once we are able to engage with the building’s managing company, the provision of all of these factors will allows us to provide a full, detailed and precise quote for the remediation materials.