Essential Window and Door Safety Information For Homeowners

Advice

Why Check?

• You need to be sure that your home is a Safe Environment
• It is a legal requirement to install safety glazing in Critical Locations. Checking could save lives.
• Approved Document N (Glazing - Protection against impact) of the Building Regulations in England and Wales provides guidance for safety glazing.
• BS 6262-4:2005 provides details of safety glazing requirements.

What you need to do

• Identify areas in your home that are considered to be 'critical locations' (see figure 1)
• You must then check that these critical locations have safety glazing material installed.
• If safety glazing material has been installed, there will be visible markings you can check.

All safety glazing must be visibly marked on the glass. If the 'visible markings' on the safety glazing material is not clear or you have any concerns about whether the safety glazing has been installed to the correct standard, you should go back to the original window installer and seek advice. If you are not happy with their response, you should contact FENSA www.fensa.org.uk

Safety Glazing is:

• A Glass or glazing product which conforms to the relevant European glazing standard e.g. EN 12150 or EN 14449 or EN 14179.
• The glass has also been tested against the European standard for EN 12600 for safety impact. This means that on impact the glass does not break or breaks in a way unlikely to cause serious injury.

Identifying 'Critical Locations in your home

The shaded areas (see Figure 1) are critical locations which require the use of safety glass. These are:

Those areas of internal and external walls that are considered 'critical locations' in terms of safety are:

1. (a) Between the finished floor level and 1500mm above that level in doors and in side panels which are within 300 mm of either edge of the door.
2. (b) Between the finished floor level and 800mm above that level in the case of windows not included in note (a) above.
3. (c) Glazing in Bathing Areas: Any glazing forming part of a bath or shower screen, or located adjacent to, or surrounding, a bath, swimming pool, or other associated wet areas, constitutes s potential danger because of the possibility of a person slipping on a wet surface, In these cases, all glazing should be Safety Glazing conforming to BS 6262-4 : 2005.
   A window within 800mm of the bottom of a bath or shower should be safety glass.