Home News Industry Updates Government’s gift to builders and designers

March 2018

Government’s gift to builders and designers

02 Feb 2018, Industry Updates

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has made a number of building and design-related documents freely available to help improve industry compliance

MBIE has sponsored five building standards and a handbook, meaning anyone can access and download them free from Standards New Zealand’s website.

The move follows the launch of Building CodeHub – an online search engine that helps people locate resources for building construction and design – and Minister for Building and Construction Jenny Salesa hopes that the combined effects will result in safer homes and buildings, and improve compliance with the building code.

“We anticipate that providing free access to these standards will make it easier for consumers to understand the building code requirements and apply best practice methods when undertaking home building projects,” said Ms Salesa.

“MBIE will also continue to make the building system more accessible through further enhancements to Building CodeHub and by considering ways to improve access to more design and construction building standards.”

The sponsored documents are:

  • Design for access and mobility: Buildings and associated facilities (NZS 4121:2001) – provides solutions for making buildings and facilities accessible to and usable by people with disabilities.
  • Housing, alterations and small buildings contract (NZS 3902:2004) – a plain English standard building contract.
  • Thermal insulation – housing and small buildings (NZS 4218:2009) – helps establish the levels of thermal insulation for houses and small buildings.
  • Interconnected smoke alarms for houses (NZS 4514:2009) – provides information about the placement and audibility of smoke alarms.
  • Safety barriers and fences around swimming pools, spas and hot tubs (NZS 8500:2006) – describes barriers for residential pools including ways to assess their strength.
  • Handbook on Timber-framed buildings (selected extracts from NZS 3604:2011) – figures and tables to help design and construct timber-framed buildings up to three floors high.

MBIE Building Performance and Engineering Manager Dave Robson said they were chosen because they are among the most commonly used, apply to a wide range of people and reflect recent changes in legislation.

“Making these standards freely available will remove the cost barrier associated with having relevant and up-to-date information available for anyone carrying out building work [that has been] affected by recent changes to the Building Act and Residential Tenancies Act,” said Robson.

“MBIE expects that reducing the barriers to accessing standards will lead to increased application of best practice and compliance with the Building Code.”

As part of the agreement, MBIE pays an annual fee to Standards New Zealand. Robson said a user could save up to $793 excluding GST.

“That amount depends on what standards the user might have otherwise purchased, and whether that purchase would have been as a hard copy, PDF, or by annual subscription.

“The sponsorship of these five standards and handbook is intended to benefit the general public including, but not limited to, builders. MBIE expects that they will often be taken up by users, who would otherwise not have purchased them.”

Future moves

Asked if the standards and handbook will remain free if they’re updated or amended, Robson said  any decision would be made at the time the amendment or revision is published or – when relevant – at the time it is referenced as a means of compliance with the Building Code.

Regarding the sponsorship of any other standards or building-related documents, he said there were a number of issues MBIE would need to consider:

  • Some standards include content that cannot be freely distributed because Standards New Zealand does not own the rights to do so. This includes content that has been licensed for use from overseas standards organisations.
  • There are substantial costs to develop and update standards, which Standards New Zealand is required to recover. MBIE must consider the best use of public money when deciding whether to sponsor these costs and make more standards available.
  • Although the five standards and handbook MBIE has sponsored will be useful to a wide range of people, many building standards are more specialised. MBIE must consider whether the benefits of making specialised information publicly available exceed the costs.

He added that, at this time, no decisions have been made on sponsoring access to any further standards or other documents.

To access the documents, visit the following website: https://www.standards.govt.nz/sponsored-standards/building-standards.


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