What Is Building Control, And Why Do I Need It For My Construction Project?

*This is a collaborative post on building control

When you are building an extension on your home (or any other building project on your property or grounds), you are going to have plenty of things to think about. This includes your design and how you will approach the overall style of the property (or the changes that you are going to make), and the regulations and rules that you need to abide by during the process. Your architect will lead you through this process, including explaining the role of building control for your project.

You may already know what planning permission is, but what about building control? The chances are that you may not entirely understand what building control is and may not know why they are essential to your project.  

So, let’s look at these and find out more about it.

What is building control? 

Building control is there to set standards for both the design and the construction of any building work that you may want to have carried out on your home. They cover aspects such as health and safety and fuel, power, and access in and around the building. 

Why do you need it? 

There are various reasons why building control has become so important over the years. The first is that they will make sure that the building work you are having carried out is up to the right standard. This will protect not only your health and safety (which is, of course, vitally important) but will also ensure that the environment around the works is protected too.  If you want to add value to your home by adding more floorspace (bedrooms etc.), then you will need building control sign-off otherwise your project will not add to the floorplan of your home. 

Building control covers a wide range of aspects of construction work. These include the foundations, the structure, the insulation, the heating and the ventilation, as well as many other things. They can guide you to build a home that is energy efficient and that is sustainable. This means that you can look towards the future and ensure that you are creating a home that is as carbon neutral as possible. Your architect will create designs that will be approved by building control, and your construction teams will follow the plans of the architect closely to meet building control requirements. 

Protecting people

Another positive about building control is that it can protect people from unsafe practices and cowboy builders. Unfortunately, both exist in the construction industry. Having regular site visits on the work carried out will ensure that everything happening in your house is to the proper standard. Not only this, but if there are any issues or hurdles that have come up along the way, they can be there to give advice and guidance on what you can change to ensure that things work for the best.  

As you can see, there are lots of benefits to working with building control on your project. So, rather than worry about this part of the process, embrace it for all the positives that it can bring.