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Article updated on 31 January 2024One of our surveyors recently sent in this photo, taken in a brand new commercial building. It’s the ground floor of a protected staircase and shows the door swing directly over the bottom of the stair within the landing space. Clear space should be…
One of our officers was surprised to be greeted with this novel approach to childproofing windows at a recent completion inspection - a child safety gate.
An earlier inspection had highlighted the need to provide some form of guarding to the window because it was within 800mm of the floor.…
Insulating floors will go a long way towards making a property more energy efficient. But gaps, however small, can often compromise good insulation by allowing air leakage that can lead to cold bridging and other issues. This advice is for floor insulation above a concrete floor and below a screed…
The 'Fixing our broken housing market' white paper launched in February 2017 continues in the same hard-hitting fashion of the Farmer Report ‘Modernise or Die’ published in October 2016.
It begins with the introduction, ‘The housing market in this country is broken, and the cause is…
For the past year LABC President, Richard Scott has been fundraising for Pancreatic Cancer UK. With just a couple of weeks remaining LABC will be opening an online auction of signed celebrity sporting goods to help him reach his target.
Richard has spent the past year relentlessly fundraising…
The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) is seeking opinions on proposed changes to permitted development rights. These are designed to support the delivery of housing in England by allowing more development to be carried out using permitted development rights rather than…
From 1 July 2017, reaction to fire cable with a Reaction to Fire requires a Declaration of Performance (DoP) and CE marking under the Construction Products Regulations (CPR). The Approved Cables Initiative (ACI) has developed an online video campaign to highlight CPR requirements and how they…
If you are doubling up floor joists, creating trimmers or trimming joists around stairs and chimneys they all need connecting properly so that they can act as a single unit.
Whilst timber floors and their connection details should be designed by a competent person, the ‘Eurocode 5 Span Tables (…
Masonry buildings are by their nature and materials resistant to fire; but all buildings have cavities and some concealed spaces where fire can spread undetected.
To minimise the dangers of undetected fires you must provide barriers to reduce the area of the void space and to contain any spread…
Cavity masonry walls have a cavity for good reason - and it’s not to provide a home for excess mortar or general debris as the images below show!
Allowing mortar (and debris) to accumulate within the cavity and on wall ties can seriously affect the sound insulation performance of a…