Submit Your Article We are inviting you to submit your very own uniqueHome Owner story to us on this website There are various ways you can do this, for instance it might be a description of your experience or it could be a design or even a product. All you have to do is submit…
The PAJA: The SA Law that Protects Your Rights We get questions daily about buildings blocking views, balconies overlooking neighbours’ bedrooms, building approval without neighbours’ consent, developers not putting in correct storm-water drains; complaints that the neighbours wall is on “my” property; the list goes on and on. People also want to know who they…
What to do when you have Blocked Drains Do your drains sometimes look like this, with smelly overflowing waste-water running into the street? Well a few days ago we had this problem. After a few tries with the plunger I gave it up as a bad job. If you think that this is going to…
NHBRC Suspends the Payment of House Enrolment Fees-PA003 The National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) announced at the beginning of November 2013 that the home registration fees, that must be paid on all new houses, will no longer be allowed to be included in the first progress payment that is made to the home builder…
How To Be SANS 10400XA Compliant – A Guide New Energy Regulations SANS 10400XA and SANS 10400X are what we get quite a few queries about on our website. Here are a few: Q: Hi,I have read through the regulations, but need clarification on whether an application is required when changing existing steel framed windows…
Alterations and Additions to Your Home There are so many changes that have been made to the National Building Regulations in recent years that homeowners may be forgiven for wondering what is and what is not allowed in terms of altering and making home additions. Some of the greatest concerns relate to the new energy…
Is Flood Damage an “Act of God”or a Result of Bad Planningand Shoddy Construction? Pic above: The flooded N2 just outside Somerset West was a veritable river on the evening of 15 November 2013. By Penny Swift, November 16, 2013 As much of the greater Cape Town area and other parts of the Western Cape…
A Concrete Placing Guide Cast Your foundations This guide will help owner-builders to cast the foundations. These foundations are for external brick walls around a new house, or for extensions of an existing house. THE NHBRC (National Homebuilders Association Council) requirements for house foundations: For single-story buildings with tiled or sheeted roofs in stable soil conditions, the…
We Rely on National Building Regulations Why National Building regulations is a question asked many times. Both international and national standards and Building Regulations are fundamental to successful building and construction projects, both big and small.It doesn’t matter whether you are building a garden shed out of timber, a modest family home from bricks and…
About the NHBRC The National Home Builders Registration Council (The 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 who use contractors who…
A Table for Concrete Mixes by Weight in Kilograms, by Bag, and by Cubic Meter, for Various Strengths We have had numerous requests for concrete mix ratios by weight, by volume, and by mass. Here is a table that was released by the Cement and Concrete Institute for trial concrete mixes from 10MPa to 40MPa….
The Housing Consumers Protection Measures Act 95 of 1998 Updated 2008 – EXPLAINED 1. Purpose of the HCPA 1. The main purpose of the Housing Consumers Protection Act is to give protection to housing consumers. At the same time it created the NATIONAL HOME BUILDERS REGISTRATION COUNCIL (NHBRC), whose objective is to stand for the…
By-Law Definitions for Planning, Building and Zoning These definitions are mainly, but not exclusively, extracted from the Greater Metropolitan Area of Cape Town’s By-Laws Planning and Zoning definitions and explanations. They do and can relate to terms and phrases used nationally by other Municipalities and planning departments. We will be adding to them on an…
Definitions that are used in the Home Building Industry Words and definitions that are used in the home building industry are sometimes a little difficult to understand what is meant. Here we have a list of some terms that are used with an explanation of what it is the person using it means. Some of…
The Town Planning Scheme for the Tshwane Region 2008 Make the right decisions We have included these Tshwane Planning Scheme Regulations to assist you with accessing the correct information so that you can make the right decisions when it comes to planning any construction, building, and renovation or the purchase of property with developments in mind….
The Assessment of Alternate Building Technologies This article from the latest issue of AKHANI, the quarterly magazine of the NHBRC, addresses the use of alternate building materials and the legal process as well as the pending changes to their manuals. It is well worth a read. Assessment of ABT (Alternate Building Technologies) Any house…
How to contact your Local Authority and Municipality in your District Here is the most up-to-date National Municipality Contact list We get requests almost on a daily basis about “How do I contact my local Municipality?”, “Where is my local Authority?”, “Where do I take my plans?”, “Where can I contact the Building Inspector?” Well…
Consolidated Johannesburg Town Planning Scheme, 2011 Download the Johannesburg Town Planning Scheme document below We have included this Johannesburg Town Planning Scheme document to assist you with accessing the the correct information so that you can make the right decisions when it comes to planning any construction, building and renovation or the purchase of property…
A List of Definitions and TermsUsed in Town Planning Schemes Includes Land Use and Zonings Terms The Johannesburg metropolitan area is the largest, most diverse and most cosmopolitan in South Africa, so we have based this list on definitions from their Town Planning document, see: town-planning-scheme-jhb. These are not only relevant to Gauteng but are…
An A to Z list of Environmental phrases and words Thanks to the City of Cape Town for providing the basis for this list to which we have added more entries. We will expand the list as and when we find more interesting and useful words and phrases. There is a link to the City…
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 making alterations and additions. a building, you won’t have to ensure that the entire building complies with new regulations that have been imposed since…
Articles & Product Reviews Please come back to this page often as we are starting a review of products that will be of interest to anyone in the building industry. If there are any articles or category of product that you would like to see featured and reviewed here please let us know on our…
Building drywall system is not environmentally friendly The American timber and drywall construction method is brought under the spotlight in a Wikipedia entry “Drywall”. You just have to look at the sulfur dioxide emission figures never mind the mercury released during manufacture. It appears that this method is NOT good for our environment and Americans…
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, and Part XA deals with energy…
Building Regulations Part 3: Part R to Part X & XA As there are a total of 23 parts to the SANS 10400 Building Regulations we have divided them into three sections to improve the ease of navigation, here below is Building Regulations Part 3 The order in which the different parts of the regulations…
