The WA Government has introduced building regulations to restrict the use of combustible material on building facades of high-risk buildings.
The new building regulations prevent the use of performance solutions by restricting the use of combustible cladding to those that can demonstrate compliance under the Building Code of Australia’s (BCA) new verification method.
This method also includes the requirement for sprinklers in high-risk buildings.
The BCA was updated, in March 2018, to remove any ambiguity around the use of combustible cladding on buildings.
Any combustible cladding proposed to be used on those buildings needs to demonstrate it has passed the large-scale fire test required under Australian Standard AS 5113 or receive approval from the Building Commissioner.
The update to the BCA and the introduction of the new building regulations will substantially prevent the use of dangerous polyethylene (PE) cladding or an expanded polystyrene cladding in a building facade.
These amendments are not retrospective.
Source: WA Government