Solutions

© Assent Building Control Assent Building Control Ltd, Assent House, 4 Navigation Court, Calder Park, Wakefield. WF2 7BJ

Welcome to our Autumn news letter for 2013. This year has been extremely productive for Assent and we have gone through some interesting developments since our previous news letter. There have been a number of small regulation changes already and the proposed changes to Part L are now due to be pub-lished this Month. The revisions promise to bring some interesting changes and we will be bringing our seminars to a location near you and to your office if you require in the coming months.

News 1

2013 Changes 1

Project News 2 - 3

Part L 2013 4 - 5

Project News 6 - 7

Assent International 7

New Starters 7

Part L 2013 chart 8

2013

September 2013

News

At the start of the year the DLG set out the changes that will be made to the Building Regulations regime in England in 2013. Key areas of change cover a number of documents. Approved Document A has been amended with referencing of British Standards for structural design based on Eurocodes. Approved Document B is also being amended to take into account refer-ences to Eurocodes and as a result there are changes to guidance on thermoplastic roof lights and lighting diffusers which are covered in this news letter. Approved Document C is also being improved with better referencing to an improved map detailing better targeting of radon protection measures. Following the release of the draft Approved Document K last summer the rationalisation of guidance supporting Parts M, K and N (Access, Protection from falling, collision and impact and Glazing respectively) will be completed this year this will address areas of conflict and overlap, these changes came into force on 6 April 2013. Approved Document P has been amended to allow the home owner to do more work and will avoid the need for householders to seek approval for simple jobs such as adding a socket to a kitchen, and installing a new security light or a lawnmower socket in the garden. Installing new circuits and house rewires will continue to require ap-proval from building control or be carried out by an electrician registered to approve their own work.

In this issue

As you may now be aware Assent are no longer required to check if new dwellings are registered with a designated warranty scheme provider before under-taking the building control function on building work involving the creation by new build or conversion of any new dwellings for sale or private rent. The removal of the Warranty Link Rule which took effect from 6 April 2013 in respect of initial notices or combined initial notices and plan certificates given on or after 6 April 2013 applies to England only. The re-moval of this bureaucratic burden now means that Assent can now operate on level terms with local au-thorities in accepting other forms of warranty such as

Warranty Link Rule removed

Regulation

Changes

Assent ISO 9001 Accreditation

IMPORTANT INFORMATION! Is this news letter useful to you? Do you find it informative? What would you like to see more of, what would you like to hear less about? Please let us know as this news letter is for you! Please email johnmiles@assentbc.co.uk with any comments you may have.

Project News

Assent London (Central) have been working with interna-tionally acclaimed chef Alvin Leung. Since the success of his 2 Michelin Star rated restaurant in Hong Kong, we have been providing design consultation and Building Control for his stunning new flagship fine dining restau-rant in London’s Mayfair.

Project News

Assent (Manchester) have been working with Skiplex, providing design consultation and alongside Assent (West London) delivered on site Building Control inspections for the new Reading ski centre. This is the second Skiplex centre Assent have worked on and we look forward to working with Skiplex again in 2014

Summer has seen Assent achieve ISO 9001 certification after undergoing an audit of our procedures and processes.

Assent has from the beginning adopted ISO 9001 systems of document control and quality processes and the awarding of this certification demonstrates our commit-ment to providing a quality building control system.

This

DCC system

As part of our commitment to our clients and to our staff across the country Assent have been working hard at improving our document control systems. To this end we have now implemented a revised Document Control Centre (DCC) which deals with all applications. This cen-tral system allows for seamless working across all Assent offices and represents a significant investment in our procedures.

© Assent Building Control Assent Building Control Ltd, Assent House, 4 Navigation Court, Calder Park, Wakefield. WF2 7BJ

t: 01924 229180 • f: 01924 250387 • Registered in England: No. 5311596

Solving Problems

than you know that although Building

Control is our core business, Assent

Building Control offers more!

Assent has now grown to provide more than just

Building Control. We aim to offer solutions for all

aspects of construction from Pre Planning advice to

post completion Fire Risk Assessments.

Key services have been listed here and for more in-

formation you can see our website or contact the

head office in the first instance at

enquiries@assentbc.co.uk or on 01924 229180. We

can then point you in the direction of your local

Assent Office or to our specialist service providers.

Services you can get from Assent

Service Contact

Building Control plan checking

and inspections

Click for Local Assent Office

Free pre-submission advice Click for Local Assent Office

SAP/SBEM energy assessments Click for Local Assent Office

Code for Sustainable Homes Assessments

Assent Head Office 01924 229180

Fire Engineering Assent Head Office 01924 229180

Access Audits Assent Head Office 01924 229180

Planning Advice/Consultant Assent Planning andy@assentplg.co.uk

Education & Training Assent Head Office 01924 229180

Compliance Monitoring Assent Head Office 01924 229180

just

Building Control

Did

MORE

Assent answers (DIY) SOS once again!

Assent have recently being asked to help the BBC with a number of DIY SOS schemes across the country. In December our Kent office carried out Building Control inspections and currently we are working with the team in Warrington.

Project News Assent on Twitter!

Follow us on Assent can be found at the following address @assentbc or by searching Building Control Assent in Twitter. If you are reading this on a computer or tablet you can also click on the follow @assentbc icon.

Twitter

Changes to Part L 2013

IMPORTANT INFORMATION! Is this news letter useful to you? Do you find it informative? What would you like to see more of, what would you like to hear less about? Please let us know as this news letter is for you! Email johnmiles@assentbc.co.uk with any comments you may have.

In August the Government outlined its commitment to reducing carbon emissions from buildings via the next tranche of changes to Part L and although the documents have not yet been published we can tell you the following after the official launch of the revisions. The latest Approved Documents will hopefully be published this month and will come into force on the 6th April 2014. Firstly the same transitional provisions as before will be in play in that if an application is submitted before the 6th April and provided work starts within one year then they can work to the current requirements.

New homes will be required to achieve a 6% uplift over the current level. This is a reduction from the consultation

proposal of 8%.

Main changes are to new build dwellings with the introduction of an assessment of Fabric efficiency as well as

carbon targets.

Fabric efficiency will be a Target Fabric Energy Efficiency [TFEE] and | dwelling Fabric Energy Efficiency [DFEE} with

the dwelling rate not exceeding the target.

Fuel factors will stay at existing levels.

Existing homes – no change in standards

New non-domestic buildings will be required to achieve an aver-age 9% uplift, this is good news as it means that extensive renew-ables will not be required to achieve compliance, but may still be used. This is a significant reduction on the 20% uplift in standards proposed in the consultation however the impact of the changes will vary depending on the build. (see table)

Standards on replacement building services in existing non-domestic buildings are proposed to be tightened.

The government are still pushing a proposed zero carbon compliance route in 2016 but we are still some way off achieving that with these ‘tiny steps’ in uplifting the standards. As always Assent will be delivering seminars on the changes just as soon as details are released. For further information please contact Martin Conlon on 01924 229180 or at martin@assentbc.co.uk

Part L 2013 - Tiny steps

towards a zero

carbon future

Distribution Centre/Warehouse 4%

Deep plan office with A/C 12%

Retail warehouse 8%

Shallow plan office 13%

Hotel 12%

School 9%

Small Warehouse 9%

© Assent Building Control Assent Building Control Ltd, Assent House, 4 Navigation Court, Calder Park, Wakefield. WF2 7BJ

Part L 2013—Variety is key!

At the BRE’s English Part L launch it was announced that limiting

U-Values within Part L weren't going to change. But as with all

things Part L compliance isn't going to be a simple process!

This is because the way the Part L targets are calculated is

changing, which means that by building to the limiting U-Values

you could still be quite a way from complying!

One of the changes is the introduction of a Target Fabric Energy

Efficiency (TfEE). Another change is to how the Target Emission

Rate (TER) is calculated. When the TER was first introduced in

2001, developers were given a set of details (U-Values, heating

efficiencies etc) which would show compliance with the Part L of

the time. The 2006 target was created by knocking 20% off these

details, and the 2010 target was created by knocking a further

25% of that.

Instead of continuing to use this principle specification to create our targets, the specification has been redesigned

from scratch for 2013. This system has already been adopted in Scotland and operates by basically stating that you can

show compliance just by building elementally (still with a SAP) .

Instead of using the limiting U-Values in the Approved Document it’s recommended you construct new homes to this

base standard: 0.13 for floors, 0.18 for walls, 0.00 for party walls, 0.13 for roofs and 1.40 for windows, external doors

and roof lights. The air test should be designed to five, and the property should adopt a System 1 ventilation and an

89.5% mains gas combi for heating.

Specifying a brick and block wall to achieve 0.18 will be hard, you’d be looking at around 180mm of with mineral wool

insulation. If you use PU foam board insulation, you’d need around 90mm of insulation… so this all points to wider cavi-

ties.

But like the old ‘target u-value’ method in Approved Document L1b you can mix and match to achieve the desired re-

sult in SAP. For example, you could build your wall to the maximum 0.30 U-Value, improve roof insulation (for example

to 0.09) and specify triple glazing (with a U-Value of 1.00) instead of the typical double glazed units.

An additional change in the documents is that you don’t necessarily need to look at building fabric alone. You could

build to a ‘worse’ standard (providing you meet the TFEE and then consider some of the following changes / improve-

ments to re-balance the calculations

Use better thermal bridging details (such as Enhanced Construction Details or APA Details).

More efficient boilers and heating controls, or the use of low carbon heating options.

A more efficient ventilation system and air leakage result.

Introducing flue gas or waste water heat recovery.

Introducing solar thermal or photovoltaic panels.

In order to comply with Part L 2013, you need to make sure both the TER and TfEE targets are met.

See the back page for our quick reference guide!!!!

Project News

IMPORTANT INFORMATION! Your local Assent office can provide free updates on forthcoming regulations changes, in house seminars and building regulations surgeries. Please look at www.assentbc.co.uk to find your local office and book us in to come and see you!

Success Over the summer Assent were appointed to provide

Building Control services on a scheme for a new Haribo factory in Castleford near Pontefract, West Yorkshire. Wates Construction has begun work on a new factory in Castleford for confectioner Haribo, the maker of Jelly Ba-bies and Pontefract Cakes. Wates’ £35m design-and-build contract will provide a three-storey manufacturing facility and a four-storey office facility with 30,700 square metres total floor area. Haribo is investing £92m in the new facil-ity, which will supplement production at its existing factory in nearby Pontefract.

Work is expected to be completed by April 2015 and once

fully operational, the plant will employ 286 people and

produce 48,000 tonnes of treats a year.

Herwig Vennekens, managing director of Haribo, said: “After two years of planning it’s great to finally get to the stage

where we are setting the foundations that support our plans for growth within the UK.

“This investment in a new facility will enhance Haribo’s production capabilities and help us to meet the growing de-

mand for our products.

“Our existing factory is near capacity and so this new site will allow for progressive expansion, enabling us to continue to extend our offering and to develop new and innovative products.”

Sweet

© Assent Building Control Assent Building Control Ltd, Assent House, 4 Navigation Court, Calder Park, Wakefield. WF2 7BJ

t: 01924 229180 • f: 01924 250387 • Registered in England: No. 5311596

Project News

Assent have been appointed by GRAHAM

Construction to provide building control on a new Stu-dent Accommodation Development.

The Construction on the University's Peel Park campus will begin in November 2013. Assent have been working with architects Sheppard Robson and Omega Fire Engineering to delvelop the design over the last 18 months ahead of works starting on site.

The £64m project comprises 1367 contemporary en-suite rooms in four to eleven bedroom flats and is located in the heart of the University's Peel Park campus. The build-ing is targeted to achieve a BREEAM ‘Excellent rating’. Each flat will include its own kitchen and lounge space. Residents will also benefit from a generous reception area, TV and games room, gym, group study lounges, demonstration and private dining kitchen, launderette and a cinema room.

For further information on this project contact John Miles at our Manchester office on 0161 205 1859

Student

Living

Assent International 2

Assent Building Control Limited have once again worked within the International arena by continuing in a pro-gramme to help a nation state in the middle east develop and train its people in the system of Building Control that mirrors the UK in partnership with the RICS. John Miles, our Manchester Area Manager along with Jaspal Virdee-Dhanjal from our West London office spent some time in the Middle East training staff and assisting the government in creating and developing a system of regulations and control that will increase building stan-dards but also improve the lives of people. “The experi-ence of working with established professionals who rec-ognise the need for an improved system of Building Con-trol and training them to think differently has been a very rewarding experience” said John. This is a great recognition for Assent and proves that we are considered the premier Approved Inspector in the UK. For further information contact Martin Conlon on 01924 229180

New Starters

2013 has proved another bumper year for new appoint-ments at Assent and we would like to welcome the fol-lowing new starters to the Assent family.

Nicola Booth has joined our Wakefield Office as a Project Manager, Nicola has a wealth of experience at local authority and will be a valuable addition to the team.

Sam Mashiter has joined our Manchester office as a Project Manager and is also joined by Judith Jones as administrator. They are a welcome addition to our Man-chester office and will enable us to grow the business.

Jim Cowan has joined us in the Midlands and is based in Burton Upon Trent. Jim brings his experience in both the private and public sector to Assent.

The new associates and surveyors represent the in-creased coverage Assent now has. It also reflects the hard work our team undertake to provide a first rate building control service.

Assent Part L 2013 Update

‘Easy’ Quick Reference Guide

New Build Targets

6% Uplift to CO² targets

for domestic properties

9% Improvement for non-

domestic properties

What this means

for U-values!

Floors

0.13 W/m²k

Walls

0.18 W/m²k

Roofs

0.13 W/m²k

Doors / Windows

1.4 W/m²k

What this means

for Air Tightness

5m³/m²/hr @50Pa

Legal Notes

Transitional arrange-

ments are still in place as

they were under the pre-

vious updates and are

coved under the Building

Act 1984.

Regulations will come

into force 6th April 2014.