Standards Australia is working with industry to help ensure standards keep up with the latest industry practices and technology.

Several initiatives are underway to improve standards in crucial areas including composite construction, and insulation and cladding. In addition, Standards Australia is also responding to recent changes to the National Construction Code (NCC).

One important initiative is the work of the technical committee BD-032 Composite Construction, which is collaborating with the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) to revise AS/NZS 2327:2017, Composite structures — Composite steel-concrete construction in buildings.

The revision of the standard is scheduled to begin in March 2023 and has the potential to introduce new elements that will impact the design provisions and application of standards. The project will address materials such as geopolymer concrete and stainless steel, which could improve the sustainability of steel-concrete composite structures. A primary objective is to ensure safe fit-for-purpose methods that allow for innovative and efficient design methods where composite materials are used in construction.

Standards Australia has also recently revised a commentary document to provide additional guidance on the design and construction of concrete structures to help mitigate earthquake damage.

The commentary document – AS 3600:2018 Sup 1:2022 – intended to be read in conjunction with the Concrete Structures Standard AS 3600:2018 – provides an explanation and interpretation of AS 3600 gives background and guidance, highlights change in previous practices, and provides references and further readings. For more details on the revised document click here.

Additionally, Standards Australia’s BD 109 committee on Exterior Insulation and Finish Cladding Systems is progressing a new standard, AS 5346, to specify cladding requirements set by the Victorian government.

This committee aims to provide standard guidelines for design, materials, installation and testing of exterior insulation and finish cladding systems. It includes Class 1 and Class 10a buildings, pre-rendered thermal insulation boards and insulated sandwich panels.

In September 2022 the amended National Construction Code (NCC 2022) was published to replace NCC 2019 and references some standards that had been reviewed and revised as primary references, including:

1. AS/NZS 1170.2:2021 Structural design actions, Part 2: Wind action outlines procedures for determining wind speeds and resulting wind actions for structural designs of buildings subject to wind actions.

Changes to this standard help improve clarity and reduce ambiguity -, wind direction multipliers for all regions in Australia and New Zealand were revised.

Also, new sub-regional boundaries for Australia and New Zealand have been defined with new sub-regions and the removal of shielding for buildings over 25m and for buildings on steep slopes.

2. AS 4055:2021 Wind loads for Housing specifies site wind speed classes for determining design wind speeds and wind loads for buildings.

The revision of this standard aims to improve the modelling of topographic effects and harmonise with the amendments to AS/NZS 1170.2 and includes clarification of geometric limits on buildings on sites incorporating retaining walls. It has also been outlined that some education may be required on the implementation of the new method of determining the topographic class and on the use of three wind classifications – site wind, roof wind and wall wind classifications.

3. AS 1684.2 2021 Residential Timber framing construction (Non-cyclonic)

Revisions made to this standard, which is the key design and construction document for residential timber framing, including identifying suitable nail and screw fixings for 45mm thick roof battens, relaxing the notching requirements for non-loadbearing walls, and removing ambiguities to reflect current research and experience.

4. AS 1684.3 2021 Residential Timber-framed construction Part 3 (cyclonic areas)

This standard provides conditions for building practice and the selection, placement and fixing of various structural elements used in the construction of timber-framed Class 1 and Class 10 buildings as defined by the National Construction Code. The provisions of this standard also apply to alterations and additions to such buildings.

The scope of changes in this standard includes extending to glue-laminated timber and aligning design wind speed requirements of AS 1170.2 and AS 1684. There are also clarifications for bracing and nogging.

Both AS 1684.2 and AS 1684.3 have been amended to provide a suitable deemed-to-satisfy detail for metal tie-down to timber connection that is compatible with AS 4773, Masonry in small buildings.

Read more on the National Construction Code 2022 here.