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Approved Inspector Building Regulations Fire Risk Assessment

The Regs: Take safety into account when designing partitions

Geoff Wilkinson looks at the fire safety rules relating to alterations to offices

One of the questions we regularly get asked is whether or not Building Regulations apply to minor works to fit out offices, shops, and so on. In most cases the answer is ‘yes’ and there are quite a few regulations that you can fall foul of if you are not careful.

It will come as a surprise to many architects that even a s...

Response to Dame Judith Hackitt’s Final Report

Following the publication of Dame Judith Hackitt’s Final Report, ‘Building a Safer Future: Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety’, the Government asked to hear views as to how these recommendations should be taken forwards.

We have today responded to the report and provide a summary of that response below.

Recommendation 1.1

We do not agree with this recommen...

Geoff Wilkinson looks at problems arising from failure to identify where drains run

One of the most frequent problems we see with small projects arises from the failure to check whether or not there are drains running beneath the footprint of a proposed building or extension.

Building Regulation H4 requires that when building within 3m of a public sewer, or within 1m of a public lateral drain, you’ll need water authority approval before work be...

The Regs: How to get a highly glazed extension to comply with Building Regulations

If you have ever wondered how an architect got that glass box extension past building control, then Geoff Wilkinson has the answer

There has been a huge trend in demand for extensions that join internal living spaces to the garden by way of large areas of glazing and ever larger opening ...

Congratulations to our longest serving employee Chloe Still on her marriage to Dave Prentice on 24th May 2018.

The Wedding took place in the fantastic venue at the Lost Village of Dode and even featured both a Owl and a Magician.

We wish them both the very best for thier future together

The Regs: Don’t get your fingers burnt on a kitchen project

Geoff Wilkinson looks at the potential pitfalls of kitchen, utility and bathroom schemes

Work to a kitchen, utility room or bathroom can seem like the simplest of projects an architect can deal with, but they can be a minefield if you aren’t sure when you need Building Regulation approval.

A very simple refresh with new units and fittings does not generally require approval, however moving...

The Hackitt report was published last week and like many we were shocked at its conclusions, and importantly its lack of them in relation to cladding.

Given the clear case for action on combustible cladding and the ease with which an amendment could be made by issuing a corrigenda amendment to Approved Document B, we cannot understand why Dame Hackitt did not make this move a top priority.

As it stand there are no changes to the guidance in the Approved Docum...

The much awaited Hackitt Report into the future of Building Control is due to be published soon.

In this blog we look at the changes to the system that we would like to see in the recommendations.

1. Approved Inspectors have no powers of enforcement unlike Local Authorities. This needs to be reviewed and either powers given to Approved Inspectors or a new National Enforcement Body set up to ensure a level playing field. In addition powers should be introd...

20 Questions that should be answered quickly in the light of the Grenfell Disaster

(originally posted on twitter on 16th June 2017 by our MD Geoff Wilkinson @geoffwilkinson)

1: Can we see the Architects plans & specifications?

2: Were these approved?

3: Were the fire service consulted?

4: Can we see a copy of the consultation respons?

5: How many site inspections were made?

6: Can we see records of those inspections?