Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the insertion of the term filler material into Approved Document B of the Building Regulations was intended as a catch-all intended to stop the overuse of can-applied foam and similar materials to fill gaps within the façade of a building.

Can-applied expanding polyurethane foam is used for a wide variety of purposes. The application of the guidance in paragraphs 10.5 and 10.6 of Approved Document B Volume 1 (replicated in Volume 2) to the use of expanding polyurethane foam would need to be considered on a case by case basis taking in to consideration paragraph 10.4.

These products are commonly used as a joint sealant and as such would not be covered by paragraphs 10.5 or 10.6, but there may be other circumstances, such as being used as a void filler between two layers of construction in an external wall, where paragraph 10.6 and 10.4 would apply.

The guidance in approved documents should be considered in full and in the context to the requirements of the regulations themselves this has been clarified in the clarified version of Approved Document B published in July 2019.