Butler & Young CPD Presentations

If you would like to discuss or receive a free CPD presentation on the Building Regulations please get in touch with your Butler & Young contact,call 0800 652 7172 or email info@byl.co.uk.
The Butler & Young Group is a multi-disciplinary construction practice that provides professional services for building control, fire safety, CDM and health & safety.

Visit us at www.butlerandyoung.co.uk to view our full service capability.

The Building Regulations are Changing. In January the Government issued an 800 page building regulations consultation that proposes changes by 2013 to structural design, fire provisions in the local acts and the building control system, access statements and thermal performance. To help you plan for the future and encourage industry response to the consultation we have produced a 19 page summary document that can be found by going to our website - www.byl.co.uk Compliance Delivery. Two far-reaching research projects were recently presented to DCLG – The National Survey of Compliance Actions and Building Control Customer Opinion Research. These reports provide an insight into how effective building control bodies are in facilitating compliance with the building regulations. To view these reports, we have uploaded them onto our website, www.byl.co.uk

BUTLER & YOUNG PODCAST SERIES 1 Building Regulation Basics - Written content

BUTLER & YOUNG PODCAST SERIES 1

BUILDING REGULATIONS BASICS. No 1: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE REGULATIONS.

Introduction

Welcome to the first Butler & Young building control Podcast.

Butler & Young building control are the premier building control service provider in the country and are an alternative to using the local authority building control system. We also provide complementary services such as CDMC, Equality Act access audits, fire risk assessments; fire engineering and environmental engineering if you would like to find out more about us visit www.butlerandyoung.co.uk

Butler and Young Building control  have produced a series of podcasts aimed at those seeking knowledge into what the building regulations are, how they are applied and how best to use them in the design of the built environment. Future podcasts will look at subjects such as fire safety and thermal compliance in more detail.

This first podcast in the series will focus upon building regulations basics and will introduce the umbrella legislation, the building regulations themselves, the types of construction work that is exempt or controlled and the documents that indicate a path to compliance.

Part One

So, why do we have building regulations and what is the legislation backing the regulations?

The purpose of building regulations is to secure health, safety, welfare, convenience of people in and around buildings, the conservation of fuel and power, the prevention of waste, undue consumption and contamination or misuse of water, furthering the protection or enhancement of the environment, facilitating sustainable development and furthering the prevention or detection of crime.

It is worth noting that building control bodies are obliged to consult other parties such as the fire service for relevant use buildings, relevant use being a place where someone is employed to work or with the water authority when building over or close to a sewer on map of sewers. Consultees have generally 15 working days to reply.

Although the regulations are administered by approved inspectors such as Butler and Young Building Control and local authorities; any enforcement action is carried out by the relevant local authority under The Building Act  Section 35 and 36. Failure to comply with the regulations is classified as a criminal offence and can be enforced with the full powers available to local authorities.

The Primary legislation is the Building Act and The Sustainable and Secure Buildings Act 2004 these can be viewed with other legislation at   www.Legislation.gov.uk

The Building Act is the primary legislation that provides the legislative structure for building control in England and Wales. The Act is a consolidation of previous legislation that laid down requirements in relation to health and safety in and about buildings. It consolidates items from as far back as the 1875 Public Health Act right up to the 1984 Housing and Building Control Act.

Other associated legislation is The Town & Country Planning Act, Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order, Equality Act and local Acts.

Returning to The Building Act, this is split into five parts:-

One                - The Building Regulations

Two                 - The supervision of building work by alternatives to the local authorities such as Approved Inspectors.

Three              - Other provisions such as drainage, defective premises, demolitions and dangerous structures.

Four                - The General duties of local authorities including entry to premises and interpretation

Five                - Supplementary provisions such as transition arrangements.

Part Two

In this the second part of the podcast we will explore what type of work is subject to control or is exempt under the regulations and briefly look at the requirements of the regulations.

It is difficult to comprehensively list all works subject to building control. A general list that indicates the scope of building control could include building work to building super and sub structures, the provision of new buildings, replacement of thermal elements such as glazing and access to buildings. This list whilst not exhaustive gives a feel for the remit of building control.

Some types of work are exempt from the regulations and these are categorised as buildings controlled under other legislation, buildings not frequented by people, greenhouses and agricultural buildings, temporary buildings, and ancillary buildings, small detached Buildings and some extensions.

Although subject to control some types of specialist work can be self-certified by the installer. Examples of this are gas, oil and solid fuel appliances, ventilation and air conditioning systems, electrical installations, replacement windows doors and roof lights,  Installation of bathroom fittings, hot or cold water systems , micro generation and renewable energy systems,  cavity wall insulation and finally the  re-covering of roofs.

Now we have an understanding of the legislative background what guidance is available to help the designer or constructor of buildings to comply with the building regulations?

The guidance is contained in a series of very useful approved documents. To view the entire range of Approved Documents visit: www.planningportal.gov.uk

The guidance in the Approved Documents is one method of demonstrating compliance, however, it is not the only method. Other guidance documents such as British Standards, CIBSE Guides etc may be used to demonstrate an adequate design to comply with the building regulations.

The Approved Documents are:

•Part A – Structural stability.

•Part B – Fire Safety.

•Part C – Site Preparation and Resistance to Contaminants and Moisture.

•Part D – Toxic Substances.

•Part E – Resistance to the Passage of Sound.

•Part F – Means of Ventilation.

•Part G – Sanitation, Hot Water Safety and Water Efficiency.

•Part H – Drainage and Waste Disposal

•Part J – Combustion Appliances and Fuel storage Systems

•Part K – Protection from Falling, Collision and Impact.

•Part L – Conservation of Fuel and Power -Approved Documents L1A and AD L2A refer to work in new buildings and Approved Documents L1B and L2B refer to work in existing buildings.

•Part M – Access to and Use of Buildings

•Part N – Glazing: Safety in Relation to Impact, Opening and Cleaning

•Part P – Electrical Safety

We also have an Approved Document to support Regulation 7 that tackles Material and Workmanship

The private industry has also issued an Approved Document entitled: Basements for Dwellings. This Approved Document can be found on the Basement Information Centre website at www.basements.org.uk

The Government department for Communities and Local Government provides the infrastructure to the regulations and the website:  www.communities.gov.uk provides valuable information on determinations and appeals, competent persons schemes and consultations on future regulations and the future of building control.

Part Three

In our second podcast on building regulations basics we will compare the two systems of building control and provide 10 tips to help secure building regulations approvals.

Butler and Young building control hope that you have found this podcast to be useful and your feedback is valuable to us. If you have any questions regarding this podcast,  or you would like to hear a podcast on a subject that is important to you please send an email to podcast@butlerandyoung.co.uk.

Butler & Young Podcast can be found at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wi5Ge1A_RBM&context=C47fd168ADvjVQa1PpcFOj2RKDm7Uq2Zf1SVGHuwOwoX1Pk1HGi6g=

If you missed Andy Foolkes' article in RICS Building Control Journal on Chethams School of Music - Working in Complete Harmoy, click here: http://ping.fm/4msWn

Chethams School of Music Article - Working in Complete Harmony

Chethams School of Music is a co-educational, independent Music School and Registered Charity situated in the heart of the Manchester City Centre and has an international reputation of cultivating talented music students from around the globe to reach their potential.

The largest music school in the UK is in Manchester’s medieval quarter and the original school buildings date back to the early 15h Century when it was originally built as accommodation for the warden and fellows of the Collegiate Church of Manchester, now Manchester Cathedral.  It was known as “Church House”, hundreds of years after the priests left the site during the Reformation and only a few establishments of this type have survived with this being the best and most complete example in the country.  The Church House is on the site of the former manor house of the Lords of the Manor, with the boundaries to the North West of the site being the River Irk & Irwell fortifying the occupant’s ecclesiastical and political power.

The Church House building was bought in the mid 17^th Century by a local merchant, Sir Humphrey Chetham, who set about repairing and altering the building for use as a school for forty boys and a public library.  Sir Humphrey was born locally in Crumpsall and was the son of merchant who made his fortune in the textile industry and owing to his fortune was knighted and rose to the position of General Treasurer of Lancashire.   Towards the end of his life he accrued some debts and was worried that Parliament would take his money when he died, hence he decided to establish both this school and Chethams Hospital as his legacy.

This combination of 15^th Century building and 17^th century fittings are very rare and the library collections and the original furnishings are of national importance.  Other architectural additions of note include a schoolroom designed by Alfred Waterhouse, an architect most notably associated with Victorian Gothic Revival Architecture and designer of the nearby Manchester Town Hall just down the road from Chetham’s, or perhaps better known for his most famous work of designing the Natural History Museum in London.

The library is the oldest public library in the English speaking world and has an exceptional collection of documents some dating back as far as the 1600’s and the library boasts a very impressive alumni.  Just some of the most famous students that have studied there include Celia Fiennes, Daniel Defoe, Robert Southey, John Dalton, Friedrich Engels & Karl Marx.

The august reputation of the school means that it’s continually required to evolve and provide contemporary facilities for its students and a new triangular shaped school is currently being built on an adjacent site.  The new music school incorporates, a new music teaching and academic teaching school, a 400 seat concert hall with an additional 100 seat recital hall, box office, foyer and bar area with a new bridge link linking the existing building to the new development.

The challenge of designing and constructing a scheme that complimented the historical architecture and enhanced the international reputation of the school fell to Stephenson Bell Architects as Principal Architect, Sir Robert McAlpine’s as Principle Contractor and Drivers Jonas Deloitte as Project Managers.  Butler & Young’s national coverage means that we are able to work on projects throughout England & Wales, but on this occasion the scheme was project managed and site inspected by our North West office.

Works started in earnest in late April 2010 and from the outset the challenge of constructing a building with a footprint that took up the majority of the site and not impact on the day to day operations of the existing school has meant a very claustrophobic experience for the site team.  In addition to these constraints, add in a 4m diameter Victorian Culvert running through the middle of the site and a major power supply for the adjacent Victoria Railway Station, things became very constricted and the presence of two permanent tower cranes and central concrete tower were invaluable in assisting with site logistics.

The project used a combination of piled and reinforced foundations and the structural frame is predominantly built of reinforced concrete with both traditional brickwork and precast brickwork  panels to the perimeter.  One of the most striking design features is the substantial eccentric projection and bridge link into the existing building.  The overhang has been proven to work by the Structural Engineers Price & Myers and is a cantilever, with substantial 1.5m deep horizontal elements supporting the overhang.  The deep horizontal components when viewed against the slender horizontal columns, seems incongruous, but the columns have been designed for to give minimal support and I’m glad to say that the design has met Part A!

Butler & Young’s North West Office’s involvement in the project began in earnest around 4 years ago with initial advice relating to the imminent changes to the 2002 iteration of Approved Document L and the implications this may have on cost and program for the scheme.  The scheme has been funded privately with donations and sponsorship opportunities and publically from North West Development Agency and The Department for Education, meaning that any change to these variables may compromise the viability of the project.   The client aspired to provide a sustainable as well as an iconic building and in collaboration with the Project Team, the scheme is well on the way to achieving a BREEAM Very Good Status, with additional provisions to achieve Excellent; budget permitting.

With the primary use of the building being focused on music recital, it must come as no surprise that a particular client requirement was to ensure a high degree of sound insulation between the 115 music teaching and practice rooms and other curriculum teaching spaces nestled next to each other around the building. Ably guided by ARUP Acoustics, each music teaching room has an individual “floating floor” cast within the structural floor slab, along with other measures such as high density block and individually designed studwork elements to maximise sound attenuation. A high degree of site workmanship was critical to ensure that these features ensured the prescribed degree of sound reduction and a good rapport was developed with the Sir Robert McAlpine team site team to maintain the standards expected. 

The sound reduction within both the 400 seat concert hall and 100 seat Recital Hall has been designed on the concept of a “box within a box”, using the airspace between and the density of the two “skins” to provide sound diminution.  The reinforced concrete structural frame to the perimeter provides the outer “box” and the inner “box” is only supported off columns which are independent of the outer “box” floor slab. 

A building crafted to be both architecturally striking and provide the range of facilities required by the user means innovative design and presented a number of Fire Safety challenges to the design team.   With the height of the uppermost floor was greater than 18m, Building Bulletin 100 Guidance wasn’t applicable, but consideration was given to ethos of the document, for example the protection of irreplaceable assets such as pupil’s coursework and expensive musical and ICT equipment.

The School has good links to many nearby orchestras, including the Halle, and it is intended that the Concert Hall be used in the evenings for public performances.  The potential for various areas of the building, and consequently escape routes, to be inaccessible to members of the public meant many meetings with all stakeholders to ensure that a safe design worked successfully for all parties.  Butler & Young’s national coverage means that we have a number of members of staff with particular expertise and it was the resource that we employed to provide advice to the client on both the Licensing Act and the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order meaning the client could take advantage of our experience in peripheral regulatory areas to the Building Regulations.

The Architect was keen to ensure that an uncluttered, open design philosophy was maintained throughout the building, resulting in occupants having to travel within 4.5m of the edge of the balconies within the 5 storey central atrium.  In addition, no cross corridor doors have been provided to certain areas and a deterministic approach was employed by Fire Engineers, Norman Disney & Young, to demonstrate compliance with the performance requirements of Approved Document B.  The rationale for the design was based on the principle of reducing the concentration of the smoke to ensure tenable conditions for the occupants as they move to reach a place of safety.

Fire safety engineering techniques have also been employed when looking at access and facilities for the Fire Service.  A comparative study was carried out and the review demonstrated that the removal of fire fighting shaft, based on the realistic deployment of the attending fire crew, would be of a comparable level to the Requirement of B5.

The work of the school in the wider community has been reflected by the inclusion of an Outreach Centre within the corner of the site and has been purposefully designed to ensure maximum inclusivity for all members of the community.  One of the major challenges has been negotiation with the design team regarding access to the facility.  Owing to the “infill” nature of the building and the extreme change in level between the Hunts Bank and Station Approach has meant that a balance has had to be struck between acceptable levels of accessibility and the existing site constraints; which proved a bit of a headache! Butler & Young North West is also able to offer advice in relation to The Equality Act and our resident access consultant has been instrumental in minimising compliance risk for our client.

Once inside the building, sincere consideration has had to be given to the movement of students carrying instruments around the school, meaning a balance had to be achieved between providing big, heavy doors, to minimise sound transference, but ensuring pupils carrying a Tuba can successfully navigate their way around.

In conclusion, it’s amazing to think that a building of some sort has been on this site since around 1421 and fascinating to think of the various uses that the site has undergone. I feel very privileged to be involved in just a small part of this latest evolution of the School and I hope that such a culturally important building is here in 600 years time for future generations to enjoy.  I hope, from a regulatory sense, we’ve done it justice.

The project has been on site for the last 12 months, with an estimated completion date for February 2012. The second phase of the project to follow in due course will be the internal fitting out of the Concert Hall. Chetham’s are continuing their efforts to raise sufficient funds to move this forward with their Raise The Roof campaign! 

 

Andy Foolkes
Butler & Young North West Office
andy.foolkes@byl.co.uk

This article appeared in the RICS Building Control journal in November 2011

Hugh Johnson's experience going from LABC to An Approved Inspector

Hugh has tremendous penmanship and is a usual contributor to RICS and other professionally subscribed magazines, for a host of associated Building Control matters, here Hugh has written a piece for the personal transition from Local Authority Building Control to the private, Butler & Young Building Control.



Don’t worry, I have not been up in the loft of that building I wrote about recently, sniffing the aromas, but the Monty Python refrain is to reflect the recent change in my working life.
I was sort of half expecting it, but nevertheless it was still a shock, when on New Years Eve at four-o-clock in the afternoon, my line manager handed me a notice of termination of my employment as Chief Building Control Officer at North Kesteven D.C., after 38 years with that Authority. I know that I am not unique in that happening and many of you in the recent past have received a similar letter. I just hope that the reason for my demise was a pecuniary one and not one of ability and attitude and that the thousands of unpaid hours worked, did something for the good reputation of Building Control in the District.

Again like many of you reading this, when you don’t want to retire, and eat, live and breathe Building Control, as I do, you feel a bit like Brian in the title of this article! Anyway, I am here to tell you that there is life after L.A.’s and you can escape the crucifixion, indeed there is a kind of resurrection, (forgive me God for this blasphemy) when you realise that you can concentrate solely on Building Control without the fripperies of local authority office, which include attendance at countless irrelevant meetings and similar dog-hangings, which have little or no consequence for the world outside!

I accepted a post offered to me with Butler and Young, Approved Inspectors at their Lincoln office, working as a project manager but as the Bard would say ‘there is the rub’! From administering and cajoling others, you are now in at the sharp end of Building Control again and have to relearn the nitty-gritty detail of the Approved Documents. The philosophy of the Building Regulations is all very well and earns respect but it does not earn any money or get the job done in good time. My biggest learning curve was and still is, Part L, which even in my former life I considered far too mathematical and scientific, from which data, simple solutions could have been extrapolated.

Although I miss very loyal Unit at North Kesteven and all the pretty girls in the planning department, I am now working with a team of very knowledgeable and qualified colleagues who are also most conscientious when it comes to enforcing the law. When I was in the public sector I often heard murmurings’ that too many compromises were made in the private sector, but I can tell you now, that listening to them tell very important repeat clients, how they must do as they are told when it comes to complying with the Regulations, is most impressive.

So if you are wondering what to do next, and you are good at the job, get on with it, don’t chew on life’s gristle, don’t grumble, give a whistle, as Building Control is the most important profession, even if others cannot see it, and your expertise can influence and ensure the safety of the built environment for a lifetime!

Hugh Johnson

Hugh Johnson BSc (Hons) PPIBC FRICS MIFireE

Hugh Johnson, Butler & Young Lincoln

Butler & Young Lincoln office would like to introduce a recent new member of staff, Hugh Johnson

Hugh has been instrumental in national Building Control progression from his Chief Building Control Officer position at North Kesteven District Council. Hugh’s articles are regularly seen within the industry and published in RICS magazine and The Consortium of European Building Control.
Professional interests and current achievements in Building Control have been wide ranging and include some of the following:

Secretary General and Treasurer of the Consortium of European Building Control
Past National President of the Institute of Building Control
Member of CIC panel for Approved Inspector licence applications
Advising English Heritage with Building regulation advice for historic buildings
Building Surveying Faculty representative for East Midlands RICS
Technical adviser to the British Board of Agrement
National Chairman of the Technical Committee of the Institute of Building Control
Governor of Building Research Establishment Certification Board
Author of the Building Regulations section of the Construction ISURV website for RICS
Author of paper on self certification of Building Regulations for Norway
‘Access of all’ booklet on the comparison of disabled access legislation in 26 European Countries