Changes to building regulations

The new Part M ‘Access to and Use of Buildings’ came in on 1 May 2004. The aim of the regulations is to improve access for everyone, including people with disabilities, older people and parents with children.

They apply to new non-domestic buildings, buildings being altered and buildings changing use. They won’t apply to buildings where work started before May 2004, or in some cases where plans had already gone to the local authority by that date.

Part M parallels BS 8300:2001 and supports the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, the final part of which came into force on 1 October 2004 (see CM, September 2004).

An amendment to Part E ‘Resistance to the passage of Sound’ came out on 1 July 2004. This followed on from a substantially amended version which came out on 1 July 2003. The amendment did three things. First it sorted out the typos in the original document. Then it redefined rooms for residential purpose to include hotels, hostels, boarding houses, student accommodation and residential care so that neighbouring hotel rooms enjoy the same level of sound proofing as neighbouring semis. Some developers had been stretching the rules particularly in student accommodation, arguing that a group of study/bedrooms, communal kitchen and bathroom were in effect a flat and could have the acoustic wall round the whole cluster.

This amendment will ensure each study is soundproofed.

Finally, it dealt with pre-completion acoustic testing. This was delayed until July 2004 to give the industry time to put together robust details for residential developments. With robust details a developer can avoid the testing if it builds in line with the details.

A new Part C ‘Site Preparation and the Resistance to Contaminants and Moisture’ comes out on 1 December. The guidance has been expanded to deal with buildings on contaminated land (reflecting the government’s policy to encourage developments on brownfield sites); to cover decay of wood floors caused by leaks from appliances; to bring in the former Part F2 ‘Condensation in roofs’ which is now part of Part C; to cover climate change issues such as flooding, resistance to driving rain and thermal movement; and to introduce the concept of land associated with a building rather than limiting Building Regs to the footprint, in order to deal with treatment of contaminants.

A new Part A ‘Structure’ is also due for release on 1 December.

The main change is that the rule on disproportionate collapse now applies to any flatted development. It used to apply only to buildings over four storeys. The rule says that if a building is damaged, the resultant collapse should not be disproportionate to the cause of the damage.

There are several smaller changes, the most significant being that stainless steel cavity ties must be used on all dwellings up to three storeys in height regardless of location.

A brand new edition to the Building Regulations, Part P ‘Electrical Safety’ comes out on 1 January 2005. It applies only to homes.

It means that either building control must inspect any work that involves adding a new circuit, or the firm that does the work must be registered with a Part P Self-Certification Scheme, which will be a bit like the CORGI scheme for heating engineers.

The government has selected five bodies to run the scheme: BRE Certification, British Standards Institution, ELECSA, NICEIC Certification Services and Zurich Certification.

Consultation on and Part L ‘Conservation of Fuel and Power’ closed on 22 October. The new document will be out December 2005

The major proposed change is a switch from the ‘elemental’ method where different parts of a building have to achieve certain U-values, to a whole building calculation. It also firms up air testing requirements, including for domestic buildings.

Improvements during refurbishment work on existing buildings, to a lesser level, are also proposed. (See page 24 for Part L proposals.)

At the same time, Part F ‘Ventilation’ is being altered to cope with the greater air tightness requirements in Part L. Because buildings will be better sealed, the size of natural ventilation openings will have to be increased. A new document is due out in December 2005.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) is also looking at small scale exemptions. Should structures such as porches and conservatories under 30 sq m in area still enjoy exemption from the building regulations? There’s no timescale on a decision for these.

ODPM is also currently considering whether approved inspectors should be able to take on the building control role for housing developments. At the moment non-domestic developers can choose either the local authority or an approved inspector such as Butler & Young to check its buildings. However for housebuilders, there’s only one approved inspector, NHBC, and some have been lobbying the government to complain that that’s not fair. But as we went to press, ODPM could not give a date for when the decision will be made.