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The following is issued on behalf of the Housing Authority:
The Housing Authority (HA) is actively working with stakeholders in the construction industry to extend the product certification system to aluminium windows and four-bar hinge assemblies supplied to its development sites.
The HA's Building Committee was briefed at a meeting today (June 18) on the replacement work for all window hinges at the Upper Ngau Tau Kok Estate and Lam Tin Estate. Both were completed in early 2009 after about 2% of the window hinges in these estates surveyed in February this year were found to be faulty.
The two estates have a total of about 7,600 flats. Up until January this year, about 50 complaints were received by the estate management office about "stiff window hinges" leading to difficulty in opening the windows and "rust on window hinges". The estate management offices then issued notices informing all the tenants of Upper Ngau Tau Kok Estate and Lam Tin Estate respectively in late January and early February of the need to conduct a survey inspection and alerted them to the need for immediate repair of any defective hinges.
"As frequent reports on defects in hinges so soon after completion were unusual, the Housing Department (HD) immediately conducted laboratory tests of the failed hinges. It was found that the physical tensile strength of the material met the specification requirement but not the chemical composition," a spokesman for the HA said.
"To ensure public safety, apart from immediate replacement of all the hinges that were found to be faulty, the HA also required the two building contractors to take remedial action immediately and replace all hinges in the two estates at their own expense. The HA does not need to bear any cost."
Because of the extensiveness of the exercise, the contractors needed time to source and procure the hinges. Before the works started, the HD had notified every tenant and arranged an appropriate time slot with them for the replacement works. Full-scale replacement began in late March and the HA aims to complete the exercise by end-August this year.
"At the end of the exercise, there may still be a few cases where window hinges cannot be replaced due to inaccessible flats or completely obstructed windows. While they are not expected to pose immediate danger, the HD will record locations of such windows and arrange their replacement on future dates," the spokesman said.
"The non-compliance in the two estates involving deviation in material composition for a large number of window hinges had not occurred in our previous projects. Throughout the construction process, our scope of window inspection was no different from the industry practice. We also conducted 100% inspection of the window hinges in the two projects at the time of project completion. However, the defect in terms of rusting and breakage did not surface until some time after occupation."
In December 2009, the HA endorsed introducing product certification for six major building materials, including fire resistant doors, panel wall partitions, cement products for architectural use, tile adhesives and repair mortars, and tiles.
The defective window hinge incident in Upper Ngau Tau Kok Estate and Lam Tin Estate reinforces the importance of managing the quality of building materials in the upstream supply chain. To avoid recurrence of the problem, the HD is now actively working with stakeholders in the construction industry to extend the product certification scheme to aluminium windows and four-bar hinge assemblies at the earliest possible date. Although it is the building contractor's responsibility to ensure compliance with specification requirements, this scheme can further strengthen the monitoring of product quality and deliver better assurance.
In the interim, the HD will take the following immediate steps to strengthen control of the quality of materials for window components supplied for the HA's developments:
(a) requiring contractors to submit mill certificates and manufacturer's test reports for stainless steel window components;
(b) carrying out surveillance tests on the mechanical and chemical properties of four-bar hinges;
(c) carrying out surveillance tests on the endurance of fasteners and other hardware; and
(d) carrying out random checks on the workmanship of the hinge pivots to ensure they are squarely pinned for smooth movement.
The HD will continue to closely monitor the progress of the replacement work by the two contractors and endeavour to reduce inconvenience to tenants.
Ends/Friday, June 18, 2010
Issued at HKT 18:30
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