Concrete, masonry, timber, steel, coatings and construction techniques.
The standards behind timber framing, how natural durability classes and H1 to H6 preservative treatment work, what the NCC requires for deck balustrades, and why poorly built and poorly maintained decks fail.
How NCC Part 3.4 and AS 3660.1 decide whether a new building needs a termite management system, the options allowed, state variations, the durable notice and ongoing inspections.
The AS 2870 site classes and their characteristic surface movements, who classifies a site, how footing design changes from Class A to Class P, and the drainage and garden habits that protect a house on reactive clay.
The main types of concrete cracking, which ones matter, how reinforcement corrosion destroys concrete from the inside, and the AS 3600 and NCC requirements for exposure classification, cover and curing.
What NSW research and the Building Defects Library show about the most common defects, the causes behind them, what regulators are doing, and the inspections and quality systems that stop defects before they are covered up.