Building: Class 6 takeaway restaurant, tenancy fit out with a walk in cool room
Location: Southern Tasmania
NCC edition: NCC 2022, Volume One, Tasmanian variations
Area of NCC requirements: TAS I4P13 refrigerated chambers; TAS I4D18 cool room floor grading and drain
Raised by: The relevant building surveyor, with the council environmental health officer as a stakeholder
Year: 2026
The challenge
Tasmania's variation TAS I4D18 requires a cool room floor to be graded to a drain outside the chamber, as near as practicable to the door. The fit out used a sealed, insulated, coved cool room floor with no falls and no drain. Retrofitting falls in a tenancy is costly, and a drain inside the chamber brings its own hygiene problems.
The performance solution
Expert judgement and comparison with the Deemed to Satisfy Provisions, against the intent of the clause: stop water pooling and contaminating stored food. The report relied on an Employee Management Plan run by the operator:
the cool room floor is mopped on a set schedule, never hosed down
a cleaner's sink elsewhere in the tenancy takes all mop and wash water
no stock is stored on the floor, so the floor stays visible and easy to clean
the refrigeration unit has its own condensate tray and drain
The report also made the point that a floor waste is a recessed penetration in an otherwise sealed floor. It is hard to clean and can harbour pests, which works against TAS I4P8 and TAS I4P9.
Authority
Prepared under the Building Act 2016 (Tas) to support the certificate of likely compliance (s134) and the plumbing application (s166), and to help the environmental health officer assess the drainage arrangement.
Outcome
Final report issued to the building surveyor, owner and environmental health officer in August 2026. Successfully accepted by the relevant building surveyor. This is one of several similar cool room reports DAV has prepared for Tasmanian food fit outs.
Lesson for food fit outs
Raise cool room drainage with the building surveyor and environmental health officer before the floor is ordered. A clear cleaning plan is often a better answer than a drain.
Related: Performance solutions Tasmania | Performance solution report
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