Good afternoon,
I was hoping someone could advise regarding the regulations around flue terminations through a 'fake' window.
We have a mixed-use development with a ground floor commercial unit and residential above. To keep with the style, a 'fake' window has been installed to the rear of the commercial unit - essentially a window shape but infilled with panelling rather than a window. The idea was to utilise this panelling for the flue termination to avoid core drilling the new brickwork as the next tenant may not require a flue, however it appears this may be in contradiction with Approved Document J, diagram 34 Note 1, where a flue shouldn't be within 150/300mm of "an opening into the building fabric formed for the purpose of accommodating a built-in element, such as a window frame".
This opening will never house a window whilst the flue is installed, it was purely for aesthetics. Has anyone come across this before, and what are our options? Is there a certain product/sealing process that needs to be carried out to allow the flue to pass through the panelling? So long as the panelling is of a suitable heat resistance, I can't personally see an issue with this other than not conforming with this Note - we have sufficient distance to all other restrictions shown on diagram 34.
Thanks in advance, Nick.
I was hoping someone could advise regarding the regulations around flue terminations through a 'fake' window.
We have a mixed-use development with a ground floor commercial unit and residential above. To keep with the style, a 'fake' window has been installed to the rear of the commercial unit - essentially a window shape but infilled with panelling rather than a window. The idea was to utilise this panelling for the flue termination to avoid core drilling the new brickwork as the next tenant may not require a flue, however it appears this may be in contradiction with Approved Document J, diagram 34 Note 1, where a flue shouldn't be within 150/300mm of "an opening into the building fabric formed for the purpose of accommodating a built-in element, such as a window frame".
This opening will never house a window whilst the flue is installed, it was purely for aesthetics. Has anyone come across this before, and what are our options? Is there a certain product/sealing process that needs to be carried out to allow the flue to pass through the panelling? So long as the panelling is of a suitable heat resistance, I can't personally see an issue with this other than not conforming with this Note - we have sufficient distance to all other restrictions shown on diagram 34.
Thanks in advance, Nick.