English Architects / Designers - Do Building Regulations exist?

[Derek W]

As someone who works as a technician in Scotland whenever we design a building we go through two processes. Planning - making sure the council like how the building will look from the outside (simplistic summary i know) then we have to produce a set of drawings which acknowledge and adhere to the Scottish Building Regulations (there are arguments that can be submitted where mandatory standards are met but specific clauses can be brushed to the side as it were). I'm a fan of watching programmes like "Building the Dream" and "Grand Designs" however, this last weeks episodes highlighted a couple of differences between the two sets of regulations.

Grand Designs was fairly straightforward https://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs. Yorkshire couple building a house on the west coast of Scotland. Got his planning but he didn't realise he had to get his Building Warrant in place prior to starting works so instantly had a six week delay before cracking on.

Building the Dream, however, threw me completely https://www.channel4.com/programmes/building-the-dream/on-demand/63809-011 episode for reference.

Nice enough split level contemporary home, however, in Scotland we wouldn't be able to have that unless we added in a lift / stair lift. In the Scottish Regulations (Section 2 & 3) every house should be designed so that it is "accessible" which means that should someone in a wheelchair want to buy a house, it will have an access ramp to at least one door of the house, corridors and door widths are suitable for a wheelchair to go through and there is a kitchen / lounge / bedroom and bathroom all on the same level. The house created on this weeks Building the Dream had its Kitchen / Lounge about 4 or 5 steps up from the rest of the accommodation. Does the English Regulations not cater for disabled users at all?

On a side note, the above programme had a ladder in a cupboard for the kids to access a sleeping platform as well which i felt was a fantastic accident waiting to happen, especially with a polished concrete floor throughout the house!

 

[Dis86]

Do building regulations exist? Yes, they're called the Building Regulations.

 

[Hotwired]

What does accessible mean.

Just the ground floor?

 

[Jez]

Nice enough split level contemporary home, however, in Scotland we wouldn't be able to have that unless we added in a lift / stair lift. In the Scottish Regulations (Section 2 & 3) every house should be designed so that it is "accessible" which means that should someone in a wheelchair want to buy a house, it will have an access ramp to at least one door of the house, corridors and door widths are suitable for a wheelchair to go through and there is a kitchen / lounge / bedroom and bathroom all on the same level. The house created on this weeks Building the Dream had its Kitchen / Lounge about 4 or 5 steps up from the rest of the accommodation. Does the English Regulations not cater for disabled users at all?

Struggling to understand how this works, every new house in scotland has to have a downstairs bedroom, bathroom, and massive wide disabled doors? What!?

How do the mass builders such as wimpey get around this for their normal designs? The small (even the large, thinking about it) designs of these will never have downstairs bathrooms and bedrooms for example, and you'd not usually design in massive wide wheelchair doors. In fact thinking about it, what normal house has a bedroom and a bathroom on the ground floor? The only type of houses with this would be buildings such as barn conversions or bungalows?

 

[Derek W]

What does accessible mean.

Just the ground floor?

Yes and No. The first floor apartments need to have 838 doors as well and staircase has to have at least a space for fitting a future chair lift.

Struggling to understand how this works, every new house in scotland has to have a downstairs bedroom, bathroom, and massive wide disabled doors? What!?

How do the mass builders such as wimpey get around this for their normal designs? The small (even the large, thinking about it) designs of these will never have downstairs bathrooms and bedrooms for example, and you'd not usually design in massive wide wheelchair doors. In fact thinking about it, what normal house has a bedroom and a bathroom on the ground floor? The only type of houses with this would be buildings such as barn conversions or bungalows?

Accessible doors are 838 wide doors, all rooms should have them except for En Suites which can be reduced to 762 (630 mm min clear width). Typically you have your WC with an 800 x 1100 mm space in front of it, Basin with 800 x 700 mm space, and a bath with 800 x 1200 mm space or shower 800 x 800 mm space in front of it so its not a full Doc M pack disabled WC but an enlarged space to allow for a wheelchair user to spin round and access all facilities. Please note that activity spaces can overlap so the Bathroom needs to be approx 2 x 2.2m in size so not overly huge. However, in a two storey house you can have a 'space for future shower' in a downstairs WC so long as you've got another Bathroom at the first floor.

 

[Jez]

However, in a two storey house you can have a 'space for future shower' in a downstairs WC so long as you've got another Bathroom at the first floor.

Is that how most normal houses deal with this then? I cant imagine many normal houses having a downstairs full bathroom, that would be quite rare or for a bespoke situation in England.

There are many regs surrounding accessibility, but they are not harsh like that.

 

[Derek W]

Yeah certainly the one off houses we do along with the developers two storey houses we'll stick in a downstairs WC and sink with the relevant activity spaces. It's not ideal but it does appear that our accessibility regulations are more strict than the ones south of the border.

 

[Abyss]

Is that how most normal houses deal with this then? I cant imagine many normal houses having a downstairs full bathroom, that would be quite rare or for a bespoke situation in England.

There are many regs surrounding accessibility, but they are not harsh like that.

The building requlations are far more onerous in Scotland (with more severe consequences if they aren't followed).

Interestingly the housing development we live on in England had a planning requirement to ensure they were built for life, including considering disabled access. As a result our house has the following additions:

1. Wider doors
2. Wider hallways/corridors
3. Larger downstairs toilet and pattresses in the wall for fixing grab rails in the future
4. Larger first floor bathroom with similar pattresses
5. A section of the first floor can be removed in the future to acccomodate a lift (not visible as platerboarded over)
6. Fused spur next to lift area and at the bottom of the stairs for a stairlift
7. Level access to front/side/patio doors
8. DDA width paths

Personally I think this should be standard on new builds. Avoids the significant cost (and design problems) with making all new builds accessible but builds in the fundamentals for future adaption if required.