All Builiding Control Donation

We’re glad to announce that over the course of the last year, we were able to raise £500 for the homeless through your generosity! We have matched this with another £500 as promised! These packs have now been put together and are ready to be given out over the coming days.

Thank you to everyone who chose to join us in supporting this wonderful charity, the work that they do and most importantly, the people in our communities that need it most this Christmas!

Important Changes for ‘Relevant Buildings’

New Sprinkler Requirements

From November 2020, whether constructing a new building or adding additional floors to an existing one, such that the resultant building will have a storey over 11m then, the new requirement is for 60 minutes fire resistance and sprinklers throughout the building. Additional and more onerous provisions will also apply the higher the building gets e.g. over 18m.

Storey heights is depicted by the following diagram:

New Way Finding Signage Requirements

From November 2020, Wayfinding signage is now a requirement to assist fire-fighting operations.

The guidance in support of this new requirement offers suitable letter type, height and size.

Generally accepted formats for referring to floors are depicted below:

External Walls and Non-Combustibility Requirements

Regulation 7(2) applies to any building with a storey at least 18m above ground level (as measured in accordance with Diagram D6) and which contains one or more dwellings; an institution; or a room for residential purposes (excluding any room in a hostel, hotel or a boarding house).

It requires that all materials part of an external wall or specified attachment achieve class BS EN 13501 Class A2-s1, d0 or Class A1, other than those exempted by regulation 7(3).

NOTE: The above includes student accommodation, care homes, sheltered housing, hospitals and dormitories in boarding schools.

For existing buildings which are captured by the regulations by Regulation 5(k) or 7(4)(a) then the building requires a suitably qualified fire engineers report to detail what is considered necessary work to be carried out in respect of combustibility external walls and specified attachments.

Regulation 5(k) the building is a building described in regulation 7(4)(a), where previously it was not”.
**Regulation 7(4)(a) means a building with a storey (not including roof-top plant areas or any storey consisting exclusively of plant rooms) at least 18 metres above ground level and which—
(i) contains one or more dwellings; (ii) contains an institution; or (iii) contains a room for residential purposes (excluding any room in a hostel, hotel or boarding house);

Other Notable Requirements

  1. Requirement for stairs to be fire-fighting stairs where previously they were not i.e. 1100mm wide where the building is over 18m.
  2. Smoke control systems to stairs lobbies would likely be required where the 11m storey height threshold starts to be exceeded.
  3. A dry rising main installation would likely be required where the distance from a pump appliance set down point to farthest point of uppermost flat exceeds 45m as is often the case once over 11m.
  4. Disproportionate collapse class changes so a structural engineer will need to be consulted on the existing building type and proposed nature of any additional construction.

Questions the designer should be asking

What is the Height of Top Story of the current building?________m
What will be the Height of Top Story of the proposed building?_________m
Does or will the building fall within the definition of a “relevant building” as described above?________
Has a fire engineer been appointed yet? _________
Does the building currently have sprinklers if not how accessible is the existing building? __________
What is the current form of construction for the external walls?__________
Is an EW1S form in existence for the current building and what is the outcome?_______

Important Changes for ‘Relevant Buildings’

Hampers for the Homeless

The recent global pandemic we have found ourselves enveloped in has changed our daily realities massively and collapsed them into a somewhat stationary life in our dwellings alone. Not all of us have been able to experience the long lockdown months with the luxury of having a roof over our heads and being able to enjoy our newly-found time with our loved ones. Excessive online shopping, daily walks and endless zoom calls have become a new normality for most of us.

All Building Control has remained working throughout the static, cold winter months, and we’ve seen the sheer amount of people on the streets, in the horrendous cold. The number of homeless on the streets rising is inevitable, but we can still reach out and show them a sense of much-needed support. For that reason, All Building Control has come up with an initiative to make these challenging times somewhat easier for these people in need by giving out hampers to the homeless.

These hampers will include an assortment of daily necessities such as warm clothes, toiletries and dry food and costs only £20. The hamper will be delivered personally on the way to site visits, stopping for a chat whilst doing so! In association with Night Watch, a charity providing for London’s homeless, we aim to fundraise enough money to put together an abundance of these hampers to reach as many of the homeless as we can! Nightwatch provides London’s homeless with weekly support in the form of food banks supported by local restaurants and businesses, assisting them in taking up vocational training and education and stabilising those that previously may have been homeless in new accommodation, befriending them whilst doing so.

Nightwatch emphasises the importance of both empowering such people, to give them a big boost of confidence in finding their new path in life but also educating the community about the realities of homelessness. If you decide to appoint us on a project of yours or would like to make a donation towards one of our hampers for the homeless, we will match this and provide two on our part! We encourage you to support us in this opportunity to reach out to the least fortunate of our communities and revive the sense of belonging that may have been diminished by the continuing pandemic!

Don’t forget the Approved Document R

Publication title: Approved Document R – Physical infrastructure for high speed electronic communications networks

Date published: April 2016

Date it takes effect: 1st of January 2017

Due to the huge rise in use of the internet and broadband in almost all aspects of daily life today, the new Approved Document R took effect last January to ensure that all citizens and organisations have access to affordable high speed communication networks. It applies in England to new and existing buildings that are subject to major renovation works. It applies for dwellings and other building than dwellings.

The document introduces a new requirement for in-building physical infrastructure which enables copper or fibre-optic cables or wireless devices capable of delivering broadband speeds greater than 30 Mbps to be installed.

Where the work concerns a building containing more than one dwelling, the work must be carried out so as to ensure the building is equipped in addition with a common access point for high-speed electronic communications networks.

Approved Document R: physical infrastructure for high speed electronic communications networks.

Approved Document M

What does it all M – Muh-Muh-Muh-Mean?

Publication title: Approved Document M – Access to and use of buildings: Volume 2 – Buildings other than dwellings AND Volume 1 – Dwellings Date published: Vol 1 and 2 March 2015 (Volume 1 corrected 2016) Approved Document M is now split into two Volumes being; Volume 1 Dwellings and, Volume 2 non-dwellings. Volume 2 essentially draws everything from the previous document so has the same technical content. Volume 1 (dwellings) however is now subdivided into 3 parts;
  1. Category 1 – Visitable dwellings
  2. Category 2 – Accessible and adaptable dwellings
  3. Category 3 – Wheelchair user dwellings
Despite the titles being fairly obvious what does this actually translate to in real terms you may ask? Each Category address the requirements under the sub-headings of a) approach to… and b) circulation / use within… Category 1 approach and circulation requirements are basically the same as was required of new dwellings complying with the superseded version of Approved Document M. The new bits therefore are Category 2 and 3 dwellings and which Category you comply with will be which will be designated to you in your planning approval. Under the ‘approach’ sub-headings Category 2 dwellings are required to be a little more generous. and it details car parking and drop-off requirements. Under the ‘circulation sub-heading they include a section called ‘habitable rooms’. The words ‘clear access zone’ feature heavily within this section along with example diagrams detailing key dimensions of these zones to be allowed for. Category 3 goes one step more an essentially provides for a full wheelchair accessible dwelling. Take a look at the difference between a Category 2 bedroom versus the Category 3 bedrooms below.

M2 Accessible and Adaptable

M3 Wheelchair User