What Are The Most Common Issues Identified In The Construction Of Residential Buildings In NSW?- Case Study

The Project

This case study is based on individual work. The report is an evaluation of your own learning that includes critical/analytical thinking of unit learning outcomes 4 and 5 from the Learning Guide. The report will introduce you to a topic related to suitability of construction materials. Your report focus will be to obtain information from various sources and form an argument to support your case.

The case study covers subject learning outcomes 4 and 5:

• Assess the suitability of materials in building components used in buildings.
• Apply Australian standards and regulations relating to eco-friendly and/or durable buildings.

Background

In 2017, Shergold and Weir were commissioned by the Building Ministers’ Forum (BMF) to undertake the effectiveness of compliance and enforcement systems for the building and construction industry across Australia (Shergold and Weir, 2018). They undertook review and consultations with key stakeholders and identified prevalence of serious compliance failures in recently constructed buildings that had led to diminished public confidence.

In response to Shergold and Weir (2018) report, the NSW established the Office of the NSW Building Commissioner (OBC) in late 2019. They developed the Construct NSW strategy to drive the government’s reform agenda and address the industry and regulatory changes needed to ensure consumer confidence in buildings (NSW Customer Service, 2021). One of the important areas of reform from this strategy is customer-focused regulatory framework. The following reforms were made:

Residential Apartment Buildings (Compliance and Enforcement) Act 2020 (RAB Act) – came into effect on 1 September 2020 and provides NSW Building Commissioner and other authorized officers the powers to enter and inspect worksites at any stage of development, pre and post the issue of an Occupational Certificate.

Design and Buildings Practitioners Act 2020 (DBP Act) – came into effect on 1 July 2021.

It introduced mandatory registration for design and building practitioners working on Class 2 Buildings, duty of care obligations and registrations for certain types of engineers. Another area of reform is to establish ratings systems to provide greater information transparency.

This involves working with insurers, financiers, risk rating agencies and building industry practitioners to develop a rating system for trustworthy buildings.

In the period since 2019, there has been several events and factors that impacted apartment buildings construction in NSW and Australia more broadly. These include:

• COVID-19 pandemic and associated closing of the boarders for visitors/traveller to Australia in March 2020 and reopening in February 2021.
• Reserve Bank of Australia dropped official cash rates to 0.10 on 4 November 2020 and has started to increase it on an almost monthly basis since 4 May 2022 to the current rate of 3.35% on 8 February 2023.
• Natural disasters in NSW with floods and storms in different parts of the state from February 2020 onwards.
• Supply chains disruptions and shortages of material due to COVID-19 pandemic, border closures and other factors.

Your Case Study Report

The construction industry requires diligence and professionalism in the way it carries out business. In recent years there has been a growing concern that the use of materials in construction need to be better understood by the building industry. In addition, the performance of construction materials needs to be compliant and conform with Australian Standards and Building Regulations.

For the case study review the media or other literature to identify a product/component/system used in residential buildings that had developed problems/defects from either not being compliant or not conforming to building codes, regulations, or standards. This can be based on a residential home or medium high rise. Discuss the impact to the building and consumer. In your report consider possible solutions to remediate the problem/defects.

Your case study should have the following sections

• Introduction
  • Briefly introduce your case study
• Description
  • Describe what you are going to cover
• Research to identify the technical information.
  • Information obtained from your research should consider examples related to your selected topic
• Discussion
  • Discussion on information found with arguments drawn from this information.

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