The Construction of Buildings 1 [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION During the last seventeen years there have been ongoing revisions of the building regulations. The Building Regulations 1976 contained regulations and deemed to satisfy provisions for building together with schedules containing technical details of materials and construction that met the provisions of the regulations. In a new format, the Building Regulations 1985 came into operation. These regulations defined functional requirements for buildings that could be satisfied by reference to eleven Approved Documents giving practical guidance to meeting the requirements. Although there is no obligation to adopt any solution detailed in the Approved Documents it is stated that 'If a contravention of a requirement is alleged then, if you have followed the guidance in the Approved Documents, that will be evidence tending to show that you have complied with the Regulations'. The consequence of that statement is that the technical guidance in the Approved Documents will generally be accepted as the requirements of the Regulations, to avoid the lengthy and time consuming work of referring to a bewildering array of British Standards and Board of Agrément Certificates in support of a solution not contained in the Approved Documents. The initial intention in drafting the 1985 Regulations was to give more freedom of choice in the form of building, through a statement of functional requirements so that by meeting these requirements a variety of building forms was encouraged. In the event the pubhcation of Approved Documents and ongoing revisions of both the Regulations, Approved Documents and British Standards has militated against innovation. The revised Building Regulations 1991, which came into force on 1 June 1992, together with new or revised Approved Documents, have prompted this edition. In this latest edition of Volume 1 the material concerning fire has been revised to reflect the change in emphasis from fire protection of the building to the safety of the occupants of buildings in the event of fire, particularly in relation to means of escape. A new requirement for smoke alarms in all new houses is included. The need for protection against the ill effects of radon gas in certain parts of this country is included in chapter 1. Various other revisions and alterations have been made to reflect changes in techniques. AUTHOR'S NOTE For linear measure all measurements are shown in either metres or millimetres. A decimal point is used to distinguish metres and millimetres, the figures to the left of the decimal point being metres and those to the right millimetres. To save needless repetition, the abbreviations'm' and 'mm' are not used, with one exception. The exception to this system is where there are at present only metric equivalents in decimal fractions of a millimetre. Here the decimal point is used to distinguish millimetres from fractions of a millimetre, the figures to the left of the decimal point being millimetres and those to the right being fractions of a millimetre. In such cases the abbreviation 'mm' will follow the figures e.g. 203.2 mm. R. Barry