At CGS Façade Engineering, it has always been our view that composite aluminium should never be used in any building facade. Firmly, we have been at the forefront advocating the industry using solid aluminium or CFC sheets, which are proven to be non-combustible materials.
Following a range of fire disasters, especially after the Grenfell Tower fire in the UK and the Neo 200 Tower fire in Melbourne, regulatory bodies of different countries and states have woken up to the fact that certain types of cladding can be catastrophically dangerous if they catch fire. These fires put lives at risk and have profound impacts to general public and economies.
Over the last several months, we have been engaged on several projects, which needed immediate remedial works and engineering to resolve the foreseeable risks and safety concerns imposed by the combustible claddings, curtainwalls and window walls. Our cost effective repair works on each project have utilised remedial design and our engineering knowledge and experience to prove critical to our clients’ effort in making their buildings safe.
Australian standards are yet to be updated and governments are taking a long time in formulating their policies, however we believe that the best solution is to replace combustible cladding with solid aluminium or CFC sheets which will not burn when tested by AS1530.1.