The guidelines are pretty broad and the European Commission and member states are still trying to find the best ways to police them.

At Soundcraft we’ve always sustainably sourced; it’s just the way that we do things and our processes didn’t require any changes to meet the new guidelines. We are 3^rd party certified with BM Trada for chain of custody under the FSC and PEFC schemes.

Putting more emphasis on the responsibility of manufacturers of timber products for the chain of custody involved in bringing timber into the UK is probably a sensible thing to do. However, there must be concerns about those involved in purchasing fully understanding, what, if any, the implications of the guidelines are. It will certainly be more difficult for cheap, illegal timber to enter the UK market; but the unscrupulous will always be with us.

In short, to make sure that your timber windows and doors conform to the new regulations these two very simple considerations will help:

1. Make sure that your requirement is for legal and sustainable timber and that this is clearly specified from the beginning of the project: specify 3^rd Party Certified timber under the FSC or PEFC schemes.
2. Choose your supplier carefully.

• Can they demonstrate the processes in place to ensure full PEFC or FSC chain of custody?
• How do they choose their timber suppliers to ensure the best quality? Do they have the correct third party accreditations?
• Are they a member of the Timber Trade Federation, or other recognised bodies; and are they part of the ‘responsible purchasing scheme’?

The new EU timber regulations are good news for promoting the use of legal and sustainable timbers. But at this stage there are doubts about how effective policing the regulations will be. And how many companies will get caught out by retrospective requests for chain of custody documentation?

You can find out more about the update at Trada here EU timber regulation requirements.

Approved Document B (Fire Safety) of the Building Regulations says that 3^rd party certification is preferred, but not mandatory, for the manufacture, installation and maintenance of fire doors and other relevant products. Whilst it is possible to achieve satisfactory performance from fire doors that are not covered by a 3^rd party scheme in any of the areas outlined above, there is a growing recognition amongst specifiers and building owners that certification produces the best outcomes. Hitherto, most of the emphasis has been on fire door manufacturing schemes; increasingly, certified installation is appearing as a specification requirement; and maintenance is now recognised and available under the BM Trada Fire Door Maintenance scheme introduced earlier this year, which complements the their Fire Door Installers’ Scheme.

To ensure the best possible performance of fire doors (and in fact any other type of performance door) the three key things to consider are:  Manufacture, Installation and Maintenance.

The best way to ensure that each of these aspects will deliver the required level of performance is to enter into the spirit of the Approved Document and insist that each activity is carried out under a recognised 3^rd Party Certification Scheme. This will ensure that the necessary testing and competencies have been achieved by knowledgeable manufacturers and contractors and increase the reliability of the anticipated performance in fire.

Fire doors are self evidently critical products, yet are they dealt with in a similar way to the car? It is true that increasingly fire doors (and doorsets) are manufactured under 3^rd party manufacturing schemes. These provide confidence in the product and reduce the risks of a critical failure. But if the fire doors are not installed or maintained correctly, the risk of disaster increases, with death, injury and damage to property more likely.

Approved Document B (ADB) of the Building Regulations deals with fire safety and recognises that satisfactory performance of fire resisting products is dependant, not only on product manufacture, but also on installation and maintenance. ADB recognises that confidence (and by implication reduced risk of failure) in the satisfactory performance of these products and services is achieved by ensuring that the companies providing them are members of 3^rd party certification schemes.

For the avoidance of doubt, with regard to fire doors and their manufacture, installation and maintenance, 3^rd party certification schemes do exist to cover all of these activities, but frequently doors are supplied and installed that are not covered by such schemes. This does not mean that these doors will necessarily fail in the event of fire; but it does mean that that the confidence and reduced risk that 3^rd party schemes provide is missing.

Would lives be saved, and injuries and damage to property avoided, if membership of 3^rd party certification schemes for the manufacture, installation and maintenance of critical products, like fire doors, became a mandatory requirement in ADB of the Building Regulations?

If a fire door was the car, and the installer the driver, with fire door maintenance like an MOT, would you be happy to be driven in a car that had not been manufactured under internationally agreed standards, by a driver who may not have passed a driving test, with the vehicle not having been regularly maintained, let alone MOT’d?

And perhaps fire door maintenance is the most neglected area of all, because competent maintenance can rectify installation faults, identify defective components and re-instate neglected or abused doors to ensure that they function correctly as the critical products that fire doors clearly are.

So next time you consider specifying or purchasing fire doors it would be prudent to insist on 3^rd party certification: it may help you to avoid a car crash.

The orders, from Higgins Construction and Lifebuild Solutions, are for the manufacture and installation of composite (or alu-clad) windows, doors and curtain walling, based on the SAS Hybrid system. The orders are for two schools, one in Teddington, Middlesex and the other in Farnham, Surrey.

These orders include items from the Hybrid Series 1 composite casement window and door system, the Hybrid Series 2 composite window system (with slimmer sightlines), and the Hybrid Series 3 composite curtain walling system.

Of particular note is the height of curtain walling – over 7 metres – on one elevation at the Lady Eleanor Hollis  School at Teddington. This requires several bespoke laminated, engineered timber beams, at 7200 x 360 x 50mm, to be manufactured in PEFC certified softwood. In addition, bespoke fixing brackets have been designed by Soundcraft to cater for specific project requirements.

Hybrid composite products have impressive U values and thermal performance, and are designed to meet, and often exceed, building regulations. They are manufactured in the UK at Soundcraft’s North Kent factory, and are often available in surprisingly short lead times.

The works on the project, valued at c£800,000, are being carried out in accordance with BS8214 and the requirements of BM Trada’s 3^rd Party Certification Schemes for the Installation and Maintenance of Fire Doors.

New doorsets, which are 3^rd party certified, are mostly laminate faced, either FD30S or FD60S fire rated, in singles and pairs. Specific attention has been paid to ensuring compliance with the University’s strategic access and equality policy, with particular emphasis on complying with the requirements of the Equality Act 2010, the DDA and Part M. In some cases new glazed timber screens have been installed, incorporating pairs of doors.

Work is scheduled to be completed in the Spring of 2013.

The doorsets will be manufactured under the BM Trada 3^rd Party Certification Scheme for the Manufacture of Fire Doors. Installation will also be 3^rd Party Certified, under the respective BM Trada Fire Door Installation scheme.

Work will start in March and will take place in occupied wards and communal areas. Consequently, health and safety considerations will be paramount. Soundcraft has considerable experience (in both general hospitals and mental health units) of installing doorsets in occupied NHS buildings, which will prove invaluable for this project. The specification satisfies the requirements of the Equality Act, incorporating the DDA, and Approved Document M (Part M).

Hospital environments can be demanding and any damage to the doors could result in the fire resisting integrity of the doorsets being compromised. To deal with this problem, Soundcraft’s doors for this project will be fitted with protective cladding to minimise the risk of damage. As a matter of course Soundcraft provides maintenance advice in O&M manuals at the end of contracts. In this particular case the advice will be based on the requirements of BS8412 and the BM Trada 3^rd Party Certification Scheme for the Maintenance of Fire Doors – a scheme of which Soundcraft is a founder member.

He joined Soundcraft in the 1990s and has been involved in product development and promotion throughout. In recent years Steve has been instrumental in the successful launch of the Integrity Range of Secured by Design (SBD) steel communal security doors, which complement the traditional steel and timber portcullis communal security doors ranges that have successfully served the social housing market for decades.

In addition, Steve has pioneered Soundcraft’s move into 3^rd Party certified fire door manufacture, installation and maintenance, all under the respective BM Trada schemes. As specification requirements for 3^rd party certification for fire doors are increasing his initiative in this area is proving fruitful, particularly with a number of significant contracts for the health sector, where Soundcraft’s extensive range of laminate faced fire doors is frequently specified.

Steve’s commercial successes  have not been confined to doors alone, as he has achieved consistent results in gaining specifications for fire and acoustic glazed timber screens and conservation windows, both box sashes and casements.

His departure will trigger a re-organisation within Soundcraft’s sales and marketing operation to ensure that all his good work continues to produce positive results.

Valued at c£1.2 million, the project is a good example of Soundcraft’s ability to manufacture and install high quality timber windows that match existing, to satisfy conservation and heritage requirements.

The buildings are over a century old and are in a conservation area. Consequently, the new windows will have to replicate the existing 100 year old sash windows in every detail. Most of the new windows will be box sashes, using traditional weights, not spiral springs. Single glazing will be puttied in place, with brass ironmongery to match the original.

New windows will be manufactured at Soundcraft’s North Kent factory, whilst on site workshops are being established to enable re-glazing and upgrading of existing sashes to take place.

Work was started in February 2013 and is scheduled to carry on into 2014.

Situated in Euston Square, the refurbishment included a requirement for conservation acoustic
windows in the form of secondary glazing, to minimise noise from the London traffic on the busy
Euston Road. The windows were designed, manufactured and installed by Soundcraft, working for
main contractor, Structuretone, in a contract valued at over £120k.

The challenge for Soundcraft was to achieve demanding acoustic performance whilst matching
the design of the existing windows in every detail, including ironmongery. To meet the minimum
specified acoustic performance, with an upper limit of 47dB, Soundcraft arranged for testing at BRE
to confirm that their design met the required level of sound attenuation. 49dB was achieved in the
tests, carried out in accordance with BS EN 20140-10:1992 and ISO 717-1:1997.

In addition to acoustic windows and glazing, Soundcraft was able to manufacture and install, in
a short lead time, a number of traditional casement conservation windows, again matching the
originals, to assist in completing the project.

‘I’ve just finished my favourite job of the year, honestly it’s true.

It was an intricate blend of modern joinery for performance windows and doors in a real heritage site. The space has been designed by Panter Hudspith for The Cellarium Café to complement and enhance the original fabric of the building and included a range of performance door and windows from Soundcraft.

Well that’s the corporate line anyway.

It’s fantastic – The Cellerium at Westminster Abbey was used by the Monks in the 14^th century to store their food and drink and it’s going to back to an up to date version of its old use – food and drink.

From the first meeting with the specifer it was such an interesting job, a real blend of old meets new. And of course it all had to meet the requirements of Part M; low thresholds, accessibility, visibility, opening widths and opening forces.

One of the trickiest parts was the fire doors in medieval openings, new joinery in the ancient walls of the abbey. I did all the detailing and measuring on site followed by the templating to make sure there was no margin for error when the window and doors were delivered to site for installation – no pressure then!

It was nice to see the job take shape in the factory, seeing it though from start to finish always gives more of a sense of achievement. The BBC were there filming a documentary I wonder if I’ll end up on television…’

This project is a good example of Soundcraft’s ability to satisfy a wide range of performance door and window requirements. These included fire resistance (FD30), sound attenuation (37dB) and weather resistance, all supplied in FSC timber, with the fire doors manufactured under a 3^rd Party Scheme.

We’re all looking forward to the next update from Will on the work he’s been doing at the Royal College of GP’s on conservation acoustic glazing.