Tag Archives: SANS 10400

What Is the SABS? What Does the SABS Do? The South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) was established in terms of the Standards Act, 1945 (Act No. 24 of 1945) and now operates under the latest edition of the Standards Act, 2008 (Act No. 29 of 2008). This national body …

How To Be SANS 10400XA Compliant – A Guide New Energy Regulations We get quite a few queries about the new SANS 10400-X and SANS 10400-XA on our website. Here are a few: Q: Hi, I have read through the regulations, but need clarification on whether an application is required …

About the NHBRC The National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) was established in 1998 as a regulatory body for the home building industry. Their mandate is to protect house-building consumers and to make sure that building industry standards and regulations are followed. Their stated aim is to protect housing consumers …

What the National Building Regulations say about Alterations and Additions to Existing Buildings In general, the National Building Regulations are not retroactive in their application. This means that if you are adding to or altering a building, you won’t have to ensure that the entire building complies with new regulations …

Environmental Sustainability & Energy Usage in Buildings-Part X & XA In 2011, in an endeavour to make our buildings more sustainable, and to decrease energy usage in South Africa, a new part was added to SANS 10400, The application of the National Building Regulations. Part X deals with environmental sustainability, …

Electric Cables – What is Legal We get a lot of questions about which electric cables are legal and how they must be installed. So here is a brief rundown of the different types of legal cabling available and the way an installation could be done. There are various accepted …

A to Z Glossary of Definitions and Terms Used in the National Building Regulation Code of Practice   Every industry has terms and definitions that are specific to that industry, and the building industry is no exception. These Building Regulation definitions form part of the National Building Regulations and Building …

Fenestration and Glazing Guidelines, Procedures and Calculations. The guidelines featured in the pdf below give an idea to anyone wanting to calculate the Fenestration Compliance Procedures in terms of Sans 10400-XA:2011 and SANS 204:2011, what is required and what is involved. There is a step-by-step guide to area (nett floor) …

Glazing for Safety and Security Glazing is a vital construction element in our homes and other buildings. It is important to know how to use the right type of glass, in the right place, to make sure that our buildings are secure and to ensure that people don’t get injured …

Understanding what’s Underfoot The type of floors specified in building plans will determine the materials required as well as which sub-contractors or specialists are going to be involved in the building project. There are many floor coverings and floor finishes for our homes and buildings, but in construction there are only …

SANS 10400 Governs the Design, planning and supervision of all construction work Each section of SANS 10400, the Code of Practice for The application of the National Building Regulations (NBR) is presented with the relevant extract from the building regulations (which is law), and is then followed by a general …

Build a Treehouse the Easy Way This blog post is dedicated to Alexander (our boy who learnt to use a hammer at an early age) … and to Simon and his son Joshua (just because they built their own special December 2012 treehouse – which is what inspired me to write …

All buildings must have a strong, serviceable, stable and durable design-Part B Why do you suppose we need structural design professionals to be involved in every aspect of building processes? I’ve thought about this often, since we’ve done a load of DIY projects that involve building, and we have seldom …

Building Regulations Part-U Refuse Disposal Part-U of the SANS 10400 Refuse disposal states that ‘Any building, excluding a dwelling house’ that has refuse generated in that building will provide ‘adequate’ storage areas for rubbish containers. Over and above this the planning and building must provide access from the street so …

Building Regulations as They Apply to Roofs-Part L When the South African National Building Regulations were updated by the Department of Trade and Industry in May 2008, the General Requirement relating to Roofs was changed to incorporate certain safety elements. For example, instead of simply having to “resist any forces” …

Building Regulations that Apply to Floors-Part J The Application of the National Building Regulations that apply to floors (Part J of SANS 10400) are certainly not exhaustive. In fact, if you think of how much of our house is floor, it’s what we might, in South Africa, describe as a biekie …

Regulations for Foundations-Part H A Focus on Safety Foundations, Part H, of any structure, large or small, must be built to safely transmit all loads of the building to the ground. If foundations are not correctly built, walls may crack and at worst, could even collapse. While the National Building …

Safety and Stability When Doing Excavations Are Top Priorities – Part G Excavations are not always necessary when we build our homes, but it often is, even if the ground is reasonably flat and level. Part G of the National Building Regulations deals with excavations and their safety. The Importance …

Even at Home Public Safety is Paramount-Part D All home owners have a responsibility to people who visit their homes, or members of the public who are able to access their homes. According to the National Building Regulations we must be concerned specifically with: changes in level, pedestrian entrances to …