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Building regulation updates that affect steel windows:
DOCUMENT L - "CONSERVATION
OF FUEL AND POWER"
BUILDING REGULATIONS - REVISED 1st APRIL 2002:
As of the 1st April 2002, the Building Regulation Document Part L was substantially
revised. This document covers the “Conservation of Fuel and Power” and has
been revised to dramatically cut down the CO2 emissions created by properties
that are not energy efficient. The scope of when this regulation applies has
now been extended from just new buildings to now include all replacement windows.
It basically means that when we replace existing steel windows and doors,
the replacement windows must be insulated to a regulation standard (technically
speaking – glass only must have a centre pane “u” value of no more than 1.2
W/m2K or the combined frame and glass "u" value must not be more than 2.2
W/m2K) – resulting in special glass units having to be adopted which sometimes
requires the use of specific window sections to house them. On new buildings
the insulation requirements have also been dramatically increased.
The exceptions to the rules are if the building is : (a) listed, (b) is a
building of architectural and historical interest, or (c) is in a conservation
area or area of natural outstanding beauty / national park / world heritage
centre. The window types to meet the new regulations may not be suitable for
these types of special buildings and they may alter the appearance of the
property. Therefore the rules are relaxed to allow replacements with a lesser
specification to be fitted which match the existing. In this case – you must
contact the local authority's Planning Conservation Officer to confirm if
this is the case, and submit a Building Notice to the Building Control department
along with a copy of our specification, and copy of consent correspondence
from the governing conservation authority for approval prior to placing any
order. If you wish us to undertake this task for you, we can offer this service
for an additional fee.
If your building is not one of the special cases above, and we are replacing
existing windows in a domestic dwelling – the Local Authority do not have
to be notified as we are registered with an organization called FENSA Ltd.
who have been set up to allow reputable organizations to self-govern their
installations for compliancy with the regulations. We will notify the Local
Authority via FENSA Ltd. on completion of the contract and you will receive
a certificate of compliancy direct from them on completion.
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