Key revelations from day two of the second phase of the public hearing, as the focus moves on to the combustible cladding and what firms behind the tower’s refurbishment knew.
The buck-passing continued
There was a dizzying round of buck-passing between the companies involved in the refurbishment. The facade contractor Harley said the insulation and cladding were selected by the architect Studio E and the landlord. Studio E said another consultant selected the insulation and Harley had design responsibility for the facade. Exova, the fire engineer, said it was not given details of the proposed cladding system, and Rydon, the main contractor, said Harley was contracted to design the facade.
Firms behind the revamp knew about flammable cladding
Members of the project team knew how the cladding would catch fire on Grenfell. “Metal cladding always burns and falls off,” an architect emailed a fire engineer in spring 2015. An employee of the facade installer told a colleague: “As we all know, the ACM [the combustible cladding panels] will be gone rather quickly in a fire!”
The cladding was proposed in March 2013
The idea of using combustible aluminium composite (ACM) panels first emerged in March 2013, when the council was concerned the budget was overrunning. CEP, the cladding panel and windows fabricator, met Studio E after discussions with the company that made the cladding, Arconic, and they discussed switching from zinc to a cheaper option. When the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) dropped its main contractor, Leadbitter, they sought a cheaper alternative.
Approval was given to cut costs by more than £400,000
Harley Facades said it could save £454,000 by using ACM. KCTMO gave final approval for the cladding in October 2014. But Exova, the fire engineer, was “more or less left out of any communications, any information or details of the proposed cladding system”. Celotex again said that it had discovered differences between the cladding system that it subjected to a British standard fire test in 2014 and the description of that system in its marketing literature.
