HSGS46 Roof System Designers and CDM Duties

Those decisions may affect construction-phase fire risk, particularly where bitumen ‘coffin’ boilers, gas torches, hot melt boilers, hot-air welders, flammable primers or adhesives, or other heat-producing processes are proposed. Where a person or organisation prepares, selects or modifies a design, Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM 2015). Regulation 91 requires the designer to consider foreseeable risks arising from the design and, so far as is reasonably practicable, eliminate them. If elimination is not possible, the risk must be reduced or controlled and sufficient information provided about any significant residual risk.

This guide is focused on flat roofing and is intended to clarify how those duties apply when construction-phase fire risk is influenced by the roof system design. It does not assume that the roof system manufacturer is always the designer, nor does it suggest that one flat roofing technology is inherently unacceptable. Responsibility follows the design decision.