Cracks in the foundations
The building boom and our open borders have increased the risks of dodgy produucts being used, writes Catherine Harris.
‘‘The reality is, we don’t know how much non-conforming product is being used in construction.’’
BRANZ principal scientist David Dowdell
Agrowing tide of building materials that don’t conform to New Zealand standards has prompted the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) to launch a review of building product assurance rules.
The review follows last year’s extreme example of the horrific Grenfell Towers apartment fire in London, which is believed to have been fuelled by a flammable exterior cladding being wrongly installed.
Even in New Zealand, reports of cheaper building products being used carelessly or in some cases deliberately are increasingly being heard in industry circles.
Substandard piping, dodgy plumbing parts, worrying electrical wiring, fragile shower doors and imperfect steel have all been discovered over the past few years.
The building boom and the advent of Trade Me and other internet selling sites have increased the odds of these goods flowing over New Zealand’s open borders.
Nick Hill, who heads the Building Officials Institute (BOINZ), which covers building inspectors, believes product substitution is something the building industry ‘‘wants to sweep under the carpet’’.
Although sometimes a specified product isn’t available, there are tradespeople guilty of ‘‘not looking at the product specification and substituting on a like for like basis,’’ he says.
But detecting such products is difficult once they are installed, and even inspectors can be unaware of a product’s true specs.
Hill believes MBIE needs to step in and collect data on every failure. ‘‘If we had that data, we’d know how big the problem is. But what we do know is it is happening out there and New Zealand and Australia are open to abuse.’’
One instance that was caught by the Commerce Commission was a case taken last year against several men for allegedly misrepresenting cheap imported building cladding as a quality German brand.
Two men pleaded guilty and have been fined thousands of dollars; two more are expected to defend themselves.
In Australia, a senate inquiry has been held into ‘‘non-conforming products’’ or NCPs, and tighter legislation is imminent.
In one case, a product recall was necessary for 4000km of a potentially deadly electrical cable sold into about 40,000 Australian homes. It did not meet Australian code, as the paperwork it came with claimed.
Last year BRANZ, the Building Research Association, conservatively estimated that more than $95 million was being spent every year in labour and replacement costs to fix NCPs in housing. The cost was closer to $232m if commercial building was included.
‘‘The reality is, we don’t know how much non-conforming product is being used in construction,’’ BRANZ principal scientist and one of the report’s authors, David Dowdell says.
‘‘If you’ve got a specified material on a build and it can be substituted by another material that can be obtained at a cheaper cost, that’s a driver for it to happen.’’
A potential complication is the growing number of new construction workers in the country, not all of whom are licensed.
The Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board in Auckland makes random visits to building sites every month. One round of visits in South Auckland recently found that on 15 of 26 sites people were working either illegally or without proper supervision.
Chief executive Martin Sawyer says unlicensed or unregistered workers don’t necessarily mean they are doing bad work or using poor products.
However, ‘‘our information would tend to indicate that where you find unauthorised and unlicensed people doing the plumbing, we commonly find unauthorised products being used.’’
Steel is another product which has been found wanting in several big roading products, and the Commerce Commission has been actively checking steel mesh, although the industry says there was an element of confusion about the labelling system as well.
Even big players have been caught out. Fletcher Building received incorrectly-graded steel, albeit from a New Zealand supplier, before it was used in the new Christchurch airport hotel.
The situation is being driven by a global glut of steel, tempting
some oversseas suppliers to fake the all-important testing certificates so they appear to come from approved labs. John Gardiner, a building consultant who until last year worked as MBIE’s determinations and assurance manager, says the housing market does have some natural checks and balances. Banks tend to lend only on consented
properties,, for example. He would not want to see a return to a situation where some industry players are protected, potentially sending the high cost of building materials in New Zealand’s small market even higher.
‘‘We’ve got lots of New Zealanders living in cars and substandard houses. We need to make sure we don’t put in place more and more regulatory players that just add costs without benefit."
Anna Butler, general manager building system performance at MBIE, says the ministry is in the early days of a review of New Zealand’s building product regulation and assurance systems. Officials are still discussing the objectives scope and approach with Building and Construction Minister Jenny Salesa, she says. It will take time, at least 18 months. ‘‘Product supply chains are national and international; as are the stakeholders that MBIE would like to engage in the review process."
Bruce Kohn of the Building Industry Federation believes compliance certificates from manufacturers or importers should be made mandatory. At the moment, he says, they are never asked to comply with the building code and thus escape consumer law obligations.
He denies this is a trade barrier. It ‘‘should apply to all building products and systems entering the market, whether locally produced or imported’’.
Hill would like to see New Zealand go further and recognise a three-tier assurance system for key building products, requiring thirdparty verification.
‘‘Critical product should never be substituted and if it is substituted, there’s a requirement to go back to the consenting authority and get approval and a new consent for it. That often doesn’t happen.’’
A third suggestion is from BRANZ. Dowdell says there is already a private database of building materials in New Zealand, and it could be linked to manufacturer barcodes, giving easy access to a product’s specs.
The traceability this would allow would not cost too much – about 6 per cent of the estimated cost of non-compliance, he says.
‘‘Architects have to spend a lot of time sourcing information about materials and something like this that essentially has all that information in one place and is a trusted source of the truth could be very beneficial to them.’’
It could also be good for manufacturers in cases of fraud. ‘‘If people think it’s your product and then it fails, you have to deal with the implications of that and there’s a reputational issue there.’’
Hill thinks the database idea has its uses but it might be difficult to get everyone using it.
‘‘When you’re in a global supply market, there’s always those who want to dodge the formal pathways.’’