Part 1 – BCA assessment report

Your building company has submitted plans to the local council for assessment and compliance in regard to the ‘deemed to satisfy’ requirements of the BCA Parts A, C, D and E. The Building Surveyor has requested a detailed report demonstrating compliance with the BCA. Your task is to compile the report, detailing the compliance and non-compliance of the building in the plans.

You also need to indicate the purpose of the report and what is being reported on.

Write in boxes, or similar, what the building is required to be compliant with, how the building complies or what the building requires to be compliant with the BCA. For example:

Specification C3.4 – Fire doors, smoke doors, fire windows and shutters

41. Fire doors, fire windows and fire shutters must comply with BCA Specification C3.4.

Comment

The building is required to have fire doors to all sole-occupying units (SOUs). Doors must comply with AS/NZ 1905.1 and not fail by radiation through any glazed part during the period specified for integrity in the required FRL. All fire doors installed must meet this specification and the Australian Standard®.

It will help you to prepare the report if you notate your drawings. It is suggested that you consider doing the following:

 using coloured highlighters to mark the areas on the drawings that do not comply with the BCA

 drawing arrows to items that require an FRL and indicating the times, eg a firewall FRL 90/90/90

 indicating travel distances for egress on the drawings by drawing lines from the starting point to the exit along the proposed travel paths and measuring the distance and indicating whether or not the distance complies

 drawing any additional items that you mentioned in your report, eg fire hose reels or emergency lighting.