The Plumbing Code of Australia: NCC Volume Three

About this course.

The Plumbing Code of Australia (PCA) is Volume Three of the National Construction Code (NCC), the single technical code that sets the minimum requirements for plumbing and drainage work throughout Australia. It is developed and maintained by the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) on behalf of the Commonwealth and all state and territory governments. The NCC is published as three volumes: Volumes One and Two set requirements for building work, while Volume Three — the PCA — sets requirements for plumbing and drainage. So when a plumber, drainer or hydraulic designer asks, "what does the national code require of my work?", the plumbing answer lives in Volume Three.

To understand the PCA it helps to understand the NCC as a whole. The National Construction Code is Australia's primary set of technical provisions for the design, construction and performance of buildings and, in the case of Volume Three, for plumbing and drainage installations. Its purpose is to provide nationally consistent, minimum necessary requirements for matters such as safety, health, amenity, accessibility and sustainability, so that a shower, a sanitary drain or a rainwater connection is designed and installed to a comparable standard whether the work is done in Perth, Hobart or Cairns. Before the code was brought together nationally, technical requirements differed considerably from one jurisdiction to another. Bringing plumbing into the same national framework as building work was intended to reduce that fragmentation and give practitioners, manufacturers and regulators a common technical language.