Principal storey

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 the ‘principal storey’ as:

‘The floor level (of the dwelling) on which the main living space is located, where this is not the entrance storey.’

Where the ‘entrance storey’ is; '...the floor level (of the dwelling) on which the principal private entrance is located’, that 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.’

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki

• Access and inclusion in the built environment: policy and guidance.
• Access consultant.
• Accessibility in the built environment.
• Accessible threshold.
• Approach route.
• Approved document M.
• Changing lifestyles.
• Equality Act.
• Inclusive design.
• Localised obstruction.
• Lifetime homes.
• People with disabilities.
• Point of access.
• Principal communal entrance.