J O N L I N E V E R S I O N J What is an Approved Document? How to use this Approved Document This document has been approved and issued by the Secretary of State to provide practical guidance on ways of complying with Requirements J1 to J7 and regulations 7 of the Building Regulations 2010 (SI 2010/2214) for England and Wales. The Building Regulations 2010 are referred to throughout the remainder of this Document as ‘the Building Regulations’. Where appropriate the Approved Document also gives guidance on relevant requirements in the Building (Approved Inspectors etc) Regulations 2010 (SI 2010/2215).
In this document the following conventions have been adopted to assist understanding and interpretation: a. Text shown against a green background are extracts from the Building Regulations or Building (Approved Inspectors etc) Regulations, and set out the legal requirements that relate to compliance with the sanitation, hot water safety and water efficiency requirements of building regulations. It should be remembered however that, as noted above, building works must comply with all the other applicable provisions of building regulations.
The intention of issuing Approved Documents is to provide guidance about compliance with specific aspects of building regulations in some of the more common building situations. They set out what, in ordinary circumstances, may be reasonable provision for compliance with the relevant requirement(s) of building regulations to which they refer. b. Key terms are defined in Section 0 and are c. Details of technical publications referred to in printed in italic text . If guidance in an Approved Document is followed there will be a presumption of compliance with the requirement(s) covered by the guidance.
However, this presumption can be overturned, so simply following guidance does not guarantee compliance. For example, if one particular case is unusual in some way, then ‘normal’ guidance may not be applicable. It is also important to note that there may well be other ways of achieving compliance with the requirements. There is therefore no obligation to adopt any particular solution contained in this Approved Document if you would prefer to meet the relevant requirement in some other way.
However, persons intending to carry out building work should always check with their Building Control Body, either the local authority or an approved inspector, that their proposals comply with building regulations. the text of this Document will be given in footnotes and repeated as end notes. A reference to a publication is likely to be made for one of two main reasons. The publication may contain additional or more comprehensive technical detail, which it would be impractical to include in full in the Document but which is needed to fully explain ways of meeting the requirements; or it is a source of more general information. The reason for the reference will be indicated in each case.
The reference will be to a specified edition of the document. The Approved Document may be amended from time to time to include new references or to refer to revised editions where this aids compliance. Where you can get further help If you are unsure whether you have the knowledge and skills to apply the guidance correctly, or if you do not understand the technical guidance or other information in this approved document or the additional detailed technical references to which it directs you, you should seek further help. Some sources of help are listed below.
The guidance contained in this Approved Document relates only to the particular requirements of building regulations that the document addresses (see ‘Requirements’ below). However, building work may be subject to more than one requirement of building regulations. In such cases the work will also have to comply with any other applicable requirements of building regulations. a. Your building control body may be able to help in many cases.
This document is one of a series that has been approved and issued by the Secretary of State for the purpose of providing practical guidance with respect to the requirements of Schedule 1 and Regulation 7 of the Building Regulations 2010 (SI 2010/2215) for England and Wales. b. If you are registered with a competent person scheme, the scheme operator should be in a position to help. c. Suitably qualified and experienced construction professionals should also be engaged where necessary. At the back of this document is a list of all the documents that have been approved and issued by the Secretary of State for this purpose.
3 Approved Document J Combustion appliances and fuel storage systems O N L I N E V E R S I O N