Using Fire Engineering for Redevelopment Projects

It might seem obvious that fire engineering can be very effectively used in developing fire strategies for new projects, but it might not be so obvious that this is as applicable on a redevelopment project, but it might actually be even better placed to benefit from fire engineering.

Firstly its quite common for existing buildings not to comply with the current building regulations. Now that might not actually be a problem. It is not necessary for an existing building to be upgraded to comply with current standards (with the exception of conversions) provided the existing situation is made no worse. The new areas need to comply with current standards.

Making the new elements comply with current standards when working with an existing building obviously has its difficulties, more so compared with a new build. Were on a new build a wall may just be a couple of lines on a drawing, at least at the early stages of a project, and can easily be moved this obviously isn't the case in an existing building. The use of a fire engineering solution to justify why the new construction cannot comply due to the existing building structure can therefore be useful.

If your building is listed then its not just the difficulty of physically moving the wall (or whatever it may be that's causing the problem) but it may not be allowed to preserve the building’s heritage. The fire codes recognise the difficulties associated with upgrading and altering existing buildings and suggest the alternative fire engineering solutions may be more appropriate.

If your dealing with an existing building then there is maybe even more reason that using a fire engineer would be beneficial to the project.