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!
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:
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:
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);
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?_______
Building Regulations are rules designed to ensure health, safety, accessibility and energy conservation in and about buildings.
“The erection or extension of a building.
Renovation of a thermal element e.g. roof replacement, rendering a wall etc.
Change of use of a building e.g. converting a barn to a house etc.
An alteration involving work which will affect the ongoing compliance of the building, service or fitting with the requirements relating to structure, fire, or access to and use of buildings.
The installation or extension of a service or fitting which is controlled under the regulations”
The single biggest advantage is that we can work within all geographical locations but the Local Authorities generally work within the confines of their own borough. This means by using us you don’t need to go through a different process and different inspectors every time you start a new project.
By using a tradesman or installer who is self-certified by way of a competent persons scheme. The most common self-certifications are for electrical works (NICEIC), boilers installations (Gas Safe), windows replacement (FENSA) and cavity wall insulation (CIGA). A full list of schemes can be found on the www.gov.uk website.
All types such as: residential, commercial, mixed use, educational and healthcare. We also work on more niche building types such as rail, infrastructure, listed buildings, and industrial premises. Some buildings are technically exempt such as Railway, MOD and Crown Premises but they tend to comply in any case and ALL BUILDING CONTROL can advise on these as necessary.
Neither ALL BUILDING CONTROL or any other Approved Inspector can approve works that have already commenced, only the Local Authority can do that. If however the work you have started is merely preparatory, stripping out or ground investigative work then we can help but you cannot start the works being regulated until the Initial Notice is confirmed.
You will need to make a Regularisation application to the local authority. This will inevitably involve opening-up works and possibly require provision for other items such as structural calculations and services installation certificates. We offer a service where we can assist you in the process.
Planning Permission rules determine whether you can go ahead with a building project essentially based on Appearance and Use whereas the Building Regulations set technical standards for the design and construction of buildings.
“We are licensed to cover the entire of England and Wales.
We are London based and have surveyors available throughout the country.”
When you instruct ALL BUILDING CONTROL you are appointing us to act on your behalf. As part of the Building Regulations process ALL BUILDING CONTROL will notify your local authority of your intended building work and you may start work just as soon as this Initial Notice has been accepted, usually by default after 5 working days or sooner should we receive acknowledgment from the local authority before that.
After submitting the initial notice to the local authority ALL BUILDING CONTROL takes on the responsibility for plan checking and site inspections. Also, a Fire and a Sewer consultation will be undertaken if the job requires it. If your job is satisfactorily completed, we will issue a Final Certificate. A copy will also be issued to the Local Authority. When you come to sell your property a solicitor or estate agent enquiry will reveal the works were regulated and satisfactorily completed.
Like the planning permission, the Initial Notice will stay active for 3 years once registered however only if works have not started. If the works have started there is no time limit for the works to then be completed. We can issue you a commencement inspection report, as evidence of a start of works within the expiration date of your planning permission.
Our accountants reconcile the invoices once a month. If you want a remittance of your payment contact the office.
“The process of plan checking and subsequent number of site inspections will never guarantee fully compliant buildings but on the whole it ensures a high proportion of building works meets the high standards we have in the UK.
The Building Regulations are not a substitute for a Clerk of Works and in any case generally concerned with the bigger picture being health and safety in and around buildings. You should have a formal contract with a reputable contractor and in the absence of your own knowledge hire a designer or architect to provide quality construction plans for your contractor to build to – doing none of this and simply choosing a contractor based on the lowest price could mean problems during and even after the building works.”
“Some kinds of work carried out to a property may not be building work that is controlled by the Building Regulations but may be work covered by the rules about the Party Wall.
Put simply, the Party Wall is the dividing wall or partition between two properties which is shared by the owners or tenants of each side.
The Party Wall Act introduced a procedure for dealing with disputes between owners of neighbouring properties.
There will be some cases where both the Party Wall Act and the Building Regulations will apply to work being carried out.
You must find out whether work you intend to carry out will be affected by the Party Wall rules.”
You will need planning permission for certain changes to the use of a property such as changing from a residential use to a business use. However, it is possible to change use between some classes without having to make an application for planning permission.
“I have recently moved into a three-bedroom house which has had a loft room constructed. Building Regulations Consent was not obtained before doing this work though we are informed that the works conform to the required standards. How do I go about applying for Building Regulations Consent in retrospect? I know that planning permission was not required.
You will need to contact your local authority Building Control office and apply for a Regularisation Certification for this ‘unauthorised building work’. This could be very disruptive as some of the covered building work may need to be exposed, e.g. to verify the size of a steel beam or the spacing and size of floor joists.”
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!
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.
M2 Accessible and Adaptable
M3 Wheelchair User