Approved Document Q

[Adsibob]

We are renovating and extending an old 1930s house. Regulation 3 of the Building Regulations defines ‘building work’ as including:

 

1. the erection or extension of a building

2. the provision or extension of a controlled service or fitting

3. the material alteration of a building or a controlled service or fitting.

 

Part of our renovation includes the knocking down of an old wooden porch with a ceramic tiled roof and building a new porch out of brick with a ceramic tile roof. We've had to serve a building regs notice in respect of the whole project anyway, as we are basically doing everything to the house so the project overall is easily caught, but I'm trying to work out if our new front door which is going on the external part of the porch (we're not having an additional door between our hallway and the porch) needs to comply with Approved Document Q. This is what Approved Document Q says:

 

"Regulation 4 states that building work should be carried out in such a way that, when work is complete:

1. For new buildings or work on a building that complied with the applicable requirements of the Building Regulations: the building complies with the applicable requirements of the Building Regulations.
2. For work on an existing building that did not comply with the applicable requirements of the Building Regulations:

(i)the work itself must comply with the applicable requirements of the Building Regulations

(ii)  the building must be no more unsatisfactory in relation to the requirements than before the work was carried out."

 

Building work was defined in Regulation 3, as set out above, so our new porch is definitely "building work" in that it is the extension of our original building (the wood porch structure we are replacing was an addition). But this part of Approved Document Q is just so badly drafted! On the one hand, we are plainly not in the situation described in category (1) of Regulation 4 as we are not a new build or doing work on a building that was previously compliant. So we must be in category 2. In that case, is all that i have to do improve on the security of the flimsy front door that was there before, in which case all the stuff about non-timber doors having to either comply with PAS24 or comply with similar or better performance to PAS 24, including the follwowing is just non-applicable to my situation.

• STS201Issue5:2013

  • LPS1175 Issue7:2010 securityrating 2
  • STS202 Issue3:2011 burglaryrating 2
  • LPS2081 Issue1:2015 securityrating B

Is that right?

 

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have a PAS24 door, but I'm finding a lot of companies say "we can provide you with a door that has both laminated glass and multipoint locking, but we can't give you a PAS24 certification because we haven't had our doors tested."

[Adsibob]

Just bumping this up in case anybody knows the answer.

[ADLIan]

Appr Doc Q only applies to new dwellings (including change of use).