by Mike G » 26 Feb 2018, 21:07
They're different in principle and in content.
England and Wales have actually very short and very wishy-washy building regs, with very in-depth "Guidance". It is this guidance which everyone thinks of as the Regs, but it isn't. If you can show another way of meeting the regs which isn't given in the Guidance, then you should in theory achieve approval from Building Control. In Scotland, the regs themselves are very prescriptive, on the face of it written much like our Guidance. This removes the option of the alternative approach allowed in England and Wales.
As an example of an England/ Wales Building Regulation, this is what the relevant regulation actually says:
"Combustion appliances and fluepipes shall be so installed, and fireplaces and chimneys so constructed and installed, as to reduce to a reasonable level the risk of people suffering burns or the building catching fire in consequence of their use".
That's the building regulation. Nothing about combustible materials, distances, design parameters, dimensions, British Standards etc. Go to the Guidance and there are pages and pages with precise instructions on how you can be certain of achieving compliance with the Regs, but that's not exclusive. If you can demonstrate that an alternative approach satisfies the Regs, then you don't need to comply with the Guidance. In Scotland (in my limited experience and subject to my fallible memory), there is no separation of regs and guidance, so you have to do precisely what it says in the book, and nothing else will do.
In this case, it says 75mm of non-combustible material to a height of 1200 above the top of the hearth......so that is precisely what you've got to do if your woodburner is within 150mm of a wall.