NCC Volume Two: Housing Provisions for Homes and Outbuildings

About this course.

Volume Two is the part of the National Construction Code (NCC) that contains the technical provisions mainly for houses and the smaller structures associated with them — broadly Class 1 and Class 10. In concept, Class 1 covers houses: detached dwellings, and attached dwellings such as townhouses or terraces that are separated from one another, together with certain small-scale accommodation buildings. Class 10 covers non-habitable structures and appurtenances, such as sheds, garages and carports, and structures such as fences, retaining walls, masts and swimming pools, along with private bushfire shelters. The NCC is developed and maintained by the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) on behalf of the Australian, state and territory governments, and Volume Two sits alongside Volume One, which deals mainly with larger and more complex buildings, and Volume Three, which deals with plumbing and drainage.

To understand Volume Two it helps to understand the NCC as a whole. The NCC is a single, national code that sets the minimum required standards for the safety, health, amenity, accessibility and sustainability of buildings across Australia. It is given legal effect by each state and territory through its own building legislation, which is why the Code is described as nationally consistent but applied jurisdiction by jurisdiction. This distinction is central: the ABCB writes and publishes the Code, but each state or territory adopts it, sets the date it takes effect there, and may make its own additions or variations. For housing this is particularly important, because some of the areas most relevant to homes — such as energy efficiency, bushfire and cyclonic requirements — are among the areas where jurisdictions most often apply their own approaches or variations. A practitioner must always work from the version and variations that apply where the house is being built.