Stepping up standards

Summary
¦ The BWF stairs scheme provides accreditation for three levels.
¦ Barratts and Bovis are supporting the scheme and it’s been welcomed by LABC and NHBC.
¦ Eleven companies have joined the scheme; the target is 30 members by the end of 2012.
¦ The first certified stairs have been installed in the London Olympics athletes’ village.

The British Woodworking Federation’s (BWF) new stair accreditation scheme aims not only to safeguard the reputation of stair manufacturers, but the reassurance it provides could also widen the market for timber.

Until the scheme was launched on September 1, there was no straightforward way for building control or NHBC officers to verify that stairs were manufactured correctly and complied with relevant standards and Building Regulations. As a result, substandard products could be supplied, creating staircases that could, literally, be death traps.

For some years, Ian Purkis, BWF president and technical director at JELD-WEN, recognised there was a lack of awareness of the regulations, but recently he’s also realised that sometimes the substandard production was deliberate.

“We were losing business to people who were under specifying,” said Mr Purkis, adding that it will take only one incident resulting from shoddy manufacture to undermine the whole timber stairs industry.

Assurance

The answer was to develop an accreditation scheme that would assure builders, building officials and consumers that their stairs were up to standard, and which differentiated from those that were not.

“I became convinced that if we didn’t do something we would have a problem. I was chairman of the BWF Certifire fire door scheme for five years and I saw the impact that sort of scheme can have. At the time, the fire door sector was pretty much in the same condition as the staircase industry is in now, with lack of concern of standards,” said Mr Purkis.

Unlike the BWF’s successful Timber Window Accreditation Scheme and the Certifire fire door scheme, which were responses to more widely recognised problems, the stair scheme is a pre-emptive strike by the organisation.

“With the other schemes there were clear problems,” said chief executive Richard Lambert. “With windows there was competition from PVCu, and with fire doors there was a court case following a Trading Standards investigation.

“This [stairs] hasn’t reached a crisis point and the scheme is about making sure it doesn’t. We are trying to do the right thing; to be ahead of regulations.”

The new scheme, developed by the BWF’s Stairs Technical Committee, gives assurance that stairs meet the relevant performance requirements for loading, deflection and, where appropriate, fire resistance, and stairs can be accredited to three levels: single occupancy use (domestic stair); multiple occupancy (common flight stair); and fire protected stairs. The first two levels will be assessed by the BWF’s technical manager, Kevin Underwood, while the BRE will provide third-party certification for fire-resistant stairs.

Accredited stairs will carry the scheme’s factory applied badge. Each stair is then fully traceable through its own serial number on the badge, which identifies the level of accreditation or certification and the manufacturer’s contact details. Badge records will be kept for a minimum of 10 years. The first certified stairs, supplied by JELD-WEN, have been installed in the 2012 Olympics athletes’ village.

Founder members

Eleven companies signed up as founder members – JELD-WEN UK LTD, EA Higginson & Co Ltd, Hadley Wood Joinery, MKR Joinery, Kauri Joinery, Elmwood Joinery, RM Jones Joinery, One Step Joinery and Trionic Joinery & Building Co Ltd, and suppliers Finnforest and Osmose UK – and since the launch Cullum & Clarke has also joined. Among the BWF’s members, 290 make stairs and the target is to have 30 in the scheme by the end of 2012.

Major housebuilders Barratts and Bovis are supporting the scheme and the BWF is “in dialogue with virtually every other housebuilder”, said Mr Purkis.

The scheme has also been welcomed by the NHBC and LABC.

All this, said Mr Purkis, will help to improve the market for timber stairs, especially in multi-occupancy buildings, at a time when housebuilders are already using timber stairs rather than concrete. “This is a great opportunity for timber to get into an area that’s traditionally been concrete. Housebuilders are looking hard to reduce costs and they say using timber instead of concrete saves thousands of pounds,” said Mr Purkis.

While the scheme will cost smaller members around £850 – £350 for membership and £500 for the audit – it will save them the potentially costly business of having to test their products at the request of an NHBC or LABC inspector. In the past JELD-WEN has sometimes been asked to prove the loading and deflection of its stairs, which has involved setting up a rig on site “and a lot of money”.

The plan is to address manufacturing first and then training for stair installers will follow. A long-term goal is to extend the scheme to commercial projects as well.

Over the next few months the BWF will raise awareness of the scheme through publicity and seminars and next year it plans to roll out CPD-accredited events for architects and specifiers.

All this, said Mr Lambert, is part of the BWF’s commitment to high standards. “Our objective is for it to be the leading accreditation scheme for stairs,” he said.