Building Code Of Australia Requirements For Commercial Structures

1. Australia and New Zealand’s Joint Accreditation System (JAS-ANZ): accredits entities that inspect or certify organizations, products, or individuals. They do this by creating the evaluation standards that inspectors and certifiers must achieve to be recognized under these themes: Entrepreneurship and innovation, Sustainability and the Environment
2. CodeMark Certification Bodies: are intended to provide the market and regulatory authorities with trust and assurance via the issuance of a Certificate of Conformity. This is one of the many possibilities for achieving the National Construction Code’s (NCC’s) proof of appropriateness criteria.
3. NATA’s purpose is to serve the public and national interest by making sure that member establishments comply with all applicable Australian and international standards and are thus capable of providing consistent and reliable data on testing, calibration, measurement, and inspection to government, industry, and the general public.(  Williams,1995)
4. Standards Australia is a premier non-profit body of standards that represents the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electro-technical Commission (IEC), and are specialists in the creation and approval of standards in Australia to match internally accepted standards.
5. b)
6. Code Mark Compliance Certificate
7. Code Mark Compliance Certificate
8. Any other type of documentation proof, such as ’Product Technical Statement’.

1. Class 6
2. Class 6
3. A Class 10
4. (i) Class 1a

(ii) Class 6

1. A Maximum of 3 500 m² area of floor and  21 000 m³ volume
2. A Maximum of 8 000 m² area of floor and  48 000 m³  volume
3. Because it is for commercial uses, the building is a type A building class 5; table 2.2 of the NCC specifies the maximum allowable area as 8000m².

1. True
2. The NCC part C 1.9 makes an exemption in clause e on non-combustible construction materials, plasterboard is mentioned as being one of the materials that can be utilized if a non-combustible material is needed.
3. True
4. Pursuant to section A6.0 (3), machinery rooms,  plant rooms, , boiler rooms or lift motor room, is in the same class as the portion of the structure where it is  located These rooms need not to be ancillary or subordinate to the portion of the structure they are in, therefore the 10% rule does not apply. These rooms follow their specific set of rules. Section C of Volume One, for example, requires that they be fire separated from the other part of the building (e.g. see C2.13 with respect to the supply system of electricity). Because the plant room in this situation only occupy an air handling plant, the rules of subsection C2.13 part e (iv) is applicable.   
6. The Class 2 part only.
7. As per A6.0 (3), machinery rooms,  plant rooms, , boiler room or lift motor room, is in the same class as the portion of the structure where it is  located These rooms need not to be ancillary or subordinate to the portion of the structure they are in, therefore the 10% rule does not apply. These rooms follow their specific set of rules. Section C of Volume One, for example, requires that they be fire separated from the other part of structure (e.g. see C2.13 with respect to the supply system of electricity). Because the plant room in this situation only occupy an air handling plant, the rules of subsection C2.13 part e (iv) is applicable.

1. The technical term for a FRL is structural adequacy/integrity/insulation, abbreviated as SA/INT/INS.

• Structural adequacy: the potential of a tested component to sustain a certain load in the presence of fire. This meter only applies to wall systems; it does not apply to door or frame systems. The frame and door systems are non-load bearing.
• Integrity: is a measure of a test component’s capacity to block the flow of hot gases and flames. It does not measure smoke leakage.
• Insulation is a temperature rise on the non-exposed, or non-fire, side of a fire proof separation barrier.

The passing result is derived by the duration of time with NO failure when tested in line with AS 1530 Part 4 fire standard requirements. As a result, a Fire Resistance Level of 120/90/60 indicates that each element passes for that amount of minutes. i.e. SA = 120 minutes INT = 90 minutes INS = 60 minutes.

1. b) The FRL is determined either by rating (as specified in clause 2 schedule 5) or by calculation (as specified in clause 3).
2. A non-loadbearing wall 2.7m high.
3. Clause 2.1b, specification C1.1 “A part of a building element is not exposed to a fire-source feature if the fire-source feature is an external wall of another building that stands on the allotment and the part concerned is more than 15 m above the highest part of that external wall; or a side or rear boundary of the allotment and the part concerned is below the finished ground level at every relevant part of the boundary concerned.” The brick veneer construction was used in this case.

As the building is a commercial structure with offices and a retail floor, clause 3 section C1.1: “Type A Fire-Resisting Construction” applies to the FRL.

1. 120/120/120 ( Table 3)
2. 90/90/90
3. 90/90/90
4. 90/90/90 according to section 3.3 “If a floor in a Class 5 or 9b building is designed for a live load not exceeding 3 kPa— (a) the floor next above (including floor beams) may have an FRL of 90/90/90” in this case movement of people on floor B,C and D
5. FRL 120/90/90
6. FRL 60/60/60
7. FRL -/90/90
8. FRL 120/90/90
9. FRL -/90/90
10. FRL 120/90/90
11. FRL -/90/90
12. FRL 120/120/120
13. FRL 120/120/120
14. “A floor lining or floor covering must have a critical radiant flux not less than that listed in Table 2; and (b) in a building not protected by a sprinkler system (other than a FPAA101D or FPAA101H system) complying with Specification E1.5, a maximum smoke development rate of 750 percent-minutes; and (c) a group number complying with Clause 6(b), for any portion of the floor covering that is continued more than 150 mm up a wall”. (the NCC clause 3 specification C1.10)
15. “A wall or ceiling lining system must comply with the group number specified in Table 3 and for buildings not fitted with a sprinkler system (other than a FPAA101D or FPAA101H system) complying with Specification E1.5 have— (i) a smoke growth rate index not more than 100; or (ii) an average specific extinction area less than 250 m2/kg. (b) A group number of a wall or ceiling lining and the smoke growth rate index or average specific extinction area must be determined in accordance with AS 5637.1”. (the NCC, clause 4 specification C1.10)
16. Materials to be utilized as—(a) floor coverings and floor linings must have a critical radiant flux of at least 2.2; and (b) ceiling lining and walls must be Group 1 or Group 2 materials in accordance with AS 5637.1. (the NCC, clause 6 specification C1.10)
17. Materials and structures of buildings in Class 2 to 9 that are not covered by Clauses 3, 4, 5, or 6 must not surpass the indices shown in Table 4. (NCC standard C1.10, clause 7)
18. Materials used as— “(a) floor coverings and Floor linings and  must have a required radiant flux of at least 2.2; and (b) ceiling linings and walls  must be Group 1 or Group 2 materials in conformance with AS 5637.1 (NCC standard C1.10, clause 6).”
19. “Materials to be utilized as— (a) Floor coverings and floor linings must have a required radiant flux of at least 2.2; and (b) ceiling linings and walls have to be AS 5637.1 Group 1 or Group 2 materials

References

Building Code of Australia, 2019. National Construction Code.

Building Code of Australia. 1990. Australian Uniform Building Regulations Co-coordinating Council.

Navaratnam, S., Ngo, T., Gunawardena, T. and Henderson, D., 2019. Performance review of prefabricated building systems and future research in Australia. Buildings, 9(2), p.38.

Valley, F., 2019. Western Australia. Journal of the Geological Society of Australia, 1, pp.35-54.

Williams, P., 1995. A regulation evaluation system: a decision support system for the Building Code of Australia. Construction Management and Economics, 13(3), pp.197-208.

Ashe, B., Newton, P.W., Enker, R., Bell, J., Apelt, R., Hough, R. and Davis, M., 2003. Sustainability and the building code of Australia. Research Project Report.

Peterkin, N., 2009. Rewards for passive solar design in the Building Code of Australia. Renewable Energy, 34(2), pp.440-443.

Patterson, M.J., 2004. Recent changes to the sound insulation provisions of the Building code of Australia. Achieve the ultimate with Brüel & Kjær service, 32(3-85), p.111.

O’Brien, D.L., 2016. Re-evaluation of the existing change management models to improve the response of the Building Code of Australia to environmental docility. Unpublished PhD Thesis. Central Queensland University.

Board, ABC, Sustainability and the building code of Australia.

Buchanan, A.H., 2001. Fire engineering design guide. Centre for Advanced Engineering, University of Canterbury.