RIBA CPD on Hot Dip Galvanizing

Specifying for durability

Iqbal Johal

Getting the Best from Hot Dip Galvanizing? Iqbal Johal outlines how a CPD can strengthen specification and improve long-term outcomes.

Hot dip galvanizing is one of the most familiar specifications in the built environment. It is widely trusted, consistently applied, and supported by decades of proven performance. That familiarity, however, can lead to a subtle assumption that its role in a project is fully understood. The more useful question for today’s specifier is not whether galvanizing works, but whether its full potential is being realised through design.

This is the focus of the Galvanizers Association’s RIBA-approved CPD. Rather than revisiting what professionals already know, it examines how design decisions influence the long-term performance of galvanized steel, and how a deeper understanding can translate into better outcomes across the lifecycle of a project.

Reducing the true cost of ownership

At the heart of this is a shift in how value is considered. Initial cost remains an important driver, yet it rarely reflects the true cost of ownership. Maintenance, access, disruption, and eventual replacement all sit beyond the handover stage, but they are shaped by decisions made much earlier. When viewed in this context, hot dip galvanizing offers a compelling proposition. Its durability and low maintenance characteristics are not simply technical attributes, but contributors to long-term economic and environmental efficiency. The question is not whether it performs, but how that performance is accounted for at specification stage.

Design plays a central role in answering that question. Galvanizing is inherently robust, yet its effectiveness is enhanced when design works with the process rather than around it. Considerations such as drainage, venting, and fabrication geometry are often seen as technical details, but, they are fundamental to achieving consistent coating quality. Addressed early, they enable the process to operate efficiently and deliver the level of protection hot dip galvanizing is known for. Overlooked, they can limit that outcome, not through failure, but through missed opportunity.

This places greater emphasis on good communication and collaboration. When galvanizers and fabricators are engaged at an early stage, design intent and process capability can be aligned with far greater clarity. The result is not additional complexity, but a more streamlined path from concept to completion. It also provides specifiers with greater confidence, knowing that the decisions they make are informed by practical insight as well as technical guidance.

Beyond what you already know

For many professionals, the act of specifying hot dip galvanizing is already routine. What is less routine is articulating why it is the right choice in each context, or how it contributes to broader project objectives such as sustainability and lifecycle performance. The GA CPD addresses this directly, equipping designers and engineers with the knowledge to specify with clarity, to detail with intent, and to communicate effectively across the project team.

In an industry increasingly focused on durability and responsible resource use, this level of understanding is becoming essential. Materials are no longer judged solely on their immediate function, but on how they perform over time and how they support the wider ambitions of a project.

Hot dip galvanizing already offers a strong foundation in this regard, the opportunity lies in ensuring that its benefits are fully realised through considered optimisation and informed specification and design.

Iqbal Johal has been delivering CPDs to the construction sector for over 20 years. He believes that a more confident and consistent approach to durability is a key response to the long-term demands placed on today’s built environment.

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Iqbal Johal
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