



These frictions often seem to be coming from like-minded operators but the boiling point appears to be that Specialist Contractors aren’t feeling their expertise are valued or they are constantly being challenged with no respect first offered. Almost a guilty until proven innocent attitude.
It is important that Passive Fire Contractors, Fire Engineers, Third Party inspectors are on the same page as often these will be the only parties involved in a project that care about passive fire or have the level of knowledge required on-site regarding passive fire.
There seems to be a growing mentality from inspectors that all passive fire installs are wrong.
Inspectors are then hunting down any microscopic detail they can fail or grandstand upon.
Likewise, at the front end of a project, specifications are being prepared which the Contractor must follow. However, specifications are seldom perfect & there needs to be a mechanism for change or adaption. At present, the complaints I’m hearing are that Contractors are the meat in the sandwich on such issues & taking all of the flack. None of which provides a best for
project or best for client outcome.
Due diligence, inspection and challenging installations is an important part of Passive Fire protection. However, the starting point should be to first check the competency and credibility of the contractor executing the work. Often these Contractors have more experience with Passive Fire than anyone else involved in the job & have been doing it at the coal face for several years, whereas inspectors may have only recently been given an introduction.
There has been a surge of contractors taking up Passive Fire protection in recent years which is positive but comes with risk. The risk being that there are inexperienced and less credible contractors in operation. Therefore again Councils, Main Contractors, Fire Engineers and Third Party inspectors should be checking the experience, credibility and competency of the company and individual staff before the works commence or before even tendered. This is the best chance to stop poor and non-compliant installations. If thorough due diligence is done during procurement then there is every chance of a strong relationship that provides the best for project and client outcomes. SFPE is soon to release a CM guide which includes Passive Fire protection. I encourage everyone to digest this and take into practice.
Also, I encourage the following questions be asked by Inspectors, Engineers and Councils before making a broad assumption of all contractors:
Contego Systems Limited
Dunedin
Queenstown
New Plymouth
Canterbury