🔥 🧯 Moral Bankruptcy: Falsification over Fire Safety
Another nasty experience from my reclad. What happened and could it have been prevented?
Major defects emerged within weeks of final completion: one kind was goo oozing from several areas around the metal fire stairs.
An individual in a position of responsibility and the steel fire stairs supplier, Obelisk, actively agreed to use the wrong paint and also no fire paint I’m not sure if the responsible person was really aware of the omission may be just the change. The specification was well documented but they over-rode it. This allowed considerable savings (I had been charged an extra $40,000 for the fire paint).
This defect began when I saw the steel stairs on site and thought they did not looking right. I raised my concerns.
One person immediately knew what was wrong but didn’t tell me, I was being “difficult”. They set about ‘fixing it’: stripping the top coat by sanding it in place, apply fire paint with no suitable primer or undercoat, then repainted in place.
Months later it started oozing the white goo and I was kicked-to-touch yet again. Stonewalled, hoping I would go away — Yeah, right!! 🤣
So it was time for a Kirsty Deep Dive 🔍
I went directly into the problem calling the companies involved and put the paperwork under the microscope, I discovered:
🤔 Everyone blamed the specifier (me included at the time)
🤔 The quality documentation supplied was FALSE, substituted structural steel documents from another block – no one provided me with real ones
🤔 Obelisk had actively agreed with an individual to change the paint system
🤔 No fire paint was used at all to begin with and when added, not added to all areas
🤔 The specifications and contracts were excellent, but just wrapping paper, worth nothing
The specifier got busy. They took samples sent them to the lab to prove the omission had occurred. Well done gents!
Months later, I learned the stairs were totally non-compliant.
Yet another example of hashtagdodgy behaviour in an industry that allows those with low morals to operate and put their ‘fellows’ at risk.
It’s an industry where falsifying processes is far too easy: who is checking the checkers? Pop a placeholder document in and Bob’s your Uncle, the gap has been filled! Paint by numbers and don’t think!
Had I not spent time looking on site, this would have 100% been missed, no one would have known.
😇 It is being fixed?
When the head contractor changed management, it took mere days for a complete 180-degree turn.
WE, yes WE, pooled our information. We found the truth, I documented it.
But are they also victims? Obelisk supplied to Du Val, did this mean they lost money and had to recover it somehow?
