Apartment Owners & Buyers
Residential Apartment Cladding Testing and Identification
Are you an apartment owner, buyer, or resident concerned about the safety of your apartment cladding?
If you live in a multi storey residential apartment building, constructed after March 1997, your building may have been constructed with combustible cladding materials, posing a fire danger, apartment valuations lower than you realise and increased insurance premiums
While relevant state authorities have completed audits and identified hundreds of buildings that fall into extreme, high, moderate or low risk categories, the details of these buildings with combustible apartment cladding issues have not been made public, leaving apartment owners and residents in the dark about the full extent of the situation.
If you’re concerned about the safety of your apartment, the value of your current or future asset or the expense of paying multiples on your insurance premiums, National Remedial Services (NRS) can help.
Don’t leave your personal safety to chance, or wait to find out if the value of your asset is significantly lower than you thought;
What is Combustible Apartment Cladding and Why is it a Problem?
Combustible cladding is a material used to create the façade of a building making it ascetically pleasing and well finished. Some cladding materials are highly combustible and can be dangerous in high rise residential apartment buildings as they can accelerate fire spread.
Currently, there are three main types of combustible cladding that have been identified a potential fire-hazard risk:
1. Aluminium Composite Panels (ACP)
ACP cladding is made up of two thin aluminium sheets bonded to a polymer core. While the aluminium itself is not a fire hazard, the polymer core is what makes this product dangerous in a fire.
The highest-risk ACP products have a 100% polymer core and come in many varieties typically spanning two to six meters in length. This type of combustible cladding was commonly used in buildings constructed after 1997.
In mid-2018, legislation was introduced banning the use of ACP with a 30% or more polyethylene core from use in the construction of residential multi storey buildings.
2. Expanded Polystyrene (EPS)
EPS cladding poses a high risk of rapid fire spread as it may shrink, melt, or ignite when exposed to high temperatures.
Widely used in the Victorian building industry over the past 20 years due to its low-cost, lightweight and insulating properties, it is typically rendered with a concrete finish and is extremely hard to identify without adequate core sampling.
EPS cladding can no longer be used on multi storey residential apartment buildings, since legislation was enacted in mid-2018, restricting its use.
3. Biowood Cladding
Biowood is a wood-plastic composite that is made of 70% reconstituted timber and 23% polyvinyl chloride, typically marketed for decking, wall panelling, privacy screening and building façade.
Whilst there are no product bans or other legislature that prohibit the use of Biowood in any states of Australia, the building code of Australia (BCA) “Deemed-to-Satisfy Provisions” do not permit its use on external walls of Type A and Type B multi storey apartment buildings except in the case where a certified fire engineering performance solution has been developed.
Why is Combustible Cladding a Problem?
While identification and rectification of buildings identified as having combustible cladding issues is currently underway as per state authority guidelines, this process will take several years to complete and information on which residential buildings are affected is not publicly available.
In the interim, apartment owners and potential buyers of apartments have no way of knowing if an apartment poses a potential safety risk and may run the risk of:
- Unknowingly living or purchasing an apartment that is defective and poses a potential safety & fire hazard;
- The potential of additional costs in the near future for combustible cladding rectification works;
- An apartment valuation lower than expected;
- Increased insurance premiums (in some cases up to 700%) readjusted by insurers for the risks associated with combustible cladding.
How Do I Know If My Apartment Building Has Combustible Cladding?
Simply put, combustible cladding can be difficult to identify from a visual inspection alone. From the outside, the material can look like any other compliant, non-combustible cladding. If you know that your building was constructed using either ACP, EPS, or Biowood cladding, then there’s a good chance that it is flammable and non-compliant.
That’s where NRS can help – Our team of cladding professionals can help you by conducting an onsite façade assessment, taking non-intrusive core samples where required and testing the samples using our certified laboratories to determine cladding identification.
- Quick
- Accurate
- Insurance Council of Australia certified results
By engaging NRS for cladding identification and testing, we provide you with an accurate and detailed assessment of the cladding used on your building to give you the knowledge and peace of mind knowing the full extent of any combustible apartment cladding issues.
The NRS Advantage
National Remedial Services is your combustible cladding identification and testing partner. As an independent joint venture between the principles of Australian business advisory groups, BRI Ferrier and Promentor, we combine the strengths of two leading organisations with many decades of expertise and experience across the consulting, construction, legal and finance sectors.
Price
Testing & reporting
Lead times
We offer complete transparency throughout the entire identification and testing process and only use testing facilities that are Insurance Council of Australia certified.
With quality reporting outcomes, impressive lead times, and affordable pricing solutions for all of your combustible cladding identification and testing requirements, we give you the peace of mind to understand whether the apartment you own, or want to buy, has been built with combustible cladding and provide guidance on the best way forward.
Contact the NRS team today for:
- Full-Building Assessments
- Certified Cladding Testing
- Building Risk Assessments
- Strata/Body Corporate Assistance
- Class Action & Litigation Assistance
Worried about your safety? Wanting to ‘know’ if you live in or want to buy a residential apartment that has been built with combustible cladding? Don’t want to pay excessive insurance premiums due to combustible cladding? Get in touch with National Remedial Services either online on or by phone on 0430 370 773 for a ‘no-obligation’ quotation today.
Our dedicated team can help you identify if your building has any apartment cladding issues and provide certified cladding testing for an affordable price.