Articles and Information

Cheltenham Borough Council

Building Control - 01242 775 160

Planning Department - 01242 264 142

All glass in doors must be toughened, likewise with glass sidepanels:

• Glass which starts less than 800mm above the finished floor level must be toughened
• Glass within 300mm either side of a door must be toughened
• Where large glass panels form part of the structure of a building, there must be visible ‘manifestations’ at a height of 1500mm so that people do not walk in to them (largely commercial applications)

For newbuilds, windows must achieve a ‘U’ value of 2.0 or better. Replacement windows need to achieve a ‘U’ value of 1.6 or better. For ease of understanding, windows are referred to as having a ‘Rating’ of A – G; where ‘A’ is the best rating and ‘G’ is the poorest.

As of October 1st 2010, the minimum window rating was raised from ‘E’ to ‘C’; we at Regent were unconcerned with this since all our windows already had a ‘C’ rating. However, we like a challenge so we did a little experimenting and found that all we needed to do to take our windows from a (very respectable!) ‘C’ rating to an ‘A’ rating was to fill the window unit (sealed unit) with Argon gas. The typically costs between £5-15 per window and will give you the highest window rating possible!

 Part 1LB - Conservation of Fuel

For newbuilds, windows must achieve a ‘U’ value of 2.0 or better. Replacement windows need to achieve a ‘U’ value of 1.6 or better. For ease of understanding, windows are referred to as having a ‘Rating’ of A – G; where ‘A’ is the best rating and ‘G’ is the poorest.

As of October 1st 2010, the minimum window rating was raised from ‘E’ to ‘C’; we at Regent were unconcerned with this since all our windows already had a ‘C’ rating. However, we like a challenge so we did a little experimenting and found that all we needed to do to take our windows from a (very respectable!) ‘C’ rating to an ‘A’ rating was to fill the window unit (sealed unit) with Argon gas. The typically costs between £5-15 per window and will give you the highest window rating possible!

• New builds must take into account wheelchair access
• Anything being changed or replaced in an existing building must be no less satisfactory than that which it is replacing

Ventilation is required for:

• The provision of outside air for breathing
• The dilution and removal of airborne pollutants, including odours
• The control of excess humidity
• To provide air for fuel burning appliances

Ventilation in newbuilds; all windows must have trickle vents.
Ventilation in existing builds; it is advisable (though not mandatory) that replacement windows be fitted with trickle vents. Replacement windows need only have trickle ventilation where the original windows had them