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Building officials of developed countries are generally the jurisdictional administrator of building and construction codes, engineering calculation supervision, permits, facilities management, and accepted construction procedures. [1]
In some jurisdictions building officials act as project engineer or project manager for the chief building official who is the jurisdiction's formally recognized building official.[ citation needed ] Usual qualifications are a bachelor's degree in Administration, Engineering, or Architecture, or Building Surveying or Construction Management, with an extensive building construction background, and in some instances are licensed as a Professional Engineer or Architect or Building Surveyors or Building Certifiers.[ citation needed ] Building officials can be certified by meeting certain requirements. [2]
Australian law is governed under individual state laws & territories generally made from state Acts & Regulations governing ... Qld, NSW, Vic, Tas, South Aust, West Aust, Nth Territory, Aust Capital Territory, various off shore islands & Aust protectorates within the 200 nautical mile limit of the Commonwealth of Australia.
Concepts of planning & development are primarily approved under state Town Planning Acts & Regulations, which outline the procedures & protocols for various types of projects.
Town Planning is a separate university degree discipline, which is usually guided by the interest of the general community & attempts to solve development problems.
Individual project concepts are approved under Local Authority Codes which are generally Council Town Planners acting as the preliminary Assessment Authority to issue preliminary development approvals, or state bodies, e.g. Transport, Main Roads, Port or Airport Authorities. Town Planners deal with expected community concepts, according to zoning principles ie residential land, high density living, city hubs, farm land, industrial areas, infrastructure, the safety of the natural environment & its natural resources.
Australian Building law is governed under individual state laws & territories generally made from state Building Acts & Building Regulations
Within the state Acts & Regulations, the procedures & protocols of preliminary approvals required are outlined, before a building development permit is issued by the Licensed Building Certifier or Building Assessment Manager for various types of projects. The Acts also detail time frame limitations, registration & licensing body requirements of building professionals, practitioners & trade contractors. Offences & penalties are also gazetted under the Acts for proven non-compliance with minimum requirements. Appeals of development decisions can be undertaken via state tribunals or state Planning Courts.
Building officials, or regulators that decide if building applications for construction works can proceed, are called Building Surveyors or Building Certifiers.
These officials are either employed by Federal, State or Local Government or more commonly in private practice companies. Building Surveying is a tertiary degree qualification & encompasses all aspects of construction from the concept stage to the finished building.
The Architect, Designer, Builder or Owner engage the Licensed Building Certifier/Building Surveyor as the Building Assessment Manager, to regulate or manage a project, on behalf of the local authority (usually Council), generally after a preliminary approval is required, or to determine that a project meets all the relevant minimum Planning Code requirements, under the Building Certifier's guidance, or as part of a discretionary process.
The Building Certifier interacts with all professionals & often the Senior trade contractors engaged within the building & inspects the works as they proceed, during mandatory inspection phases of footings, slab, frame, fire separation & final, to ensure compliance with the approved plans, the NCC & relevant Australian Standards. Building Surveyors or Building Certifiers are licensed by the state they practice in & have 3 different levels.
Building Surveyors were first conceived after the Great Fire of London in 1666 in the UK, where their primary focus is the safe construction & use of the building concerning the life-health & safety of the occupants.
Plumbing works are generally approved & inspected at various stages, by the Local Authority (Council) Plumbing Inspectors who have a Hydraulic/Plumbing trade qualification & experience, to ensure public potable water safety, contain the spread waste-water products & regulate responsible ground water discharge. Larger infrastructure i.e. dams, pipe line networks, roadway drainage, flood mitigation works, etc, calls for a Civil Engineering background.
All state building acts & regulations refer to the minimum standards required within the Building Code of Australia (BCA), now the National Construction Code (NCC) since 2011, of which there are 3 volumes, which deals with individual aspects of buildings in categorised sections, based on the use (class), size of the building & type of construction, A, B or C, where Type C is the least fire resistant.
Volume 1 - Buildings classes 2 to 9 - larger commercial buildings - ie 2 residential units, 3 motels, 4 caretakers residence in a larger building, 5 office, 6 shop, 7 warehouse, 8 factory, 9 public buildings e.g. schools, hospitals, etc.
Volume 2 - Buildings classes 1 & 10 - smaller residential buildings ie 1A house, 1B small residential boarding house, 10A carport, 10B swimming pool.
Volume 3 - Plumbing & Drainage - including fire fighting, gas, solar water heating, air con & on site waste water systems - for all buildings & external civil works.
The NCC is up-graded bi-annually to consider new products, improvements or methods of construction, by senior officials of trade bodies, Institutes of Architects /Engineers / Building Surveyors, state officials & governed by the Australian Building Codes Board (ACBC). The NCC references individual minimum Australian Standards (AS- No.- Year of introduction) for each aspect of the type of contractor's work, or suppliers product, e.g. the minimum standard for Waterproofing of wet areas uses AS 3740-2004.
In Australia, the valuation for sale of a project is another discipline of Building Valuer, unlike the UK where the Building Valuer is the Building Surveyor.
The government of New Zealand has set up a mediation service [3] to resolve cases of houses that failed watertightness.
In the United States, there were three major nonprofit organizations developing building codes for the governing of building constructions, but they have since been merged into one in 1994, the International Code Council (ICC). ICC publishes the International Building Codes, used by most of the jurisdictions within the United States. The former organizations included Building Officials and Code Administrators International, Inc. (BOCA), International Conference of Building Officials (ICBO), and Southern Building Code Congress International, Inc. (SBCCI).
There are several other major code publishers in the United States. The Uniform Plumbing Code (UPC) and the Uniform Mechanical Code (UMC) are both written by the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials, also known as IAPMO, an organization that was established by code officials.
On May 17, 1926, [4] the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials, or IAPMO, began with a mandate “to advance the latest and most improved methods of sanitation; to promote the welfare of and harmony between the owner, the builder, and the craftsman; to accomplish a uniformity in the application of the provisions of the ordinances; and to promulgate the mutual benefit of the members." IAPMO also publishes the Uniform Solar Energy and Hydronics Code (USEHC) and Uniform Swimming Pool, Spa and Hot Tub Code (USPSHTC) as part of their family of Uniform Codes.
In England and Wales building control bodies (BCBs) may be either established under Local Authority control or private bodies (Approved Inspectors). Applicants wishing to carry out work controlled under the Building Act have the choice to select either the local Building Control or an Approved Inspector. However, where local legislation is prevalent the Approved Inspector will be charged with liaising with the relevant local authority body for the necessary approvals.
The Secretary of State issues guidance in support of the Building Regulations in the form of Approved Documents which are not mandatory. The Building Regulations are functional and therefore designers are free to offer alternative solutions to satisfying the functional requirements. The burden of proof is then placed on the designers to demonstrate that the alternative solution proposed offers a level of performance which satisfies the intent of the functional requirement. There is nothing in the Regulations which imposes a duty on the applicant under those circumstances to use the guidance as a benchmark of performance, although this is of course a route often taken as a way of demonstrating that an alternative approach is of an acceptable standard.
Appeals against decisions made by BCBs are to the Secretary of State who will make a determination after considering all of the facts of a particular case.
Plumbing is any system that conveys fluids for a wide range of applications. Plumbing uses pipes, valves, plumbing fixtures, tanks, and other apparatuses to convey fluids. Heating and cooling (HVAC), waste removal, and potable water delivery are among the most common uses for plumbing, but it is not limited to these applications. The word derives from the Latin for lead, plumbum, as the first effective pipes used in the Roman era were lead pipes.
A building code is a set of rules that specify the standards for constructed objects such as buildings and non-building structures. Buildings must conform to the code to obtain planning permission, usually from a local council. The main purpose of building codes is to protect public health, safety and general welfare as they relate to the construction and occupancy of buildings and structures — for example, the building codes in many countries require engineers to consider the effects of soil liquefaction in the design of new buildings. The building code becomes law of a particular jurisdiction when formally enacted by the appropriate governmental or private authority.
An elevator consultant is someone who specializes in the design, testing and maintenance inspection of elevators, escalators, moving walkways and many other conveyances that move people. They are not to be confused with elevator mechanics. Consultants do not normally perform work on conveyances. Some elevator consultants may also work as private elevator inspectors. Some jurisdictions may accept independent third party inspectors for certified inspections while others may employ their own inspectors.
The International Code Council (ICC) is a nonprofit standards organization that creates the International Building Code (IBC), a model building code for housing. The IBC has been adopted for use as a base code standard by most jurisdictions in the United States.
Designated as an American National Standard, the Uniform Plumbing Code (UPC) is a model code developed by the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) to govern the installation and inspection of plumbing systems as a means of promoting the public's health, safety and welfare.
To comply with the Building Act 1984 and the subsequent statutory instruments known as the Building Regulations, Building regulations approval is required to construct certain structures in England and Wales. Construction projects falling into this category are sometimes referred to as "notifiable", however this is different from the "notification" (which may also be required under the Construction Regulations 2015, which seeks to monitor health and safety in construction projects.
A building control body is an organisation authorised to control building work that is subject to the Building Regulations in England and Wales (similar systems are provided in Northern Ireland, and in Scotland where the term 'building standards' is used. Such regulations or standards are also known as building codes in other parts of the world.
A building engineer is recognised as being expert in the use of technology for the design, construction, assessment and maintenance of the built environment. Commercial Building Engineers are concerned with the planning, design, construction, operation, renovation, and maintenance of buildings, as well as with their impacts on the surrounding environment.
Designated as an American National Standard, the Uniform Swimming Pool, Spa and Hot Tub Code (USPSHTC) is a model code developed by the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) to govern the installation and inspection of plumbing systems associated with swimming pools, spas and hot tubs as a means of promoting the public's health, safety and welfare.
Construction law is a branch of law that deals with matters relating to building construction, engineering, and related fields. It is in essence an amalgam of contract law, commercial law, planning law, employment law and tort. Construction law covers a wide range of legal issues including contract, negligence, bonds and bonding, guarantees and sureties, liens and other security interests, tendering, construction claims, and related consultancy contracts. Construction law affects many participants in the construction industry, including financial institutions, surveyors, quantity surveyors, architects, carpenters, engineers, construction workers, and planners.
Uniform Codes are codes of practice developed and maintained by the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) using the American National Standards Institute's (ANSI) accredited consensus development process working on a three-year cycle. This process brings together volunteers representing a variety of viewpoints and interests to achieve consensus.
IAPMO Standards are the plumbing and mechanical standards of the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO). For more than thirty years, IAPMO’s standards-developing efforts have primarily focused on plumbing product standards. This concentration was primarily due to IAPMO members’ expertise from more than 50 years of writing and updating the Uniform Plumbing Code (UPC). IAPMO is an American National Standards Institute (ANSI)-recognized Standards Development Organization (SDO).
IAPMO R&T was started in 1936 as a third-party listing agency specializing in plumbing and mechanical products. IAPMO R&T is accredited to certify products that meet the criteria of the Uniform Plumbing Code, Uniform Mechanical Code, Uniform Solar Energy Code, Uniform Swimming Pool, Spa and Hot Tub Code and other nationally recognized codes and standards in North America.
A plumbing code is a code that provides regulations for the design, installation and inspection of building plumbing and sanitary systems. In the United States, jurisdictions enact their own codes, some of which are based upon model plumbing codes. The most widely adopted plumbing code in the United States is the International Plumbing Code published by the International Code Council (ICC). This code is also used as the basis for the plumbing codes of some other countries. Another model plumbing code published and utilized widely across the United States is the Uniform Plumbing Code, published by the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO), a multinational operation with offices in 13 nations. IAPMO codes are developed using ANSI consensus development procedures. This code serves as the basis for the national plumbing codes in India and Indonesia.
The California Building Standards Code is the building code for California, and Title 24 of the California Code of Regulations (CCR). It is maintained by the California Building Standards Commission which is granted the authority to oversee processes related to the California building codes by California Building Standards Law. The California building codes under Title 24 are established based on several criteria: standards adopted by states based on national model codes, national model codes adapted to meet California conditions, and standards passed by the California legislature that address concerns specific to California.
The International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) coordinates the development and adaptation of plumbing, mechanical, swimming pool and solar energy codes to meet the specific needs of individual jurisdictions both in the United States and abroad.
The Uniform Mechanical Code (UMC) is a model code developed by the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) to govern the installation, inspection and maintenance of HVAC and refrigeration systems. It is designated as an American National Standard.
Designated as an American National Standard, the Uniform Solar, Hydronics and Geothermal Code (USHGC) is a model code developed by the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) to govern the installation and inspection of solar energy, hydronic heating/cooling systems, and geothermal energy systems as a means of promoting the public's health, safety and welfare.
The National Construction Code (NCC) is a set of minimum requirements for buildings in Australia. The requirements concern the aspects of health, safety, accessibility, amenity and sustainability of the types of buildings that the code applies to. The Code is published by the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) in service to the Australian Federal Government as well as State and Territorial governments of Australia.
The Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) is a body that writes Australia's standardized building requirements, including the National Construction Code (NCC), WaterMark, and CodeMark. The ABCB is part of a joint endeavour by the Commonwealth, state and territory governments, and the country's plumbing and building industries.
