British Board of Agrement
The Role of BBA in Installing Insulation
Since the UK construction and insulation industry is thoroughly regulated by applicable and mandatory Building Regulations and the accompanying Approved documents, it is not always easy to determine the most efficient way to follow the given rules and be in compliance with the prescribed standards. Namely, we are often seeking for not only the easiest way of achieving such compliance, but also the most cost-efficient way, since undertaking all the prescribed and recommended measures is usually not cheap. Well, this only underlines the importance of only using products and implementing procedures that have been properly inspected and certified by competent UK insulation certification and inspection bodies. This especially goes for choosing and installing insulation, since this may be the most important aspect of any refurbishment or new build project, due to the fact that proper insulation can have many potential benefits for any type of residential or commercial building.
This is way we will try to explain the role of British Board of Agrément in not only installing insulation, but undertaking any other refurbishment project. Although it may seem that the most important thing when opting for an insulation material is its price and that whether the product has been properly inspected and certified is not as significant, this is a very common misconception. Proper certification of any building product or procedure only guarantees you that you that the product has been exposed to a series of tests in regard to its characteristics, resistance, durability, effectiveness etc. So, if you want to make sure that the purchased material or implemented installation method will show results you are expecting, the British Board of Agremént can be of great assistance here.
British Board of Agrement UK Certification and Inspection Body
BBA Services
BBA is an independent non-profit distributing UK certification body that provides a whole range of services from the very building product testing and certification to overseeing the work carried out in order of determining whether the principles of good practice are fully implemented, thus monitoring not only how will the material being tested react when exposed to some extreme conditions but also making sure that it will not lose its characteristics in the upcoming years. British Board of Agremént scope of work includes the following services:
Product testing is on top of the list of BBA available services. Namely, different materials and products used in the building and insulation industry undergo a series of tests that are suppose to determine their effectiveness and, among other things, their ability to comply with the standards set by applicable regulation. These tests include not only laboratory analyses but also on-site testing that is suppose to determine how well will the product react to extreme conditions it can be exposed to, all the way to regular product inspections (regular inspections take place twice a year while complete reassessment is done every three years) that are meant to determine whether the product can still comply with the ever-changing standards of energy efficiency and environmental impact. Namely, BBA certificates now also include the information on the product environmental impact, which can be very important information due to the increasing ecological awareness and its connection with energy efficiency and energy consumption.
Another valuable service provided by the UK British Board of Agrément is the installation process approval. Namely, it is not uncommon for the effectiveness of a building or insulation material to depend on the very installation process applied. You will often notice some product manufacturer’s instructions containing the information such as “if properly installed, the product can have indefinite life time...” This only indicates that characteristics of a material are often connected and depend on the installation process. This is why BBA makes sure that, especially insulation installation methods, in regard to external wall insulation systems, loft or cavity wall insulation, are properly implemented so that these will not anyhow affect the properties and effectiveness of the product.
Last but not least, BBA services include undertaking a series of tests not only in regard to the already developed and installed products and materials, but also include some innovative methods applied to innovations present in the construction market. Testing may refer to durability of the specific product or material, inspecting some especially vulnerable areas in the words of energy efficiency (such as doors and windows, pipework, thermal insulation etc), damp proof courses and breather membranes and much more.