What is a Green Building? Green Buildings are those that have been awarded a high sustainability rating by the Green Building Council of Australia. Their rating system is called Green Star. It is Australia’s voluntary rating system for buildings and communities to demonstrate the sustainability of the building. Currently, buildings and communities are the world’s single largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, the built environment consumes around a third of our water and generates 40 percent of our waste. Green Star ratings are transforming the way our built environment ..read more

The report by Dr. Nicole Johnston, Deakin University and Sacha Reid Griffith University, titled ‘An Examination of Building Defects in Residential Multi-owned Properties’[1] raises a number of important issues for designers, contractors, and owners. The report is based on 212 building audits and 3227 defects.  The breakup is as follows: Building fabric and cladding 40% Fire Protection 13% Water Proofing 11.5% Roof and Rainwater 8.5% Structural 7% Other (services, utilities, etc) 20%   The report identified that approx. 1/3 of the fabric and cladding defects were water and moistu ..read more

The country was shocked and upset by the Dreamworld Tragedy back in 2018. The malfunction of the Thunder River Rapids Ride was responsible for four deaths and prompted a coroner inquest to uncover why the tragedy occurred. Questions were asked by many, such as, “Why did the ride malfunction?”, “could the tragedy have been prevented?” Recently, the Coroners’ report was released to the public. QLD Coroners Report, February 2020 – Dreamworld Tragedy Findings of the Dreamworld Tragedy Coroners Report The Coroners Report is a sobering read for all facility managers.  The loss of life could hav ..read more

Covid-19 working restrictions mean many people in the building industry are working from home. What can one possibly do to improve a construction or building project from home? For many, this may mean catching up on critical documentation such as: Quality Assurance Dealing with those minor variations from clients, suppliers and subies Update the project plan including extensions of time Conducting some on-line design reviews with your services team, designers and subies to resolve the inevitable conflicts Take some time to just think quietly and look for solutions to problems that will occur i ..read more

WebFM Director and founder Stuart Smith recently addressed the Strata Community Association VIC  Forum-  Building Regulation & Cladding Rectification in February 2020. The conference addressed the rectification of combustible cladding used in high rise apartments and building reform. It was also the launch of The Australian Building Manual Guideline. The guide is co-authored by WebFM, SCA and Engineers Australia as a further development of recommendation 20 of the Shergold Weir Building Confidence Report. Why create a Building Manual Guideline? The new guideline sets out a simple and cost ..read more

WebFM CEO David Rafter is Interviewed on the plan to service the USA Construction Industry By RETS Throughout the last couple of years WebFM has been working on a plan to service the USA construction industry. We now have an office in Irvine CA with a permanent team to service clients in the construction industry in the US. During this time we have had the opportunity to partner with local businesses to help with recruitment, in particular, RETS Associates. Recently our CEO David Rafter was interviewed by the recruitment team at RETS Associates.  The interview was added to an article then feat ..read more

Safety in Design: What content should the SiD Manual have? “What form and content should the Safety in Design Report/Manual include?” This is the feedback we received after publishing our article on Safety in Design – Missing in Action. In response we have developed an outline with the requirements for creating a Safety in Design Report and a Safety in Design Manual. The outline uses The Safe Work Australia (SWA) Code of Practice – Safe Design of Structures[1] as a guide. Legal Re ..read more

The Shergold Weir Report & The National Construction Code Building Confidence or False Hope? The report ‘Building Confidence’ by Peter Shergold and Bronwyn Weir, addresses a number of major flaws to the National Construction Code (NCC) in regards to design, certification and the handover processes. But will it be enough to change entrenched organisational silos and industry culture? The Report was commissioned by the Australian Building Ministers Forum. Its objective is to recommend improvements to compliance and enforcement sys ..read more

Construction Software can help you comply to the Building Code of Australia reforms. How did the reform to the Building Code of Australia come about? NSW Government has announced a new package of building reforms to the Building Code of Australia in 2019. The final straw prompting the changes was the Opal Tower structural defects. The repercussion of the defects caused an evacuation of the tower over the Christmas holiday period. The significant changes in the reform will impact the design and construction industry.  The NSW Governm ..read more

Safety in Design - Missing in Action? Safety in Design This is a hot topic, with seminars, experts and lots of advice doing the rounds. However, in our experience, the Safety in Design process appears to be missing in action at project handover. A review of a major industry clients’ very detailed handover policy and procedures revealed that Safety in Design is not part of the completion process. As Safety in Design is a requirement under Work Health Safety legislation in Australia and New Zealand ..read more