Grenfell fire could have been avoided and 72 lives would have been saved if one key construction role – that seems to have nearly died out in the industry – was filled, a building expert has said.
Owner of east London based building company Tarbrook, Sherman Webb, has 43 years of experience in the construction trade believes that the 2017 tragedy could have been avoided had there been a clerk of the works on site during the refurbishment of the tower.
A clerk of the works (CoW) is employed by the client to inspect the workmanship, quality and safety of work on construction sites and highlight any design and specification shortcomings.
The CoW role has died out over the years to cut costs with clients relying on site inspectors instead which is a broad term encompassing anyone who inspects a construction site, potentially including individuals from the contractor’s team as well as the client’s representative, so are less likely to be as thorough as a CoW.
Mr Webb, 59, who has worked with local council on public sector jobs, said: ‘They’ve saved so much money getting rid of clerk of the works but it may have cost us human lives.’
Owner of east London based building company Tarbrook, Sherman Webb (pictured), has 43 years of experience in the construction trade believes that the 2017 tragedy could have been avoided had there been a clerk of the works on site during the refurbishment of the tower
The Grenfell Tower fire in West London in June 2017 left 72 people dead in a shocking tragedy
Grenfell Tower pictured the day after the fire
Highlighting the importance and value of the role, he said: ‘The clerks that I have worked with in the past have all been ex-tradesmen, pretty much all carpenters. They have a working knowledge of how things are put together and the materials that are used.
‘They are on hand should you come across something unexpected and advise and discuss the best way around the problem with both the contractor and designers.’
He added: ‘I learnt very quickly to get the clerk involved early in the job, find out what he expected and do just that, if the clerk is happy, you get paid!
There was some confusion during the Grenfell Tower Inquiry around whether or not there was a CoW working on the Grenfell refurbishment site.
In 2020, the Grenfell Inquiry was shown evidence of Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation’s (KCTMO) tender documents, which stated the requirement for a clerk of works with experience of cladding.
John Rowan and Partners (JRP) were the firm hired by KCTMO to provide this service but the consultant they sent to do the job, Jon White, told the Grenfell Tower Inquiry in 2020 that he was not acting as a clerk of the works.
Mr White said: ‘It is important, in my opinion, to explain that there seems to be a misunderstanding in what my role, and by association, that of my employers JRP, was on the Grenfell Tower project.
‘A more accurate description of my role and function was one of site inspector or site monitor of works. This was because our role was far more limited in its scope and our overall involvement.’
He added: ‘Perhaps this discrepancy needs to be raised in terms of awareness within the construction industry as a whole.’
Jon White, told the Grenfell Tower Inquiry in 2020 that he was not acting as a clerk of the works on the Grenfell refurbishment
A graphic showing how the structure of the cladding supplied by Arconic allowed the fire to spread
While Mr White had experience with cladding, he admitted that he had only ever worked on one project that involved rainscreen cladding before Grenfell. He said he was unaware that there KCMTO required a clerk of the works with experience in this particular kind of cladding.
He said: ‘The cladding could be anything: it could be brickwork, glazing, stonework, so I have got lots of experience in cladding.’
When the counsel for the inquiry asked him whether the KCTMO was ever informed of his lack of experience on rainscreen cladding projects, he replied: ‘I don’t know.’
An email from JRP to KCTMO project manager Claire Williams on 16 July, 2014 was shown in evidence, in which Mr White was stated to be clerk of works.
The counsel asked Mr White: ‘Did you ever say to [Williams], “I am not a clerk of works, I am a site inspector”?’ to which he replied: ‘No.’
When asked if he had ever explained the difference to the KCTMO, he said: ‘No, because everyone gets confused between the term “clerk of works” and “site inspector”, so we were anxious just to carry on and do whatever she [Williams] wanted us to do.’
Mr White told the inquiry that at the time he didn’t know the type of cladding, insulation or cavity barriers that were being used on Grenfell and that he was never given manufacturer’s instructions for any of these products and never asked to see them.
The Grenfell Inquiry found that the cladding and insulation used was highly combustible and so didn’t meet UK regulations but was made to look like it did with misleading documents.
The cavity barriers, which are installed behind the cladding to prevent flames and smoke from spreading via the walls, were so poorly installed that they were deemed ‘totally ineffective’.
Christopher Mort, a technical officer for fire at cavity barrier firm Siderise inspected the undamaged cladding and fire-damaged cladding a year after the Grenfell fire and said the installation of the barriers, which was undertaken by subcontractor Osborne Berry for cladding specialist Harley Curtain Wall, was ‘probably of the poorest standard I have ever seen’.
Christopher Mort, a technical officer for fire at cavity barrier firm Siderise, told the Grenfell Tower Inquiry that the installation of the cavity barriers was ‘probably of the poorest standard I have ever seen’
An inquiry found the cladding was the ‘principal reason’ for the fire’s spread (illustrated here in this graphic)
When Mr White was questioned about whether he thought it was his responsibility to check that products were being installed in compliance with instructions, he said: ‘No, I didn’t think that was my role.’
White said he wasn’t aware of fire regulations in detail at the time of working on Grenfell, and said he didn’t familiarise himself with the requirements of building regulations. When asked why, he said: ‘That wasn’t my role.’
Mr Webb believes that the Grenfell fire could have been avoided if had there been a clerk of the works with the correct experience working on the towers refurbishment.
He said: ‘I know there was some combustible materials already on the building and remained there and were cladded over, I’m sure a clerk of the works would have questioned this…. I know I would!
‘I am not sure how he would deal with misleading paperwork, he would of definitely picked up on how badly the cavity barriers were fitted and should fire socks be in place, his name would be on that job and the old guys I worked with would not put their name to something that wasn’t right.
‘An experienced clerk of the works working directly for the employer could well have prevented the disaster.’
Mr Webb believes that the Grenfell fire could have been avoided if had there been a clerk of the works with the correct experience working on the towers refurbishment
Smoke rises from the fire at the Grenfell Tower in 2017 as firefighters spray the building with water to put out any remaining flames
Mr Webb also believes that competitive tendering – a process where multiple suppliers compete to win a contract – is partly to blame for corner cutting and a decline of quality, long-lasting construction.
He said: ‘In this day and age everything is competitively tendered, health and safety being my biggest bug bear, health and safety is included as part of a contractor’s tender submission, surely this can be done on a percentage basis of the contracts total cost. Why are we competitively tendering for a mans safety?
‘The building game is full of consultants who consult mainly on how to absolve themselves of any responsibility.
‘The clerk of the works that I worked with was always directly employed by the client, he worked every day and wasn’t under a budget or restricted to how many site visits he made, his role was not competitively tended for.
‘The guys fitting the cladding would most likely be on a price, if there is not a clerk with working knowledge of cladding, who checks the work? It’s human nature to earn as much money as you can, so corners can and will be cut if no one is there to check.
‘It’s easy to make a job look good at the end, but its how its put together that makes it last. That is what the clerk of works job was in a nutshell. Make sure it is built to last!’