Building Permit External Consultant

The Soil Engineer investigate the soil strength.  Structural Engineer requires soil strength before they can accurately design the most efficient foundation. 

Two things soil engineer looks for:

1) Soil Type - A, S, B, H, E, P.  There is a detail discussion in the external blog.  Refer to this link.

2) Bear capacity.  That is, what weight can sit on the soil before the soil changes shape.  Is that 50kPa, 100kPa, 200kPa etc.

Soil Engineer needs to know what we are building on site before carrying out the soil test.  

For example, if we are building a basement.  Soil Engineer need to test the soil Type & soil Capacity underneath the depth of the basement.    

Question - Do we need Footing Probe?  Video discussed:

• What's Footing Probe?

• Why we need it?

• How structural engineer uses the information? 

• How architectural design can help?

Bushfire Hazard Assessment

Australia has bush fire in almost every summer season.  

In 2006, Bush Fire risk assessment was added to become part of building requirements. 

---

Note: 

Bush Fire assessment is different to the normal Fire Hazard design in the National Construction Code (NCC) Section C1.1.

Bush Fire assessment - Assess the risk of bush fire.  The risk of the building in when bush fire occurs around the site.  And how the building is design to mitigate the risk.

Fire Hazard NCC Section C1.1 - In a fire accident, how does occupants escape the building safely. 

---

Bush Fire assessment founds the level of risk at:

BAL-Low - Nothing needs done; BAL-12.5; BAL 19; BAL-29; BAL-40; BAL-FZ.  The higher the worse.

On the left hand side, the 'notes add to our drawings at different BAL' is all we worry about at the start.  All other information is not required unless if a builder needs our further help. 

Sustainable Engineer 

What's Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) report? 

In Australia, most items require to provide 'Star Rating'.  For example, refrigerator.  One product may have 2.5 stars while another product may have 4 stars.

This is a quick tool for consumers.  Some consumers then choose to buy products with high star rating, pushing manufacturers for making more sustainable products.

Building NatHERS report follows the same idea. 

• We engage sustainable engineer to calculate the NatHERS report.

• We copy the report summary and update our drawings accordingly. 

• Report summary is often in the front of the report.  Refer to Sample Report here, Page 2 and 3. 

Climate Zone Map

Information only - Different climate zone has different design requirements.

For example, cold climate (Zone 7 or 8) prefers to have more solar gains; whereas hot climates (Zone 1) prefers to reduce solar gain.