Please Note:

The Resources provided to you for training are only available for the duration of your training and or while you are provided access the Learning Management System (LMS). If you wish to retain  access to the resources for reference or business purposes, please contact the authors Paul@AchieveBestPractice.com.au. Access will be provided on a subscription basis for “Reasonable Use”.

The resources available are listed below.

LMS Resources - Design, H&S Issues, Sample documents, MUTCD

LMS Resources – Elective Sessions For Plant & Equipment

LMS Resources – Company Procedures

LMS Resources - Standards

LMS Resources – SOP

LMS Resources – Hazards

LMS Resources – Forms

LMS Resources – Completed Forms

A Title Block is a section of information on a plan. It shows:
• Date Drawn
• Site Address
• Number of Sheet (page) in Relation to Others
• Name of Sheet
• Name of Client
• Builder's Name
• Scales Used
• Date of Amendments
• Draftsperson's Name
• Glossary of Terms

Specifications set out the minimum standards or codes necessary to obtain relevant sizes for all structural components. Specifications may also detail the fixtures and fittings. It will not indicate utilities such as water or electricity.

Detailed Drawings are used to illustrate the particular method of construction or finish required - e.g. structural steelwork, concrete work, brickwork. They are usually drawn at scales that are easy to read (1:20, 1:5) .

Design is arguably the most important part of building (or extending) a house. As well as being an incredibly complex thing in its own right, it’s especially crucial that the building designer or architect is able to express through their drawings exactly what needs to be built, in a way that ensures the builder knows what’s required.

Consider some of the kinds of things that need to be communicated properly:
• Specific material choices
• Exact product models and sizes (e.g. For windows, kitchen appliances)
• Where different plumbing systems need to go
• How electrical systems will be incorporated
• How the roof will be constructed
• The layout of frames and structural elements
• Exact dimensions and orientation for every single part of the house, etc.

When you’re building or even extending a house, the smallest misunderstanding of what’s intended can have awfully expensive consequences. If a window’s not the right size, for example, it probably won’t fit into the (already constructed) wall – meaning that either your extremely expensive sealed, double glazed windows will need to be changed, or that the wall will need to be altered to accommodate them. That’s just one of many examples, of course.

The BCA classifies buildings by their use. A building may be made up of a number of classes if it has a mixed use. The BCA identifies the following building classes:

• Class 1a - a single dwelling or attached dwellings (e.g. a terrace, duplex, etc) where each dwelling is separated by a fire wall.
• Class 1b - one or more buildings that constitute a boarding house, guest house, hostel of small scale (i.e. not exceeding 12 persons or 300m2 in floor area).
• Class 2 - a building containing two or more dwelling units (e.g. flats, apartments).
• Class 3 - a residential building for a number of persons such as a large scale boarding house, guest house, hostel, the residential part of a hotel, motel, school, etc.
• Class 4 - a dwelling unit that is a part of a commercial use (e.g. a caretakers/managers flat).
• Class 5 - an office building.
• Class 6 - a shop or other building where goods or services are retailed directly to the public.
• Class 7a - a car park building.
• Class 7b - a storage building or building where goods are wholesaled (e.g. a warehouse).
• Class 8 - a laboratory or a building where a process takes place (e.g. factory, workshop, etc).
• Class 9a - a health care building (e.g. a hospital, clinic, etc).
• Class 9b - an assembly building (e.g. community hall, sports hall, etc)
• Class 9c - an aged care building.
• Class 10a - a non-habitable building being a private garage, shed or the like.
• Class 10b - a structure (e.g. a fence, wall, mast, swimming pool, etc).

The Building Code of Australia (BCA) is Volumes One and Two of the National Construction Code (NCC). The BCA is produced and maintained by the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) on behalf of the Australian Government and State and Territory Governments. The BCA has been given the status of building regulation by all States and Territories.

In 1980, the Local Government Ministerial Council agreed to the formation of the Australian Building Regulations Coordinating Council (AUBRCC) to supersede ISCUBR. AUBRCC’s main task was to continue to develop the AMUBC, which led to the production of the first edition of the Building Code of Australia (BCA) in 1988. The BCA was further refined and a new edition was released in 1990. This edition of the BCA was progressively adopted by States and Territories during the early 1990s.

In 1991, the Building Regulation Review Task Force recommended to COAG the establishment of a body to achieve far-reaching national reform. An Inter-government Agreement was signed in April 1994 to establish the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB). One of the first tasks of the ABCB was to convert the BCA into a more fully performance-based document.

The ABCB released the performance-based BCA (BCA96) in October 1996. BCA96 was adopted by the Commonwealth and most states and territories on 1 July 1997, with the remainder adopting it by early 1998.

In 2003 a decision was taken to move to an annual amendment cycle with a date of operation from 1 May each year. From 2004, the BCA moved from BCA96 to become BCA 2004, BCA 2005 in 2005 and so on.

Building and plumbing have historically been regulated through separate legislative and administrative arrangements. Building is regulated by State and Territory governments, with the Building Code of Australia (BCA) as the primary code referenced in all State and Territory building Acts or regulations.

State and Territory governments also regulate plumbing. However, unlike building, plumbing regulators had not agreed (through an IGA) to the adoption of a national code.

While regulated separately, building, and plumbing regulation are inherently linked, with both setting requirements for on-site construction of buildings. These regulations should therefore require consistent outcomes and work towards achieving consistent objectives.

In order to achieve this, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) asked the Business Regulation and Competition Working Group (BRCWG) to investigate the merits of a National Construction Code (NCC) and to report back to COAG by July 2008. On 3 July 2008, COAG agreed to the development of an NCC to cover building, plumbing, electrical and telecommunications standards, the first stage of which would be to consolidate codes for building and plumbing.

The Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) on the proposal for the development of an NCC identified the following potential benefits:

• Improved consistency between building and plumbing regulations;
• Improved framework for regulation of plumbing on a national basis;
• Improved regulatory framework to respond to future policy challenges;
• Improved regulatory conditions for innovation at the national level; and
• Opportunity for administrative reform.

The ABCB was tasked by COAG with producing the NCC. The first stage, the consolidation of building and plumbing, was completed with the release of NCC 2011 for adoption by States and Territories from 1 May 2011. The NCC comprises the Building Code of Australia (BCA), Volume One and Two; and the Plumbing Code of Australia (PCA), as Volume Three.