The Property Inspectors Reports

Strata Buildings Assessments: Combustible Materials – Up to 40 apartments

Were you aware that apartment buildings can be unsafe for its occupants if certain materials are used on its 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 building’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 is not containing 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.

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 property 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 and we can recommend necessary safety measures for rectification.

What Our Assessment Covers – Body Corporate Assets Only

We Will Inspect The External Elevation Of The Body Corporate Assets Only

We do not inspect individual apartments, verandas, balconies or enclosed areas within this service, refer to Strata Building Assessment: Combustible Materials – 1 apartment)

Our assessment encompasses all external features of the body corporate assets ranging from basements through to rooftop elevations, all internal and external common hallways, driveways, and parking areas.

Our assessments do not cover internal apartments or verandas or balconies of the apartments nor any entry areas into apartments, for example, front porches which are fenced or gated off from the public.

In some instances, external wall claddings extend into internal areas of apartments 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.

When assessing the external elevations of the body corporate assets, coordination with your strata manager is essential. They 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 arrangements must be made for our consultant to survey the property, enabling us to understand the scope accurately in order for us to provide a fee proposal based on the final built form.

All assessments for body corporates assets require an on-site inspection before we can submit a fixed fee proposal. During this inspection, we require you to provide a hard and soft copy of the finishing schedule against the as-built drawings in order for us to provide you with a lump sum fixed fee for assessing and reporting on the entire body corporate asset.

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.

The fee below is subject to The Property Inspectors being provided documents outlined within this page together with a site inspection being carried out, where we then will confirm if the fee proposal of 40 apartments is applicable for your project.