Recently in the architectural community there was discussion around the need to have a thermal break in the concrete ground floor of a house where the attached garage is within its footprint, but outside of the thermal envelope, and how to achieve this in a buildable and structural manner.

Any design process balances client aspirations against budget constraints. How often have you faced the challenge of aligning a project's cost with its needs and vision?

The key challenge will be designing systems for both the recognition of overseas standards and product certification schemes where, for many products, the expectations of performance are universal, but there are some unique situations in NZ that may mean some products are not appropriate.

Along with hydraulic demands there are other risk factors that should be considered when selecting a channel system and deciding on placement.

Here is a technical look at what tapered insulation is, why PIR is the ideal material, and how tapered PIR makes roofing installations smarter, faster, and more cost-effective.

It seems that finally the problem of summer over-heating of newly built medium-density housing, especially terrace housing, is gaining traction and being noticed by the mainstream media where it is starting to become a subject of public comment and discussion.

There has been a recent trend for council RFIs and requests from specifiers around threshold detailing vs surface water drainage, with confusion around the separation of their functions. Threshold drainage and surface water drainage are designed to perform two different tasks. Here I outline some of the commonly queried situations.

When a roofer accidentally left his torch on near flammable materials, a fire started on a 15,000m² warm roof. So what was the damage? 

In this post I’d like to explore the concept of price. How important is it? What is a fair price? Will high prices come down?

Understanding and applying Test Standard AS1530.4 — Section 10.12 Permissible Variations to projects can dramatically increase the availability of passive fire stopping solutions.