2019 NCC Seminars: Standards Australia update

Thanks Graham and thanks everyone for having me. As Graham mentioned, I'm Alison Scotland. I work for Standards Australia, and I'm responsible for the building and construction sector. It's a real privilege to join you here today, and thank you to the ABCB for inviting us along. It's a really great opportunity to connect with you all, and to hear from you about what's important to you in the building sector.

So, my presentation as Graham mentioned, is going to be roughly around 20 minutes. I'm going to start off giving you a bit of an explanation about who we are and what we do. Then I'm going to go into an update on a selection of standards. There are, as Graham mentioned, there are so many changes to NCC 2019. And then give you a little bit of a snippet about what Standards Australia is doing into the future.

So starting off, talking about how standards are referenced in the national construction code. The key point is, just like the verification methods, using or following a
standard is just one tool to show that you meet the performance requirement. So standards support the implementation of building policy. They're not necessarily
the be all and end all. So, and just like Graham mentioned about the masonry 3700, even if you just follow the standard, you might not actually be meeting regulation.

So that's just an important thing to consider. Who develop the standards? You do. We are a member based organisation at Standards Australia. We have hundreds of technical committees, developing standards across all sectors of the Australian economy. So in terms of how you can be involved, you can be involved through your membership of organisations that contribute to the drafting of technical committees.

So it might be the HIAs or the master builders or the Institute of Building Surveyors. You can also comment on draft standards when they become available for public consultation. So on our website, we're continually advertising standards that are available for download and commenting, so you can provide your feedback on draft standards in that way. If you also have new ideas, or feel that a standard needs to change in a way, you can actually develop and prepare a proposal and submit it
to Standards Australia for either a new standard or a revised standard.

And that's my day job, so you come and approach me for the building and construction sector. The development of standards that are referenced in the NCC, they need to go through a really robust process. That process does take some time, so what we do is, we try to align where possible, with ABCB processes, because we have to follow their protocols. You know, if you're changing a reference standard, by default, you could be changing law, so we need to go through a really rigorous process.

So, just like anything, we need to prioritise our work. We need to focus on addressing issues and problems in the industry and provide solutions that will address those problems. We go through the same protocols, we need to meet rigorous protocols, (coughs) pardon me, in terms of how those standards are drafted. We go through the same periods of public consultation where we go out to the community for comment and we need to resolve all of those comments when we receive them.

And then we have the same approval mechanisms that we need to go through in terms of getting the document approved for referencing. So moving on to the actual reference standards. And as Graham alluded to, there are a significant number of changes to do with reference standards in the NCC 2019. I'm going to talk  about the Australian standards only.

As you know, there's other standards or technical specifications that get referenced, like the FPAA documents. I'll just be focusing on Australian Standards for now. Graham also mentioned there is a comprehensive summary of all of the changes to all the standards. That will be available on the ABCB website under the seminars link. So, definitely check that out. That's the exhaustive list, I've only got 20 minutes, so I can't cover them all right now.

I'll also link, you know if you need to know what standards are referenced in 2019, Schedule 4 has the list. Schedule 4 also indicates any transition periods that apply or grandfather clauses, so Schedule 4 is your important reference there. In terms of Australian standards that have been referenced in NCC 2019, again a significant number of changes. You might have standards referenced for the very first time, but might not necessarily be new.

So the standard on Earth retaining structures, that's actually a 2002 standard, but it's referenced for the first time in NCC 2019. We have a lot of standards that have been removed, because they're no longer relevant to the performance requirements. We have changes, we might have new additions, so revisions of existing standards. And we also have recognition of some of the referenced standards that have amendments to the them, so again a huge number of changes. I can't got through them all, but what I'm giving you is a snapshot of what's changed. With that in mind, in terms of how my slides will be presented today, I will be listing a main summary of changes on the screen. I'm not going to read that out because that's really boring.

What I'll do is provide you a bit of context about the development of that standard. For a full list, rather than going out and buying the standard and then finding it's not relevant for you, you can actually go to our distributor's website, and you can actually download a preview of every standard. And in that preview, if you actually go to the preface, especially of a revision, generally the preface will outline at least a general idea of what has changed. With the standards I'm talking about in this session, there's quite a significant list of changes that have occurred to some of the standards. If a standard is new, you can look at the contents page. So you do have the ability to seek out information yourself, before you make any purchasing decisions.

Okay, so moving into my slides, I realise I haven't structured my presentation like volume two in the theoretical order of constructing a house, but I'll do my best. I'm starting with structural standards, so I'm on the right track. Just like the ABCB slides, in the corner I will have reference to volume one or two, if it's referenced there. As mentioned before, the standards referenced in volume three will be the subject of a separate webcast that will be available on the ABC website, after the seminar series have finished. So I won't be dealing with volume three, but I know from the hands that didn't raise, we don't have any plumbers in the room, so that's okay. So moving on to concrete structures. This is a massive standard. You know, 300 odd pages.

Obviously, on one PowerPoint slide I can't list all the changes that have occurred to this standard, but what I can say is what has happened in this revision is the fruit of a vast amount of research that has occurred in the industry since the last edition. A lot of the research was tackling specific issues, such as durability, or acid sulphate soils. So there's a lot more sort of knowledge that has been incorporated into the standard. In addition, the standards, or the technical committee preparing the standard, they've recognised a lot of advances in technology, and they've attempted to provide users of the standard and practitioners with more options, more design options for design of concrete structures. They've also tried to cater for more products available in the market now. For instance, the fibre reinforced concrete. So hopefully with, the users of the standard will be able to see that there are a lot more solutions available for them to use as a DTS. On to masonry, I did mention before that this standard is actually referenced in NCC 2019 with conditions.

I won't repeat the conditions, but know that they exist. So take care to, when you're using the standard, to also note the national construction code requirements. The, again, this committee was responding to a lot of industry research that's happened since the last edition. There's a lot more updated technology that the committee has absorbed into this revision. There's more realistic strength predictions. And the committee tried to incorporate the growing use of practices such as dry stack and thin bed hollow masonry. So, there's a lot more within the standard. This particular standard also aligns with what has already been published in 4773 for small buildings, so it's aligned with 4773. And if I do go too fast, these slides will be available on the website so, I know, yeah, no writing, you can take photos of course.

On to composite structures. So the design and construction of steel frame buildings, it requires continuous composite beams, composite columns, connections and slabs. The 2003 version of the composite structures standard only actually looked at simply supported beams. So the work that the technical committee did to produce this edition was quite significant. This list obviously isn't exhaustive. There's a lot of work that the committee did to incorporate you know these additional requirements around beams, connections, slabs. So again, I suggest you look at the preface, because this committee has listed out all the changes one by one, or at least a summary of the changes and inclusions. The main objective that the technical committee had in this instance was to develop a fit for purpose document that could be readily used by industry, and you know achieving the minimum levels of safety needed, but also allowing for innovative materials that are now in the market. We also note that there are some really helpful appendices in this new edition, with a few design flow charts.

So practitioners using this standard will hopefully be aided by those appendices. On to cold formed steel structures. We see in the market now that there is a continued or an increasing use of say flat pack systems, or modular constructions. So again, this committee did a lot of work to update 4600 to ensure that it reflects current practice. The committee did a lot of alignment with a US standard out there and it's NASS100 specification. But what they have done is incorporate a lot of Australian and New Zealand research, because obviously we reference a vast number of Australian standards in the document, so the research needs to align with what we know in our industry and use in our industry.

Again a lot more has changed than what I have put up on the screen, so I do suggest as a first instance to look at the preface if this relates to you. Now on to fire standards, which is a hot topic to try and put in a few puns. (laughs) Dad jokes. So probably one of the most, or one of the higher public interest standards that we have is 3959, so the construction of buildings in bush fire prone areas. With this standard the technical committee is continually receiving feedback from industry, from the community, so there's a lot of work that goes into the development of this standard. And the committee is moving on a bit of an incremental approach, so with every new addition, they will incorporate a particular amount of research and development. But know that it's stage by stage, so just to let you know that there is still work underway, on the next sort of list of priorities.

Obviously you know we're right in the middle of bush fire season, so the particular purpose for this revision was to incorporate a lot of research on the performance of buildings in bush fires. There's a lot more knowledge about this now. And then reflecting on what's been happening with NCC 2019, a lot of the work done by the committee was actually about readability. Hopefully phrasing the same requirements but in a way that can be more consistently interpreted across the country. You know and in addition the committee tried to again, increase options available for practitioners, but achieve those same levels of safety that are needed with this important standard. Another item to note that this standard is also published in conjunction with updated test methods, so the 1530.8.1 and .8.2. So those test methods are also updated at the same time.

So if that is of interest to you, we've got 3959 as well as the test method's new additions. Moving on, because there was a lot happening in the fire space, our fire committees were extremely busy over the last three years. Obviously some big changes to the 1670 series. We've got a lot of the work with the 1670 series, particularly was the alignment internationally with a lot of international product standards that are out there. The benefit of aligning internationally is obviously the reduction of costs, so if you're importing product that isn't manufactured in Australia, having to retest or re certify to Australian standards is obviously an impost and a cost impost. So the idea of alignment is that we you know, can participate in the global market. A lot of the work was to sort of fix ambiguities. With part one there was a significant amount of work to deal with false alarm mitigation technologies. So, there's a lot in these standards. Again, look to the preface for more information. And you'll also note part four with the new EWIS name, that Graham mentioned earlier in the session. Especially with these standards, there are transition periods in relation to the product standards and the testing.

So look to Schedule 4 for more information about that. I don't, I didn't want to cover amendments, because they're usually smaller than the significant revisions that are out there, but this is quite an important one to highlight for you. 5113, there has been a name change. So just be aware that that's happened. This amendment also included the addition of a new appendix, and the appendix outlines the relationship of the standard to the NCC, so that hopefully it can assist people to achieve compliance. I know there was a lot of discussion in the industry about debris criteria and what that meant for compliance with the performance requirements in the codes. So if you've already purchased 5113, you should be able to access your copy of the amendment for free. If you're purchasing 5113 in the future, that amendment has already been incorporated into the content, including the name change. On to my catch all. I know there's a lot more that I need to cover, but I'll do my best. The first one of the catch all category, is AS5216. So, looks like a brand new standard that's been incorporated into the code, but it's actually not.

You, I don't know if any of you have been using the technical specification 101 for fasteners. That was referenced in the 2016 edition of the NCC. The reason it was a technical specification was to achieve speed to market, to address a critical safety area about anchorage into concrete. Now that we've had another three years, we've been able, or the technical committee has been able to confirm that as an Australian standard and go through the robust process of an Australian standard development. In relation to changes, it's usually minor editorial. So not much has changed since SATS101. On to the metal roofing standards. So, we, Graham was mentioning all the work that the ABCB's done in relation to metal roofs and cladding. That required a significant piece of work with this particular standard and committee.

The previous edition of this standard was in 1992. So we've had roughly 30 years without any changes. Metal roofs have quadrupled in that time, so again this committee has a significant piece of work and a lot of changes, to get the standard up to speed and actually to not, or to reflect the testing requirements that are in the NCC, so the previous edition didn't even meet the testing requirements that NCC required. So there's a lot of work. Again, this list is not exhaustive, so I do recommend looking at the preface if you want to know more about the changes. The main changes are the incorporation of current test methods and practices in the industry, and bringing it up to speed.

On to 4200. So Graham mentioned earlier, all the work that the ABCB's done on condensation management. The updates to this series is also a reflection of that. You know there have been quite a large percentage of warranty claims due to poor installation practices, and inappropriate product selections. So the aims of this committee were to improve the readability, make sure that the interpretation was more consistent. So there's a few changes there. I'll also note that this standard ties in with the transition period for the energy efficiency provisions, so again look to Schedule 4 with that. Also, moving on to 4859. Again these are tied in to the energy efficiency provisions. The original intent of the original 4859 standard was to provide a consolidated reference of for assessing the thermal performance of a number of different products. What this new addition does, or these new additions do, is separate that out. As a designer previously, you had to go through the standard to find the little bits of sections that apply to you. What the committee has done is separate that and try to make it bit more understandable. So, if you're a designer, you can actually just refer to part two, rather than trying to search through the document and see what's applicable. A lot of the revision was to try to assist practitioners in selecting the correct product for the system, so hopefully this standard goes some way to helping practitioners use these products in the industry. So of course, I can't cover all the standards. If you do have any questions about particular standards, please approach me after the session and I'd be happy to give you more information. But again, the comprehensive list of changes, deletions, amendments, is available in the seminar section on the ABCB website. But a little bit about Standards Australia and what we're doing in the future.

We have recognised the need that people no longer want to bring you know a book or have a PDF with them on a building site. We realise that standards need to be searchable. You want to access it on your phone, and not have to you know figure around, play around with tables to view them all. So we launched the Incubator about a year and a half ago, and what that is, is we get to experiment and test a bunch of different ideas to do with process. So the development of standards and products. So how people use our content. In terms of processes, we've got the usual development of an Australian standard, but we're also testing ideas such as crowd sourcing. So one of the projects we're doing is, we're crowd sourcing the development of information about building commissioning, so if you're interested, please find me in the break or send me an email. If you want to participate, we'd love to have you. In terms of product development, we're looking at visual standards, we're looking at digital standards.

So the standards that actually do fit to your phone. We're looking at calculators and work flows. We really want to improve the ways that you can access our content, and understand our content. We're also working with the ABCB on a project to do with standardised terms and definitions. So interestingly enough, terms and definitions aren't particularly standard across our standards. And this proof of concept exercise has tested that, and so if you actually search a term, we can see how that term is defined, whether it is in the NCC, or whether it's in an Australian referenced Australian standard, or in other sort of documentation. And we also want to sort of give an idea about hierarchy, so if you're looking at something like a wet area, what actually takes precedence in terms of definitions. This is a great proof of concept, it will help us align more as an industry. And keep your eye out for further tests in the next months and years, as we try and develop solutions to make your life a bit easier. Standards Australia is continually working on making things easier for you to interact with us. So amongst a range of initiatives that we have been doing over the years, we've had our technical governance review, where we're looking at our systems and processes, to try and make things more transparent for the industry and for the community. We've got the connect platform for committee members to contribute with us a lot easier. We have a better public comment platform, for any member of the public to comment on drafts released for public consultation, and we're also looking at our NextGen program, which is encouraging the next generation of contributors to standards.

So if you do have any questions about this, please feel free to contact me. Now before I move into questions, I thought I would deal with the elephant in the room. A question that we are asked at pretty much every single seminar and the question is, when will standards be free? So with that in mind, I thought I'd address it right now, with this. And the message is to all of you that Standards Australia has won the right to move beyond exclusive distribution arrangements with SAI Global. That is a landmark achievement for our organisation and we're really excited about the future. We had an independent arbitrator assess what market terms do look like in the future. And the future is non exclusive. So over the course of the next year, standards will be working extremely hard. Consulting with industry, consulting with the government, consulting on what exactly that future looks like. So there's a lot of things to consider, a lot of different models that we need to understand. So please be patient with us as we work over the coming year. If you're interested in talking with us about our distribution models, please contact us and I'd be happy to forward you on to our executive so that you can have these discussions.

But in terms of the free standards question, my answer to you is watch this space. We're really excited about this opportunity. But we're working through those models about how we can maintain our relevance for you and be more effective in the way you can access and use content for the future.

Moving on to questions. Any questions? No? Thank you very much.