New building code “must go further”

Press, 19 February 1986, Page 23

New building code “must go further”

PA Timaru The Government’s plans for a single building code must go further than simply restructuring the building by-laws, says the president of the Building Inspectors’ Institute, Mr Ray Smith. He said the code would have to look also at townplanning problems. Mr Smith said the establishment of a Building Industry Commission to revamp and produce a single building code for the whole country provided the Government with one of its greatest opportunities to free up and provide realistic building by-laws. Building codes had grown from a standard model by-law established in the 19405. “But since then the model by-law has been continually added to over the years, and has been built into a maze of documents that even building officials have difficulty in dealing with,” he said.

Mr Smith said he was pleased the Government had taken such a significant step.

Building codes today were restrictive in that innovative techniques were difficult to accommodate within the existing rules, he said. “Anyone trying some-

thing new is always frustrated.”

Mr Smith said many overseas codes contained equivalency clauses which basically said: “This is the code, but if you can produce something equivalent to it you can use it” He said it was important also that planning bylaws were looked into. Building inspectors saw some of the greatest anomalies for building occurring through townplanning procedures varying from one centre to another.

Some town-planning bylaws had been drawn up by private consultants, while others had been formulated by local authority officers. “You may be able to erect a building right on the boundary in one centre, but in another the building may have to be kept a metre or so out,” Mr Smith said.

People would not be happy until there was a standard policy for both building and town planning, he said.

The Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr Tapsell, said the new building code was intended to replace most local authority building by-laws and ensure universal acceptance of building systems, procedures and materials.

The commission has been given two years to present a uniform building code. “There is at present no agency which can interpret, arbitrate on, or coordinate planning and building controls and respond quickly enough to the advance of technology in building and construction work,” Mr Tapsell said. ‘.‘The valuable work of the Standards Association, the Building Research Association, and other institutions suffers from lack of co-ordination and resources. “The objective of the new code is to bring order out of the chaos which exists now,” he said.