The importance of data for construction products

The Grenfell Tower tragedy of 2017 provided a much-needed wake-up call for the construction industry.

The fire was, unfortunately, an accident waiting to happen and this was no secret to the parties involved in the specification of the products that were ultimately used on the high-rise building.

The principal reason for the fire spreading rapidly was due to a substitute version of polyethylene cladding panels being used when they were not originally specified. Furthermore, the inquiry found that the marketing material relating to the cladding was also incorrect and it had consistently failed fire tests since 2005.

Another shocking revelation is that similar external wall materials have been used on over 400 other high-rise residential buildings all around the UK.

This has prompted the creation of the Building Safety Bill, a Bill to make provisions about the safety of people in or about buildings as well as the standard they are built to. It is currently progressing through UK Parliament and is expected to become law within the next year or so.

How bimstore improves the specifying process

bimstore, unlike many other online BIM libraries, offers high-quality BIM content that is manufacturer-approved and contains all of the relevant product literature such as data sheets and maintenance information.

Some other BIM platforms do not offer this capability which means specifiers cannot be certain that what they are specifying is most appropriate for the project they are working on.

This helps to maintain a digital Golden Thread of information and ensures that the right people have the right information at the right time to guarantee accountability and to minimise the risk that buildings are not safe and that risks are managed throughout the lifecycle of the building.

Following the Building Safety Bill, an independent regulator will be set up to ensure that all of the marketing material relating to construction products is correct and as accurate as possible. This will mean that testing regimes should become more robust and reliable but most importantly, transparent.

bimstore is recommended by 9 out of 10 manufacturers after seeing an increase in specification, views and downloads of their BIM objects.

Manufacturer? Book a demo