March 2022

Contract The View Talk from Certass TA
VENTILATION: KEY Q'S ANSWERED
With new Building Regulations coming into play on 15th June 2022, Certass Trade
Association hosted a special Facebook live event in their award-winning forum to answer
member queries about Approved Document F. Below, we take a look at some of the most
common questions, answered by Certass TA Chair Jon Vanstone (pictured).
What’s happening in ventilation?
Ventilation has been at the forefront of
discussions around improving the health of
homes for a while now and the guidance in
Approved Document F has certainly caused some
upset within our industry.
As a sector, we have spent many years telling
homeowners how important it is to improve
the energy efficiency of our homes, making
them airtight, adding extra insulation, removing
draughts and helping to keep heat inside.
With climate change and going green high on
everyone’s agenda, this messaging has worked in
our favour.
Unfortunately, this has now caused an opposite
problem – unhealthy homes caused by a lack of
ventilation. Bad ventilation in a building doesn’t
just mean that we may have excess condensation
and mould on our window sills – a recent study
found that poor housing conditions costs the
NHS more than £600m a year, with damp and
poor ventilation being one of the top three biggest
issues.
Many of those glazing parties who took time to
respond to the consultation on ventilation back in
Summer 2020 pushed trickle vents as a solution
for improving ventilation within homes, saying it’s
one that was within easy reach of our sector.
Unfortunately, there was little consideration given
to homeowners’ aversion to trickle vents and
the fact that fitting trickle vents into windows
generally involves punching holes in good, highperformance
products and ruining their thermal
and acoustic performance – often the reasons
why they are investing in new windows in the first
place.
There are other methods of ventilation
that can be fitted in homes instead
of trickle vents in windows, and
we are advising members that
like-for-like replacements are
ok under the rules, as long as the
property is suffering no ill-effects
from poor ventilation and homeowners are
made aware that alternative means of ventilation
should be installed in the home.
But we do need to remember that as part of the
home improvement sector, we should be striving
to help improve the quality and health of the
homes we work in.
Certass TA has released a thorough guidance
document which is available for all members
to download in the Members’ Area, as well
as guidance for homeowners and additional
document templates.
The guidance features simple flowcharts and
document templates to help installers and
surveyors decide whether trickle vents can
be omitted from the installation as well as
alternative ventilation strategies.
What are the alternative ventilation
methods?
Where window replacement is taking place as
part of a wider whole house renovation, it may
be possible that background ventilation is to
be provided by air bricks or even whole house
mechanical ventilation. This work may be carried
out at a later stage than the window replacement.
Where this is the case, evidence will be required
by work registration schemes, such as Certass,
that the consumer intends to carry out this
additional work.
What if the windows have night
vents?
Approved Document F does
not consider a window with a
night latch position adequate for
background ventilation based on
security issues.
How do we educate homeowners?
There is work to be done to educate homeowners
and consumers on why these regulations have
been put in place and promote a unified message
alongside the likes of TrustMark, Which?, the
National Home Improvement Council and Local
Authority Building Control.
What if homeowners refuse trickle vents
in their windows?
There are document templates to help installers
prove that they have advised the homeowner
to include trickle vents and agreed that the
homeowner has taken responsibility for installing
additional ventilation instead.
How will the rules be enforced?
I am currently talking to key government figures
to understand how these new regulations
will be enforced. If we do not toughen up on
enforcement, the goal of safer, healthier and
more energy efficient buildings is unlikely to be
achieved, as those who follow the rules cannot
compete with the ‘cowboys’ who will ignore the
regulations and see it as another commercial
advantage that can be played to the homeowner.
Contact Certass Trade Association:
01292 292 095
certassta.co.uk
@CertassTa
14 T I MARCH 2022 PRACTICAL CONTENT FOR THE GLAZING INSTALLER & HOME IMPROVEMENT SPECIALIST