Archive for the ‘Building Surveying’ Category

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For a building permit can your building surveyor prepare and submit an application to the fire brigade?

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

Inspector Bernie Cinders of the NSWFB

A consent application to the fire brigade for a building permit is a regulation 309 consent in Victoria, Australia

This issue causes some consternation (maybe heart burn) amongst building surveyors, probably depending upon whether they regularly apply to the fire brigades for consents for fire safety matters or not? Some building surveyors point to Schedule 2 of the Building Act 1993 and rely on interpretations about the relevant building surveyor (RBS) “making” the application, others interpret the schedule to the contrary.

Unless exempted by this Schedule, the relevant building surveyor must give a copy of an application to each reporting authority within the prescribed time after the application is received by the relevant building surveyor (Clause 4 sub-clause 2 of Schedule 2). The relevant building surveyor need not obtain a report or consent from a reporting authority(Clause 5 sub-clause 3 of Schedule 2).

This particular clause goes on to deal with the applicant for the permit applying for the consent. So which way you see it relates to whether it’s design or not? Perhaps this is all a bit academic – so let’s consider a possible scenario: (more…)

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Posted in Building Surveying, Fire Brigade, Fire Safety | 1 Comment »

For a building permit can a Building Surveyor ask you to do more than the DTS in the BCA?

Tuesday, September 14th, 2010
The 10 commandments

Image courtesy of Bible Picture Gallery

For issue of a building permit are the DTS provisions always a suitable building solution for compliance with the mandatory performance requirements?

The Building Regulations do not permit the Relevant Building Surveyor in Victoria Australia to require a higher requirement for issue of a building permit than the Act or the Regulations require. Section 24 (2) of the Building Act 1993 states that:

“Subject to section 24A and Division 4, the relevant building surveyor must not issue a building permit that imposes on the applicant lesser or greater standards or requirements than those prescribed by this Act or the building regulations, unless permitted to do so by this Act or the building regulations.”

(S24A lists further limitations related to builders for domestic work and requirements for building practitioner registration.) For those of you who have been around a whilst you will recall that before May 1996 there was only one way of satisfying this – the prescriptive provisions in the Building Code of Australia. After May 1996 this changed when the performance based  BCA was introduced.

Given that the BCA performance requirements are the mandatory provisions and the DTS are only one way of demonstrating compliance with them – are there designs where the DTS are not enough? (more…)

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Posted in BCA, Building Regulations, Building Surveying | No Comments »

Is there a crossover between Architecture and Music … and building permits?

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

What do building permits have to do with the South Australian Music Festival?

Not much actually! The connection I want to talk about was that drawn by Tim Horton and Gabriella Smart talking to their hosts from ABC Classic FM at the Music festival of South Australia tonight.

Tim, in particular, made some inspiring connections. He began by expressing his own passion for the similarities between baroque music and Architecture. He made analogies like:

  • the similarities between the importance of a traditional foundation in classic Architecture for contemporary Architects and that of classical music for contemporary musicians;
  • Just as interesting music can move us there is a capacity for an interesting space to move us;
  • Just like music good quality contemporary architecture can question time and space; and
  • Music is at its most basic level is a process and just like Architecture if you don’t follow that process you may not get the outcome you want.

Whilst I was interested in much of their conservation, this last point really pricked my attention. If I could make a loose connection between (issuing building permits through) building surveying, Architecture and Music it would be the importance of process. (more…)

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Posted in Architecture, Building Surveying | No Comments »

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