CoCo Building Regulations Control Officer Powers

sas

If you get a visit to your site for a one off house by your county councils building regs. control officer and he sees your building out of something like straw bales. Basically what I saying is that you can't satisfy the officer that what you are building with complies with the regs.

What happens now?

Do they have the power to tell you to knock it?

sydthebeat

They may request that you show how it complies with Irish building regulations.
This may result in a great expense on your part if something needs laboratory testing etc.
The elements would need to be broken down into catagories such as insulation, structure, ventilation, fire etc

A Straw Bale house wouldnt be too hard to show compliance.

sas

That would be more how you would try to satisfy them.

I'm working on the assumption that you can't satisfy them. What then?

sydthebeat

If you cannot satisfy them that you are building a dwelling that complies with irish building regs then yes, you probably would be asked to either remove it or augment it to comply.

but you wouldnt have gotten a mortgage to build a system that doesnt comply anyway.

250882

Best to go with a system that has an IAB cert. (dont see too many straw bales with certification though:D)

sinnerboy

If you have to you could use the wording of TGD D

“proper materials” means materials which are fit for the use for which
they are intended and for the conditions in which they are to be used"

and

"Performance in use, i.e. that the material can
be shown by experience, such as its use in a
substantially similar way in an existing building,
to be capable of enabling the building to satisfy
the relevant functional requirements of the
Building Regulations."

to base your argument that the straw bales comply

the supplier should be able to produce a list of similar projects and examples of LA acceptance of the method

NOT speaking from experience , mind you , haven't been down this road

sas

250882 wrote: »

Best to go with a system that has an IAB cert. (dont see too many straw bales with certification though:D)

Thats kinda the problem. The IAB certified systems are few and far between. I'm working on the assumption that traditional cavity wall construction is unlikely to be completely successful. Plus it doesn't have an IAB cert anyway;)

The system I'm interested in may have IAB certification. E.g. the poroton block system has an IAB cert. The T8 block was introduced after the cert was issued and based on the details of the cert most likely isn't covered by it imho. The cert makes reference to a specific lambda value for the blocks it covers and the T8 has a better value. Am I making assumptions or would the letter of the law (i.e. or the IAB) be that the T8 isn't covered. The cert also states it is based on a german certification which also doesn't cover the T8 as far as I know.

The supplier says it is covered. They would though. I tried to contact the IAB in the past with little joy so how could I clarify this?

Should I try and contact my local building control officer to run the system by them or am I asking for trouble?

sinnerboy

Letter of the law says use only materials fit for purpose

download TGD D http://www.environ.ie/en/Publications/DevelopmentandHousing/BuildingStandards/FileDownLoad,1643,en.pdf
which offers guidance

your tenacity is admirable but I think you are over stressing

I have meet 2 building control officers only since 1995 .....

Now I am not suggesting a "feck it anyway" approach to the regs - far from it

but you are a LONG way from being forced to knock your work

sas

sinnerboy wrote: »

your tenacity is admirable but I think you are over stressing

I have meet 2 building control officers only since 1995 .....

Now I am not suggesting a "feck it anyway" approach to the regs - far from it

but you are a LONG way from being forced to knock your work

You say "I'm tenacious", de missus says I can't make up my mind. I'l take tenacious anyday

I've come across someone in the situation I've described with the T8. The process of convincing the officer is on going at the moment.

Thanks for all the feedback everyone

smashey

Heh,

I'm still wondering what the guys from building control look like.

bauderline

smashey wrote: »

Heh,

I'm still wondering what the guys from building control look like.

Mr Bean springs to mind for some reason........

sydthebeat

sas wrote: »

You say "I'm tenacious", de missus says I can't make up my mind. I'l take tenacious anyday

I've come across someone in the situation I've described with the T8. The process of convincing the officer is on going at the moment.

Thanks for all the feedback everyone

the IAB cert isnt the be all and end all of certification, as SB says part D states
"Building Regulations are made for specific purposes, e.g. to

provide, in relation to buildings, for the health, safety and
welfare of persons, the conservation of energy and access
for disabled persons. Technical specifications (including
harmonised European Standards, European Technical
Approvals, National Standards and Agrément Certificates)
are relevant to the extent that they relate to these
considerations. Any reference to a technical specification
is a reference to so much of the specification as is relevant
in the context in which it arises. Technical specifications
may also address other aspects not covered by the

Regulations"

Approved certification accepted in other european countries can also be applicable in the irish situation.

In this Part,
“proper materials” means materials which are fit for the use for which
they are intended and for the conditions in which they are to be used,
and includes materials which:
(a) bear a CE Marking in accordance with the provisions of the
Construction Products Directive; or
(b) comply with an appropriate harmonized standard, European
technical approval or national technical specification as defined
in article 4(2) of the Construction Products Directive; or
(c) comply with an appropriate Irish Standard or Irish Agrément
Board Certificate or with an alternative national technical
specification of any State which is a contracting party to the
Agreement on the European Economic Area, which provides in

use an equivalent level of safety and suitability.

If the building control officer was to make an issue regarding a construction, they themselves would want to have an amount of investigation done to show lack of compliance with other accrediated european standards.