Anyone who’s visited our news section recently would have noticed that we’ve been putting a lot of emphasis on the South African National Standards, also known as SANS, in specific relation to balustrade installations. We’re deeply concerned about the lack of understanding of and compliance with these legally required codes and are doing our best to help educate building professionals and customers about their responsibilities regarding these regulations. We were recently asked an excellent question by a structural engineer and we thought it best to share the question and our response with all of you. In our recent article, your responsibilities as a construction professional regarding theSANS, we discussed the importance of getting a certificate stating that the balustrades meet or exceed the minimum requirements of the SANS, bearing in mind that there are defined loading requirements for certain occupancy categories. The structural engineer called us and asked under which circumstances he becomes responsible for the sign off of the balustrades. Our operations manager, Frans Fourie explained the following to him:
- Firstly it is not always the structural engineer on the project that must sign off the balustrade design.
- The client needs to make sure that the balustrades are signed off at the design stage. There are three scenarios that the client will encounter when having the balustrades signed off, namely:
- The architects drawing specifies that the balustrade contract is a design and supply contract. Steel Studio would therefore appoint an engineer to sign off on the design before continuing with manufacture and installation.
- The client chooses not to issue a design and supply contract. The client is therefore responsible to appoint the engineer to sign off the balustrade design before manufacture and installation and in turn indemnifies the balustrade manufacturer from any design liabilities.
- The client doesn’t know any better. It is then the balustrade manufacturer’s responsibility to point out to the client, firstly that they are liable if they choose not to install balustrades that comply with the SANS regulations. Secondly, they will not receive an engineer’s sign off from the balustrade manufacturer if they do not install a balustrade system that complies with the SANS. Lastly, they will be indemnifying the balustrade manufacturer from any liabilities if they do not install balustrades that comply with the SANS regulations. The client is now aware of the options and consequenses of their decision. If they insist on a design that doesn’t comply with the SANS, they must realise that no engineer will sign off on the balustrades and in the case of a new build, the building inspector will not issue an occupation certificate.
To clarify the structural engineer’s question, he is only responsible for the balustrade signoff if the architect has not issued a design and supply contract to the balustrade company and if it is in his scope to sign off the balustrades. That being said, we are now motivating architects to place the following notice on their drawings so that we can do the engineers sign off and as a matter of convenience and take the liabilities of the balustrades off the architects/clients’ hands. “The balustrades are a design and supply contract, and the subcontractor must provide a professional engineers certificate on completion. All shop drawings submitted for approval, need to be first signed off by the subcontractors professional engineer prior to submittal.”