Moves to make building rules easier to access and understand
Moves to make building rules easier to access and understand
The Government is making it easier for people to understand and apply best practice when designing and constructing buildings.
By launching a new building system search engine and sponsoring five commonly used building standards and a handbook, we hope to see improved compliance with the Building Code, and even more importantly, safer homes and buildings, says Minister for Building and Construction Jenny Salesa.
“The online search engine, Building CodeHub helps people locate the latest building rules and guidance information for designing and constructing buildings,” says Ms Salesa. “It’s thedefinitive source of up-to-date rules and guidance from a range of sources.”
“New Zealand’s building regulator the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), has sponsored some of the most commonly-used standards, making them freely available to all users,” says Ms Salesa.
“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.”
The sponsored
standards and handbook, which can be accessed from the Standards New Zealand website,
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 storeys high.
“MBIE
will continue to make the building system more accessible
with further enhancements to Building CodeHub and considering ways to
improve access to more design and construction building
standards,” says Ms
Salesa.