A wide range of interesting articles that help you make informed decisions and deliver the best projects for your clients authored by our team of NBS subject specialists and construction industry contributors.
Sustainability
NBS Guide: Embodied Carbon Calculations
Learn how to align your carbon assessments with BIM workflows. This guide to Embodied Carbon Calculations, developed by NBS and Circular Ecology, sets out a practical, standardised approach to calculating the embodied carbon of building materials and products, and how to apply this data to BIM objects.
Must Reads
standards-and-regulations
The hidden cost of compliance: why architects are demanding a new era of product transparency
Few pieces of legislation have reshaped the UK construction industry as significantly as the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA). Introduced to improve accountability, traceability and safety standards ...
Design and Specification
Brick slip cladding systems – the need for robust specification
This article from the NBS technical team outlines specification for brick slip technology, including history, technology, design, safety and testing.
standards-and-regulations
When product data creates risk, AluK delivers the clarity and support architects need
The need to build more homes, more quickly, has not changed. If anything, the pressure has intensified. However, the conversation around Modern Methods of Construction has evolved.
Fire safety and heritage buildings
Peter Barker, Senior Consultant at Chiltern International Fire , outlines the issues and offers practical advice on managing the fire risk in historic buildings.
Standards and RegulationsFire safety
Reduce embodied carbon from the start
Measure, compare and reduce upfront embodied carbon using trusted UK data and pre-built assemblies.
The 2010 edition of Part L is going to require even greater efficiencies from lighting systems. BSRIA lighting specialist, Richard Forster, identifies the major changes.
Standards and RegulationsLighting
Party walls - the heat on
Lewis Taylor of TRADA Technology's Building Performance Division comments on pending changes to Approved Document L, where the thermal performance of party walls will be considered for the first ...
Standards and Regulations
Fire safety - Approved Document B vs BS 9999
Like all Approved Documents, following the guidance contained in ADB will result in a compliant solution, it is however not the only solution available for many building designs.
Standards and RegulationsFire safety
Wastewater drainage: The real sanitary clause
In this exclusive extract from NBS Shortcuts , written by noted industry figure Austin Williams, we introduce the correct connection of domestic gravity-fed wastewater drainage.
Standards and Regulations
17th Edition Wiring regulations
The IEE/BSI Requirements for electrical installations has been updated as BS 7671:2008 Requirements for electrical installations. IEE wiring regulations. 17th Edition. This creates a new revised ...
Standards and Regulations
Subscribe
RIP British masonry product standards
NBS Technical author, Kevan Brassington, outlines the confused transition – now at an end – from BSs to BS ENs for masonry units.
Standards and Regulations
Access statements
Access statements demonstrate how the legislative obligations placed upon developers, designers and service providers are met, or will be met. Access statements are not simply a tool for achieving ...
Standards and Regulations
Part H: Drainage and waste disposal
Approved Document H, amended in 2002, covers both foul and rainwater drainage, waste water treatment systems and cesspools and solid waste storage.
Standards and RegulationsFlooding
Part M: Access Statements
The consideration of disabled person’s needs required under Part M of the Building Regulations has been assimilated by the construction industry since 2000. In May 2004 the focus of Part M changed to ...
Standards and Regulations
Approved Document F
Approved Document Part F: Ventilation contains more guidance on domestic mechanical and natural ventilation systems than the previous ADF L: 1995. The main changes between the current Approved ...
