Fire Safety Consultancy for Residential Development

SOCOTEC was appointed by Corgan to support the residential development at 1 Patrician Avenue, Naas, a two-storey building comprising apartments with independently accessed entrances.

The original design had received fire safety certification, but on-site conditions during construction highlighted the need to revisit the compartment wall specification governing escape provisions for the ground-floor Apartment 01 and first-floor Apartment 02.

Given the independent access arrangements already built into the scheme, the brief was to develop a revised fire safety strategy that resolved the constructability issue while preserving the building's compliance status and its intended layout, all within a timeframe that would not disrupt the construction programme.

SOCOTEC prepared a Revised Fire Safety Certificate Application Compliance Report directly addressing the on-site constructability issues identified with the original compartment wall specification.

Supporting the report, five drawings were produced covering the site location, layout, floor plans, elevations and section, and the attic and roof plans, all prepared in AutoCAD and issued in PDF format overlaying the existing DWG files to ensure consistency with the as-built design. The revised strategy removed the protected entrance halls from the ground-floor Apartment 01 and the first-floor Apartment 02, along with the protected stairway serving the first floor, and introduced escape windows from habitable rooms as an alternative means of escape.

Throughout, independent access arrangements for both apartments were maintained, with no shared egress routes introduced as a result of the changes. The completed application, including the compliance report and drawings, was lodged with Kildare County Council via the BCMS online portal, allowing the revised strategy to be formally assessed and approved without requiring redesign of the building's core layout.