BC Update: No. 88 - Practice Advisory 9 explains structural Compliance Document changes

7 July 2008: The Department has published Practice Advisory 9. This explains the citation of the new AS/NZS 1170 suite of Structural Action Standards in the Building Code Clause B1 (Structure) Compliance Document Amendment 8. 

The Department has cited the Standards with some modifications to make them suitable for use as part of the Verification Method. Some modifications have been made in response to public feedback.

This Practice Advisory is for users of the Verification Method including structural engineers, manufacturers of proprietary structural components and building consent authorities. Topics covered in Practice Advisory 9 include:

• explaining how the transition arrangements affect building consent applications, building consents and code compliance certificates
• involving an experienced structural engineer, such as a CPEng, in the design process
• raising the snow loads for Canterbury, Otago and Southland
• allowing earthquake resistance requirements in low seismic hazard areas to be reduced where the project is large enough to justify a special study
• reinstating a 0.5 kPa wall face load when wall support is removed following a fire (in NZS 4203, but not in AS/NZS 1170.1)
• citing replacement material design Standards and removing some without replacement
• changing the rules for loads on barriers in buildings, including parking buildings.

The Building Code Compliance Document B1 including Amendment 8 will take effect on 1 December 2008, following a six-month transitional period.

The Practice Advisory and the Amended Verification Method are available in hard copy form and from the Department’s website.

Hard copies of the amended B1 Compliance Document or Amendment 8 only and CD-ROMs of all the Compliance Documents can be purchased from the Victoria University Book Centre , phone 0800 370 370.