Disaster highlights shoddy materials

Building industry players are calling for a review over noncompliant building products in the wake of London’s tragic Grenfell Tower blaze.

At least 79 people are now feared dead in the Grenfell Tower apartment block fire last week, and news reports indicate the building’s highly flammable cladding may not have complied with the building code.

Building Industry Federation chief executive Bruce Kohn said that while New Zealand had moved to tighten fire safety standards a few months ago, there were still non-compliant building products of all kinds entering the country ‘‘unchecked’’.

Below-standard products included window, shower and balustrade glass, PVC piping for internal and external drainage, claddings, electrical wiring, taps and plumbing fittings and aluminium framing.

Non-conforming products were costing the country an estimated $92 million every year, in terms of enforcement and replacement on building sites, Kohn said.

‘‘We have the New South Wales Government reconsidering the state’s building safety measures with ‘a sense of urgency’ and the Queensland Government promising to redraft its building laws this year, specifically because of a surge of non-conforming products into the Australian market.’’

Kohn said good merchants and established importers were on the lookout for non-compliant products, but ‘‘entrepreneurial traders, and cowboy builders and tradesmen’’ were at risk of substituting specified materials with low-cost alternatives.

This had been at the heart of a Melbourne apartment fire in 2014 where the wrong cladding was used.

It was difficult for building inspectors to identify noncompliant products once in place, and Australia’s move to consider some form of protection at the border was an idea worth considering, Kohn said.

Poor-quality products have also struck the steel and plumbing industries, with reports of flexible braided hoses bursting, and investigations being conducted by the Commerce Commission into steel mesh testing.