Last Updated on 26 February 2025 by Josh Lucas
At GFD Homes, we’re committed to offering the very best—not just in products, but also in expertise and customer service.
Keeping up with the latest building regulations is essential in ensuring we provide the best advice and solutions to homeowners and trade professionals alike.
So, when our Technical Training Coordinator, Daniel Johnston, had the chance to attend the CABE Certificate in Building Control course, we jumped at the opportunity.
This course, delivered by the Chartered Association of Building Engineers (CABE), is designed to give industry professionals an in-depth understanding of building control, covering everything from legislation to structural integrity and safety regulations.
Meet the Expert
Before we got into how the training course is allowing us to provide better guidance to you, we got into how Dan became GFD’s go-to man when it comes to all things technical.
Q: Good afternoon Dan, before we get into the course let’s get into a bit about you, how long have you been here, and what changes have you seen with GFD Homes?
D: “I’ve been here for 10 years, so when I started, there were six people here, and now we’ve become five, six times bigger than we were.
I do the technical and the training side of it, so at the minute I’m writing all the training and dealing with all the technical crew.
So if someone’s got a query that’s a bit technical and customer service needs help with it I let them know what’s what, or when the sales team is doing a quote I just kind of get involved in all the technical stuff, and all the training really.”
A First-Hand Experience with the Course
Dan’s insights from the course are already helping us provide better guidance to our customers. But what exactly did he learn during his week in Northampton?
Q: So Dan, I understand you were on a building regulations course recently, can you tell me about it?
D: “The course I went to was a certificate in building control, which is from the Chartered Association of Building Engineers, it’s basically like the first steps of building control.
So it’s given me more knowledge of the history of building control and building mechanics when they first started, going back hundreds of years.
I got a good understanding of the legislation, the legal side of it, what trumps what in terms of what regulations are more important than others and then it sort of went into different sections of the approved documents, which are kind of like guidelines for building regulations.”
Q: That sounds like it would be a great help for giving the best customer advice, what are the differences between regulations and approved comments
D: “Building regulations are this massive, huge thing, so these are just like the standards, which is just like a 700-page document, which you can’t really get in a paper format because they’re so big.
Then the approved documents are kind of like a guide to building regulations if you like, so they sort of point you in the right direction.“
Q: What else was covered in the first week of the course?
D: “What they covered were things like security PartQ, which is a big one for us, so that’s like the Pas24 and secured by design, PartQ is a big thing,
They covered structural stability, drainage, electrical safety, falling from heights, protection from impact, ventilation, U-Values & heat loss and thermal transmission and all that.“
Q: Did you find that anything you already knew had changed?
D: “The regs change a lot, so there’s always things around the corner.
It can be a bit of a minefield because there are lots of different building regs and they overlap, and some are more important than others, but only sometimes, and it’s a bit, it’s a bit difficult to navigate unless you know what you’re doing.
Like, the U-value rules change, everything changes, so it’s good to know so that we can be up to date, and constantly make sure we’re meeting the standards, and keep on top of things for the customers and ourselves.“
How does this help the customer?
Q: Did you get a lot of relevant information that you’ll be able to pass on to customers?
D: “A lot of it is relevant, especially the stuff about Part M, Part Q and Part L, they’re all really important to us, and that’s what we get asked about the most I would say.
So it’s just kind of making sure everything that we sell meets the regulations as well, because if someone says, they need a Part M threshold, we can tell them with confidence which ones are, we can sort of say things with more confidence, and all that stuff.”
Q: Do you often get questions from customers where what you learnt will come in handy?
D: “Basically we get asked a lot of times when someone makes an order, they’ll say it needs to meet building regs and that’s sort of all we get from them, so it’ll help within the business, so I can help us tell people what building regs it needs to meet and point the team and customers in the right direction.
But also when we get plans from retail customers, and they say I’ve been told this has to meet this, then I can sort of look at what the plans are, see what spec they need and help them pick the correct product, or the correct spec for the product that they want and let them know if that product will apply to their property.”
Thank you Dan, you’ve provided a great insight into what goes into the technical side of being the door and home improvement experts.
Why Staying Up to Date Matters
Building regulations don’t stand still—they’re regularly updated to reflect advancements in technology, safety standards, and environmental considerations.
Being proactive in learning about these changes means we can stay ahead of the curve, ensuring that everything we offer at GFD Homes meets or exceeds the latest industry requirements.
At GFD Homes, we’re not just about selling great products—we’re about ensuring you get the right solutions, fully compliant with the latest standards, and backed by expert knowledge.
For any questions about building regulations or how our products meet compliance, call our expert team on 01642 309576 or send us an email!
