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It’s is less than a month now until the changes to Part L become law, and most seem to be well on their way for making sure their windows meet the new minimum standards. But what about doors?

From October 1st doors must have a U-Value of 1.8 or less. This applies to doors that are 50% glazed or over. So that would encompass French doors, sliding patios, bi-folding doors, full glass or half glazed doors etc. There hasn’t been much mention of doors up till now, so is it completely obvious to everyone? When all the worry at the beginning was focused on the energy ratings windows and an equivalent U-Value, I think we may see that shift to the doors side of business.

One of my big questions is this: how is this going to be policed? Take FENSA for example. Each company registered with FENSA has to have 3 spot checks per year on their installations. That’s not a lot, and it gives installers plenty of room to sneak an installation through which flouts some of the rules FENSA are supposed to make sure they follow. So who is going to check that a pair of French doors has a U-Value of 1.8 or better? There are many companies out there who probably haven’t as yet got themselves ready for the changes, either by choice or by laziness. What about the cowboy companies who don’t give a rats arse and just bung any old door in?

What I don’t want to see happen is the effort made by all the decent companies out there, who have conformed to the changes, go to waste when others are ignoring the new rules and getting away with it.