The 2nd amendment to the Building Materials List ÖA came into force on April 1, 2024. The updates and additions included are intended to cover the constantly advancing state of the art and thus continue to ensure the high standard of construction products used in Austria.

Text Jakob Witzeneder

—

Introduction

The Construction Materials List ÖA, together with the Construction Materials List ÖE, defines the requirements applicable to construction products in Austria and thus represents a uniform set of rules for assessing the use of construction products within all federal provinces. While the Construction Materials List ÖE exclusively contains the conditions of use of construction products based on a harmonized technical specification published in the Official Journal of the EU, the Construction Materials List ÖA regulates those product areas for which no harmonized technical specifications are yet available. The Expert Advisory Board for Building Material Lists (SVBBL) set up at the Austrian Institute of Construction Engineering (OIB), in which each of the nine federal provinces is represented by an expert, regularly revises the currently valid editions in order to take account of the current state of the art and to implement any updates that the provinces deem necessary.

2nd amendment to the list of building materials ÖA

The 2nd amendment to the Building Materials List ÖA consists of the introductory remarks, which contain important information on the general handling of the Building Materials List ÖA, the individual ordinances of the federal states, in which the transitional provisions of §3 are of particular interest to the reader, and the annex including Annex A. The annex contains the actual changes compared to the previous version of the Building Materials List ÖA (new version 2015 including 1st amendment 2019). It is important to understand here that product groups that have not undergone any changes or deletions and are therefore not included in the 2nd amendment remain unchanged. As this principle can make it difficult for users to look up the relevant information – especially as the number of amendments increases – the OIB always makes a consolidated version available to download from its website. This shows the currently valid overall status and thus simplifies handling. The OIB’s principles of use, which are fundamental additions to the Building Materials List ÖA, can also be found online. If they need to be updated, they will be revised and published at the same time as the Building Materials List ÖA.

Newly added and deleted product groups

The 2nd amendment to the Building Materials List ÖA contains only one new product group, namely No. 1.1.8: “Cement whose use is not regulated in ÖNORM B 4710-1:2018 and ÖNORM B 4710-2:2020”.

According to section 5.1.1 of the standards referred to, the suitability of starting materials not defined in these ÖNORMs is required, among other things, by rules applicable at the place of use of the concrete, which expressly refer to the use of the starting material in concrete in accordance with ÖNORM B 4710-1/-2 [1, 2]. This also applies to cements according to ÖNORM EN 197-5:2021, which is why this product group was included in the Building Materials List ÖA. It should be noted that ÖNORM EN 197-5:2021 [3] is currently not a harmonized standard and products according to this standard are therefore not subject to CE marking.

Due to a lack of relevance, product groups 1.1.6, 1.3.1, 1.4.5, 2.5.1, 3.5.4 and 16.1.1 have been deleted without replacement. This is intended to further ensure and improve the clarity and handling of the building materials list.

Changes to existing product groups

In order to take into account the changed conditions as a result of adapted regulations at normative level and in the OIB’s principles of use for product areas defined in the Building Materials List ÖA, corresponding adjustments were made in the following product groups (consecutive no.), among others: 2.1.8 (Annex A), 2.1.9 (Annex A), 2.2.1 (Annex A), 2.2.2 (including Annex A), 2.2.3, 2.3 (including Annex A), 2.6.1, 3.2, 3.4, 4.1.1 (including Annex A), 13.1.1 to 13.1.5, 14.1 (including Annex A), 14.2 (including Annex A), 14.3 and 15.2 (including Annex A). This concerns both the updating of the regulations and the binding nature of the relevant informative annexes regarding specifications for initial testing and quality monitoring, such as in the updated standards ÖNORM B 3328:2021 [4] and ÖNORM B 4710-2:2020.

For product groups 14.1, 14.2 and 14.3, extensive adjustments and specifications regarding external monitoring were necessary as a result of the new edition of ÖNORM B 3850:2023 [5], which replaced the original standards ÖNORM B 3850:2014 [6], ÖNORM B 3851:2014[7], ÖNORM B 3852:2014 [8] and ÖNORM B 3853:2014[9]. This was preceded by extensive preliminary discussions and agreements with both the testing bodies and representatives of the manufacturers (AMFT).

For product group no. 5.1, a significant simplification and clarification was achieved by merging the previous product groups no. 5.1.6, 5.1.7 and 5.1.11 into a newly introduced product group no. 5.1.1 “Thermal insulation materials for buildings, technical building equipment and operational systems”. At the same time, the distinction between products subject to the ÃœA and products not subject to the installation mark was clearly defined. Due to the lack of availability of current standards, the building approval was introduced as a uniform set of rules for the entire product group.

Furthermore, additions concerning the suspension of the obligation to affix the installation mark in the case of CE-marked products in accordance with (voluntary) European Technical Assessments based on European Assessment Documents (EAD) for the relevant product areas were included. These adaptations had become necessary because for many products the relevant European Assessment Documents have now replaced the ETAGs originally issued by the European Organization for Technical Assessment (EOTA) and listed in the Building Materials List ÖA.

Outlook and conclusion

Digitization is also finding its way into the building materials list and therefore the 2nd amendment to the Building Materials List ÖA is the last physically printed edition. In future, all amendments and new versions will only be published in digital form and it will be interesting to see what this new format will look like.

The 2nd amendment to the Building Materials List ÖA is another important step towards ensuring the quality and safety of construction products used in Austria and supports the standardization of building requirements in the various federal provinces. The updates and additions are intended to take account of the latest developments in the construction industry and offer manufacturers and users of construction products greater clarity and legal certainty in Austria.

List of standards

[1] ÖNORM B 4710-1: Concrete – Specification, properties, production, use and conformity. Part 1: Rules for the implementation of ÖNORM EN 206 for normal and heavy concrete, January 1, 2018.

[2] ÖNORM B 4710-2: Concrete – Specification, properties, production, use and conformity. Part 2: Rules for the implementation of ÖNORM EN 206 for joint-tight lightweight concrete with a dry bulk density of 800 kg/m³ to 2 000 kg/m³, March 1, 2020.

[3] ÖNORM EN 197-5: Cement. Part 5: Portland composite cement CEM II/C-M and composite cement CEM VI, June 15, 2021.

[4] ÖNORM B 3328: Precast concrete products. Requirements, testing and demonstration of conformity of products not covered by harmonized European product standards, 15 November 2021.

[5] ÖNORM B 3850: Fire protection closures and/or smoke protection closures – Requirements and tests for single and multi-leaf elements, January 2023.

[6] ÖNORM B 3850: Fire protection barriers – swing doors and gates and swing doors – Requirements and tests for single and double-leaf elements, April 1, 2014.

[7] ÖNORM B 3851: Smoke control barriers – Swing doors, swing doors and gates – Requirements and tests for single and double-leaf elements,July 15, 2014.

[8] ÖNORM B 3852: Fire barriers – Lifting, lifting link, tilting, rolling, sliding, folding doors and gates and fabric barriers – Requirements and tests, November 15, 2014.

[9] ÖNORM B 3853: Smoke control barriers – Lifting, lifting link, tilting, rolling, sliding, folding doors, gates and fabric barriers – Requirements and tests, November 15, 2014.