Code of Practice

Q Is there a Code of Practice on the way? There are rumours of one. Strength and strength-gain characteristics are important to the engineering community and perhaps to Building Control.

A In conjunction with the NHBC Foundation and the BRE a document has been published entitled NF12. The use of lime-based mortars in new build. An Appendix to this document is a Draft for Development (the first stage to a full Code of Practice) entitled The structural use of unreinforced masonry made with natural hydraulic lime mortars - technical annex for use with BS 5628-1:2005. The NHBC Foundation has kindly made the publication free to download as a pdf file (1.8MB). Although BS 5628-1 is now superseded by BS EN 1996-1 the authoritative technical guidance remains valid.