On 24 August 2026, a literal search for AS 3958 returned 0 matches in each of the NCC 2025 Schedule 2 referenced-documents pages for Volume One, Volume Two and Volume Three. That is the narrow fact behind this title: AS 3958 is not legislation, and NCC 2025 does not turn it into a statutory requirement by listing it as a referenced document.
That does not make the standard irrelevant. A contract, specification or other project document may name a standard and give it a role in the work. The useful question is therefore not whether somebody remembers hearing that AS 3958 is “the law”. It is which documents govern this project, which edition they name, who accepts each responsibility, and what written record you will receive. Those are the six confirmations below.
What the public records establish
Standards Australia’s public FAQ says it publishes voluntary standards and that a government reference in legislation can make a standard mandatory. The three NCC 2025 Schedule 2 pages checked above do not contain AS 3958.
That finding is specific to those national schedules, that edition and the date of the check. It is not a search of every contract, approval, state variation or other instrument that could affect a particular job. If another instrument is being relied on, ask for its exact identity rather than treating this NCC search as evidence about a document it did not examine.
The Standards Australia catalogue identifies AS 3958:2023 as Installation of ceramic and stone tiles and marks its status Current. It also shows the latest version designation as AS 3958:2023 Amd 1:2024. Those catalogue facts are enough to identify the document. This article does not reproduce, summarise or turn any paid standard content into instructions.
Why the wording belongs in the project documents
“We follow Australian Standards” is too loose to settle a disagreement. It does not identify a document, edition, amendment, contractual priority or person responsible for deciding whether the statement has been met.
Ask your tiler to put the exact reference in the quote, scope or other agreed document, or to state plainly that the standard is not being incorporated. The answer matters because it locates the promise; it does not ask a retailer to invent one. If the tiler offers different wording, ask what document gives that wording its project-specific meaning.
This is the same discipline used in what to confirm before choosing: a recorded fact is not approval for an application. Here the discipline moves from the tile record to the agreement. Do not turn a general assurance into your own interpretation. Ask which written document carries the assurance, who owns it and how another project document can change it.
The six confirmations to get in writing
- The exact standard reference. Which designation, edition and amendment, if any, will the agreed documents name?
- The exact scope. Which areas, interfaces, supplied items and exclusions belong to the tiler’s engagement?
- The decision owners. Who accepts product suitability, project conditions and information supplied by other parties?
- The document set. Which quote, drawings, schedules, product records and third-party documents will be relied on?
- The handover record. Which completed records will be provided, by whom, and at what agreed point?
- The change record. How will variations, departures, substitutions and superseded documents be identified and approved?
These are requests for names, boundaries and records. None asks the retailer to select a system, decide a construction detail or certify the result. If an answer depends on a builder, designer, waterproofer, engineer, manufacturer or certifier, the useful response is the name of that decision owner and the document they will issue. The FAQ can explain what this shop records; it cannot allocate those project roles.
1. Which standard designation is the project naming?
Ask the tiler to write the complete designation beside the promise, not just “Australian Standards”. For this topic, the public catalogue record is AS 3958:2023, status Current, with latest version designation AS 3958:2023 Amd 1:2024. Your question is whether that exact document, a different edition, or no AS 3958 document is named in the agreement. Do not silently update or backdate the reference yourself.
Then ask which document wins if the quote, specification, drawing or later variation says something different. That is a question about document identity and priority, not about the content of the standard. The written answer should let every party point to the same reference without relying on memory, trade shorthand or a claim made after the work has started. It should also settle whether an amendment is included, excluded or simply not addressed.
2. What exactly is inside the tiler’s scope?
Ask for a boundary that another person can read without filling gaps. It should identify the areas included, the interfaces the tiler is accepting, items supplied by the tiler or by someone else, and anything expressly excluded. The point is not to prescribe how those things are handled. It is to prevent an unspoken dependency from becoming everybody else’s responsibility after a problem appears.
Where another trade or professional owns part of the project, ask for that boundary to be named too. “By others” is only useful when the “other” is identifiable and the expected document or decision is named.
A scope confirmation is not evidence that the work complies with a standard. It is the map of who must answer each question and which unanswered questions remain outside the tiler’s promise. Ask whether a short price line has a fuller scope document behind it, and which one controls.
3. Who owns each project decision?
Ask who will accept the selected tile for the proposed application, who will accept the conditions presented to the tiler, and who will resolve information supplied by other parties. A product page can report dimensions, finish or a test class where those facts are on file. It cannot appoint the responsible person for your project. The gap between a recorded product fact and an application decision must have an owner.
Use the questions in what to confirm before choosing as the product-side input, then ask the tiler which named person turns those inputs into a project decision. If the tiler will not own a decision, ask who will and what record they require. “Ask somebody” is not an allocation; a role, a name or an issuing organisation is. Ask how a change of decision owner will be recorded if the project team changes.
4. Which project documents will be relied on?
Ask for the agreed document set to be listed: quote, scope, drawings, schedules, product records, manufacturer documents and records issued by other responsible parties. Include revision identifiers or dates where the project already uses them. The purpose is simple: two documents with similar titles can say different things, and an unrecorded replacement can make it impossible to tell which one informed a decision.
A shopping page is an input, not a project specification. For example, the 600 × 600 mm tiles collection identifies a format and the products currently grouped under it; it does not decide which one suits a job. Ask which exact product record enters the project schedule, who checked the current version and which separate document carries any suitability decision. Ask where the agreed set will be kept so every party can read the same revision.
5. What records will be handed over?
Ask before work begins what completed record set will be provided and who is responsible for assembling it. The answer might name accepted project documents, approvals, product identifiers, variation records and information issued by other parties. It should also say when that set is due and where it will be kept. You are asking for an agreed record category, not for a retailer’s generic checklist to substitute for project judgment.
The distinction matters when a verbal answer changes. The site FAQ can be updated as shop information changes; a project record needs its own date, identity and owner. Ask whether the handover set will show which versions were relied on and which were superseded. Possessing a folder does not prove compliance, but a defined record makes later review possible. Ask who will resolve a missing or conflicting record before the set is accepted.
For a wet area that record set has a list of its own. Which documents to ask your waterproofer for sets it out.
6. How will changes and departures be recorded?
Ask what counts as a change, who may approve one and what written record replaces the earlier instruction. Include substitutions, revised documents, changed responsibilities and any proposal not to follow a document already named. This is not a demand that every change be rejected. It is a request that the project stop pretending two inconsistent instructions can both remain current.
Also ask how a proposed departure from AS 3958 will be described if the agreement has incorporated it. “Equivalent”, “usual practice” and “we always do it this way” do not identify an approving person or a superseding document.
The answer should point to the decision owner and the new record. It should also show when the earlier instruction stopped being current. Whether that change is legally or technically acceptable is for the responsible advisers, not this article.
A question that comes up after the tiles are down
The tiler says the tiles are different sizes. What can I check?
Three things, all on record. First, the Size row on the product page: it states a nominal size, and where a page also records a rectified edge the tiles were cut square after firing and hold that size tightly; where it does not, some variation between tiles is normal for a fired product and the joint is where it is absorbed. Second, the batch line every product page here carries: shade and surface vary between production batches, and so can size, which is why a job should be laid from one delivery. Third, the tiles themselves: keep two or three unlaid tiles from the delivery, put them face to face and edge to edge with the tiler present, and look. If they differ, that is a supply conversation, and Your rights when tiles arrive wrong covers it; if they do not, the surface is a workmanship conversation, and the six confirmations above are what it is judged against. Which it is should be decided by looking, not by who speaks first.
What these confirmations do—and do not—prove
A written designation, scope, responsibility map, document list, handover set and variation path reduce ambiguity. They do not prove that a tile is suitable, that work complies, that a contract has a particular legal effect or that a completed surface will perform.
They are the questions that make the people responsible for those judgments visible. If a project requires legal, technical or certification advice, obtain it from the person qualified and appointed to give it.
The public records in this article were checked on 24 August 2026. The NCC result is a literal AS 3958 search of the three NCC 2025 Schedule 2 pages linked above: 0 matches on each page. The Standards Australia facts are limited to its public catalogue and FAQ: designation, title, year, amendment label and Current status.
No paid standard text was copied or paraphrased. This article is not legal advice, an installation guide, a construction specification or an application approval.
The National Construction Code 2025 was provided by the Australian Building Codes Board under the CC BY 4.0 licence.
Next step — Check which NCC edition applies in your state before treating any NCC reference as current for your project.
Where this guide sits: Where to start sets out the order the guides follow.