March 2022

South East Fire & Vent were recommended by a Consultant we have previously worked with to help with a planning issue at a Doctors Surgery in East London.

The previous installation company had miss-sold the project based upon incorrect information & product selection given to the end user & wasted 10s of thousands of pounds installing 2 “closed protocol” mechanical smoke clearance systems that did not have planning permission for them.

The original system was only installed in 2018 & we were asked to come in & provide a solution to the site that complied with current Building Regulations.

Due to the issues over the last 2 years we finally provided a solution in early January 2022 & commenced works late February 2022 & the works were completed within 3 weeks.

Where possible we kept the existing installation functional & tested to ensure functionality of it.

Our scope of works were to;

  • Remove safely the 2 smoke clearance fan sets on the roof – we used specific scaffolding to access roof areas to safely clear the fans from site avoiding the Doctors Surgery being open to the public
  • Removed a small damper set in the basement smoke shaft & replaced it with a specific 1.5sqm SafeAir motorised damper & installed one of our SEFV Controllers
  • Installed a 2sqm Weather Louver at the exterior of the smoke shaft to allow a constant flow of air from the smoke shaft out
  • Installed a Sertus 1.5sqm EN1201 Approved Roof Vent to clear the reception area of the building & installed a Haes SZAOV Control Panel.

Unfortunately this was a classic case of the original contractor not offering the correct information to the end user or questioning the original design provided & as we have so often found, the life safety was so completely over engineered & not required, which was the reason we were recommended for this project.

As we have often said in previous posts, it is the responsibility of the Installer at design/quotation stage to question/offer alternative designs to the end user in terms of compliancy because in this case our costs could have been avoided & monies would have been saved.

It also brings into question installers credentials & integrity where they would happily charge the end user for something they do not need instead of recommending the correct equipment at design/quotation stage.

At South East Fire & Vent we pride ourselves at being open & honest with our Clients at all stages & wherever possible we will ALWAYS offer alternatives where they are available to not only save the Client monies but to ensure that the correct equipment is fitted from the beginning.

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