Approved Document F | The changes to Building Regulations and choosing glazed doors

The most recent updates to Building Regulations in England & Wales were announced in December 2021. Those updates came into force in June 2022, although the 12 month leeway for projects already underway means that they are only now starting to impact new projects.

Approved Document F – Ventilation
Approved Document L – Conservation of Fuel and Power
Approved Document O – Mitigating Overheating

To cover the changes and what it means for architects, builders and homeowners selecting glazed doors for their projects we have written three blogs, each covering the relevant Approved Document in detail.

Approved Document F – Ventilation

>> Download Building Regulations – Approved Document F

Whilst Approved Document L and Approved Document O have caught the majority of the attention with regards to glazing specification and the changes to Building Regulations, the update to Approved Document F could potentially restrict the choice of glazed door systems in an equal fashion.

Why Approved Document F is required

Approved Document F exists because homes have become more air-tight and sealed as building products and construction standards have improved over the years. To overcome this background ventilation is required to help remove moisture and air pollutants to ensure the health of the occupants.

The updated Approved Document F now requires a form of background ventilation, typically trickle vents, to be included on all new and replacement windows and doors in the vast majority of situations. It is no longer a case that you are required to merely match whatever was in place before.

Impact on the choice of glazed doors

The reason this has the potential to limit the choice of systems available to customers is that previously where outer frames of systems have been recessed into walls around doors to reduce the visible frame and to improve thermal performance, these frames will now need to be visible to allow for a trickle vent to be incorporated into the design.

With the frame now visible there is every likelihood that some of these door systems will now fail to hit the thermal efficiency standards required by Approved Document L, rendering them obsolete.

For IDSystems very little has changed. We have always included the outer frames in our thermal performance calculations for our aluminium sliding doors, bifold doors or slide & turn doors and our systems are all designed to allow us to incorporate an add-on profile within the top-track of the door system to allow a trickle vent to be included.