Last edited 16 Nov 2018

Approach route

The building regulations, set out legal requirements for specific aspects of building design and construction. A series of approved documents provide general guidance about how different aspects of building design and construction can comply with the building regulations.

Approved document M provides guidance for satisfying Part M of the building regulations: Access to and use of buildings, which requires the inclusive provision of ease of access to, and circulation within, buildings, together with requirements for facilities for people with disabilities.

Approved document M, Volume 1: Dwellings (2015 edition incorporating 2016 amendments), defines an approach route as an:

Internal or external path or corridor usually leading to the principal private entrance of a dwelling from a defined starting point (typically the pavement immediately outside the curtilage or plot boundary).

Where the principal private entrance is:

The entrance to the individual dwelling that a visitor not familiar with the dwelling would normally approach (usually the ‘front door’ to a house or ground floor flat).

The approved document sets out a series of specific requirements for approach routes, depending on the type of dwelling.