Condensation Risk – Impact of Improvements to Part L and Robust Details on Part C -Interim report number 7: Final report on project fieldwork

This report sets out, in draft1, the results of the fieldwork phase of research into the impacts of the 2002 revisions to Part L of the building regulations (Approved Document L1 - DTLR, 2001), and the adoption of Robust Details (RDs - DEFRA 2001) on the extent of condensation risk in the construction of dwellings (Oreszczyn and Bell, 2003). The objective of the fieldwork was to explore the practical application of the revised Part L and its associated robust details by housing developers. This was done through a qualitative evaluation of the design and construction of 16 housing schemes designed in accordance with the revised part L and making use of robust details2. The results of the analysis are to be used to enable condensation modelling that takes into account not only the guidance of robust details but also the way in which construction details were actually designed and, perhaps more importantly, constructed. To this end the report identifies 7 areas of construction detailing (yielding some 15 separate detail models) that are to be included in the condensation modelling phase of the project.