Cladding used on cardiff bay

CLADDING identified as potentially unsafe by officials and pulled from sale was used on the £23m Bayscape development in Cardiff Bay.

Government officials believe the Vitracore G2 cladding on sale is different to the product supplied for testing, which was considered highly fireresistant.

UK distributor Valcan has suspended sales of the Vitracore G2 but says it believes the product on the market, which is no different than the cladding provided for testing, still achieves the fire safety standard – and independent tests have shown it’s safe.

The company which manages Bayscape towers, which currently has 115 apartments, says its buildings are among the safest in Cardiff and has a high level of fire systems – which negates any risk presented by a potential reclassification of Vitracore G2.

When it was originally tested Vitracore G2 – which is made mostly of aluminium – was categorised as an A2 grade material, which meant it was of “limited combustibility”.

But a follow-up investigation by the Government found samples sold on the open market contained more combustible adhesive than in the original test.

“Although this, on its own, does not confirm that the product would not meet the A2 classification it is clear that the samples do not match the specification, as set out in the original A2 classification report,” an official statement said.

“Therefore it may not achieve the fire safety standard it has been classified to.

“We have taken immediate action and referred this matter to trading standards and asked the supplier to withdraw the product from the market until it can demonstrate it meets the required standard.”

The Government investigation came after cladding company Kingspan commissioned a test of Vitracore G2 in a facility in Dubai, carried out by independent testing company Exova in July – which found it would fail the A2 safety test.

Rockwool, a building materials supplier based outside Bridgend, has also conducted tests which showed the cladding was likely to be combustible.

Valcan contests the results of the tests and the way they were carried out – and says a standard stock panel of Vitracore G2 has already been independently tested and achieved the correct fire safety standards.

Simon Tennent, director of Valcan, said his company was co-operating with the Government to supply test samples and documentation.

He said: “We willingly suspended sales of Vitracore G2 in the UK after the unspecified and as yet unverified test by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government claimed a variance in the tested panel’s constituents may affect safety standard certification.

“We are yet to see the full details and the nature of the test even though it was promised latest last week, however we believe that the product continues to achieve the required fire safety standard.

“Although we dispute the MHCLG findings, as a responsible company we have immediately initiated a manufacturing process review plus independent tests to verify if any inconsistency in the product adhesive can be confirmed.”

The cladding passed tests by the Building Research Establishment and Exova in November 2017 which showed “the panel did not spread flame and temperature results were its fire