Balustrade BCA requirements
Commercial offices have to keep the safety of their employees and any visitors top of mind. While the focus might be placed on things like evacuation plans, security cameras or even fire alarms the other big area that can reduce injuries is to ensure all the handrails or balustrades that are installed are compliant.
For this project, ENCAT was engaged to custom design a new outdoor balustrade system for this balcony area of an office. You can see the old balustrade in the background in the photos below which was non-compliant. The current Australian Building Code of Australia (BCA) requirements stipulate there must not be any toehold between 150 and 760 mm for balustrades.
You can see in the photos above there is brickwork, these bricks would allow a toehold height above 150mm. To solve this we designed and manufactured a new outdoor steel balustrade to be 1200 mm high to ensure it would then comply with the Building Code of Australia (BCA).
Custom designed balustrades for commercial sites
For this project our scope work included;
- Consulting with the client
- Designing a custom made balustrade that offered a style style that we felt would suit the existing office location exterior & complement the site
- Selecting a finish for the steel work that would provide a long life non-corrosive coating and a colour finish as selected by the client of powder coated black.
- Measuring the site
- Producing 3D models of the site using SolidWorks
- Submitting the drawings to the office complex body corporate client for their approval
- Ensuring that the design complied with Australian Balustrade Loading Standards AS1170.1
- Completing the structural engineering compliance.
With all the design paramters complete our engineer completed the final design specifications and produced manufacture drawings for our factory to then commence production locally.
The steel was ordered and all the sections were cut to size accurately with fabrication being completed in our factory with our three-dimensional jigging tables. This ensures levels of high quality and accurate fabrication. Of course, quality checks are made prior to the welding stages to ensure it can progress to the next stage. Posts posts were also checked to ensure all air holes were included for the next process of hot-dip galvanizing.
Once production is complete the balustrade and posts were transported to be industrial hot dip galvanizing. This provides a zinc coating over the steel to prevent the steel from corroding to ensure a long life for the balustrade.
Powdercoating was the next process with the balustrade cleaned to remove all burs and dags etc. We power coat using our own equipment at ENCAT where the balustrade is placed in a paint booth where powder is applied with an electrostatic charge, it is then placed in the oven and heated to 200 degrees with the final finish after powder coating applied for a smooth texture.
When everything is completed we carefully package each component to prevent scratches during transportation to the site. Everything is then assembled on site to match the site drawings as specified by our engineer. The tiles were drilled with corebits to prevent cracking. The posts were plumbed and levelled on site and of course we then clean and remove all debris once completed.
As demonstrated in the photos above no adjustments or modifications were needed because of the step by step, custom made, process we undertake for each project. We are very experienced at producing high quality, BCA compliant, balustrading systems that are used in commercial or industrial situations.
Custom made commercial, industrial and civil use balustrades
ENCAT can design, manufacture and supply custom made balustrades that are used in commercial, industrial and civil use applications. Our products are used by councils, schools and shopping centres.
