Firestopping has become a hot topic due to new UK building and construction fire safety legislation, as well as ongoing maintenance of existing residential structures
Harvey Jassal founded idigitalhub in 2019 in response to the growing need for civil engineering businesses to boost performance, improve safety, reduce consumer downtime and add value through digital innovation.
As a digital transformation leader, Harvey sought a tool to document construction fire safety legislation, governance and certification, which can mitigate liability and improve overall building quality.
Documentation historically required “reams and reams of paper,” Harvey said.
“We wanted to overcome the difficulties that came with documentation.”
Strategy: Leverage OpenSpace to enhance fire safety documentation
“I searched and searched for a documentation tool,” Harvey said.
“In the process, I discovered OpenSpace. The OpenSpace strategy really worked with what I was trying to achieve through idigitalhub.”
Harvey began testing OpenSpace by walking project sites with a 360-degree camera mounted to his hard hat and capturing images that were automatically pinned to site plans. He noted issues and oversights through Field Notes, flagging areas that needed additional attention for build teams to revisit.
“Because in the UK every building has to have a certificate to say that it is safe from fire, we’re recording and certifying that, as well as making sure everything has been installed correctly before closeouts,” Harvey said.
Teams quickly saw a positive impact on quality and speed in their own operations, and clients received greater value from enhanced documentation.
The company is now expanding its use of OpenSpace by incorporating other features, such as 3D modelling and BIM Compare.
Results: The first to receive digital sign-off from London’s Metro Safety and Fire Brigade for construction fire safety legislation
OpenSpace enabled idigitalhub to complete key certifications for clients more quickly and speed up its own documentation processes. The company was the first to ever receive digital sign-off from London’s Metro Safety and Fire Brigade for fire safety compliance. The process typically took several months, but idigitalhub received certification in weeks with OpenSpace.
“The speed at which we are now able to get certified and continue with our project is absolutely unheard of,” Harvey said.
“But the truth is with OpenSpace, since everything is timestamped and recorded, you just can’t lie.”
The company is also seeing results in the following areas:
Greater accountability
Harvey and his team can monitor progress and verify compliance of firestopping measures quickly to ensure that partners stay on schedule and meet rigorous standards to avoid rework and other problems.
Reduced documentation time
Documentation once required thousands of photos and lengthy notes that were not always comprehensive enough to provide adequate firestopping proof.
A weekly site walk with a hard hat-mounted 360-degree camera is now all that is required for the most thorough documentation possible. “I just process it on the drive home,” Harvey said. Photos easily upload to the cloud and are pinned to the site plan. “In the time it would take someone to do that manually, I’m already done and dusted.”
Time savings
Harvey estimates that OpenSpace speeds up documentation by as much as 10x. It also reduces travel time to and from project sites.
And as the first company to use digital documentation to procure sign-off on a project for fire safety compliance, idigitalhub is accelerating project timelines for its partners. With OpenSpace, idigitalhub can shrink certification wait times from several months to as little as two weeks.
Improved workflow
“Everything from captures to verification to approvals are happening faster than ever before,” Harvey said. “We don’t need to rip up walls to verify something, because OpenSpace will show us what we need to know.”
Risk mitigation
The company’s mission is to ensure safety code compliance to mitigate risk for clients and people who inhabit the buildings. “With compliance, it’s all about what you have to back it up with,” Harvey explained. “People want to see visually and have documentation digitally. They want to see the day you started and what happened every day that follows — and not on an iPhone.”
Learn more about OpenSpace and request a demo.
*Please note: This is a commercial profile.
