Printed from the ArchiMentor Knowledge pages on - www.archimentor.net

Agrement Certificates

From the BBA website at [http://www.bbacerts.co.uk/]:

BBA : "The BBA is the UK’s major authority offering approval of construction products, systems and installers."

Agrement Certificate : "An Agrément Certificate is awarded to a product only after it has successfully passed a comprehensive assessment involving laboratory testing, on-site evaluations and inspections of production. The main focus of the Agrément process is the evaluation of the extent to which the product allows compliance with relevant Building Regulations and other statutory or non-statutory requirements to be achieved."

It is important to remember that the BBA, like the BSi (British Standards Institute), is a commercial organisation providing a service to the construction industry. The application of Agrement Certificates, like British Standards, is voluntary, and not mandatory unless specifically referred to by legislation or imposed by a client through the terms of engagement.

Agrement Certificates generally state the conditions under which the evaluation of the product has been undertaken. If it proposed to use a product under conditions which are not defined in the Agrement Certificate, then the use of the product should be evaluated as if no Agrement Certificate exists.

In general, the absence of an Agrement Certificate for a particular product in a particular situation or use is no indication that the product is unsuitable for that situation or use, merely that extra care should be taken in its evaluation. There are many perfectly satisfactory products which do not have an Agrement Certificate.

If, however, there are a number of similar products proposed for a particular situation or use, some with appropriate Agrement Certificates and some without, specifiers may prefer to select only those products with an Agrement Certificate.

© 2009. ArchiMentor.