This tip looks at the trade package Specifications – their danger.
ArchiAssist has been asked many times lately, especially by NSW architects and designers, a particular question coming from building certifiers.
That is…is the Specification you have NCC compliant?
There is really no such thing as an NCC compliant Specification. If there was, it would be repeating the NCC. The Spec can only provide good quality construction detail (that’s it job) that does not contradict the NCC, and refer to the NCC for the builder, all of which ArchiAssist does.
NSW certifiers are caught in the panic response of the NSW government over past building failures which brought us the now infamous NSW Design & Building Practitioners Act which is causing a lot of angst.
ArchiAssist is up to date with the latest NCC, other regulations, and also the Australian standards. These ‘referenced documents’ are referred to in the Spec, but no detail from them is repeated, which is not necessary because all the detail is in those referenced documents, and the Spec has nothing in it to contradict the referenced documents.
Please remember…The Specification is NOT the NCC. The two are very different things fulfilling different functions.
The Spec is a contract document for use during construction, to describe that construction. The NCC is mainly a design document, mainly used before construction, its detail translated by the designer into the drawings and schedules.
Many building certifiers are getting designers to document some specific references to the NCC, which I think is a ‘cover-your-ass’ type thing.
Nominating references to the NCC is never good documentation practice and could even leave the designer liable if something is missed…and the NCC is now such a massive document, the chances of missing something is likely.
Additionally, it does create an inconsistency issue and an unwanted importance hierarchy whereby a reader of the documents will see these referenced clauses and perhaps wonder why other clauses are not referenced, maybe thinking
that the referenced clauses are more important that others, which should not be the case – everything is important.
So, if you refer to a part of a ‘referenced document’, to be consistent, you need to refer to everything, which is, of course, impractical. Don’t do this…just refer to the document (ie the NCC).
If your drawings and schedules have been completed to be compliant with the NCC, through the design process, the ArchiAssist Spec just gives the back-up construction detail of that which has been drawn and scheduled and the project will comply with the NCC.
