TL;DR: A BAL (Bushfire Attack Level) is a measure of how much radiant heat and ember attack a building is likely to face in a bushfire, set out in AS 3959 Construction of buildings in bushfire-prone areas and called up by the National Construction Code. There are six levels: BAL-LOW, BAL-12.5, BAL-19, BAL-29, BAL-40 and […]
TL;DR: The AS 1288 glazing requirements decide which panes in a building have to be Grade A safety glazing material, and the NCC makes them enforceable by calling the standard up as a referenced document. The high risk zones are the ones people walk into. All glass in a door, every time. Side panels within […]
The Coalition has said that in government it would repeal the union-related procurement rules attached to Commonwealth-funded building work and bring back a national construction industry watchdog, winding back the arrangements that followed the abolition of the Australian Building and Construction Commission in 2023. If you run a four-person crew out of Dandenong or a […]
Construction costs have climbed again, and Australian Property Update has flagged the uncomfortable timing: it is happening exactly when the country needs far more homes built. Rising construction costs are not news to anyone who has priced a job this year. What is worth ten minutes of your time is the part the headline never […]
The Australian Building Codes Board keeps adding, amending and withdrawing entries in its WaterMark Product Database, and every one of those changes quietly moves the line on what a licensed plumber is allowed to install on your job. That is the real shape of WaterMark certification requirements. It is not a rulebook you read once […]
TL;DR: The 7 star energy rating Australia now works to came in with NCC 2022, lifting new houses from 6 stars to 7 stars NatHERS and adding a second, separate test called Whole of Home. The star rating measures the building shell only, in megajoules of heating and cooling load per square metre per year. […]
TL;DR The national rule: every Class 1 dwelling needs smoke alarms complying with AS 3786-2014, installed on every storey, in the hallway serving the bedrooms, powered from the mains where mains power is supplied, with a standby battery, and interconnected where there is more than one alarm. In NCC 2022 the clause is Part 9.5 […]
Builder regulation in Victoria keeps circling back to the same document. Home warranty insurance Victoria calls Domestic Building Insurance, or DBI, and every review of consumer protection in the state ends up touching it, because it is the one piece of paper that decides whether a homeowner has a fallback when their builder goes under. […]
The US Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development publish a New Residential Construction release every month, covering building permits, housing starts and completions. It gets picked up hard, because it is one of the few monthly reads on whether homes are actually getting built rather than just talked about. If you […]
A builder has been ordered by a court to pay the Fair Work Ombudsman after refusing to accept the court papers, with the judgment landing a little over $5,000. Reported by onnotice.com.au, and worth two minutes of any Australian builder's time, because the mechanism is the interesting part. Refusing service does not stop a case. […]
