The Property Inspectors Reports

Strata Buildings Assessments: Combustible Materials – 1 apartment

Were you aware that individual units within apartment buildings can be unsafe for their occupants if certain materials are used on the facade or cladding?

If you are located within Sydney or Greater New South Wales, you are bound by the Building Code of Australia to get your individual apartment’s cladding assessed for combustible materials.

At The Property Inspectors, our skilled consultants can inspect and investigate your facade and cladding to ensure that your asset does not contain combustible material that can elevate a fire emergency.

Let us take you through the nuances of this topic to help you better understand the laws and the issues related to cladding within an individual unit.

Cladding Explained

If you live within an apartment building, it likely has an outer layer to help with its thermal efficiency, weather resistance, waterproofing, or appearance. This skin is called cladding, and it can be made of various materials like bricks and metal.

Note that a building’s cladding is not load-bearing or integral to the building’s structure.

However, defective, improperly installed, or non-compliant cladding can be a fire hazard.

What We Look for During a Cladding Assessment

At The Property Inspectors, we will identify the cladding material, the location of the cladding, the application system if known to us, and if not known to us we will ask you to provide us the fact sheets and the manufacturer’s details on the material that was used within your apartment and how it was installed.

• We look for certain Metal Composite Panels (MCP), like ACP, with more than 30% of PE core.
• We look for Insulated Cladding Systems (ICS) that involve foam or similar materials attached to structural components and sealed, rendered, and painted.
• Our inspection also focuses on identifying any fire risk associated with the external wall cladding within the apartment’s verandas or balconies, and we can recommend necessary safety measures for rectification.

What Our Assessment Covers (Individual Unit Balcony & Veranda)

Our assessment encompasses the external features of 1 individual apartment.

We inspect the front porch of the unit, as well as rear or side balconies accessible solely from the apartment.

We thoroughly examine the external walls, floors, soffit linings, and structural elements of the balcony, veranda, terrace, or patio within the parameters of the apartment. This includes observations on balustrading, handrails, screens, and facade materials, all sitting within the parameters of the individual apartment’s balcony / veranda.

This fee proposal is on the assumption that the apartment has no more than 1 balcony and 1 veranda with a total floor area being no more than 50 SQM covering the 2 areas within the 1 apartment.

In some instances, external wall claddings extend into internal areas of the apartment or body corporate spaces. In such cases, a secondary inspection of internal elevations may be necessary and recommended. Typically, internal assessments are conducted concurrently with external assessments at a reduced fee if both areas are covered during a single scheduled site inspection, leading to a combined report. Kindly notify our office when making your inquiry to receive a fee proposal for both internal and external apartment assessments.

Should you require a comprehensive inspection beyond the single unit balcony and veranda and internal elevations of the unit, this would be known as a body corporate assessment covering the entire building which would require coordination with your strata manager for access in order for our office to give you a lump sum fixed fee or you can visit our service page which offers assessments covering the entire unit complex.

The strata manager will need to provide floor plans covering each level of the complex, along with external elevations displaying all accessible common areas from the street, side, and rear elevations. Access to inspect the property must be made available for our consultant to walk through the site, enabling us to understand the full scope to accurately provide a fee proposal based on the final built form.

All assessments for body corporates require an on-site inspection before submitting a fee proposal. During this inspection, we request a hard and soft copy of the finishing schedule against the as-built drawings to provide a lump sum fixed fee for assessing and reporting on the entire body corporate asset for combustible materials.

Why You Would Need a Cladding Risk Assessment in Sydney and Greater New South Wales

After recent high profile fires in Australia, the NSW government have set new laws in place regarding cladding due to safety concerns.

For apartment buildings constructed prior to 2017, it is possible their cladding may be combustible and the NSW government states that if you find the cladding to be combustible that it needs to be submitted onto the cladding registration portal to be rectified.

Although years have passed, not all buildings with these dangerous materials have been identified, which could be putting lives at risk.

All buildings covered with cladding require an independent expert investigation to ensure safe materials. Get an assessment through The Property Inspectors to stay compliant with the law and ensure your building’s occupants and your property’s structure is protected.

NB The pro-rata rate for any apartments over and above 1 apartment under this cost option is $450 + GST per apartment.

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