_{Building Regulations:}

The building regulations identify the rules by which buildings are designed and constructed in England and Wales (There are a different set of regulations for Scotland). These ‘rules’ are in fact part of the Building Act 1984 - government legislation that has since been subject to a number of additions and amendments.

The building regulations were once presented in an A5 size manual as a set of prescriptive requirements with rigid and largely inflexible solutions. Whilst of course they remain ‘prescriptive’, they are now split into a set of ‘Approved Documents’ and form the Building Regulations Approved Documents 2000. These publications are split to cover various aspects and elements of building design and construction e.g. Fire Safety, Structure, Ventilation etc. and are open to accept a variety of solutions for compliance with a given regulation.

The Approved Documents now contain each Building Regulation in brief. The remainder of the document is given over to describing, illustrating and outlining how each regulation may be complied with.

It is compliance with the Building Regulations that is important, not how it is achieved.

There are several books available that successfully manage to simplify the Building Regulations / Approved Documents into more everyday language, explaining how the standards may be met and complied with.

You can find these at the Design Office Book Shop.

For those that are interested further the Building Regulations are hosted on the Planning Portal web site, and can be found here.

There is additional information concerning government policy, the appeals process and some limited information and links on ‘greener buildings’.

 

Approved Documents downloads -

The download links below will provide PDFs (portable document files) which you may keep electronically or print hard copies as you wish. The files are subject to limited Crown Copyright restrictions.

In order to open any PDF you may require a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader software which can be downloaded and installed for free by clicking here - both Mac and PC options available.

A guide to the current building regulations providing a general overview can be downloaded here.

The following provides a full list of all the current Building Regulations Approved Documents, which can be downloaded free :

 

• Approved Document A - Structure (2006)

• Approved Document B - Fire Safety - Volume 1 - Dwelling houses (2006)*

• Approved Document B - Fire Safety - Volume 2 - Buildings other than dwelling houses (2006)*

• Approved Document C - Site preparation and resistance to contaminates and moisture (2006)*

• Approved Document D - Toxic substances (2006)*

• Approved Document E - Resistance to the passage of sound (2006)*

• Approved Document F - Ventilation (2010)*

• Approved Document G - Sanitation, hot water safety and water efficiency (2010)*

• Approved Document H - Drainage and waste disposal (2006)*

• Approved Document J - Combustion appliances and fuel storage systems (2010)*

• Approved Document K - Prevention from falling collision and impact (2006)*

• Approved Document L1A - Conservation of fuel and power (New dwellings) (2010)*

L1B - Conservation of fuel and power (Existing dwellings) (2010)

L2A - Conservation of fuel and power (New buildings other than dwellings) (2010)*

L2B - Conservation of fuel and power (Existing buildings other than dwellings) (2010)*

• Approved Document M - Access to and use of buildings (2006)*

• Approved Document N - Glazing - safety in relation to impact, opening and cleaning (2006)

• Approved Document P - Electrical safety - dwellings (2006)*

• Approved Document to support Regulation 7 - Materials and workmanship (2006)*

 

(* - indicates date of last publication).

 

You should be aware that all Approved Document publications remain Crown Copyright and are subject to limitations with regard to further publishing. They may be distributed freely within an organisation, or kept for private reference.

All downloads of Crown Copyright material are carried out under license granted to this web site.

 

Further information concerning Crown copyright may be found by clicking here

Design Office Architectural Ltd - company registered in England No. 4623581 - Registered office at - The Old Garage, 22 Weetwood Court, Leeds LS16 5NT - Telephone (44) 113 216 3357