It was also originally proposed that Post-Construction Testing (PCT) would be required to demonstrate compliance with Part E1.
The House Builder's Federation (of which Benfield ATT are the only specialist timber frame members) took the view that this would be an expensive and potentially high-risk strategy and proposed that a set of Robust Standard Details (RSDs) could be designed that would be guaranteed to exceed the requirements and would therefore not need to be tested on site.
Following an intensive 10 month period of design, construction and on-site sound insulation testing to meet the rigorous requirements set by ODPM, the first phase was completed on time and 13 RSDs were submitted to ODPM for inclusion in a public consultation.
Full details of the RSD Project can be found on the Napier University website.
Independant
On 21 January 2004, it was announced that the principle of RSDs had been accepted as an alternative to PCT and confirming an earlier announcement deferred the introduction of PCT for new houses and flats until 1 July 2004.
The minister also advised that any future development, maintenance and monitoring of the robust details will be carried out by an independent company set up for the purpose called Robust Details Ltd.
The most significant costs for this company will be the extent of audit and monitoring that will have to be carried out. Although the actual amount of ‘audit’ testing has still to be determined, it would seem likely that this will be around 1-2% of all new RSDs. Initially it is intended that these costs should be met by charging a fee of approximately £30 per plot for the use of RSDs. Other sources of income would be income from publications, the sale of test data and, importantly, income from suppliers and manufacturers promoting new RSDs, all of which would affect the final level of charges.
More details are being tested for inclusion in the pattern book and amended regulations are due to be published soon. Robust Details Ltd was operational on 1 May 2004, and adopted by Benfield ATT on which to base our standard details on our bespoke projects.
Watch this space….
