READOS / Projects / KEVOS® original book
Building Approval for Factory Projects
Classifying, sizing and equipping an industrial building against the National Construction Code
Work through the NCC questions behind a factory fit-out: classification, storeys, fire compartments, occupants, exits, fire equipment, amenities and approval.
Start readingAbout this book
Most manufacturers meet the building code only a few times in their working lives: when they lease a bigger shed, add a mezzanine, carve an office out of a workshop or buy a building that was designed for someone else. Each time, decisions that look like operations choices turn out to be building code questions. How big can the mezzanine be? Is the roller door an exit? How many people does the code assume will work in the machine shop? Why does the certifier want a wall where the estimator drew a partition?
This book works through those questions in the order a project meets them. It is written for owners, operations managers and project leads, not for certifiers or fire engineers. The aim is to let you read a set of drawings, run the main checks yourself, and arrive at the certifier’s office with sensible questions instead of surprises.
You need no previous building experience. You do need to be comfortable with areas, volumes and simple geometry, and willing to read a code clause slowly. Each chapter ends with an exercise and a worked answer. Read the chapters in order the first time; later, use them as checklists.
The running case
Every chapter follows the same fictional project. This is an illustration. A precision-engineering business has bought a single-storey steel portal-frame building on a regional New South Wales industrial estate. The building is 60 m long and 30 m wide, a floor area of 1,800 m². The walls are 6.0 m high at the eaves and the roof rises to 7.5 m at the ridge. The owner wants a 300 m² office at the front, a 1,500 m² workshop containing a machine shop and a fabrication and assembly area, and a storage mezzanine inside the workshop. The first sketch shows that mezzanine at 240 m².
The case is invented. Its numbers were chosen to land near real code limits so that the checks matter. It is not a KEVOS® project, and none of its outcomes describe a real building, certifier or council.
Source limits and professional responsibility
All code values in this book come from the National Construction Code 2022, Volume One, read on NCC Online in October 2026. NSW is due to adopt NCC 2025 from 1 May 2027, so a NSW project assessed in 2026 would normally still use NCC 2022. Other states and territories may already be on NCC 2025, and every jurisdiction has its own variations and additions. Values are paraphrased with their clause numbers so you can check them against the edition that applies to you.
The supplied BCA 2004 volumes were used only to explain how the performance-based code developed. Referenced Australian Standards are named but not quoted.
This book is educational. It does not replace the applicable NCC edition, state legislation, a registered building certifier, a fire safety engineer or a structural engineer. Building approval decisions are made by the appropriate authority for your project, and the calculations here are teaching checks, not a design.
Who this book is for
Manufacturers, operations managers and project leads who are expanding, fitting out or buying an industrial building and need to understand the building code questions before they commit money.
What you will learn
- Identify which edition of the NCC and which state variations apply to a project.
- Classify each part of an industrial building and test the effect of mezzanines on storeys and construction type.
- Check fire compartment size, occupant numbers, exit widths and travel distances with your own calculations.
- List the fire equipment, sanitary facilities, stair and barrier features a certifier will look for.
- Plan the evidence, approvals and records that carry a building from design to occupation and ongoing maintenance.
Inside this book
Chapters
- 01Which rules apply to this buildingBefore any calculation, settle which law, which NCC edition and which state variations govern the project, and how the performance-based code is built.
- 02Classifying the building and each part of itAssign NCC classes to the office, workshop, plant room and mezzanine, test the 10% rule with gross areas, and see what each class decision changes later.
- 03Storeys, mezzanines and the type of constructionCount the rise in storeys the way the NCC does, test when a mezzanine becomes a storey, and see how one size decision can move a factory from Type C to Type B.
- 04Fire compartments: area, volume and the roof you forgotCheck a factory against the NCC's fire compartment limits, measure volume to the underside of the roof, and compare a fire wall, a large isolated building and other fixes.
- 05Counting occupants and sizing exit widthsUse Table D2D18 to count the people the NCC assumes, see why a machine shop counts ten times denser than fabrication, and size exits and doorways from the result.
- 06Exits, travel distance and the mezzanine stairPlace exits so every point meets the NCC's 20 m and 40 m travel limits, measure the way D2D20 requires, and fix a mezzanine stair that fails by one metre.
- 07Fire equipment, emergency lighting and exit signsWork out which hydrants, hose reels, extinguishers, sprinklers, emergency lights and exit signs the NCC requires in each compartment, and why each trigger applies.
- 08Sanitary facilities and access for people with a disabilityCount toilets, urinals and basins with the NCC tables, see how a documented workforce figure changes the answer, and plan accessible facilities and access to the mezzanine.
- 09Stairs, barriers and handrails for the mezzanineDesign the mezzanine stair, barriers and handrails to the NCC's Deemed-to-Satisfy Provisions, check riser geometry by calculation, and catch the site error that fails it.
- 10Evidence, approvals and the building's recordsAssemble evidence of suitability for each product and system, follow a NSW-style approval path to occupation, and keep the fire safety records that keep the building compliant.
References and source notes
The manuscript and worked examples are original KEVOS® writing. References inform particular concepts; their authors do not endorse this book. Web references were consulted on 25 October 2026.
- Australian Building Codes Board. National Construction Code 2022, Volume One (NCC Online) (2022). Primary source for every code value in this book: Parts A2, A5 and A6, C2 and C3, D2 to D4, E1, E4 and F4 and the Schedule 1 definitions, read on NCC Online. Values are paraphrased and attributed to their clause; state variations were not checked clause by clause.
- Australian Building Codes Board. NCC 2025 state and territory adoption information (2026). Used in Chapter 1 for the point that NCC 2025 is adopted by each state and territory on its own date. Readers should check this page for current dates.
- NSW Government. NSW to adopt new National Construction Code in May 2027 (2025). Supports the running case's assumption that a NSW project assessed in 2026 uses NCC 2022, because NSW adopts NCC 2025 from 1 May 2027.
- NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure. Fire safety certification (current web page). Background for Chapter 10 on fire safety schedules, certificates and annual fire safety statements in NSW. Procedural detail is summarised, not reproduced.
- Australian Building Codes Board. BCA 2004: Building Code of Australia, Volumes One and Two, and the Guide to the BCA 2004 (2004). Supplied copies reviewed for the history of the performance-based code in Chapter 1 only. BCA 2004 is superseded; none of its values, tables or wording are used, and its text is Crown copyright.
- Standards Australia. Standards referenced by the NCC: AS 2419.1, AS 2441, AS 2444, AS/NZS 2293.1, AS 1428.1, AS 1657 and AS/NZS 1170.1 (editions as referenced by the applicable NCC). Named by number and scope only. These standards are paywalled and were not read for this book; no values from them are quoted.
