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Making building rules easier to understand A Government initiative has been launched in an attempt to make 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, the hope is 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. It’s the definitive source of up to date rules and guidance from a range of sources,” she says. “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. “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.
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Compliance – keeping quality front of mind Pressure is on the construction industry to provide buildings faster without risking quality. The New Zealand compliance options developed by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) exist to support quality products getting to market, minimising risk in product and system selection and giving you and your customers peace of mind. BRANZ has strengthened its service offering for quality in the building industry by adding CodeMark to its suite of compliance services. As part of the MBIE product certification scheme, CodeMark enables BRANZ to deliver end-to-end solutions to meet all product assurance needs. Underpinning BRANZ’s quality testing, independent assessment and certification experience, is five decades of BRANZ research and testing work. This experience forms the basis of the robust processes, rigorous testing and the high-quality standard of all BRANZ services. “BRANZ is focused on supporting quality within the construction industry. CodeMark is an important addition to the assurance services BRANZ already offers and means we can now help companies navigate all product assurance options,” says BRANZ consultancy services general manager, David Johnson. 12 | B&C - Issue #110
“The BRANZ Appraisal is highly regarded as part of the compliance process and an important part of the BRANZ offering which will continue to be supported. For many of our clients, CodeMark certification will be a valuable addition to an existing Appraisal.” A BRANZ CodeMark certificate ensures a building product or system will be accepted as complying with the Building Code by building consent authorities, within the scope of the certificate. Customers will gain confidence from the annual audit process to monitor products and their manufacturing process, that is required to maintain the validity of a BRANZ CodeMark. The BRANZ Appraisal is a technical opinion including design guidance and advice. It is based on extensive testing and verification of Building Code compliance that a product or system is fit for purpose, when used in the circumstances described in the Appraisal documentation. BRANZ carries out ongoing reviews to monitor quality control, field performance and installation practicality, as well as any changes for Codes and Standards. “It is important companies and others in the construction sector understand the different compliance options and choose the one that is right for them and their customers. BRANZ is in a prime position to support all parts of industry through this,” David says. To talk with an industry expert about how BRANZ can optimise your compliance options and maximise value for your business, call BRANZ 0800 080 063.
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Navigating compliance pathways can be confusing. BRANZ is focused on supporting quality within the construction industry. With more than 40 years of quality testing, independent assessment and certification experience BRANZ offers all levels of compliance certification and product assurance. BRANZ – Your one stop compliance partner • Showing clear pathways for product compliance • Minimising risk and giving you and your customers peace of mind • Independent and impartial validation delivering quality results and meaningful insight • Applying BRANZ history of research work in the real world
Contact BRANZ 0800 080 063 to find out more about our compliance options from technical testing to BRANZ Appraisal and CodeMark