Combustible cladding · Identification
How to identify combustible cladding on a Victorian building.
What makes a cladding system combustible has very little to do with what you can see from the street. Here is what actually determines combustibility — and how to find out which system is on your building.
Material types
The core, not the surface, determines combustibility.
Combustibility is determined by what is inside the panel, not the surface finish. Two panels can look identical from the street and behave very differently in a fire. Three cladding types have driven Victoria's combustible cladding programme.
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Aluminium composite panels with polyethylene core (ACP-PE)
Two thin aluminium skins around a polyethylene core. Polyethylene burns. ACP-PE was specified widely between roughly 2000 and 2015 because it was lightweight, affordable and dimensionally stable. It is non-compliant under the current NCC and is the system at the centre of most rectification works.
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Expanded polystyrene (EPS) systems
Render applied over expanded polystyrene insulation. EPS is itself highly flammable; the render skin provides some protection but does not eliminate the underlying combustibility. EPS systems were common on lower-rise residential and on heritage buildings retrofitted for thermal performance.
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ACP with a fire-retardant core (ACP-FR)
Same aluminium-skin construction, but the core uses a mineral-filled, fire-retardant compound. ACP-FR may be compliant under the NCC depending on the building's height and separation distances and the specific certified product. Visually indistinguishable from non-compliant ACP-PE without documentation.
Visual limits
Why you cannot tell from the ground.
Looking at a facade from the street tells you almost nothing about what is inside the panel. Surface paint, the aluminium skin, even panel size and edge detail are the same across compliant and non-compliant systems. Identifying which is which requires one of three things: original product documentation from the building's construction (often missing), a physical core sample taken from the panel itself (definitive), or a facade specialist inspection that combines documentary review with on-panel verification. None of these are visual-from-the-ground exercises.
The assessment
What an accredited assessment actually does.
A professional cladding assessment is a structured process, not a glance. The specialist begins with the building's available documentation — original architectural drawings, product certifications, any prior reports. Then physical inspection of each cladding elevation, including access to verify panel composition where documentation is inconclusive. The output is a defect report that identifies the panel type and product, maps the extent across the building, classifies fire risk under the NCC, and recommends a course of action. That report is the foundation document for everything that follows: OC decisions, insurer disclosures, rectification scopes.
Next steps
What to do once cladding is identified.
Identification is the first step in a sequenced process. Assessment confirms what is on the building; the defect report becomes the evidence base for an OC resolution or owner decision; the works specification turns that decision into a compliant remediation. Each step has its own professionals and its own timeline. The process does not run in days — but it does need to start once an issue is known.
See the full rectification processQuestions
Identifying combustible cladding, answered.
Need a definitive identification of your building's cladding?
Summit Facades carries out accredited cladding assessments — documentation review, on-panel verification, and a defect report your owners corporation or risk register can act on.
Request an assessment