Refurbishment and Restore Issue 09 2018 | Page 4

A site for sore eyes Looking at the advantages of BBA Certification As you well know, major construction work on building sites involves a huge amount of product and materials checking, not least to make sure everything meets the exacting requirements of building regulations. This can be stressful at the best of times and a helping hand is always welcome. That’s why more and more people are coming to the BBA for off-site certification of their products. For many years now, our work in the offsite construction sector has brought peace of mind to hundreds of architects and manufacturers alike. BBA Agrément Certificates are widely read and respected by industry decision-makers who want to select innovative products that have been thoroughly assessed by the BBA. Our assessors have decades of experience in evaluating Offsite Construction, and we are currently assessing many new systems, adding to the many already approved including insulated concrete formwork, SIPs and framed systems. Of course, our main focus is on the requirements of Building Regulations — not just in England and Wales, but also in Scotland and Northern Ireland. But we go much further than that. We want to ensure that a system is not only waterproof, warm and structurally sound; it has to be durable, too. No-one wants to buy a system with a short life expectancy, so we seek to ensure that it will last for an appropriate period of time. Neither are our assessments simply desk exercises. As well as testing, we go out to the factory to check system documentation and control, making sure that the specification we approve is capable of being produced consistently. We also go out on site to see units being offloaded and installed. That’s because we know that what may seem simple when explained in a dry office or factory can turn out to be very different on a building site. Once we have gathered data from testing, factory inspections and site surveillance, we consider how we can use it to establish that the requirements of Building Regulations and other statutory or non-statutory documents have been met. BBA Agrément Certificates are regarded as quite simply the best assurances you can get for your off-site products. With BBA’s 50 years of unrivalled expertise in building and construction certification, it’s easy to see why. [email protected] www.bbacerts.co.uk 01923 665300