BYTNAR - TALKS
EPISODE 011 - APPROVED DOCUMENTS - SNEAK PICK
This episode is for people who want to know more about Approved Documents.
You should like this episode if you ask yourself questions like:
What are the 18 requirements covered by the Building Regulations and their associated Approved Documents?
Why is compliance with Approved Documents crucial for building projects in the UK?
How can businesses interpret and apply guidance from Approved Documents in construction projects?
Can non-compliance with an Approved Document lead to legal consequences?
What authority do Building Control Officers have in enforcing Approved Document guidelines?
How does the appeal process work if a Building Control Officer rejects a compliance strategy?
Who is responsible for handling appeals against Building Control Officer decisions, and how effective are these appeals?
What alternatives do developers have if compliance disagreements with Building Control Officers arise?
This is Bytnar Talks the Engineer Takes on Construction Episode 11 hi I'm Piotr Bytnar each day I help my clients plan and design building projects through Bytnar Limited a Consulting Chartertered Structural Engineers practice my biggest passion and the cornner tone on which I've built my business is find finding clever solutions for construction projects I am a chartered structural engineer and a buing software developer so you can rest assured that I will strive to talk about the best practices and the use of new technologies in the industry and if you're embarking on a construction project or are involved in planning designing and building the world around us you'll find this podcast useful approved documents sneak peek [Music] hi there how are you welcome back to the Bitner talks your favorite podcast on all matters of architecture engineering and construction it is Thursday the 4th of August 2024 and I am glad to be back with you with the 11th episode and the start of the series talking about approved documents I had a little break my half term if you like that time between my little one birthday lasting CA 4 days with in-laws an Easter break and another four days of beautiful family time by the way the in-laws are great definitely the keepers as the wife is I'm back with you to keep on delivering on the promise of the new episode issue most weeks of the year I've just closed the series of the plan of work and now I want to start with the series on approved documents there seems to be an awful lot of confusion around the requirements why is and House of the building regulation regime which I will try to straighten up for you to make matters more complicated with the onset of the building safety act giving more clarity on the responsibilities around construction projects and special consideration for the higher risk buildings we are slowly entering the era where professionalism and competence of people involved in the aec industry is hopeful for the positive change as of yet there is not much of a bite of the legislation although I can see more considerate and careful approach throughout the board interestingly however the competent people as they are now called will not command greater power in relation to approved documents what is also interesting the competent people may now fall victim to either bad advice contained within the approved documents or it's in integration with other aspects of design after all we live in the world ordered by the legislation and the last time I checked the approved documents are only guidance but the guidance used as a checklist by the building control inspectors however you call them now which may blindly require you to do the wrong thing but for the most part will certainly require you to do the honorous thing people who wrote it consider right at the the time of writing all right so let us unpack it a little bit so without further Ado let's dive into the sneaky peek on the approved [Music] documents the purpose of this material is to give you the general appreciation of the requirements put on You by approved documents the approved documents form the primary source of the information prepared by the Secretary of State describing how the building regulations requirements can be discharged how the requirements can be meet in practice there are 18 of them well 17 covering all 18 requirements of building regulations plus materials and workmanship guidance they are treated as guidance by the legislature but generally taken as a gospel by the building control they form checklist tables for most inspectors I ever came across [Music] I will start the main part of this podcast by telling you where these approved documents are coming from and give you the idea how they relate to the reading of the building regulations 2010 then I will say a bit about each and every one of them in the broadest terms possible the following podcasts episodes will address each of them one by one in depth and in detail the purpose of this particular episode is to give you a general appreciation and introduction if you wish of the subject all right then let's get on to [Music] it there are many laws that guide our every day of which we are very often less than familiar not withstanding we carry on with the dealings of every day often unscathed by this ignorance after all most loses are the in ification of Common Sense and ethical Behavior seldom thought about in foresight but rather as a failure of human behavior and the Lessons Learned in the hindsight I'm not a barista but seeing how the law is applied and going through some legal acts it certainly certainly looks this way the building regulations 2010 is born from the building Act 1984 the building act 1984 puts together previous legislation concerning building environment together and gives the appropriate National Authority the right to make building regulations and give exemptions as well as provide practical guidance by approving documents and standards for General use I will cite you a part of the building act 1984 that I find quite interesting open quote a failure on the part of a person to comply with an approved document does not of itself render him liable to any civil or criminal proceedings end quote it is certainly useful to research and go to approve documents for guidance as relying on the approved documents may be useful in court but having other views on the matters contained within the guidance is not disqualified on the other hand not relying on the approved document May sto the process for approval as in as inspectors have no other means to verify the correctness of your project this creates an unhealthy relationship between achieving compliance with an approach that is not within the approved documents or circumstances that none of the documents foresees yet the building control officer will not allow for the solution to be put in place taking non compliance with the approved documents does does not mean directly the project is not compliant with the building regulations and taking the building control is not liable for the wrong use of the wrong approach of the approved documents I do not see the reason why construction should be constrained by such approach the approach of thck boxing the guidance of approved documents rather than relying on sound Judgment of competent people who take legal responsibility for the safety and compliance of the project yet the regime is different and until the power of design and construction is solely vested in the hands of competent people for buildings not considered high risk we will continue to participate in the tick Bo exercise even if our professional opinion scientific argument and research says otherwise there are many approved documents guidance codes and standards but in this series we will look closer into the series of documents called the approved documents the series of guidance documents released by the department of leveling housing and communities widely accessible by the general public and widely used as a gospel by the local and approved inspectors the documents follow the building regulation 2010 schedule 1 requirements these requirements are as follows the require number a number one a structure this part deals with the structural safety of the buildings and gives plenty of guidance on traditional and non-engineered build building construction what does non-engineered mean it means buildings that by the size and the localized risk they pose to people generally a single family can be constructed following simple prescribed Solutions this guidance concerns of three aspects loading the building the structure must be strong enough to withstand all the vertical and horizontal forces and it needs to integrate well with the ground movement meaning the inter ction of the struction with the ground throughout the lifetime of the building will not impair that building safety and the aspect number three disproportionate collapse following the tragedy of Ron on point disproportional collapse we need to think about how buildings stay together when accidents happen of two requirements now requirements B fire this part deals with what it says on the tin really fire safety of the buildings and looks at aspects of means of warning and Escape things like fire heit alarms and how can people evacuate the building safely internal fire spread which in turn Parts into two ways fire spread throughout the Linings trees of minimizing the spread of fire due to the way the internal structure is finished you know wallpapers well in some countri or some people like to put Carpets on the walls which isn't isn't really great for the well it's great for the internal fire spread but not really for the safety of the place and the internal fire spread free up the structure we need to make sure the structure maintains its stability and it sound for the given fire scenarios and that the building or buildings are compared mentalized and protected with sprinkl systems where feasible and we needed we need to think about the external fire spread also making sure the Great Fire of London 1666 does not happen again in London as well as elsewhere and need to think about access and facilities for the fire Services well fire will not extinguish itself to quickly and people who save our lives and structur should be able to do it as safely as reasonably practicable right then we go to requirement C which is site preparation and resistance to contaminant and moisture which involve preparation of side and resistance to contaminants which means this this part basically treats on the flamboyant approach of putting buildings anywhere we like without due consideration of the current state of the site what I mean by that we basically need to keep people in the structure isolated from any detrimental influence of the ground and the water in the ground and all of those bad things that can be inside inside that ground or groundw which may be contaminated we also need to think about the resistance to moisture well who wants to live in a dump and deteriorating building unless it's a Timber building and you are a wood boring WIIL I doubt it is you so whether it is damp ground rain condensation or leaks this should be managed and and foreen the next require m is a requirement D which treats about toxic substances AKA cavity insulation that requirement spans go from the the problems we had in the past and are remnants of Ura form alite forms which when applied within the cavity walls tended to disintegrate and and tended to gas people people inside their homes for years off to requirement e resistance to the passage of sound we need to assure that the com comfortable living of the people within the building is sustained and that no noise or unnecessary vibration impacts unly impacts the occupants so the that that requirement concentrates on protection against sound from other parts of the building and adjoining buildings protection against sound with within a dwelling house and likewise re ration blly me reverberation you know what I mean the vibration that the reverberation never mind that in common internal parts of buildings containing flats or rooms for residential purposes this sort of issues are very prevalent when you want to convert offices to Flats and and when the people use using those corridors may may influence May influence the the the the feeling of people in the bedrooms just opposite the opposite the wall this requirement also treats about acoustic condition in schools off to the next one letter F ventilation it is generally understood by anyone that we need to think about the quality of a within the spaces we live in right yeah and that's what this one talks and treats about off to requirement G sanitation hot water safety and water efficiency as it says on the team the dis approved document will treat about cold water supply the last thing we want is to appear on television as did the occupants of the city of Flint Michigan don't we with their huge Drinking Water Crisis caused by corroded pipes and leading to Le poisoning of the population water in our TPS got to be wholesome and safe to drink we need to think about the water efficiency water is a scous resource although generally wasted however we in southeast of England where the precipitation can be less than that of Mexico should relate to this more than anywhere else we need to think about the safety of hot water supply and the system we need that hot water to clean and bath don't we but we need to be sure that hot water is not too hot for the use as to cause harm to the user you need to think about sanitary conveniences and washing facilities well you know Victorian times are long gone and most of us enjoy cozy loose so we need to make sure we do not spread diseases on incubate this in our houses and provide sufficient separation from food preparation areas There are rules about bathrooms and there are rules about kitchen and food preparation areas as well treating within that approved document off to requirement H drainage and waste disposal we need to think about how to get rid of the fow water Waste Water treatment system and S pools we need to know what we're going to do with rainwater drainage what happens when we want to build but there is already a sewage system underground and we want to build over it I ideally would like to separate rain water drainage and foul water drainage with waste water drainage from each other sometimes not possible and we need to know how to deal with solid waste storage and this aspect is been treated within the drainage and waste disposal requirement AG after H should be I but there's n document I we go straight to document J which treats about combustion appliances and fuel storage system we need to think in this circumstance about how we Supply the air for the combustion how we discharge the products of that combustion how we protect people and inform them if there is any release of carbon monoxide by those by those installations how we protect the building so it doesn't catch fire from our appliances and how how we provide information about the whole system so the new appliances can be installed safely within the building how to protect liquid fuel storage systems and how to assure that this this liquids do not contaminate ground around around those tanks these are all matters that been treated about in the document J approv document K treats about protection from falling collision and impact you know things like stairs rules around stairs Lads Rams IND dwellings protection from falling vehicle barriers and loading base protection from collision with open Windows Etc protection against impact from and trapping by by doors which may sound silly but people or children sometimes die when they interact especially with the with the control units that that operate the doors or Gates requires L conservation of fuel and power well all the resources are are finite and and we try to use as little of them as possible and use reusable wherever possible with all of our green strategies nowadays but the conservation of fuel and power it's it's all about making sure the building is not overly impacted by cold or heat and the heating or cooling units are energy efficient within that building that document also treats about on-site generation of electricity which which too needs proper sizing and execution approval document M would talks about access to and use of buildings where we need to think about the access and use of the buildings don't we really it's yeah everyone's got their own perspectives but it is important to make buildings accessible to people of verying capabilities we need to address access to extend exensions to buildings other than dwellings sanitary conveniences and extension to buildings other than dwellings too sanitary conveniences in dwellings in general for those people of varying capabilities not all of us can can walk freely not all of us have all legs or arms we need to think about everyone and try to provide the best living solution for across the board off to approve document n which Del is about glazing safety in relation to impact opening and cleaning it used to be the part of document K but now forms its own part there is no approved document published yet but reference to the old guidance in partk can be made and the things we consider here are the things of protection against impact manifestation of glazing we need to see that there is a there is a glass door in front of us so we don't walk into it to think about how to safy safely open and close windows Etc and provide safe access for cleaning those Windows Doors roof lights and and whatnot approved document o treats about overheating as it says on the tin when building is badly designed badly located it will gain heat from the Sun and using AC units in all cases does not make the infrastructure better building should be conveyed in the way the natural conceived in the way the N that the natural construction of the building could regulate that gain and the environment within so shade so use shade wherever possible use natural ventilation whatever possible use heat storage in a in a concrete or or masonry within that building to regulate the temperature without using actual heating or cooling systems approved document P which treats about electrical safety and talks about design and installation of low or extra low voltage installation in dwellings approv document Q security deals with unauthorized access to dwellings or flats approved document R talks about physical infrastructure for high-speed electronic communication networks which is basically convoluted way to to tell you that you you you are connect you should be able or you should be connected to should be connected to the network gigabyte ready physical infrastructure is a cable is a cable internet so it basically and it basically means your home can connect to the network by cable this approved documents also treats about a connection to gigabit capable Network means that means your house is connected to the network for you to use whenever you are ready clever little one maybe unnecessary really little one but yeah it's what it is approved documents treats about new buildings that should be connected to network just in case someone would like not to connect the the property to network nowadays I don't know if that be that' be a thing well unless you're a nomad that is but then you don't build your house you dig yourself a hermet house you dig yourself a hobit house right approv document s infrastructure for the charging of electric vehicles it is prevalent we the industries are CH changing to electrification wherever we can trying to industrialized power so it's delivered to us in a clean way and and all the bad and not so clean way of producing that power could be managed on the industrial scale and it deals with the erection of new residential buildings this approved document it deals with the dwellings resulting from material change of use it deals with residential buildings undergoing major renovation it deals with erection of new buildings which are not residential buildings or mixed use buildings it also deals with buildings undergoing major renovation which are not residential buildings or mixed use buildings and the erection of new mixed use buildings and mixed use buildings undergoing major renovation basically if you build or change your building provide the electrical provide the charging facilities so that' be all with the approved documents however there is one more that's worth mentioning here we generally generally talks about how those buildings are delivered and it's requirements following following regulation 7 so the building of the building regulation which Bas Tre treat basically treats on materials and workmanship in the aspect of materials it says how the materials need to be good and proper for the application and how to make sure they are and on the workmanship side of things it also talks about how the are how the workmanship is good and proper and the ways to assure [Music] such so here you have it just by giving you a simple and general overview of approved documents can make you forget your own name many businesses make their own offerings concerning on the selected aspects of these requirements it is good in the general practice to start the considerations from the point of the Secretary of State and the government's understanding of what each regulation means in terms of practical application it needs to be noted that this is not just guidance but guidance which is treated as gospel by building control there are 18 requirements within 17 approved documents requirement and high approved document k for now anyway and the additional document that deals with material and workmanship I think it is pertinent to reiterate here the beginning of the main part of this podcast which highlights the fact here quoting the legislation open quote a failure on the part of a person to comply with an approved document does not of itself render him liable to any civil or criminal proceedings end quote mind however dear listener the building control offices are not legislative or architectural or engineering wiards and they rely on tools that are presented to them by the government in this case this approved document and checklist of aspects conforming to it unfortunately although building inspectors have no liability towards you as a client they will insist on the use of the guidance as they have the power of veto the only recourse from their decision is an appeal to the Secretary of State for communities and local government the right honorable Michael go no chance and perhaps if that does not help you may like to take the government to court well if you do housing projects I doubt any of the solutions make any economical sense well at least in 99% of the cases it does not [Music] it has been a pleasure to deliver this episode to you thank you for listening let me know if this type of content is good for you I've decided to systematize this a little bit more and follow the pattern of plan of work where I give you a high level overview of chunky subject and then dissect it into more details with every Following episode if you think this benefits you or would like to be able to capitalize on the listening in the form of CPD certification please do let me know and I'll open a waiting list to see if that is viable in any case I'll continue to deliver content to you my def fellow professional and their client of mine it is important to me and my Consulting Engineers practice bitna to deliver information to you so you can make the most informed decision for yourself and to guide the practice of architecture and engineering and construction into more informed cooperative and sustainable Hall thank you again for listening please voice up your opinions I'm waiting for you on LinkedIn and I want to hear from you Toodloo!
Piotr Bytnar BEng (Hons) MSc CEng MIStructE
Chartered Structural Engineer who deals with the Architecture of buildings. His Master's Studies led him to an in-depth understanding of risk and contract arrangements in construction as well as specialist knowledge in soil mechanics.
He and his team help homeowners and property developers to design and deliver construction projects reducing waste in time and the cost. He believes that the construction project is an iterative process that can be well managed and it is best managed if all the aspects of the project definition and management are dealt with in-house or coordinated by one organisation. His team works to all stages of RIBA and ISTRUCTE stages of work and enables contractors to deliver projects on-site providing risk evaluations, methodologies for execution of works and temporary works designs.
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