Approved Document B Amendments Now In Force With Implications for Balconies from 1st December 2022
New amendments to Approved Document B have now come into force as of 1st December, bringing major implications for balconies and balcony design. These changes will apply to all new builds that are notified to or have had full plans deposited to a local authority from that date.
The major change is that new guidance for external walls and balconies for residential buildings between 11m and 18m in height. The amendments are available in a digital booklet and it is strongly recommended that all stakeholders take the time to review these in close detail.
For balconies, the requirement to be constructed only from materials achieving A2-s1, d0 or A1 fire rating has been extended to buildings between 11m and 18m in height. This is a major change from the prior above 18m requirement and will affect many thousands of low to mid-rise buildings into the future.
Fortunately, the practical impact should be negligible as most specifiers and constructors are already only using non-combustible materials in the external envelope regardless of the building height. It is, though, an important new detail to be aware of.
A further amendment for balconies is that the use of material in the balcony floor rated A1fl or A2fl-s1 is now permissible. There is a caveat, though; there must be an “imperforate substrate” beneath it, for example a sealed soffit on steel cantilever balconies.
This is due to the nature of this flooring-specific fire testing and how it does not test for flaming droplets. Specifiers should closely examine the fire certification of any balcony flooring product before adding to their specification as those that only carry A2fl-s1, and there are several such decking products in the market, will fall foul of this amendment and require additional attention to the balcony soffit to achieve compliance.
The AliDeck range of aluminium decking is fire-rated to A2-s1, d0 and A2fl-s1 so this change causes no issues with the use of any of our products. Additionally, the non-combustible nature of all of our aluminium decking, soffit cladding, and balustrade systems provides full compliance for use in the external envelope and on balconies on buildings of any height.
Specifiers and architects can specify our products with confidence via NBS, knowing that the use of AliDeck material will cause no issues with this latest Approved Document B update.
For further details, call the AliDeck team on 01622 235 672 or email info@alideck.co.uk.
