Meeting the New Document F 2022 Guidelines doesn’t mean you have to spoil the look of your timber windows

With the new Document F of the Building Regulations due to come into effect on 15th June 2022, window manufacturers need to be considering the design of their windows. The government announced changes to the building regulations to not only help the UK achieve net zero but to also improve ventilation. These changes affect both windows for new-builds and replacement for existing dwellings.

The pandemic highlighted the benefits of natural ventilation in helping support the safety of residents and preventing the spread of airborne viruses.

The new guidance details the updated requirements for ensuring that buildings in the UK have adequate means of ventilation provided for people in the building. There are two approved documents – ‘Approved Document F: Volume 1 applies to dwellings’ and ‘Approved Document F: Volume 2 applies to buildings other than dwellings’.

Ventilation for Dwellings

One of these means of ventilation is background ventilation – usually provided in the form of trickle vents. Under the ‘Control of ventilation’ the regulations state various requirements including, but not limited to:

• Ventilation should be controllable, either manually or automatically.
• Background ventilators should be at least 1700mm above floor level, to reduce cold draughts, but still be easy for the occupant to reach.
• Background ventilators with automatic controls should also have manual override.
• All rooms with external walls should have background ventilators. If a habitable room has no external walls, ventilation can be met via another habitable room that has openings to the outside which provides purge ventilation and background ventilation of at least 10,000mm2 equivalent area.

The guidelines highlight that a window with a night latch position is not adequate for background ventilation, due to the risk of draughts, security issues and the difficulty in measuring the equivalent area.

More detail on the minimum equivalent area of background ventilators for natural ventilation, the total number of ventilators required and the requirements for new and replacement windows is gone over in the Document F guidelines – found on this link.

Trickle Vents that match the Timber Windows

The good news is that our new Timber Trickle Vents help you comply with the new guidelines without spoiling the look of your timber windows.

Our TVT Timber Veneer Vent Set fits over the TVA Trickle Vent enabling the vent to be finished flush and in exact same colour/finish as your window.

The TVT Timber Veneer Vents bring many benefits to your timber window:

• Available in 3 finishes – oak, pine or sapele – so whether you are staining or painting your timber windows the trickle vents will blend in perfectly with the finished window.
• They fit flush to the surface of the window so they’re less obtrusive
• Made in 2 sizes to help achieve required air flow levels – the TVT242 Timber Vent Set combined with the TVA283 Trickle Ven provides an EA Air Flow of 3000mm2 and theTVT347 Timber Vent Set combined with the TVA389 Trickle Vent provides an EA Air Flow of 4300mm2.