Consumer unit heights and building regs

[robd]

Morning all,

Just wired the 1st house on a new site, consumer unit wired to location marked on plan which was in kitchen unit at high level.

Building inspector comes in and okays everything but the consumer unit height, says they have to be at 1350-1450mm, was a new one on me and we ended up pulling in a few new legs in to allow for dropping it down abit. Funnily enough 1400 would've been half in and half out of the kitchen unit so it couldn't go at his stated height anyway.

Just wondered if anyone has a better knowledge of the building regs than me and could enlighten me, I know I asked the NIC in the past (for what it's worth) and they said no requirements other than accessible.

Cheers

 

[Plonker 3]

Anyone ever had a successful arguement with building control that Part M only applies to new builds that are to be unoccupied on completion? (e.g. you dont know who is going to purchase the property so you have to assume it could be by say a wheelchair user and hence follow the Part M dimension guidlines. )

If doing an installation for a current owner then you re-wire to his spec for socket/switch heights, location of consumer unit etc ..... and Part M doesnt apply?

Not got the answer and never debated it before so be interesting to hear any views from anyone who has had the debate with an inspector .......

where have you gleaned that bit of BS from?

 

[davesparks]

I know of one interesting case

I heard about this from my father who is a retired building control officer

A disabled gentleman who uses a wheelchair was having a house built for himself, so he is pretty much the kind of person part M is talking about.
He was adamant that he wanted his sockets and switches at the normal height and not the part M height, particularly the sockets as he thought they were an eyesore at that height.
So the local BC guy was quite happy with his request and allowed the deviation. However the NHBC inspector was far more troublesome and if took a lot of arguing and letter writing to get them to allow the deviation.

You can just imagine the nhbc inspector telling the guy in the wheelchair that he can't have his sockets at the height he wants them just in case someone in a wheelchair wants to use them!

 

[Badged01]

where have you gleaned that bit of BS from?

It was put to me in a chat over applicability of Part M. Something along the lines of a 7ft family have a house built and want their switches at 5ft because its convenient for them. Do they then have to be inconvenienced and have them installed at a max of 4ft (1200mm) to comply with building regs, even though they will be the sole users of the property?

Hence the notion of Part M applicability to empty property when the new owner isnt known.

I'd never thought of it in that sense before, thus interested in hearing of any experience with building control .....

 

[Plonker 3]

I can see the reasons for allowing it too be changed like the example both yourself and Dave have given, but you would need LABC permission for it too happen as its not actually part of Part M for variables to it.

 

[davesparks]

It's not generally LABC who are the problem, it's the damned nhbc jobsworths

 

[ayjay]

these people need to protect their income so--- every so often they come up with another plan
hence the 16ths too the 17 regs

same with the building so called regulations
greed is good

 

[robd]

It's not generally LABC who are the problem, it's the damned nhbc jobsworths

Yes was NHBC

 

[robd]

Thanks for all replies, needless to say we aren't going to kick up a fuss not worth the hassle but interesting to know what the actual truth of it is just so to know for another time.

 

[driverman]

Brought my house which at the time was about 10 yrs old. About 5 years later decided I wanted access into Con-unit. I could not remove the lid! Con-unit was mounted in the kitchen at high level...well sort of high level...The top of a wall mounted cupboard was directly in front of the con unit. Half the con -unit was above the wall cupboard other half below and inside the cupboard. Whilst fitters had cut round con -unit with about 25mm clearance, there was no way the lid could be removed completely. At the time it was a Hagar split board. Now replaced and moved to a much better position.