Fire Durability Performance - Insurers and Mortgage Lenders Will

							Fire & Durability Performance – Insurers and
Mortgage Lenders Will Limit the Scope for
Lightweight Prefabrication                                                                                                by Brian Ó Murchú


Views of British Insurers on
fire and durability of light-
weight modular homes,
shared by the Irish Insurance
Industry
                   and flooding Ireland are
AlthoughinstormsMexicanthoseinexperienced
   on a lesser scale than
recently     the            Gulf, scenes of
devastation caused by hurricane Katrina to
New Orleans and parts of Mississippi and
Texas will do little to calm the fears of Irish
insurers and mortgage lenders in relation to
fire, wind and durability issues concerning
lightweight framed housing. The recent
tragedy highlights the susceptibility of
lightweight homes to damage and raises
questions in relation to the durability of
Ireland’s future housing stock.
   A recent article in Ireland’s Off-site
Construction magazine highlighted the
growing concern of insurers and mortgage
lenders in relation to fire and durability
performance aspects of lightweight modular
buildings. The article entitled ‘UK Insurers       increasingly used for low-cost housing, are       insurance assessor with Allianz insurance,
could kill of modular market’ said that            often more of a fire hazard than other            opened his presentation by stating that if
‘despite the current push for off-site             construction methods. The ABI also                the insurance industry had its way that all
manufacture in the UK, it looks like               expressed concern that the cost of repairing      buildings would be constructed in concrete,
prefabricated homes may not be a solution          such construction after fire ‘can be              because of the inherent durability and fire
to the UK’s housing shortage if mortgage           significant’. ‘The social and economic costs      resistance of that form of construction.
lenders’ views are anything to go by.              of major fires in such constructions will be      Referring to lightweight steel frame
   The article reported that a prominent           enormous’, an ABI spokesman said. ‘The            construction, Mr. Byrne expressed deep
developer in the U.K. had experienced              cost of repair can be significant, particularly   reservations as to its insurability in the
‘severe scepticism’ from mortgage lenders          where the structure has to disassembled in        housing context. In relation to lightweight
regarding modular homes. This comment              order to slot in a replacement module. Our        timber frame housing, Mr. Byrne said that
refers to modular homes constructed using          concern about modular housing is over its         although timber frame did not have the
lightweight timber and steel frames. The           resistance to perils. Modular buildings are of    same level of fire resistance as concrete, his
article went on to report that a spokesman         various fire-resistant quality. Adequate          company Allianz did offer insurance cover
for the Association of British Insurers has        consideration needs to be given to the            for timber framed housing. In private
upheld concerns regarding the long-term            techniques used to provide significant levels     discussion after his presentation, Mr. Byrne
durability of these (i.e. lightweight modular)     of resistance’. The spokesman added that the      confirmed that Allianz did not offer
buildings against fire, wind and flood.            association was worried that fires in             insurance cover for timber frame apartment
   In an article entitled ‘Insurers raise prefab   lightweight affordable housing, especially        blocks above two stories in height.
fire alarm’ the UK Architect’s Journal (AJ)        those developments funded in the social              The reluctance of one of the country’s
reported that the British insurance industry is    sector, could put a strain on the public purse.   leading property insurers to offer cover for
increasingly fearful about the risk of fire                                                          multi-storey timber frame offers credence
resulting from the current trend towards the       Irish Insurance Industry Skeptical                to the position put forward by the Irish
use of prefabrication. The article alerted         about lightweight framed housing                  Concrete Federation that Multi-Storey
readers to the fact that the Association of        Speaking at the Fire Safety Conference on         timber frame buildings pose an
British Insurers (ABI) had warned its              30th June 2005 in the Radisson hotel,             unacceptable fire risk and should not be
members that off-site manufacture methods,         Stillorgan Dublin, Mike Byrne, senior             permitted under the building regulations.