At Qualitas Compliance, our consultants bring deep technical expertise and a commitment to supporting clients through every stage of the building compliance process, but what does a typical day actually look like for one of our Principal Building Regulations Consultants?
We asked Andy Alford to share a behind-the-scenes look at a day in his life as one of Qualitas’ Principal Building Regulations Consultants.
“06:00 – Morning Routine and a Walk with a View
After a few taps on the snooze button, I am up and making a cup of tea, then it’s time to shower and get dressed before taking this one for a walk. We are lucky enough to live at the foot of the South Downs, so we are often greeted by stunning views or moody skies rolling in over the coast, today was a bit of both.
08:00 – Getting Set Up for the Day
Back home and coffee in hand, I will pop myself down at my desk, usually shutting the dog out of my office so that I can achieve some focus. As a team, we are dotted around the country, some nearer to regional offices than others, but for me, work is always from home.
First order of business is to review my project book/diary/to-do scribbles and get a handle on any tasks I have to do today, there’s usually only 2-3 things, which then go into one list in my project book. Today is very meeting centric, so there’s actually only 1 item: write a presentation for the next Qualitas Q&A Series session.
08:15 – Emails and Early Tasks
Once I’ve established a rough handle on my day, I jump into my emails (to ruin all of my careful planning). I usually deal with emails 2-3 times a day rather than living in my inbox, as I have found that that’s a great way to lose big chunks of the day with no return. Today is fairly simple: there are a few quote requests and a follow-up on a technical query regarding Approved Document parts M, B, and T for a large university building I’m working on. It is also apparent that I need to file some emails I have already responded to, so I’m going to get that done first.
09:00 – Marketing Meeting
Next up is our regular catch-up with the Business Development and Digital Marketing teams. These meetings are a great opportunity to review internal and external feedback and put some planning in place for business growth, as well as future social media posts and other marketing tools.
10:00 – Presentation Writing
More coffee! Meeting done, it’s time to jump onto the power point presentation. This month’s topic is the is ‘The BRPD Role.’ This is an area I find really interesting, and I am glad that competence within the sector has become such a focus.
12:30 – Lunch and a Break
LUNCH! Given the distinct turn to autumn, I’m grabbing some soup, and it’s also another chance to play with the dog while that heats up.
13:00 – Preparing for a Design Team Meeting
This afternoon’s Design Team Meeting (DTM) is on a small apartment project, which is now at the end of RIBA Stage 4. The site is quite small and the architects have done a fantastic job to fit in 5 x 1/2 bed apartments all with outdoor space, but it has come with complications requiring innovative design to achieve suitable levels of fire safety and sustainability; a challenging project which I have really enjoyed consulting on. To prep for the meeting, I am just reviewing the most recent updates and revisions, but it looks like we are still waiting on some CFD modelling.
14:00 – Design Team Meeting
As part of our service, we regularly attend DTMs to provide clients with Building Regulations advice, which can inform design decisions in the most timely manner. DTMs are also a good opportunity for us to discuss construction techniques with design teams and get a better understanding of the specific areas where they have trouble achieving or evidencing compliance, and why they favour certain types of construction.
15:00 – Final Tasks and Quotations
Go on then, time to grab one more coffee, then onto some quotes to close out the day. This can be really mixed; sometimes the job will be very simple and we will get a fairly comprehensive package of information from a well-structured design team, other times we might be quoting at a very early stage without much information at all.
Today, it’s a couple of jobs from a regular designer we work with, but there is a bit of uncertainty around the height/use of one of the buildings. This is something we see quite often, where buildings with fewer than 7-storeys are still HRBs by virtue of large storey heights (with the top floor exceeding 18m above ground level). In this instance, a quick chat with the designer reveals that they have already pushed back on this, and the client has confirmed it does not meet the HRB criteria, so good to go.
16:00 – Wrapping Up
Quotes all done, one last check through emails to action anything urgent and flag anything for tomorrow’s list, then it’s an early finish today as I’m off to see some live comedy.
22:00 – One Last Walk
Always time in the day for one last dog walk and a chance to see another moody sky.”
Championing Excellence in the Built Environment
At Qualitas Compliance, our consultants are driven by a shared goal: to make compliance simpler, clearer, and more collaborative. Every day brings new challenges, but also new opportunities to support our clients and improve the built environment.
Contact us to receive a Fire and/or Building Regulation Consultancy quote today.
