HOW CAN THE GUIDEBOOK HELP INSURANCE?
enhances trust and confidence in the fire safety and asset protection of mass timber buildings.
The Guidebook helps to enhance insurer confidence and promotes long-term property safety and durability by demonstrating good practice guidance for mitigation of moisture and fire risks in mass timber buildings. This will be viewed positively by the insurance sector. The Guidebook aims to cover all the stages of a construction project from initial design through to post- occupancy, highlighting key risks and how these can be considered at the design stage, during construction, and during the use of mass timber buildings. The CTG sits alongside the Mass Timber Insurance Playbook (MTIP). The MTIP provides a framework for understanding the perceived risk challenges that hinder developers acquiring an insurance provision for mass timber buildings. The CTG provides the technical guidance to address and mitigate against these durability and fire risks.
A series of fire workshops conducted between August 2023 and May 2024 facilitated iterative discussions among the expert fire panel, leading to a consensus on the 10 fire principles outlined in Section 5.4. The significant coordination and effort invested in this process were aimed at advancing industry standards and building insurer confidence in timber construction. The expert fire consensus panel for the principles comprised of Design Fire Consultants, Hoare Lea, OFR Consultants, Semper, UCL (Jose Torero), and University of Edinburgh (Luke Bisby). Note that the ‘fire consensus’ relates to the 10 fire principles only.
WHO IS THE GUIDEBOOK FOR?
Insurers The CTG serves as an aid to ongoing dialogue with the insurance industry. It is intended to reassure insurers that good mass timber design has properly considered the perceived risks of insurers and includes appropriate mitigation measures. It also covers the remediations (repairs and reinstatements) that could be required in a building’s natural lifetime. The CTG responds to key design challenges and insurance considerations that are outlined in the MITP. Developers and asset owners The CTG can be used by developers and asset owners in discussions with insurers, as set out in the MTIP. There is guidance on in use and maintenance of mass timber buildings which serves to continually mitigate risks during the natural life of a building, together with remediation measures should they be required. Designers The CTG is written primarily for designers with the purpose of addressing specific concerns of the insurance industry in relation to mass timber constructions. The Guidebook provides technical guidance, a framework of design considerations and principles for different building typologies that can be applied by competent consultants to exercise good practice in design and risk mitigation.
WHO PRODUCED THE GUIDEBOOK?
Core team The Guidebook has been produced by a collaboration of leading industry experts from Waugh Thistleton Architects, Elliott Wood, OFR Consultants, and Lignum Risk Partners, combining their collective expertise in engineering, architecture, fire safety, and risk management to provide comprehensive guidance on mass timber construction. The core team has engaged with the insurance markets and the design and structural engineering experts and incorporated their feedback into the Guidebook. Refer to the appendix for more information on the core team. Fire consensus To develop this Guidebook, an expert fire panel consisting of leading academics and consultants was established. These experts, experienced in the development and review of fire safety designs, particularly in commercial mass timber buildings, worked together to reach a consensus on fundamental fire design principles. The aim of this panel was to address the perceived inconsistency in fire design across the industry, and to provide a unified approach that
INTRODUCTION
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