Polski
Facades Under Scrutiny: The UK Still Counts Buildings Awaiting Repair, While Baumit Builds a Tower to the Sky in Poland
This week we're looking at two sides of Europe – and seeing two faces of the facade industry. On one hand, the UK is grappling with a massive backlog of remediation work following the Grenfell disaster; on the other, Poland's construction chemicals market is literally growing skyward, as another large plaster and facade paint factory takes shape in Zimna Wódka.
01 · Fire Safety
Over 2,100 UK buildings still awaiting safe facades [1]
Seven years after the Grenfell Tower fire, the problem of dangerous facade cladding in the UK remains far from solved. The latest data from the UK's housing ministry reveals the scale of the backlog: of the 4,724 high-rise buildings being monitored in England, as many as 2,153 are still waiting for remediation work on dangerous cladding to even begin. An estimated 103,000 households live in these buildings, having spent years in uncertainty about the safety of their own homes.
Not everything is bleak, however – remediation has already been completed on 1,849 buildings, showing that progress, while slow, is being made. The catch is that the government has set new final deadlines for 2029 and 2031, depending on building height, meaning a full resolution is still several years away. For markets that are only now introducing or tightening fire safety regulations for facades – including Poland – the UK's experience serves as a clear warning: the scale of repairs needed after years of using faulty materials tends to be far greater, and take far longer, than initially assumed.
02 · Industrial Investments
Baumit's technology tower in Zimna Wódka rises skyward [2]
At the opposite end of this week's industry news is an investment that shows facade system manufacturers are still betting on growth, despite fluctuating raw material prices. Construction of Baumit's fourth Polish factory is underway in Zimna Wódka in the Opole Voivodeship, and its most spectacular feature is a 63-metre technology tower – taller than the nearby town hall. The structure is now entering the second phase of assembly, clearly visible in the region's changing skyline.
The production and warehouse hall is already largely finished, and installation work is now underway on site. The entire investment is valued at around PLN 100 million. The new plant will produce plasters, facade paints, and adhesive mortars – materials that go directly into insulation systems and facade finishes. The first products from Zimna Wódka are expected to reach customers in the second half of 2027. This is one of the largest investments currently underway in Poland's construction chemicals sector, and a clear signal that manufacturers believe demand for facade and thermal modernisation materials will keep growing – not least in the context of increasingly strict energy efficiency requirements for buildings.
Summary
Summary
This week shows two sides of the same coin: on one hand, an unfinished reckoning with past mistakes in the form of dangerous cladding on UK high-rises; on the other, real investments set to supply the market with safe, modern facade materials for decades to come. Both threads – facade fire safety and the growth of facade system production – will be hot topics at Facade Expo 2026 – the International Facade and Building Thermal Modernisation Fair. Stay tuned for the next instalments of our industry review!
Invitation
Facade safety and the growth of facade material production are at the heart of Facade Expo 2026 – the International Facade and Building Thermal Modernisation Fair. See fire safety systems for facades live, along with the latest plasters, paints, and facade adhesives from leading construction chemicals manufacturers. Let's meet at the fair and talk about how to build more safely and efficiently.
Facade Expo 2026Footnotes
[1] ScaffMag — https://scaffmag.com/scaffolding-news/construction/cladding-remediation-backlog-2100-buildings[2] e-budownictwo.pl — https://e-budownictwo.pl/zimna-wodka-zmienia-krajobraz-regionu-trwa-budowa-imponujacej-wiezy/ar/c9p2-29391213
This review was prepared by the Ptak Warsaw Expo editorial team.