B&D Garage Doors and Openers are providing a range of wind-resistant garage doors fully tested and certified to meet revised Australian Standards.
B&D Doors, the creators of the original wind-rated Roll-A-Door garage doors are helping builders, developers and home owners meet new compliance requirements for doors, which are similar to the requirements applicable on all other building products used in cyclone prone areas.
The National Construction Code has been modified, requiring new buildings constructed in cyclone-prone areas of northern Australia to use wind-resistant garage doors. The recent change to the Code and Australian Standards applies to new buildings in all coastal areas north of Bundaberg in Queensland, the Northern Territory, and West Australia down to Carnarvon (Wind Regions C and D).
The revised Australian Standard AS/NZS 4505:2012 'Garage doors and other large access doors' is now referenced in the National Construction Code (NCC) 2013 - Housing Provisions (Building Code of Australia Volume Two) for Wind Regions C and D, which experience wind speeds of up to 266 and 310km/h respectively.
Garage doors sold in Regions C and D are now required to be tested, certified and supplied with a sticker displaying information including the door's design pressure.
B&D Doors worked with the James Cook University Cyclone Testing Station (CTS) to assess and certify their product’s performance and ensure the doors comply with the revised standards.
Established after the devastation caused by cyclones Althea and Tracy in the early 1970s, the CTS is an independent facility with the expertise to conduct research, testing and community education aimed at minimising suffering and loss from building damage in high wind events.
CTS development manager Graeme Stark explained that the inclusion of the revised standards in the regulation was necessary to ensure that garage doors were of the same standard as the buildings where they were installed.
Pointing out that investigations of buildings affected by cyclones have shown the under-performance of garage doors, he said the premature failure of the door can lead to more expensive damage to the building, contents and surrounding property, and even endanger lives.
CTS uses test loads based on the cyclonic wind pressures detailed in the Australian wind load standard (AS/NZS 1170.2), employing testing rigs that place around 1000 cycles of force on doors to replicate loads generated in cyclones.
Many B&D garage doors have been tested and certified to meet the revised standard, including the innovative Windpanel sectional door, windlocked Roll-A-Doors and a range of Roll-A-Shutter products.
B&D Windpanel sectional doors derive their additional strength by reinforcing the door structure and providing an additional bracing system, which can be manually applied to a door during an imminent cyclone. The brace design uniquely protects against garage door blow-in and blow-out, via a hinge system that connects the door to the high-wind brace using a deflection bracket.
