The Roundtable: Riser Shafts - Who is responsible for designing riser shafts?

Ambar Kelly, a leading expert in riser zone design, has debuted its 2022 Roundtable. The topic of discussion at the Roundtable was: ‘Riser Zones: Whose Responsibility is it Anyway?’ Nick Atkinson, Director of Ambar Kelly, discusses the points raised at the Roundtable.

Ambar Kelly held its 2022 Roundtable, with the hope of bringing to light the important issue of fire safety which is all too often overlooked and neglected by many within the construction sector. In light of the Grenfell tragedy, the construction industry should be doing more collectively to design-out risk in the initial stages of construction. Fundamental to the issue of fire safety in construction is how fire resistance pertains to riser zone design.

Two concurrent ideas are fire safety and riser design, and yet so many contractors are only concerned with the fall from height risk of riser shafts. To create safer buildings, the construction industry needs a paradigm shift in how we see the fundamental purpose of riser design. The fact remains that there is no general consensus for who is responsible for riser zones. This presents a serious issue because contractors throughout the supply chain continue to evade responsibility for riser zone design, despite the riser shaft being a vital component of a building’s safety.

Several valid points were raised about riser safety at the Roundtable. Alex Hill from Whitecode Consulting argued that the best path forward would be to create legislation to legally define those responsible for riser shaft design. Chris Sharman, from the Association for Specialist Fire Protection, demonstrated that early engagement with contractors and holding riser workshops had worked successfully for him in the past. He suggested that getting designers, fire protection product manufacturers, fire-stopping installers, and Mechanical and Electrical consultants in a room to collaborate on a riser shaft design provided a good way to ensure shared responsibility for it.

Ray Cano Perez from BDP, pointed out that upfront expense is one of the main reasons contractors failed to adopt the holistic RiserSafe® solution. He argued that although it paid dividends, contractors were deterred by upfront costs and opted for solutions which were initially cheaper but more expensive in the long term, leading to improper riser shaft design and evasion of responsibility.

At Ambar Kelly, we believe that the risk of fire should be as equally as important as the risk of falling from height. Without considering the design of the riser, and the combustibility of materials, the shaft essentially becomes a chimney which can escalate fire. This is why designers need to take a holistic approach to designing riser zones. Prevention is better than cure in the case of fire safety in building design. Adopting a holistic approach, and involving contractors at every level of the supply chain in riser shaft design can help to prevent fatal fires.

Ambar Kelly’s RiserSafe® flooring is a viable solution to this. It is a total riser zone system; supplying multiple functions across the various disciplines involved in riser design and implementation. This makes the RiserSafe® design beneficial to all key parties involved in the delivery of the project. Moreover, the RiserSafe® is triply beneficial: it saves on costs, it saves on time, and it saves lives. The RiserSafe® has a lower exit price than other products on the market, takes less time to assemble than competitor products, and is far safer in terms of fire protection.

Thanks to modern technology, it is feasible to involve multiple contractors in a design before construction even takes place. Using Building Information Modelling (BIM) it is possible to create solutions in the virtual world, before we transfer them to the real world. When we adopt a holistic approach to riser safety, we create and construct inherently safer buildings for the builder and user.