Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Aug 24, 2015 11:53 pm Has anyone had any experience building on a block with fire rating BAL29? We have just been advised that due to our fire rating that we will not be able to have our planned bi-fold kitchen servery windows in our new home. We are so dissapointed as this is the reason we chose this design. Has anyone installed bi-fold windows in a high fire risk area? How did you get the windows to pass the requirements? Has anyone found a way to screen a bi-fold window? Thanks for any help you can offer. Re: BAL29 rating. Building in high fire risk area. 2Aug 25, 2015 7:31 pm I am building in a BAL 29 area. My suggestions is to visit a couple of the larger national window manufacturers display centres to get their advice rather than only getting second hand info through a builder. Link to my building thread http://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=71081 Re: BAL29 rating. Building in high fire risk area. 3Aug 26, 2015 8:39 pm We are building in a BAL29 zone, we have bi fold doors supplied by Trend windows and doors. Their quantum range is rated to BAL40. Re: BAL29 rating. Building in high fire risk area. 4Aug 27, 2015 11:40 am Thanks for your responses. Beetaloo, place looks great but your story about the fires have scared me and made the risk more of a reality. I have searched the internet and found a heap of windows and doors that are BAL40 rated but the requirements say we have to have metal screens on them, and they are stricter on windows than doors. Apparently they think that you will shut a door if a fire is coming but forget a window (I don't think this would be the case with a window as large as ours). I am determined to have these windows so I am preparing myself for a fight with the local shire. I am going to go into a couple of the local window suppliers in town to see what they can tell me. Fingers crossed! Re: BAL29 rating. Building in high fire risk area. 5Oct 18, 2015 10:13 pm we are in a BAL FZ. Yes we had the same excuse given by RFS re you are more likely to close a door than a window. As we had to have shutters on all our opening doors and windows and bi folds generally fold out we went with a stacking window (3 panels stacked to one side) which was ok in the end as they came with fly screens where as bi-fold generally do not (retro-fitted). Did you have a fire consultant prepare a report prior to DA? if so contact them to get advice. Don't rely on builders for any BAl advice. Also speak to your certifier and RFS for guidance and interpretation. Our fire consultant advised there is a lot of misunderstanding as to what is required and it comes down to reading the detail of the DA Consent and interpreting it correctly CDC Housing Code 3 When to apply Floor Area external face of wall vs Gross Floor Area internal face of wall. Reading thru CDC Housing Code 3, lets take a lot 915sqm.… 0 16558 10 years ago was a different software than we use now. it has had a lot of changes over the past years. Improvments to the software and changes to how Nathers models need… 8 1459 We are tossing up between a Jarrahdale radiant wood fire (the Pioneer) and a convection wood fire (Innovator or Countryman) but cannot decide on which type of wood fire is… 0 5250 |