After a tough couple of years for the residential construction sector, COVID-fueled impacts are presenting a whole new raft of challenges and pressures for the property industry.
However, one of the most serious pressures impacting high-rise domestic dwellings pre-dates COVID by years, yet it has often been ignored and misunderstood. The issue is waterproofing, which many experts say presents an even greater issue than “at risk” or non-compliant cladding.
Independent and government studies from countries around the world, including Canada and New Zealand, have documented that the scale of the problem can affect up to 30% of any nation’s high-rise housing stock. Here in Australia, failed waterproofing is the most common defect nationally; while the total cost of building defects nationwide is expected to top $6.2 billion within the last decade, weather and water damage issues accounted for $1.4 billion of that total, a bill largely picked up by residents and insurance companies.
Because insurance is perhaps the most significant lever affecting facade compliance, it is imperative that all in the facade approval chain fully understand the code and requirements. Many people think – or hope – that the waterproofing issue is satisfied by waiving the mandated AS4284 waterproofing test report. However, this is not the case.
For a building’s facade to be compliant, it is critical to review the respective test reports and, in the case of weatherproofing, to make sure that the detailing and pressures are relevant to each specific project undertaken. In other words, the AS4284 paperwork is not proof of compliance.
As a national leader in facade solutions, Fairview has conducted research and extensive independent testing of its products’ waterproofing performance and, now, has engineered high-performance weather-proofing systems in several of its key products.
Under independent tests at a NATA-approved testing laboratory, three Fairview products – Stryüm, Vitracore G2 and Vitradual – all exceeded the minimum testing requirements as well as the best-attempt results attained by any of its key competitors’ products.
These NATA-standard results accurately assess the “Serviceability” attributes of three diverse Fairview cladding products, showing superior performance to almost any other product on the market. During ultimate testing, Vitradual withstood the highest pressures the testing equipment could generate (4.5 kPa), so its real attributed pressures could actually have been higher.
Building and facade cladding is all about compliance, which is about much more than combustibility or flammability. Architects, builders, certifiers, developers and even facade manufacturers and suppliers mustn’t mistakenly think that compliance is found in a piece of AS4284 documentation. The existence of an AS 4284 test report is, in all truth, insufficient for insurable compliance.
