Ventilation: Approved Document F, Volume 2 — Buildings other than dwellings

F1(1) O N L I N E V E R S I O N Section 1: Ventilation provision General 1.1 The aim of requirement F1(1) is to protect the health of occupants of the building by providing adequate ventilation. Without adequate ventilation, mould and internal air pollution may become hazardous to health and the risk of transmission of airborne infection is increased. NOTE: The guidance in this approved document is not designed to deal with the products of tobacco smoking or vaping. 1.2 This approved document sets out guidance for ventilation provision in the following types and uses of buildings and occupiable rooms. a. Specific types of occupiable rooms – follow paragraphs 1.21 to 1.23. b. Offices – follow paragraphs 1.24 to 1.37. c. Car parks – follow paragraphs 1.38 to 1.40. d. Building types other than offices or car parks – follow paragraph 1.41. 1.3 Other ventilation solutions may be used, if it can be shown to the building control body that they satisfy requirement F1(1). 1.4 The guidance set out in this approved document has been designed to meet the indoor pollutant levels in Appendix B where the outside air is of reasonable quality. In areas where the outside air is not of reasonable quality, Section 2 provides guidance on limiting the entry of external air pollutants. Noise 1.5 Mechanical ventilation systems, including both continuous and intermittent mechanical ventilation, should be designed and installed to minimise noise. This includes doing all of the following. a. Correctly sizing and joining ducts. b. Ensuring that equipment is appropriately and securely fixed, such as using resilient mountings where noise carried by the structure of the building could be a problem. c. Selecting appropriate equipment, including following paragraph 1.6. 1.6 For mechanical ventilation systems, fan units should be appropriately sized so that fans operating in normal background ventilation mode are not overly noisy, taking into consideration the use and likely background level of noise from other sources. This might require fans to be sized so that they do not operate near maximum capacity when in normal background ventilation mode. 6 Approved Document F Volume 2, 2021 edition Building Regulations 2010 O N L I N E V E R S I O N