Design and Material Selection for Quality — Volume 2

The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) publishes Design and Material Selection for Quality — Volume 2 as a Good Industry Practices guide. The guide continues the quality focus of Volume 1 by concentrating on material selection and architectural components that affect construction quality, while recognising that a material choice must also work in installation, use and maintenance (BCA Volume 2 guide, accessed 2 September 2026).

Material systems covered

The contents cover agglomerated marble, engineered quartz stone, rectified ceramic tiles, lightweight composite stone panels, bedding adhesives for stones and tiles, grouting, and impregnators for natural stones. The guide also includes engineered hardwood flooring, repair fillers for stone and timber, honeycomb timber doors with integrated architrave frames, composite fibre-plastic materials, waterproofing of reinforced-concrete flat roofs, and M&E fittings and accessories (BCA Volume 2 guide, accessed 2 September 2026).

Selection is linked to performance

Volume 2 presents material selection as a multi-criteria decision. The selected product should be considered for function, appearance, ease of installation, maintainability and durability, alongside initial and possible lifecycle costs. A product that looks suitable in isolation may perform poorly if its substrate, adhesive, jointing, surface treatment, adjoining material or installation method is incompatible; the guide's separate chapters on stones, tiles, adhesives, grout and impregnators make those interfaces explicit (BCA Volume 2 guide, accessed 2 September 2026).

Construction protection and remedial quality

The guide includes practices for protecting completed work and for repair or reinstatement of stone and timber. That emphasis matters because construction quality can be lost after installation when later trades scratch, stain or otherwise damage a finish. Surface treatments such as impregnators are presented as material-specific measures whose compatibility and application must be considered; they do not remove the need for correct design, installation and protection (BCA Volume 2 guide, accessed 2 September 2026).

Status and use in Singapore projects

Volume 2 is a good-practice reference, not a current statutory code or a universal product specification. BCA's current construction-quality framework and the applicable project documents remain the route for determining present requirements. Practitioners can use the guide to ask better questions at design and procurement stages, then confirm current standards, statutory requirements, manufacturer's instructions and professional advice for the actual material and project conditions (BCA Construction Quality, accessed 2 September 2026).