# AEC Assistant > The National Construction Code, answered with citations. AEC Assistant is an AI research assistant for Australian architects, builders and building consultants. It answers questions from the National Construction Code (NCC 2019, 2022 and 2025), state building and planning legislation, ABCB handbooks and the standards the Code references, and cites the clause behind every answer. The free plan covers full-text search of NCC 2025 and NCC 2022 with citations, plus Australia-wide planning information for any address. Paid plans add projects, document upload and deeper knowledge of the standards the Code references. All eight states and territories are covered. Every page on this site can be requested as Markdown with `Accept: text/markdown`. Machine-readable descriptions: `/.well-known/ai-catalog.json` (ARD) and `/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json` (Agent Skills). ## Product - [Platform](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/platform): what the assistant reads, how it cites, projects and memory - [Pricing](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/pricing): plans and what each includes - [For architects](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/for/architects) - [For builders](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/for/builders) - [For building consultants](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/for/building-consultants) - [Customers](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/customers) - [Trust and security](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/trust): where documents live and who can see them - [What's new](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/changelog) - [Try it free](https://app.aecassistant.com.au/) ## Free NCC calculators Deterministic, unit-tested, no account. Inputs ride in the URL query string; see the `ncc-calculators` skill for parameter names. - [Stair calculator](https://app.aecassistant.com.au/tools/stair-calculator): Riser, going and 2R+G against NCC D3D14, Housing Provisions 11.2 and AS 1428.1. - [Ramp calculator](https://app.aecassistant.com.au/tools/ramp-calculator): Gradient, landings and handrails against AS 1428.1:2021. - [Luminance contrast](https://app.aecassistant.com.au/tools/luminance-contrast): The 30% contrast check between adjoining surfaces, to AS 1428.1. - [Light and ventilation](https://app.aecassistant.com.au/tools/light-ventilation): Natural light and ventilation areas under NCC Part F6. - [Occupancy and exits](https://app.aecassistant.com.au/tools/occupancy-egress): Occupant numbers from Table D2D18, exit widths and travel distances. - [Sanitary facilities](https://app.aecassistant.com.au/tools/sanitary-facilities): Pan, basin and accessible counts for every class, from the F4D4 tables. - [Gutters and downpipes](https://app.aecassistant.com.au/tools/gdo-calculator): Roof drainage sizing from the Housing Provisions tables and AS/NZS 3500.3. ## Guides Guides to the NCC and Australian Standards, every figure cited to the clause. Index: [/news](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/news), JSON: [/news/index.json](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/news/index.json), feed: [/news/rss.xml](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/news/rss.xml). ### Code and compliance - [NCC Insulation Requirements: R-Values for Roofs, Walls and Floors by Climate Zone (2025 Guide)](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/news/ncc-insulation-requirements-r-values-by-climate-zone): The minimum insulation R-value for a house ceiling, wall or floor is read from the climate-zone tables in Part 13.2 of the ABCB Housing Provisions. This guide gives the headline NCC 2025 figures for the common cases in all eight zones, plus the thermal bridging, reflective foil, solar absorptance, edge-reduction and condensation rules around them. - [Fire-Rated Walls for Houses: NCC 900 mm Boundary Rule, FRL 60/60/60 and Party Walls (2025 Guide)](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/news/ncc-fire-rated-walls-houses-900mm-boundary-rule): When a house wall must be fire-rated under the NCC: the 900 mm boundary and 1.8 m building-to-building rules in Housing Provisions 9.2.1, what FRL 60/60/60 means, openings and eaves near the boundary, separating walls to 9.3.1, service penetrations, garage exemptions, and the SA, NSW and WA variations. - [BAL Ratings Explained: Bushfire Attack Levels from BAL-LOW to BAL-FZ (2025 Guide)](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/news/bal-ratings-explained-bushfire-attack-level-as-3959): The six Bushfire Attack Levels in AS 3959:2018, the radiant heat each one represents, how an assessor derives a BAL from fire danger index, vegetation, distance and slope, what each level requires for walls, windows, roofs and decks, and where the NCC and the state schedules change the rules. - [NCC Balustrade Requirements: Heights, Gaps, Climbability, Glass and Wire Barriers (2025 Guide)](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/news/ncc-balustrade-requirements-height-gaps-glass-wire): Every NCC balustrade figure in one place: the 1 m fall trigger, 1 m and 865 mm heights, the 125 mm sphere and 40 mm face gap, the 150 to 760 mm climbability zone above 4 m, wire barrier tables, AS 1288 glass rules and the 2 m and 4 m openable window limits. - [NCC Ceiling Heights: Minimum Room Heights for Houses and Commercial Buildings (2025 Guide)](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/news/ncc-ceiling-heights-minimum-room-heights): Every NCC minimum ceiling height in one place: 2.4 m habitable rooms, 2.1 m kitchens, bathrooms and garages, 2.0 m over stairs, the two-thirds rule for raked ceilings and attics, and the Volume One figures for apartments, offices, schools and hospitals. Unchanged from NCC 2022 to NCC 2025. - [NCC Climate Zones Explained: The 8 Zones, How to Find Yours, and What Changes Between Them (2025)](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/news/ncc-climate-zones-explained-map-what-changes-by-zone): The eight NCC climate zones explained: what each one means, how to find the zone for any address (Sydney is two zones), why NCC and NatHERS zones differ, and what NCC 2025 changes between them for insulation, roof colour, wall membranes and the drained cavity now mandatory in zones 6, 7 and 8. - [NCC Stair Requirements: Risers, Goings, Handrails and Balustrades (2025 Guide)](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/news/ncc-stair-requirements-risers-goings-handrails-balustrades): Every NCC 2025 stair dimension for a house and a commercial building, with the clause behind each figure: riser 115 to 190 mm, going 240 to 355 mm, 2R + G between 550 and 700, 865 mm handrails, 1 m barriers and the 125 mm sphere test. Two diagrams and a free calculator. - [NCC 2025: What Changed, and When Your State Adopts It](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/news/ncc-2025-changes-state-adoption-dates): NCC 2025 became available for adoption on 1 May 2026. Four months on, it is still not the code most Australian projects are assessed against. Who is on it, who is not, and what changed at clause level. - [Waterproof vs Water-Resistant: The AS 3740:2021 Materials Lists and the Compatibility Chain](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/news/as-3740-waterproof-vs-water-resistant): AS 3740:2021 sorts every wet-area material into waterproof or water-resistant, in Clause 3.3. The lists as a working reference, the NCC clauses that decide which label applies, and the compatibility chain in Appendix E that most failures break. - [AS 3740:2021 Explained: Scope, Changes from 2010, and How the NCC Calls It Up](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/news/as-3740-2021-waterproofing-guide): AS 3740:2021 is the edition every NCC 2022 and NCC 2025 wet-area provision points at. What it covers, what changed from 2010 with clause references, which NCC clause calls it up for your building class, and the numbers to keep at hand. - [The Block 2025 Bathroom Week: What the Reveals Show About AS 3740 and the Housing Provisions](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/news/block-2025-week-1-bathroom-waterproofing-compliance): The Block 2025 bathroom week: adhesive failures, high vanities and an unfinished room. Every one of those maps to a clause, and the clauses for a Class 1 house are not the ones most articles cite. A verified checklist for waterproofing, ventilation, livable housing, electrical and plumbing. - [NCC 2022 Amendment 2: Every Change, and What to Re-check](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/news/ncc-2022-amendment-2-key-changes-you-need-to-know): NCC 2022 Amendment 2 took effect on 29 July 2025. It references AS 1428.1:2021 and rewrites D3D22, D4D4 and Volume Three E1D2. Every change, what did not change, and what to re-check. - [AS/NZS 3500:2025: What Changed and When It Applies](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/news/as-nzs-3500-2025-plumbing-drainage-changes): Standards Australia published the 2025 editions of AS/NZS 3500 Parts 1 to 4 on 17 April 2025. Victoria made them mandatory on 20 October 2025; everywhere else they arrive with NCC 2025. The changes, clause by clause. ### Planning - [Victoria's Townhouse and Low-Rise Code (Clause 55): The Numbers, the Standards and How to Lodge](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/news/victoria-townhouse-and-low-rise-code-clause-55): Victoria's Townhouse and Low-Rise Code replaced ResCode at Clause 55 on 31 March 2025. Meet every applicable standard and the application is exempt from objector appeal. The numbers, the standards list, the documents to lodge, and the traps, verified against the May 2025 Guidelines. ### Sustainability and energy - [Ventilated Rainscreen Facades and NCC Section J: Thermal Bridging, R-values and the Clauses That Apply](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/news/ventilated-rainscreen-facades-ncc-section-j): How a ventilated rainscreen wall works, why thermal bridging decides its real R-value, and where the requirements sit in NCC 2022 Section J: J4D3, J4D6, Specification 37 and Part F8. ### Practice - [AS 4000:2025 General Conditions of Contract: What Changed and Why It Matters](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/news/as-4000-2025-general-conditions-of-contract-changes): AS 4000:2025 replaced the 1997 general conditions on 30 June 2025. The headline changes with clause numbers: GST, PPSA, WHS principal contractor, dispute resolution, and what to fix in your templates. - [How a Building Learns to Think](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/news/how-a-building-learns-to-think): Three of the most credible analyst voices in construction technology published their theses within weeks of each other. McKinsey on agentic services. Andreessen Horowitz on the system-of-record era ending. Zacua Ventures on AI across the construction value chain. All three arrived at the same structural observation we articulated in The Infrastructure Beneath the Infrastructure in March: the industry needs an intelligence layer, not more tools. The question is no longer whether. The question is how you build one that actually works. This article is our answer. Decision Intelligence Infrastructure (DII™) is a six-floor architecture. Each floor compounds on the floors beneath it. Most of the industry sits between the ground and second levels. The key challenge is not technical but human: institutional intelligence leaves when a project demobilises or when staff depart. Australia serves as a rigorous test case for any architecture aspiring to reach the sixth floor. We are building from this context and publishing the framework openly. - [The Infrastructure Beneath the Infrastructure.](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/news/the-infrastructure-beneath-the-infrastructure): By Matthew Secatore - Co-Founder of AEC Assistant 15 min read · Construction · Decision Intelligence · AEC Compliance · Infrastructure · AI - [Systemic Risks in the Australian Architecture Sector: The ARBV and NSW ARB Report Explained](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/news/systemic-risks-australian-architecture): The ARBV and NSW ARB joint report on systemic risks in the architecture sector (October 2022): D&C procurement, client agreements, NCC compliance and the climate and technology disruptors, with what a practice can do about each. - [Mother’s Day 2025: Honouring the Women Building Australia’s Future](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/news/mothers-day-2025-honouring-the-women-building-australias-future): On Mother's Day 2025 we look at the women balancing AEC careers with parenthood: participation figures, the parental leave rules from 1 July 2024, and what practices can do to keep them. ### Product and industry - [AEC Assistant Update 4: Faster Answers, NCC 2025 by Default, Projects That Know Their Site](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/news/aec-assistant-update-4-ncc-2025-projects-sharing): The biggest release since launch: faster and more thorough answers, NCC 2025 answered by default in every state, projects that fetch zoning and overlays from the address, sharing across your firm, public answer links, an installable app and seven free NCC calculators. With screenshots. - [From search tool to decision engine: AEC Assistant Update 3](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/news/from-search-tool-to-decision-engine-aec-assistant-update-3): We named the problem. We published the architecture. Now we've shipped it: AEC Assistant rebuilt around projects, memory and cited, project-specific compliance answers. There's a free plan, so bring a real question and put it to the test. - [AEC Assistant Update 2 (October 2025)](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/news/aec-assistant-update-2): AEC Assistant Update 2 (October 2025): smarter compliance reasoning, live web search, split-screen PDF sources and image markup. Superseded; see Update 3 for the current product. - [AEC Assistant Update 1 (July 2025)](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/news/aec-assistant-month-one-round-up): Month one of AEC Assistant (July 2025): jurisdiction-aware search, multi-image queries, team plans and two new calculators. Superseded; see Update 3 for the current product. - [Welcome to the AEC Assistant Blog](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/news/blog-post-1-introducing-our-founders): Introducing our founders, Andrew Galea and Matthew Secatore, and why we started AEC Assistant. ## Company - [About](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/about) - [Contact](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/contact) - [Terms of service](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/terms-of-service) - [Privacy policy](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/privacy-policy) - [Usage policy](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/usage-policy) ## Optional - [Full text of every guide](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/llms-full.txt) - [Sitemap](https://www.aecassistant.com.au/sitemap-index.xml)