Outdoor & Garden
60 sources in the library on outdoor & garden. Each one says what the document covers and what it is good for. Name a source to see which document it is and where to read it. One at a time. Page 2 of 2.
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BSI (British Standards Institution)
STATUS: WITHDRAWN on 27 March 2025, superseded by BS 7533-102:2025. BS 7533-3:2005+A1:2009 was published 20 October 2005 and gave the recommendations for constructing flexible pavements using precast concrete blocks to BS EN 1338 and clay pavers to BS EN 1344, for roads, industrial areas and other paved surfaces under all categories of static and vehicular loading and pedestrian traffic, covering both conventional and permeable construction. It is the standard behind the laying course depth, jointing and compaction advice in every block paving driveway note, so the March 2025 withdrawal is a live correction: those notes should now cite BS 7533-102:2025 for installation and BS 7533-101:2021 for structural design. Catalogue page confirms number, title, publication date, withdrawal date and scope.
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BSI (British Standards Institution)
Part 1 of the BS 8300 pair, covering the external environment rather than the building. Paywalled, so only the catalogue page is public; it confirms BS 8300-1:2018, published 31 January 2018, status Current. Scope covers key external features within the curtilage of or associated with a building or group of buildings, specifically parking provision, setting-down points, access routes to and around buildings and the approaches to entrances, plus wider external environment matters including street design, landscaping, way-finding and information, horizontal and vertical movement and public facilities. Its named audience is built environment professionals in planning, design and management of the external environment, particularly local authority planners in highways, street enhancement and open space departments, and the page notes it is used in producing Local Development Frameworks, client briefs and contract documents.
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BSI (British Standards Institution)
STATUS: WITHDRAWN on 15 December 2021. BS EN 12320:2012 was published 31 October 2012 and specified performance and other requirements for the strength, security, durability and corrosion resistance of mechanical padlocks and padlock fittings for buildings and general use. Its classification is the part a note actually needs: one category of use, two durability categories, six corrosion resistance categories and six security grades, the grades set by performance tests simulating attack, with a limited amount of manual attack testing included because machine testing alone cannot replicate every known attack method. Because it is withdrawn, a note recommending a CEN grade 4 or grade 6 padlock to BS EN 12320:2012 for a shed or bike store is quoting a withdrawn edition and should cite the current one. Catalogue page confirms number, title, publication date, withdrawal date and scope but does not name the replacement.
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BSI (British Standards Institution)
STATUS: WITHDRAWN on 18 December 2024. BS EN 12978:2003+A1:2009 was published 5 June 2003 and specified requirements and test methods for the safety devices that detect a person near an electrically powered door, gate or barrier in commercial, industrial, residential and public settings, applying both to standalone protective devices and to those integrated into a power operated installation, and to rolling shutters and grilles used as personnel access. It defines the sensitive protective device as one that gives a change in the output signal switching device to protect a person at risk during normal operation. Because it is withdrawn, a note stating that an automated driveway gate must have safety edges and photocells to BS EN 12978 should be checked: the gate and door safety family now sits with BS EN 12453 (safety in use of power operated doors) and BS EN 13241, and the withdrawal is recent enough that installers still quote the old number. Catalogue page confirms number, title, publication date, withdrawal date and scope but does not name the replacement.
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BSI (British Standards Institution)
STATUS: CURRENT (marked Under Review). BS EN 13242:2002+A1:2007 was published 12 December 2002 and was amended in May 2008 to incorporate CEN amendment A1:2007. It specifies the properties required of aggregates obtained from natural, manufactured or recycled materials for use in unbound and hydraulically bound materials in civil engineering work and road construction, covering grading, particle shape, resistance to fragmentation, resistance to wear, and chemical and durability requirements. This is the standard behind MOT Type 1 and Type 3 sub base and the recycled equivalents used under a driveway or patio: a note specifying a compacted granular sub base should cite BS EN 13242 for the aggregate and the Specification for Highway Works Series 800 for the Type 1 grading itself. Catalogue page confirms number, title, date, amendment, status and scope; the property tables are paywalled.
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BSI (British Standards Institution)
STATUS: CURRENT (marked Under Review). BS EN 1340:2003 was published 25 April 2003 and covers unreinforced, cement bound precast concrete kerb units, channels and complementary fittings for use in trafficked paved areas and roof coverings, specifying materials, properties, requirements and test methods along with product marking and evaluation of conformity. It deliberately does NOT prescribe cross sections, shapes or dimensions beyond tolerances, and it does not deal with kerb tactility or visibility, so a note about a dropped kerb crossover cannot take the kerb profile from this standard: profiles come from the highway authority's own specification. It is the concrete counterpart to BS EN 1341 for natural stone slabs and BS EN 1338 for concrete block paving. Catalogue page confirms number, title, date, status and scope; the requirement tables are paywalled.
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BSI (British Standards Institution)
STATUS: CURRENT. BS EN 1341:2012 was published 28 February 2013 and supersedes BS EN 1341:2001, which is withdrawn. It specifies the performance requirements and test methods for natural stone slabs used in external paving for pedestrian and trafficked areas and outdoor squares, and it is the standard behind the declared values quoted for imported sandstone, limestone and granite paving: breaking load, water absorption, slip resistance and freeze thaw resistance. It explicitly EXCLUDES natural stone slabs for interior floors and stairs, which are covered by BS EN 12058, so a note should not cite BS EN 1341 for an internal stone floor. The 2012 revision aligned test methods with those of CEN/TC 246, clarified that declared values are lower expected values, and added usage specific safety factors. Companion standards are BS EN 1342 for setts and BS EN 1340 for concrete kerb units, with laying to the BS 7533 series. Catalogue page confirms number, title, date, status, supersession and scope.
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United Utilities
A sewerage undertaker setting out its own build-over process, which is the practical authority for the consent a homeowner actually needs (the Water UK Sewerage Sector Guidance covers adoption, not build-over). The page states that United Utilities approval is required for building works within 3 metres of a public sewer or lateral drain. On access, it requires sufficient access points to the affected sewer, meaning manholes and rodding points; states that ideally buildings and extensions should not be sited where they would remove an existing point of access; and requires access points to be easily accessible and visible for use in an emergency. Where ground conditions are poor, the developer must arrange special design and construction plans so the pipe is protected from any risk of damage. On the route through building control, it explains that building control inspectors operating under the United Utilities Protocol agreement can approve build-overs that meet set criteria, and that where a proposal does not fit those criteria the inspector escalates it so United Utilities can deal with the developer directly, which is why a homeowner may find the sewer question handled inside their Building Regulations application rather than as a separate approach to the water company.
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Water UK
The Water UK page indexing the Sewerage Sector Guidance, captured on the Wayback Machine because water.org.uk returns 403 to scripted fetches. Page date published 21 April 2023. The document set comprises the main SSG (approved version 2.2, 29 June 2022, later v2b) plus Appendix B Procedures, Appendix C Design and Construction Guidance, Appendix D Minimum Information, Appendix E Model Sewer Adoption Agreement, Appendix F Levels of Service and Reporting, Appendix G Terms of Reference approved by Ofwat, and a transitional principles document, along with published local practice notes from Anglian Water, Southern Water, Thames Water and Wessex Water on sewage pumping stations and, for Thames Water, on easements. Section 1.1 of the SSG states that it is the guidance which companies holding an instrument of appointment as sewerage undertakers under sections 6 or 7 of the Water Industry Act 1991 recommend Ofwat enables under its Code for Adoption, which came into effect on 13 November 2017, and that it contains a draft Model Sewerage Adoption Agreement. Sections 1.2.1 to 1.2.3 confirm sewerage companies are obliged by the Code to comply once Ofwat approves it, that failure may result in investigation and sanction by Ofwat, that it applies to infrastructure covered by a section 104 Water Industry Act agreement, and that it applies to companies operating wholly or mainly in England. IMPORTANT SCOPE POINT: the SSG governs the ADOPTION of new sewerage assets, not the separate build-over-a-sewer consent a homeowner needs, so do not cite it as the authority for a build over agreement.
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WaterRegsUK (Water Regulations Advisory Scheme)
The rules for feeding a WC or washing machine from harvested rainwater, greywater or a borehole, and the reason a direct connection is never permitted. An alternative supply must never be directly connected to the mains drinking water; the only compliant arrangement is a break tank with a Type AA unrestricted or Type AB weir spillover air gap, the mains supply pipe kept outside the tank, discharging at a higher level and maintaining a minimum clearance of twice the internal diameter of the supply pipework (2D) or 20 mm, whichever is the greater, with no contact between the tank water and the mains inlet. The regulators rate a Type AB air gap as suitable protection against both back siphonage and back pressure at the highest contamination risk, fluid category 5. Whatever fluid is being conveyed, all pipework above or below ground should be marked in accordance with the latest version of BS 1710, and servicing valves should be labelled. Type AB installations should be inspected, cleaned and maintained as necessary every 6 months, per BS EN 806-5. Where premises have both a mains supply and an alternative source such as rainwater, a borehole or recycled water, the owner must notify the water undertaker.
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CIRIA (Construction Industry Research and Information Association)
The reference for what happens when an excavation goes below the water table, which is the hidden cost driver in basement digs and deep foundations on wet ground. CIRIA C750, Groundwater control: design and practice, second edition, published April 2016, 205 pages, ISBN 978-0-86017-755-5, authors Preene, Roberts and Powrie. Paywalled at GBP 110 excluding VAT (GBP 55 for members) with a minimum order of five copies, so only the catalogue page and a PDF excerpt are public. The page states the core proposition plainly: whenever an excavation is made below the water table there is a risk that it will become unstable or flood unless measures are taken to control groundwater in the surrounding soil. Scope covers the potential effect of groundwater on construction works, groundwater control and dewatering techniques as temporary works, safety management and contractual matters, legal and environmental issues, site investigation requirements, and design methods for groundwater control schemes.
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CIRIA (Construction Industry Research and Information Association)
The reference work behind every soakaway, permeable driveway and garden drainage decision in the UK, and the document local authority drainage officers work from. CIRIA C753, The SuDS Manual, published December 2015, 964 pages in PDF, ISBN 978-0-86017-759-3, authors Woods Ballard, Wilson, Udale-Clarke, Illman, Scott, Ashley and Kellagher. It is free to CIRIA members and GBP 25 excluding VAT to non-members, so the full text is behind a login but the catalogue page confirms scope and status. It replaced the 2007 SuDS Manual (C697), and the page states expressly that in delivering SuDS there is a requirement to meet the framework set out by the government non-statutory technical standards, which C753 complements while going further to support cost-effective delivery of multiple benefits. It covers planning, design, construction, management and maintenance of SuDS. Cite it as the technical authority when a note explains why a permeable or drained-to-a-soakaway driveway avoids the planning consequence of an impermeable one.
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CIRIA (Construction Industry Research and Information Association)
The standard reference a structural engineer uses to design an embedded retaining wall, which is what a basement dig or a deep terraced garden retaining structure actually needs. CIRIA C760, Guidance on embedded retaining wall design, published February 2017, 471 pages, ISBN 978-0-86017-764-7, authors Gaba, Hardy, Doughty, Powrie and Selemetas. It is paywalled at GBP 170 excluding VAT (GBP 85 for members) with a minimum order of five copies, so only the catalogue page and a PDF excerpt are public. Scope confirmed on the page: selection and design of VERTICAL EMBEDDED retaining walls to satisfy the Eurocodes, covering temporary and permanent cantilever, anchored, single-propped and multi-propped walls embedded in soft soils, stiff clays, other competent soils and soft rocks. The page also states it clarifies areas of ambiguity and common misunderstandings in applying the Eurocodes to embedded retaining walls and sets out an unambiguous method for applying the Observational Method. Note the scope limit: this is not the reference for a low garden gravity or masonry retaining wall.
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CIRIA (Construction Industry Research and Information Association)
The UK code of practice for making an existing home resistant to and recoverable from flooding, and free to download after sign-in, which makes it unusually accessible for a CIRIA title. The C790 project produced four outputs a note can name separately: C790A, the Code of practice for property flood resilience, Edition 2, which sets six standards specifying what should be achieved; C790B, Guidance on the code of practice, explaining how each of the six standards should be met across the stages of a property flood resilience delivery process; C790C, Making your property more flood resilient, written for households and businesses; and C790D, Guidance for local authority planners. The code draws the distinction a renovation note should use: resistance measures reduce the amount of water entering a building, and recoverability measures limit the damage caused once water is inside, with the aim of reducing damage and speeding up recovery and reoccupation.
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Interpave, the Precast Concrete Paving and Kerb Association (British Precast Concrete Federation)
The construction detail behind a permeable driveway build-up, useful wherever a note quotes depths. It sets a 50mm laying course of angular aggregate beneath the blocks, over the permeable sub-base, with an optional upper geotextile above the sub-base and a lower geotextile or an impermeable geomembrane at the formation depending on whether the system infiltrates (System A), is partially drained (System B) or is fully tanked with a controlled outflow (System C). Table 5 gives required permeable sub-base thickness for attenuation storage: with M5-60 rainfall of 20mm and a runoff coefficient of 0.3 that is 140mm for a 1 in 30 year event, 190mm for 1 in 100 year and 240mm for 1 in 100 year plus 20 per cent climate change; for M5-60 of 14mm and 0.3 the equivalents are 90mm, 130mm and 170mm. The thicknesses assume a sub-base voids ratio of 30 per cent and a limited discharge rate of 7 litres per second per hectare on a level site. It also warns against contamination of the sub-base during construction and sets out maintenance to keep the surface porous.
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Interpave, the Precast Concrete Paving and Kerb Association (British Precast Concrete Federation)
The trade association explanation of concrete block permeable paving as a sustainable drainage (SuDS) technique, and the document that sets out why the permitted development rules changed. It records that permitted development rights have already been taken away from new or replacement paving around many existing buildings unless the paving is permeable or retains or infiltrates runoff on the property, which is the background to the 5 square metre front garden rule. It explains that in concrete block permeable paving water passes through enlarged joints formed by spacer nibs and filled with angular aggregate, not sand, and into an underlying permeable sub-base aggregate specifically designed to accommodate storage, unlike a conventional road construction. It covers the statutory framework including the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 and the National Standards for SuDS, the planning process, long-term performance, costs and adoption, and rates permeable pavements as having two treatment stages with high removal of total suspended solids.
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MPA The Concrete Centre
The industry design guide behind a reinforced concrete basement, and the document that shows why a basement is an engineered structure rather than a big hole. Published in 2012 by MPA The Concrete Centre, ISBN 978-1-908257-05-5, sold as a £40.00 download or a £70.00 hard copy with the PDF included. It covers the design and construction of reinforced concrete basements in accordance with the Eurocodes, and states that its aim is to assist designers of concrete basements of modest depth, meaning not exceeding 10 metres, while also being relevant to designers of other underground structures. It brings together the salient features for the design and construction of water-resisting structures and is written for generalist structural engineers with a basic understanding of soil mechanics. Cite it in a basement conversion note to support the point that a chartered structural engineer, not a contractor's standard detail, sets the design, and pair it with BS 8102 for the waterproofing grade.
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Temporary Works forum and Association of Specialist Underpinning Contractors (ASUC)
The specialist good practice guide behind traditional mass concrete underpinning, and the source of the bay dimensions that explain why underpinning is slow and expensive. Paragraph 6.1 limits an underpin bay to 1.50m in length, and paragraph 6.3 requires a hit and miss numbered bay sequence rather than a continuous excavation (Figure 5). Paragraph 6.4 gives a typical access pit plan size of the width of the underpin, 1 to 1.50m, by 1.50m. Paragraph 6.10 sets a minimum underpin depth of 1.0m and paragraph 6.11 a minimum underpin wall or stem thickness of 450mm (Figure 8). Paragraph 6.12 allows 24 hours for the underpin concrete, and paragraph 6.13 covers the dry pack gap between the top of the underpin concrete and the underside of the existing foundation. Section 5.2 notes the likely need for a Party Wall award and movement monitoring of affected structures, and the guidance stresses site investigation covering stratigraphy and water levels before design. It sits under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations, first introduced in 1995, for the management and control of temporary works.
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Water UK, with the 10 wastewater companies in England and Wales
The industry guide that explains the build-over consent most garden building and extension notes forget to mention. It was produced by Water UK with the 10 water companies in England and Wales responsible for collecting wastewater, and covers work built over or within 3 metres of a sewer pipe. It distinguishes three pipe types: a private drain, the system within your boundary serving only your property; a public lateral drain, the section connecting your property to the public sewer network located outside the boundary, for example in a neighbour's garden or the highway; and a public sewer, a wastewater pipe joining more than one property. There are just under 450,000km of sewer pipes in England and Wales. The key point for a note is that planning permission, building regulations approval and permitted development rights give no automatic consent to build over or close to a sewer, and conservatories, car ports and porches that escape building regulations still need it. Where a project meets the water companies' agreed standard conditions it will be approved; a company may refuse on site-specific knowledge only if it tells you within 14 days of receiving the application. A project that does not meet the conditions normally needs a formal build-over agreement with the wastewater company. Building over or near a clean water main is generally strictly forbidden. Sewer locations can be traced via an inspection or manhole cover, the property's legal documentation, the water company (which may charge) or www.digdatconnect.com.
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British Geological Survey
The national dataset a surveyor or insurer actually consults on ground movement risk, and a better citation than a generic statement that clay shrinks. BGS GeoSure covers Great Britain at 1:50,000 as GIS polygon data and gives potential ground movement or subsidence information across six themes: shrink-swell, landslides including a debris flow model, soluble rocks, collapsible deposits, compressible ground and running sands. It is premium data with published unit prices, all six themes at £0.91 per square kilometre, shrink-swell at £0.35, landslides including the debris flow model at £0.35, soluble rocks at £0.18, collapsible deposits at £0.06, compressible ground at £0.23 and running sands at £0.23, each subject to number of users, a licence fee and a data preparation fee. It also underpins the BGS Natural Ground Stability GeoReport, which is the report form a homeowner or conveyancer would receive. A companion GeoSure 5 km hex grid gives a generalised overview, and a shrink-swell subsurface layer identifies hazard hidden beneath another solid formation.