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NHBC Foundation
The NHBC Foundation’s latest reports cover
two important topics – the management of
construction site waste, and systemic failure in
house building.
‘Site waste management’ NF8
The management of onsite waste is becoming increasingly important to the
house-building industry. Not only is there a requirement to comply with
environmental legislation (including The Site Waste Management Plans
Regulations, which came into force in April 2008), but also to achieve cost
savings by implementing good environmental practice.
The construction industry uses an estimated 400 million tonnes of resources
every year with 100 million tonnes ending up as waste. Construction projects
involving multiple contractors can lead to confusion about who is responsible
for environmental issues with implications for management of waste and
disposal, licensing and permits, and working out who is responsible when
things go wrong.
In order to simplify the management of site waste, the NHBC Foundation and
the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) funded research carried
out by BRE to help the house-building industry write and implement site waste
management plans (SWMPs) and recognise the associated benefits of putting
these plans into practice.
This guide provides the findings of this research as well as information on
how waste created during the construction process can be managed more
effectively as a result of writing and implementing a SWMP. It also provides a
series of useful templates and checklists.
‘Learning the lessons from systemic building failures’ NF10
Throughout recent centuries there has been a gradual evolution of
house-building practice and a continuous cycle of innovation. From time
to time this innovation has inevitably given rise to unforeseen problems.
Solutions have been found for these problems, lessons have been learnt
and the industry has moved on.
In parallel with the continuous innovation, there has been continuous
refinement of building regulations, and our overall knowledge of what
constitutes good practice has also developed.
With innovative construction systems and materials, new detailing has to
be developed that allows the particular design to be built. In many cases
this leads to inadequate solutions, such as a reliance on sealants where,
for example, a properly detailed flashing might be more appropriate.
Although our overall knowledge has increased, it seems that our ability to
pass that knowledge on to successive generations of professionals has
diminished. This report reviews some historic problems for the benefit of
today’s generation of professionals. It focuses on a number of systemic
building failures that have come to light in various countries over the past
30 years, including:
failure of pre-cast reinforced concrete (PRC) houses in the UK
moisture penetration of external insulation finish systems (EIFS) in
British Columbia, Canada, the United States and New Zealand
failure of structural insulated panel (SIP) roof systems in Alaska, USA.
Site waste management report
Systemic failure in
house building report
ACTION
All NHBC Foundation
reports can be downloaded
at www.NHBCFoundation.org
(click on ‘Projects’ tab to
view all reports).
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