VBA Plumbing Technical Bulletin – May 2022
I'm excited to be writing to you in this, the first edition of the VBA Plumbing Technical Bulletin.
These emails are an opportunity for the VBA to communicate everything from practice notes and guidance material to upcoming webinars and education opportunities.
NCC 2022
Earlier this month, the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) published the first stage of the National Construction Code (NCC) 2022 edition. This ‘Preview’ gives us a sneak peak of the new Code before it comes into effect on 1 September 2022.
This will be the most significant amendment to the NCC since its inception in 1996, there's no doubt these revisions will have a major impact on our industry.
It's critical that not only the VBA be prepared to support you to adjust to the changes, but you as practitioners, and industry groups alike need to proactively prepare too.
Normally the code would be previewed in February and published formally in May, but with the challenges COVID has posed over the past two years, the publication date has been delayed by a few months to allow preview in May and publication in September. This is allowing industry more time to get familiar with and prepare for the changes.
The structure of the Code continues to be refined to improve readability. As part of this, the provision of the code will be renumbered, which will take a bit of getting used to.
To support the more immediate need to get ready for NCC 2022, we now have the dates for the national seminar series that will feature speakers explaining the changes. The Melbourne seminar and webinar registration links are available under 'Upcoming webinars' at the bottom of this email.
I hope you find the VBA Technical Bulletin useful. We will keep refining it as we go and we welcome your feedback, which can we sent to communications@vba.vic.gov.au.
Principal Plumbing Specialist to commence 31 May 2022
Another important step in uplifting VBA’s technical and strategic development in the plumbing sector is the recent appointment of Anwar Gayed as the first Principal Plumbing Specialist. Anwar joins other technical experts in the Office of the State Building Surveyor in the field of Fire Safety Engineering, Structural Engineering and Building Surveying.
Anwar is a charted professional mechanical engineer with more than 22 years of local and international experience in design and construction of hydraulic services. He has worked on a broad range of projects within multiple sectors including residential, healthcare, defence, education, and commercial.
He is interested in quality control processes during design and construction phases, believes heavily in the power of continuous improvement and is keen to boost the awareness of the importance of safe plumbing services to public safety.
Andrew Cialini,
VBA State Building Surveyor
In this edition...
New gas servicing reporting portal
As communicated on 17 May, the Victorian Building Authority (VBA) is creating a new online portal for licensed gasfitters to submit a record of gas servicing work via our website.
Compliance Certificates withheld for non-payment and where work is incomplete
Around 38 per cent of plumbing complaints received by the VBA since July 2021 related to compliance certificates.
REMINDER - SA HB 39: 2015 Installation code for metal roof and wall cladding was amended
On 30 July 2021, Standards Australia published Amendment 1 to SA HB 39 Installation code for metal roof and wall cladding.
Share your views on future hydrogen training for gasfitters in a zero-carbon economy
Researchers at RMIT University are undertaking a survey of Australian plumbers and gasfitters to better understand their experiences with training and preferences for training to work with hydrogen in the future.
Plumbing Industry Alert: Gas Consumer Piping
Recently, the VBA has seen multiple occurrences where the installation of underground plastic and multilayer gas consumer piping is not compliant with AS/NZS 5601.1:2013.