The responsible technical manager

The role

The responsible technical manager (FMV in Hungarian) is a qualified professional on the contractor’s side, accountable for the professional direction of the work. They ensure the work is carried out in accordance with the construction documentation, the legislation and professional practice.

What they do in practice

• Direct and check the construction against the design.
• Check the conformity of the construction products installed and that a declaration of performance exists for them.
• Keep, or have kept, the construction log, recording the significant events in it.
• Certify the conformity of the work carried out and provide a declaration for handover.

Why they are a key figure for a light gauge steel frame

Because for a site-erected frame one element of demonstrating fire compliance is precisely that the work was carried out in accordance with the design, which the responsible technical manager certifies by an entry in the log.

Which means the log here is not administration but an element in the chain of verification. When no system document is required.

The question of concealed work

In a light gauge steel wall the substance is behind the lining: the bracing, the screw fixing, the anchorage, the cavity barriers, the fire stopping, the continuity of the vapour control layer.

These cannot be checked once the lining is on. So the timing of the responsible technical manager’s work is critical: the state before covering has to be recorded, with photographs and log entries.

The relationship with the designer

Good practice is for the responsible technical manager to go back to the designer where the drawings are ambiguous or a deviation arises on site. Deciding a deviation alone is a risk: the design of the structure rests on assumptions that cannot be overridden from the site.

That relationship prevents most erection faults. Common site errors.

Who can be one

An activity requiring qualification, under the conditions of the professional practice decree, with entry in the register. The qualification is tied to a field.

The point

The responsible technical manager’s entries are what prove, years later, what was built. For a concealed structure they are the only evidence — and they cannot be made up afterwards.