INDUSTRY NEWS More guidance needed
WindowMaster, one of Europe’s largest providers of natural comfort and smoke ventilation solutions, is contributing to the debate on planned revisions to Part L of the Building Regulations.WindowMaster has submitted recommendations to theDepartment forCommunities and LocalGovernment (DCLG) and the Building RegulationsAdvisory Committee (BRAC).WindowMaster’s TomLymn says: “We responded to theChartered Institute of Building Services Engineers’ (CIBSE) leadership of the non-domesticworking group on planned changes to Part L for 2013. We outlined some points to consider based on our experience in designing and implementing effective natural ventilation solutions that help to address some of the common issueswith building energy performance and internal climate.” There is evidence to suggest that newbuildings are not performing as they have been designed to. It’s hoped that the updated building regulations, Part L in particular,will ensure that a completed building delivers in real terms on its stated design, rather than just ‘ticking the boxes’ and using genericmethods,materials or technologies. Lymn explains: “Theremay be a gap in the education of some designers that can lead to solutionswhich are under-engineered – resulting in poor energy performance or,more likely, as a result of poor historic experienceswith weaker or poorly implemented solutions, effective alternatives are overlooked. Poor performance is accepted as inevitable. The education gap can also lead to over-engineered solutions being employed – resulting in increased and often prohibitive costs. To avoid these scenarios there should be better guidancewithin the regulations.”CIBSE (
www.cibse.org) is leading theworking group on changes to the non-domestic Part L of the Building Regulations. The group is advising theDCLGand BRAC. Its objectives are to look at the potential to further reduce carbon emissions fromnewand existing non-domestic buildingswithin the broader policy constraints set by the government.Apublic consultationwill be carried out in spring 2012with the aimof publishing the newApprovedDocument inOctober 2012, coming into force inApril 2013. For more information telephone 01536 510 990 or visit
www.windowmaster.com
Timberpride reacts to tighter timber regulations
Timberpride’smanaging director Alexander Goldsworthy has further enhanced the company’s credibility as one of the UK’s leading European oak specialists and hardwood timbermerchants, by completing the TRADA Visual Strength Grading Hardwood course. The accreditation,which allows those qualified to visually grade timber to the standard set out in BS575:2007, comes at a timewhen building regulators are becomingmore concernedwith the quality and
sustainability of timber used in large scale building projects. This year, UK Building Regulationswill require that all timber used for structural purposes is strength graded and grademarked to D30 or D40 under the control of a third party certification scheme. The strength grade and classwith an accredited certificationmarkmust be clearlymarked on all structural timber. Golesworthy comments: “It’s good news that the industry is tightening the reins on timber grading regulations, as this will ensure higher quality timber is being used in building projects and it’s vital that as a companywe do allwe can to assist and support builders to ensure industry standards aremet.” For more information visit
www.timberpride.co.uk
12 | Architects Choice |
ArchitectNews.co.uk
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