Get legal, stay legal

CAB Technical Conference 2010

Now in its fifth year, the annual CAB Technical Conference took place in mid May at the Stratford Manor Hotel, near Stratford-upon-Avon. Despite the difficult current climate for the construction industry, the event was very well attended with more than 100 delegates representing 50 member organisations and some high profile speakers discussing current and upcoming legislation.

Patrick England, CAB technical consultant, introduced the day’s proceedings: “For many of us the daily struggle of winning and doing business and trying to make a profit is enough, yet it seems that however good their intentions, politicians and other regulators seek constantly to find ways to make our lives more difficult.”

This means that the construction industry, like many others, faces the ongoing challenge of meeting not only the existing regulations but yet more and more new ones. Compliance with UK regulations is not discretionary, it is mandatory, and failure to comply exposes businesses to the possibility of prosecution, fines and in some cases imprisonment.

Therefore, to survive in this jungle of regulations, it is essential for businesses to know what these requirements are and to know how to comply in order to ‘Get legal, stay legal’.

Six speakers offered the latest insight into regulatory compliance and the changes on the horizon.

‘Schools & Commercial Design Guides 2010 - Fenestration Update’. Mick Reynolds, Development Officer, ACPO Secured by Design.

Mick came offering good news for CAB members. It was his third conference and the communication now between CAB and SBD was very positive. The new SBD standard ‘Secured by Design Schools 2010’ had been published and had become effective on the 4th January 2010. The ‘Schools 2010 Guide’ was available for free download from their website www.securedbydesign.com.

There were projects specifying SBD products, that must be independently 3rd party certified obtained by the fabricator, where the products did not meet these standards and SBD approval was being refused. SBD would shortly publish their latest design guide for commercial projects and Part 1 would cover factories and warehouses.

‘Testing and Certification of Windows and Doors for Secured by Design’. Luke Adams, Sector Manager, BBA.

The BBA offered testing to current security standards so that products could be 3rd party certified to meet the requirements of SBD.

SBD compliance required a factory control system and ongoing audit which could be met by certification to ISO 9001.

One of the crucial features of compliance was that products must carry a permanent mark to show that they had been tested to the relevant standards and have data which allowed the product’s fabrication to be traced back to the works order.

‘CE Marking and the Construction Products Directive’. Simon Beer, Product Certification Manager, BM Trada Certification.

Part of the BM Trada Group, BM Trada Certification carried out testing to verify compliance with CE Marking.

The main purpose of CE Marking was to facilitate cross border trade within the European Union. For the time being the UK had opted out of mandatory CE marking, but there was a move to conform on a voluntary basis.

Simon explained that compliance was not as complicated as most thought. EN14351 Window and Door Product Standard had been approved and as from March 2010 CE Marking was mandatory in the majority of EU States. The procedures clearly outlined the process of manufacture and testing from goods-in to fabricated product delivery.

There was no reason why a well run company in the UK could not comply with the standards laid down in EN14351 and begin to CE mark manufactured product for sale in the UK and Europe.

‘Part L – 2010 and beyond’. John Tebbit, Industry Affairs Director & Deputy Chief Executive, Construction Products Association (CPA).

CAB is a member of the CPA, which has some major construction product members, together with other associations and affiliates.

Coming into force on the 1st October 2010 the new Part L document was moving England and Wales towards new build zero carbon homes by 2016. Domestic windows would be required to meet WER band C or a U value not exceeding 1.6W/m2k and domestic doors a maximum U value of 1.8 W/m2k.

Commercial replacement windows would be required to meet WER Band C or a U value of 1.8W/m2k if domestic in character and curtain walling was to have a U value of 1.8W/m2k or calculated to a formula in the Building Regulations.

The industry would need to look at embodied carbon and, within five years in all probability, carbon budgets for the lifetime of the building. Over the next five to 10 years it was likely that homeowners would be encouraged to upgrade the levels of insulation in their homes through tax incentives.

‘BREEAM and the Green Guide’. Jane Anderson, Principal Consultant Green Guide, BREEAM Materials BRE

Jane explained the different routes to creating a BREEAM rating such as the use of materials, improved insulation or renewables. BREEAM ratings, which could be produced prior to the start of building, were now a requirement for many organisations.

Out of the nine areas for improvement, energy at 19% of the overall weighting, was one of the largest and therefore gave the most scope for improvement. Taking a possible credit maximum score of 100%, a pass is seen as 30%, an ‘excellent’ rating is 70% or more and an ‘outstanding’ is 85% or more.

Jane moved onto the Green Guide which looked at building elements. Each of these elements was awarded ‘ecopoints’ which could go up to A+ for materials with the least environmental impact. Jane explained that one of the most important features of aluminium was that it was recycled many times over, a unique feature of metals.

BRE had begun to review the latest data from the European Aluminium Association (EAA) in a project to update aluminium’s generic environmental profiles. This project was headed up by CAB with support from the International Aluminium Institute (IAI) and the Aluminium Federation.

‘Renewable vs. Efficiency on the path to zero carbon’. Ian Butterss, Technical Advisor, Zero Carbon Hub.

Ian explained how insulation was crucial to saving energy in use and that they now measured this efficiency in KW hours per square metre of fabric per annum, rather than U-value.

When renewables, such as photovoltaics, were first used their energy production often did not meet demand. However with the new feed-in tariffs recently introduced, the money being paid to building owners could drastically reduce the pay-back period and make photovoltaics a more viable option. Wind generators, placed in the correct locations could offer payback well within five years. Heat pumps, while not really a renewable, were less efficient than those previously mentioned, but could help reduce our energy use by up to 66%. Other proposals included community power and heating from renewable sources such as biomass boilers.

Patrick England closed the conference and thanked the speakers for their time and input and vision into the future.

CAB was actively organising events and lectures in order to keep members in touch with changing standards and routes to compliance as well as working closely with the supply chain. The next event was a mini supply chain conference entitled ‘Commitment to Supply Chains’ at the RBS Williams F1 Conference Centre, Oxfordshire on 23 September 2010. For more information on CAB’s activities contact the CAB office on 01453 828851 or email julie.harley@c-a-b.org.uk .

Picture: John Tebbit, Industry Affairs Director & Deputy Chief Executive – Construction Products Association