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January 2003 – ‘the building industry response’
Accepting the rationale for the changes, the construction industry agreed that
the new Part E1 regulations could partially become effective on 1 July 2003
for new hostel and hotel types of accommodation and houses, flats, hostel and
hotel accommodation formed by conversion of other building types.
However, for new houses and flats the implementation of new requirements was
deferred to 1st July 2004 based on representation from the House Builders
Federation (HBF) arguing that the scheme would lead to delays and higher
costs. Ministers asked for an alternative solution and the HBF and building
material suppliers proposed new ‘high performance designs’, now referred to as
Robust Details (RDs). As sound insulation is dependent on the quality of
workmanship, it was proposed that RDs should be generally over-engineered.
The Robust Details
Subsequently, over 40 candidate RDs were put forward for testing as
‘workmanship-proof construction’ methods of straightforward design. The intent
was to prove that separating walls and floors could be built to standard
without the need for routine post-construction testing. The RD programme was
sponsored by HBF and run by the Building Performance Centre at Napier
University.
In order to qualify for RD status, separating wall and floor constructions
would have to meet a field-measured mean airborne sound insulation target of
at least 50 dB DnTw + Ctr with no individual value below 47 dB (Solutions in
Approved Document E must achieve a value of 45 dB). In addition, separating
floors would need to achieve a field-measured impact sound transmission of 57
dB L’nTw or less with no individual value higher than 60 dB (Solutions in
Approved Document E must achieve at least 30 times with no more than 8
measurements coming from any one site.
August 2003 – ‘the RD testing results’
Of the systems included in the initial testing programme 13 met the required
performance levels, with 9 more still to complete the testing programme. The
Government than asked for feedback on the acceptance of the RD concept.
RDs accepted
In January 2004 it was announced that Robust Details would be accepted as a
method of showing compliance with Part E1 in new build housing. This took
effect on 1st July 2004.
Monitoring of the RDs is carried out by Robust Details Ltd, a ‘not for profit’
company specifically set up for this purpose. Robust Details Ltd will organise
quality checking of existing RDs and be responsible for the future development
of RDs.
All floating floor and ceiling treatments for separating floors, where
stipulated, are to have a proven level of performance from laboratory tests
before they can be used in an RD.
Where to from here?
New RDs may be added over time as sufficient performance data becomes
available.
Home builders are investigating proprietary wall, floor and ceiling systems
with a warranty from a single supplier, or systems with a warranty by a group
of suppliers. This approach will probably become increasingly popular.
Recognising this market requirement, Knauf Insulation is developing a number
of potential proprietary systems to insulation products.
However, Knauf Insulation also supplies a range of products suitable for RDs
that have passed the initial testing.
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