Construction products and certification
What this topic is about
Section titled “What this topic is about”What a material installed declares about itself, and who issues that declaration. Everything revolves around four concepts: the declaration of performance, the CE marking, the ETA and the NMÉ (Hungarian national technical assessment).
The concept connecting them is the harmonised standard. If one exists for the product, the verification of performance derives from it; if not, European or national technical assessment comes into play.
The recurring misunderstanding
Section titled “The recurring misunderstanding”Someone tries to verify a structure with a product’s paperwork. The declaration of performance for a fire-rated board does not verify the fire resistance of the wall, just as a screw’s verification does not verify the capacity of the connection.
Product and system are two separate worlds with two separate routes to verification. This whole topic is built on that difference.
How to read it
Section titled “How to read it”Start with the declaration of performance and the CE marking: that is daily practice. Then the NMÉ and the ETA, if the question is where paperwork comes from for a product with no harmonised standard. Finally the article on system documents says when one is not needed at all.
What is changing now
Section titled “What is changing now”The EU regulation of construction products was renewed in 2024. The new regulation applies from January 2026, while the old one lives on in parallel for a long transition. So for a while anyone buying or specifying products will meet documents of two different logics. The new construction products regulation.
The point
Section titled “The point”The question is never “is there paperwork” but what the paperwork is for, and who is responsible for it. This topic teaches you to ask those two questions.