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This page is for clients and developers to learn and understand how to identify any designer or builder potentially getting them into court breaking the new laws. And get changes made before it is too late.
This is a very long and very dull page. Law is like that. It is everything I learned when I did a thorough search as these new laws and rules came into effect as well as all moratoriums expired, about April 2024. But, like it or not, we have to obey law.
Government had failed build quality for decades. Interpreting building regulations to increase profit is no longer allowed. Clients and developers face unlimited fine and prison if anyone they used failed to obey any new rule, and someone gets harmed later.
Building Safety Act and Dutyholder Duties and Competence.
Changes to the building control process …. and wider changes to procedural building regulations applying to buildings in England.
These apply to you only if your building control application was accepted after 1st October 2023. Check with both your architect and your building control body. Do they agree whether these new rules apply to you or not?
The client or developer is completely responsible unless and until they get an appropriate agreement signed by a competent person or body, signed off before they start as acceptable to their building control body.
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If the person or body (which could be the architect, a specialist or a contractor) prove not to be competent for any part of the work they carry out, the client or developer are at fault and face prosecution. Should anyone suffer harm, I think.
There needs to be an agreement between building control and your team, before they are allowed to start, about how they are going to build your basement, the materials and so on, how they will meet relevant standards and regulations,
and then another agreement between the two at the end of their phase that the work was completed satisfactorily.
Otherwise you won't get a completion certificate at the end and you won't be able to sell your house or even live in it legally yourself.
YOU DAREN'T FALL OUT WITH YOUR CONTRACTOR. A major cause of build quality failures in the past.
Being ordered to stop work and ignoring the order can lead to a court injunction. Disobeying that could lead to your imprisonment or unlimited fine.
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Grenfell Tower Inquiry final report: "Decades of failure by Government".
Solution.
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New Building Safety Act. Client/Developer, Principal Designer, Principal Contractor. Can all be punished if any building regulation is failed. They need to inspect and sign off everything.
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New procedures for building control. Evidence for prosecution must be on file.
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New Approved Document BS8102:2022. No leaks. No internal drainage system. Supervision and better workmanship required.
All designed to force big improvements in building standards in England.
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31st October 2024 I got a link to this article in an email. opens in a new tab. Note. The Building Safety Act and new procedures for building inspections apply to all projects. Not just tall structures, for which there are some extra new rules.
There is a new person involved in every project. The Principal Designer. If the client or developer does not appoint a principal designer, then the new law states that the architect is the Principal Designer.
There is a new contractor involved as well. The Principal Contractor, which will be the main contractor if the client did not appoint a Principal Contractor.
The Client or Developer, the Principal Designer, and the Principal Contractor will all be reported to the Building Safety Regulator, by their building control body, if it is discovered later that any building regulation was not complied with. They will all be punished (the client could even go to prison).
New Principal Designer's unavoidable duty:
"pass on necessary information to contractors and explain to them how to
demonstrate that elements are built properly."
But experienced labour don't know how to build a new basement properly.
And product suppliers are mostly just as bad.
They like you to think their product or material saves the day, when the truth is that they never meet your expectations. For example, they don't make concrete waterproof, the joint strip doesn't stick or stay in the joint, the sticky-back membrane tears and doesn't bond, when they seal a surface they don't fill the holes, and so on.
Product suppliers have all relied upon a pump to safeguard them from complaints, to pump out all the water that gets through hundreds of leaks the products failed to prevent and the experienced labour ignored. All products fail building regulation C2 when the workmanship is poor. It is essential not to have a pump (as far as the experienced labour can see, anyway). Knowing there will be a pump is the problem, incentivising leaks. Leaks aren't allowed any more. The workmanship has to be a lot better. Good workmanship works all on its own, you don't need products as well.
The solution is very easy to understand. It sounds expensive, but it saves far more money than it costs.
Small projects have to copy the example of big projects, much bigger than the Grenfell Tower.
There has to be a site engineer always available when the guys are getting their heads around anything new. Out on site enough of the time to prevent them not taking care. I would say that means 70% of the time until good new habits are embedded.
And inspections, limited to Building Regulation C2 compliance, before payments are authorised.
When an experienced gang build a new basement, their experience informs them that their work can leak because it will all be covered over before the client or main contractor see it, and all the leaked water will be pumped out.
The old show the young the skills and the tricks. As those since retired showed them when they were younger themselves.
How, then, is the entire gang to learn to build with care? To never leave a leak again?
They won't learn from this website in the way self-builders (doctors, dentists, farmers, marketing people, IT consultants, business owners etc etc) did.
The guys who work out on site in all weathers are people who don't read beyond the sports page.
They need to be shown.
72 lives lost in the Grenfell Tower because Government reduced red tape; architects accepted work they had no experience of; suppliers lied; Clients cut costs with no idea of the danger they caused; contractors bent rules; sub-contractors cheated; and those paid to inspect didn't.
It is very important that you understand whether you applied for building control inspections before the deadline or after.
These new laws, new duties and new processes only apply to your project if you missed the deadline.
It is worth checking. Check with your architect. Check with your building control body. Do they agree?
If you were before the deadline, and your project is under all the old rules, whizz past all the boxes with an orange border, and any wording in orange as well. They don't apply to you.
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Now everyone involved can face punishment for any and all breaches of a building regulation.
AND ALSO for not making certain, when choosing who will (a) design and (b) carry out the work, that there will be no breach of a building regulation.
The client or developer have the greatest responsibility and could be sent to jail. It's seriously important to get your head around your new, legal duties.
Building control can lose their job if they don't report you to the new Building Safety Regulator.
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Building Regulation C2 states that the floors, walls and roof of a structure shall protect the building and occupants from harm. Harm is the legal test. Harm may occur years later. Time is no defence.
Covering over basement leaks with internal drainage and pumping water out means the floors, walls and roof do not protect. If the pump blocks with mud, the basement floods, and the occupants get ill from mould, the building regulation was not complied with.
The law has been broken, and the developer should expect a fine and a criminal record.
I guarantee my clients their basement will not leak. Anything. Ever.
For 20 years I only trained and assisted Self-Builders.
Before that I was a site engineer on commercial projects: shopping malls, Excel exhibition centre, office blocks; and public projects: schools, prisons, roads, pipelines.
Now, I will train and assist Clients, Developers, and Contractors as well.
The only way I can imagine that a new domestic basement will meet all the rules, built by contractors, is for a genuine basement expert to be site engineer until the basement structure is complete.
Self-builders. Most of you are educated and used to studying. You might not need training because you have no bad habits and you can understand all 63 web pages. Some of the rest of this page is aimed at those who do this for a living. However, the information is just as important to you. The other 63 pages are of most use to self-builders. Look around.
Typically, self-builders might only see me on concreting days.
Sub-contractors.
Those who do this work already need to see a lot more of me to keep themselves the right side of the law, now that the law has changed.
Just two examples.
The contractor has the duty to ensure that the work, including work by its sub-contractors, complies with all relevant building regulations. That means inspections.
The principal contractor must never accept non-compliant work. Inspections. Audits.
Or else the building control body must report them to the new Building Safety Regulator.
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Prosecution.
Following the Grenfell Tower disaster. After which no one was prosecuted. There have been several law changes.
Building control will keep a very tight history of all works, who carried them out and the evidence they were competent. Any failure, and the client/developer will be prosecuted in court for not instructing competent people.
An architect will be punished by the new Building Safety Regulator for accepting work they are not competent to design.
This tends to mean structural design and basement waterproofing. The architect needs waterproofing designed by a specialist. Someone who specifies how all leaks will be avoided or fixed. Not by someone who would cover over leaks and pump water away, because that sometimes fails and would breach building regulation C2 - prompting the prosecution of the client or developer; as well as the architect facing a grilling and sanctions by the new Building Safety Regulator.
A contractor not able to prove they are competent will not be allowed to start work. This applies to main contractors and sub-contractors as well. If a main contractor turns a blind eye to non-compliant work by a sub-contractor, the main-contractor faces whatever retribution the Building Safety Regulator decides.
If building control does not keep adequate records of competence as well as works, they could lose their certificate to practice.
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Government is forcing build quality to improve. New habitable basements must be proven not to allow any harmful effects to the structure or persons.
The British Standard 8102:2022 says very clearly, in Table 2, Grade 3. 'No water ingress or damp areas is acceptable.'
It is very easy to build without any leaks. Have none to repair. Prove there is no leak, even during very wet weather, by inspection after the roof is on and the windows are in, and before the basement is covered with anything on the inside.
The client or developer face unlimited fines if anyone they chose to work on their behalf, whether design or works, allows any harmful effect from damp or flood.
If the architect's design allows water through the walls, floors or roof, the architect faces enforcement powers, regulatory tools, and sanctions. (Government web page).
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The following has been normal practice for many years. Whether the new rules apply to you or not, the following should now completely change.
Most new houses with a basement have been built by a main contractor who knew nothing about building a basement. The main contractor organised a sub-contractor who said they do this sort of work all the time.
But what they really do all the time is the steel reinforcement and formwork on commercial projects where the main contractor has engineers on site monitoring everything. As well as quantity surveyors who do their best to find reasons not to pay the sub-contractors in full. They don't ever get paid in full, so they learned to cheat and they have been cheating for at least 40 years. Because that's how it is. One side doesn't pay so the other side cuts corners.
But the main contractor for a new house has no-one on site while the basement is built. The sub-contractor knows they can cut more corners, not get caught, still get paid.
Long before the house above is fully weathertight, with rain and debris still finding its way into the basement (meaning you have no idea whether it is leaking or not), the basement needs to start getting fitted out. Because the timetable is paramount to getting the new house sold before it is complete to reduce borrowing at the bank.
The internal drainage system comes with a guarantee for labour and materials (covering only the internal drainage membrane). The sub-contractor's work and the concrete don't come with any guarantee. The whole house comes with a structural warranty. But the structural warranty excludes beneath ground waterproofing.
The next people to enter the basement are labourers who pump out the water and clear all the rubbish to a skip.
Then the internal drainage supplier covers the floor and walls with internal drainage membrane. Hiding the defects and the leaks.
And the fit-out of the basement gets underway before the roof is fully on and rain still finds its way into the basement. This time, sitting on top of the membrane, on the side that is supposed to be dry.
If the holes covered over are big enough, and you can see on this page there is plenty of potential for big holes, then during persistent rain the pump will block with mud and the basement flood. Any mould and the law was broken. But the new owner had no redress, usually.
Let's list all the new laws that are broken should this happen today.
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Client's duties.
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Instructing an architect not competent at designing basement waterproofing.
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Instructing a main contractor not competent to build the basement not to leak.
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Principal designer's duties.
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Started work without ensuring the client is aware of their own legal duties.
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Accepting instruction for work they are not competent to carry out.
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Not specifying all leaks must be fixed.
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Failed to both explain to them how to demonstrate, and failed to inspect to confirm, elements are built properly.
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Not making sure the design complied with building regulation C2.
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Principal contractor's duties.
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Did not co-operate with the client, designers and contractors to make sure the building work complies with all relevant requirements.
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Did not ensure that the building work was planned, managed and monitored.
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Did not make sure building work, that they and others they managed carried out, complied with all relevant requirements.
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Accepted non-compliant work.
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Sub-contractor's duties
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Did not co-operate with the client, designers and contractors (including the principal designer and principal contractor) to make sure the building work complied with all relevant requirements.
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Did not make sure building work that they and others they managed carried out complied with all relevant requirements.
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Did not provide each worker they were responsible for with appropriate supervision, instructions and information.
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Did not speak up earlier and make it known to the client, principal designer and principal contractor that internal drainage is not approved, nor a valid explanation for its use given by the design team.
That's 15 offences committed that the building control body must enforce or else they will lose their certificate to continue.
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If the client allows any internal drainage to be fitted covering over any leak whatsoever
because a salesperson (CSSW), an insurer, or a private building control body told them or their architect they must, and the basement floods when the pumps all block,
Either or both
The client wasted tens of thousands of pounds on products that will not work, and will have to be ripped off and thrown away to get to the leaks and fix them all, if the basement floods.
The client or developer will go to court, be found guilty, and punished. And a criminal record.
The architect, CSSW, insurer, and privateer inspector might also be found guilty by the Building Safety Regulator. But regulator sanctions will be less harsh than court sentences.
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I make the workforce build with their clients' best interests at heart. I make them slow down and take care. They will save their client several tens of thousands of pounds, even if they charge a little more for working a bit slower.
Not a drip has got through, round, or over more than 100 basements I built or helped build since 2013.
It isn't about products. It is about care. High quality concrete won't leak. It is holes, cracks, honeycombing, uncompacted concrete like kickers, and dirty joints that leak.
If you are a sub-contractor or main contractor, you should include the cost of digging and installing a sump, internal drainage, products for joints, and filling tie bar holes - without stating you will use them.
State, instead, the basement accommodation will be fully protected from any water ingress or damp from outside the structure.
If your tender value is the same as before, but you don't buy or put in a sump; internal drainage; and products like joint strips; and you spend half the saving with me to explain everything technical, organise the rebar, formwork and concrete; supervise; inspect and sign-off; you will make more profit.
The client saves as well because there won't be more problems coming to light later.
Find a way to be paid for all the usual products despite using none of them.
The first time, you might be giving me £10,000 to make your site team succeed. The second time only £5,000. After that only £2,500 to be there when you pour concrete.
I am prepared to be everyone's Waterproofing Specialist for a new-build domestic basement not going under anything already there.
I am prepared to train everyone, within reach, who wants to have a go or needs to change their ways.
This is the new process.
I got parts clarified by the government section in charge of these things. You can read the whole letter lower down.
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Either, BS8102:2022 is complied with. No Leaks.
Or, "demonstrate that the Building Regulations requirements have been met by some other acceptable means."
If anyone, whether building control, warranty provider, client, or architect tell you to install internal drainage. Quote this to them. You can easily save the two pages lower down as images to your computer and attach them to emails. Demand they demonstrate and take full responsibility for their wrong specification.
If I am already your waterproofing specialist, I will do this on your behalf.
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BS8102 has a whole chapter on fixing leaks. No ingress of water is acceptable in a new domestic basement. Table 2. Grade 3.
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The design team should include a waterproofing specialist.
For too long, this has been someone selling internal drainage or membrane. But now that internal drainage and membranes are both officially not waterproofing measures, these people (CSSWs) are not even waterproofers, let alone specialists. The waterproofing specialist should be me.
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The legal test is to comply with Building Regulation C2, which says that the walls, floors and roof of a structure must protect the building and those inside from harmful effects.
Obviously, if the basement leaks nothing at all, there could be no harmful effects from water in the ground or rain falling beside it.
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The Building Safety Act 2022 is fully in force for those who missed the deadline. It says that the persons or businesses responsible for designs and works must be competent. For some stages of bigger projects, they must prove their competence to the building control body and get their approval to start before they may start; as well as sign-off when they finish.
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There needs to be agreement and compliance from everyone that your basement
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Will be designed to comply with BS8102:2022. No leaks.
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Confirm that the contents of the ground investigation report have been considered and where relevant acted upon.
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Full details indicating the methods and procedures of protecting the habitable basement from water ingress.
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Details of materials used including third party accreditations.
(Notes. A recent court case determined that a BBA certificate does not amount to a form of guarantee or passport to compliance with building regulations). Other court cases, years earlier, made it clear that doing what you believe everyone else does is no defence against negligence, if the others are being negligent themselves: Bolam test; Albrighton.
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Details explaining how any leaks will be found and fixed to comply with BS8102:2022.
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Compelling evidence that someone competent is taking responsibility.
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Sign-off by the building control body at the end, probably not before a final inspection after heavy rain.
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Also effective, the procedural changes to building control make it mandatory that the inspector records everything so that if there is a failure the client or developer, and anyone else partly responsible, can be successfully prosecuted.
Without all the above you don't get your completion certificate at the end.
You should note that when a private building control body or a warranty provider insist on a guarantee for basement waterproofing, and perhaps an insurance backed guarantee, that they may be forcing you to deviate from the law, and they may be breaking the law themselves.
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I make it clear on other pages, that you should employ your manager and pay him or her directly (or else manage yourself) and that you are the competent body building your basement (referring to this web site for your methodology). In this way, you can change managers, change labourers and tradesmen, and as far as your building control body is concerned, the same competent body is still building the basement.
This way, honestly, typically saves clients at least 50% compared to a main contractor who employs a sub-contractor.
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Government asked Dame Judith Hackitt to report on improving building quality and building safety. She had previously been head of the Health and Safety Executive and she chaired the Grenfell Tower inquiry.
No one has been prosecuted for any of the 72 deaths. The laws didn't exist to save the evidence or make anyone responsible. Nor to prosecute for non-compliance of building regulations. Now they are in place and the new Building Safety Regulator will enforce them all.
She recommended something like school teachers who have to file a lesson plan in advance and Ofsted who will inspect building control bodies to ensure that builders' plans were agreed and filed away in advance of their work;
as well as signed off by the same parties on completion.
Wider changes to buildings regulations
These extracts are taken from a government web page. Please read the whole government web page, where it applies to non-tall buildings, here. And carry out your own additional research as might be necessary.
The link on the left 'Wider changes....' seems to get you past the tall building stuff.
Dutyholder duties and competence.
The Building Regulations etc. (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2023 set out a framework which identifies those dutyholders involved in the procurement, design and undertaking of building work, and imposes duties on them. They apply to all building work from 1 October 2023 onwards. The dutyholders to which these regulations will apply will be clients, principal designers, designers, principal contractors and contractors. As has always been the case, the duty to ensure that the work complies with all relevant building regulations is on those procuring and undertaking the design and building work. Dutyholders will need to plan, manage and monitor their work, cooperate and communicate with each other and coordinate their work.
Those undertaking design work and building work will need to have the right competence (the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours or organisational capability) for the work they are engaged to do. The person making the appointment for design work or commissioning building work has a duty to appoint a competent person, and the person undertaking the work should not undertake the work if they are not competent to do so.
My first brush with the new rules got this email from the local authority building control officer.
To confirm our conversation Building Control require a site-specific strategy report from your waterproofing specialist demonstrating the design in accordance with the guidance within BS 8102: 2022 (Protection of below ground structures against water ingress).
As part of this strategy the following should also be included:
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The guidance within BS 8102:2022 advises that the advice of a geotechnical specialist as well as other members of the design team to ensure an integrated waterproofing solution is created.
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Confirmation that the contents of the ground investigation report have been considered and where relevant acted upon as part of this process including the risk classification of the water table and the intended use and finishes of the structure (to be undertaken in consultation with the client).
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Full details indicating the method / procedures of protecting the habitable basement from water ingress. It is understood from our conversation that a combination of waterproofing protection methods is proposed (Type A and B). The primary method will be via the concrete basement walls (Type B) including repairs where necessary. The secondary method via a barrier (Type A) to be applied 12 months after the building is weathertight.
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Details of materials used within both methods including third party accreditations.
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Confirmation of guarantees provided at completion of the process.
Another building control officer guided the client to this form to use to accompany the supplementary information listed above.
Supplementary information template on the Planning Portal.
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From a circular letter from DLUHC to Local Authorities 1st February 2024. Here.
Note. NHBC have the same, but only basic, information on their website as it relates to their inspections. Here.
Changes to the building control process …. and wider changes to procedural building regulations applying to buildings in England.
These regulations deliver the recommendations set out by Dame Judith Hackitt in her Building a Safer Future report and cover the technical detail underpinning the new, more stringent regime for the design and construction of higher-risk buildings and building work carried out in these buildings, wider changes to the building regulations for all buildings and the creation of a regulated building control profession.
the Building Safety Regulator ("the Regulator"). (BSR).
The Building Regulations etc. (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2023 make changes to building regulations that will apply to all building work, to raise standards across the built environment. Legal responsibilities will be placed on those who commission building work, participate in the design and construction process and carry out the building control function, to make sure building work is compliant with building regulations.
The Building (Approved Inspectors etc. and Review of Decisions) (England) Regulations 2023, make amendments to the Building (Approved Inspectors etc.) Regulations 2010 to begin to implement the changes introduced by the Building Safety Act 2022 and support the new building control regime. This will introduce changes to improve accountability and competence, such as establishing a regulated building control profession. This includes setting out the length of time of registration for registered building control approvers and registered building inspectors.
Together these regulations will fundamentally reform the way buildings are designed and constructed, and how building work is carried out, delivering lasting building safety reform for generations to come.
Under the Building (Approved Inspectors etc. and Review of Decisions) (England) Regulations 2023, the building control profession will become a registered profession on 6 April 2024. (With many inspectors given till July 6th 2024 to complete compliance.
Any building work that continues after the date the initial notice ceases to be in force is unauthorised work that may be subject to enforcement action from the Regulator.
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This section will no doubt be added to as I learn more.
Where I see this going horribly wrong, is where the client requires a structural warranty, and the structural warranty provider (NHBC, LABC W, Premier Guarantee, ABC+ Warranty, Protek and others) or the privateer Approved Building Control Body (NHBC, Premier Guarantee, Assent BC and many, many others) don't get it that the rules changed.
NHBC, LABC W and Premier Guarantee all have on their web sites, more than two years after BS8102:2022 became the only relevant Approved Document, they want your project basement waterproofing designed by a CSSW who will cover over leaks and pump water out contravening C2 of the Building Regulations and BS8102:2022 that says fix leaks till the basement doesn't leak.
UNTIL THE STRUCTURAL WARRANTY PROVIDER PUTS IN PLACE THE PROPER APPROVAL OF YOUR CONTRACTOR BY YOUR BUILDING CONTROL BODY, YOU PERSONALLY REMAIN COMPLETELY RESPONSIBLE. IF YOU ARE ORDERED TO STOP, BUT THE CONTRACTOR DOES NOT STOP, YOU ARE PERSONALLY LIABLE FOR IMPRISONMENT OR UNLIMITED FINE.
There are, clearly, two sides to these new requirements. Materials and workmanship.
I would like you to accept my material choices, more here, and my supervising you doing your own work with people you pay directly for their time.
Concrete can be waterproof. It can be tested to prove it is waterproof. The pass mark for BS EN 12390 part 8 is 20mm.
BS8102:2022 approves of very few choices to waterproof a new domestic basement.
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External drainage where it will drain away by gravity and the drainage is maintainable (rodding access).
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Reinforced, water-resistant, continuous, concrete floor and walls to 150mm above outside ground level or DPC - "No water ingress or damp areas is acceptable".
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A waterproof membrane painted all over the inside of the basement after it is known not to leak anything. I like this because it is a vapour barrier as well, if done properly.
The quality of the structural design, the concrete, the workmanship and the curing of the concrete all influence whether and how badly the concrete leaks.
It needn't leak. But if it does, leaks must be fixed.
But leaking concrete kickers, and honeycombing from pouring the concrete in badly, probably cannot be fixed. The concrete should be torn down and built again.
However, this website is all about concrete that never leaks, saving a huge amount of money.
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