What is a Section J Report?

Purpose of Section J Report: A Section J report is necessary when applying for a construction certificate for commercial buildings to demonstrate compliance with energy efficiency requirements. 

Primary Audiences: The report is primarily designed for two readers: 

• The certifier, who needs to verify compliance. 
• The client, who wants clear instructions on how to achieve compliance. 

Variability in Report Quality: Not all Section J reports are the same; some only list applicable clauses without assessments, while others provide detailed analyses and compliance pathways. 

Importance of Including Assessments: A proper Section J report should include detailed assessments showing how compliance will be met to avoid future issues and ensure clarity for all parties. 

Critical Content Elements: Essential elements in a thorough Section J report include project details, document control, an executive summary for clients, compliance pathways, the full assessment, calculations, and appendices defining thermal envelopes and other detailed data. 

Role of Supporting Documentation: Attachments or appendices are important for showing detailed calculations, insulation parameters, thermal zone boundaries, and other technical information critical for peer review and certifier validation. 

Illustrative Example Structure: The example report includes a cover page with project info, document control updates, an executive summary outlining client action items, a detailed fabric and compliance assessment against code requirements, and appended technical details.

A Section J report is required when applying for a construction certificate for a commercial building, but it seems not all Section J reports are the same. In this video, we’ll explore why that might be and what you should expect in a Section J report. 

A Section J report is really designed to be read by two different audiences. The first is the certifier, who wants to see that compliance has been achieved. The second is the client, who just wants to know what they have to do to comply. 

Often, when applying for a construction certificate, a simple BCA-style report is prepared, which is sufficient for the certifier at that point. This type of report identifies the Section J clauses relevant to the project but doesn’t include any assessment. You might see wording like, “This clause applies. Confirmation to the certifying authority within the construction documentation is required.” This kind of report identifies the clauses as applying but leaves the method of compliance to be determined later. While this may be enough for the construction certificate, it’s not best practice. 

The report should include the assessment to show how compliance will be achieved. This way, everyone is confident that the building will comply. Without the full assessment, compliance issues may not come to light until it’s too late. 

In another example, a simple report might quote values such as required insulation values or U and SHGC values without showing the workings. Any report that doesn’t show the workings cannot be peer-reviewed. Even without a peer review, the certifier has no way to verify the methodology used to arrive at the quoted values. The report may even be rejected on that basis. 

So, what should be in a Section J report? 

Firstly, there should be some basics: the address, the project description, the scope of work, the applicable version of the code, and document control. 

Secondly, a summary of the items required to achieve compliance based on the assessment should be included. This is very useful for the client, who is focused on knowing what they need to do. 

The report should include a BCA compliance pathway and the assessment itself. There may also be detailed information such as calculations and the definition of the thermal envelope, which might be included in an appendix. 

Let’s look at a practical example. These items can be put together in different ways, but I’ll use one of our projects to illustrate. 

The first page of our report includes the project description, address, building code edition, date, edition number, and our contact details. The second page is devoted to the document control box, showing three editions. Each time the design changed, an updated assessment was needed. This section describes what each edition updated. 

Next is the executive summary, which is really for the client. It clearly lists all the things they need to do to comply, based on the assessment that follows. Clients often focus on this section. 

Another page shows that Section J is quite comprehensive. It’s helpful to have everything listed in one place. At the end of the executive summary, there’s a table summarizing the fabric assessment. This is the biggest part of the assessment. The left-hand column lists all the items that need to be complied with. The middle column shows the code’s threshold requirement, and the right-hand column shows what we’ve achieved. For example, the roof requirement is R3.7, and we achieved R3.8, so we’ve complied. This is done for each line item. 

Then we move into the assessment. We repeat some information from the front page, such as the project description, building classification, climate zone, designer, and a list of drawings used in the assessment. 

Next is the compliance pathway, with responses or statements against each item under J1, J2, and J3. J4 begins the actual assessment, which is the fabric section. Some calculations are included here, and the detailed workings are found in the appendix. 

In the appendix, the first part defines the thermal envelope and areas of insulation. Since the thermal envelope is a three-dimensional concept, we’ve marked up section drawings to show how it covers the roof, walls, and floor. The rest of the appendix contains detailed calculations, including lighting calculations. 

This example shows what should be in a Section J report and how we approach it. There are different ways to put it together, but hopefully, this example is helpful. 

Thanks for sticking through the video—I hope it’s been helpful.