Appendix A: Summary of main changes made in response to comments received on draft proposals.

Changes to the Requirements

Guidance on the need to carry out pre-completion testing, previously contained in Section 0, has been replaced with a new Regulation.

The wording has been clarified so that Requirement E2(a) covers internal walls and E2(b) covers internal floors. The scope of E2(a) has been extended slightly to include some additional internal walls in rooms designated as bedrooms and rooms containing a wc.

The proposed Requirement E3 'Protection against noise from external sources' has been removed following legal advice that the proposals were not workable without changes to the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. The proposed Requirements E4 and E5 have been renumbered as E3 and E4 respectively.

Changes to consultation draft of Approved Document E

Changes to Section 0 - Performance

• Paragraphs 0.1 and 0.2 have been amended to reflect the changes to Requirement E1
• A new paragraph 0.3 has been added to say that 'Sound insulation testing should be carried out by a test body with appropriate third party accreditation. Test bodies conducting testing should preferably have UKAS accreditation (or a European equivalent) for field measurements'. This does not preclude other bodies offering a suitable accreditation system.
• Paragraph 0.5 has been amended so that the test and declare option that applied to listed buildings now applies to 'historic' buildings. Historic buildings have also been defined for the purposes of Approved Document E.
• Diagrams 0-2 and 0-3 have been amended to match the revised Requirements E2(a) and E2(b).

Changes to Section 1 - Pre-completion testing

• Additional guidance has been given on the operation of the pre-completion testing regime. In particular, in Paragraphs 1.34 - 1.36, the guidance elaborates on the procedure that should be followed after a wall or floor has failed a test.
• The guidance that building control bodies should have 2dB discretion when determining the need for appropriate remedial treatment contained in the original Paragraphs 1.30 - 1.32 has been removed in the revised Paragraphs 1.37 - 1.39.
• Paragraph 1.42 has been amended to refer to historic buildings.
• A new Paragraph 1.43 has been added to standardise the reporting of test results.

Changes to Section 2 - Walls

• The main editorial change is the addition of text at the beginning (2.2) to explain that the guidance is not comprehensive and that other designs, products and materials can be used - provided manufacturer's advice is sought. This advice is repeated where generic products are referred to but proprietary products or systems are available - such as blocks with voids (2.13), plasterboard/foamed plastic laminates (2.14) and cavity fill materials (2.28).
• A new separating wall (Wall Type 2.4) constructed from aircrete has been added for use only in constructions without separating floors and where there is a step and/or stagger between adjoining dwellings. Use of aircrete inner leaves has been extended, and aircrete internal walls for use in conjunction with separating Wall Types 2.3 and 2.4 have been added in Section 5.
• To improve clarity, new diagrams to illustrate cavity stops (e.g. Diagram 2.5), window aperture size (Diagram 2.8) and staggers (Diagram 2.20) have been added.
• The Wall Type 4 junction details have been amended slightly by the addition of a ring beam option (see e.g. 2.152).

Changes to Section 3 - Floors

• The main changes are made to the guidance on ceilings (starting at 3.16). Resilient channels have been removed from Type B specification and grouped with timber battens which has allowed Ceiling Types C and D to be merged as Type C.

Changes to Section 4 - Material change of use

• Only minor editorial changes have been made to this Section.

Changes to Section 5 - Internal walls and floors

• Internal wall Type D, built from aircrete, has been added (Diagram 5.4).

Changes to Section 6 - Rooms for residential purposes

• More emphasis has been given to the fire regulations when the separating wall does not extend to the roof (6.13 - 6.15).

Changes to Section 7 - Building envelope insulation

• This Section has been removed and subsequent Sections have been renumbered.

Changes to renumbered Section 7 - Reverberation time

• Only minor editorial changes have been made to this Section.

Changes to renumbered Section 8 - Schools

• ODPM and DfES have decided that it would be better to include the targets and guidance on acoustics in BB 93 rather than BB 87 and the text has been changed accordingly.

Changes to Annex A - Method for calculating mass

• An additional calculation procedure for internal beam and block floors has been included (A5.2).

Changes to Annex B - Measurements

• An indicative target value for flanking laboratory tests has been included (B3.13). This can be used to show that flanking laboratory tests indicate that a novel construction would be worth field-testing. It is made clear that such a test does not override the need for pre-completion testing.

Changes to Annex C - Building envelope insulation

• This Annex has been removed and subsequent Annexes renumbered.

Changes to renumbered Annex C - Glossary

• Only minor editorial changes have been made.

Changes to renumbered Annex D - References

• Only minor editorial changes have been made.

Changes to the Regulatory Impact Assessment

• Appendix A has been added listing the main changes to the proposed Part E made in response to comments received on the draft proposals during the consultation exercise.
• Editorial amendments have been made throughout the RIA as a consequence of the changes made to the Requirements and to Approved Document E.
• Paragraph 22 has been amended as the Government ended the system where maintained schools were exempt from Building Regulations on 1^st April 2001.
• Section 8.2 Consultation with Small Business has been added.
• The estimated cost of pre-completion testing has been revised to take account of general comments received during consultation and improved information received from NHBC and HBF regarding house types and typical site sizes.
• Section 8.5 - 8.8 has been added to reflect the mix of dwelling types anticipated by the HBF in a possible future house building scenario.
• Appendix C has been added examining the typical cost of the changes to small developments and the overall impact of the changes on the social housing sector.
• Section 10 Ministerial Declaration has been added.

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