LBP Skills Maintenance, December 2024 — for all LBPs | The Building Practitioners Board considers complaints against LBPs. To assist the Board, the Registrar of LBPs delegates the task to the Investigations Team within Occupational Regulation, MBIE. The Registrar will provide a report to the Board for consideration. If the Board decide to hold a hearing and an LBP has breached a ground for discipline, the complaint is upheld and the Board will then decide on an appropriate penalty.

This month I look at how we can raise our insulation game when it comes to window and roof design + we have a new round of the Medium Quick-Fire Quiz. 

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?

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.

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?

The word ‘waterproof’ is an absolute term. It means ‘impervious to water’. Stating that a building is almost waterproof does not make sense.

New and amended regulations came into force on 30 September 2024 to better clarify a ‘minor variation’ when it comes to amending a building consent, and a ‘minor customisation’ when it comes to a MultiProof. 

Building consent authorities (BCAs) need to be ‘satisfied on reasonable grounds’ that building work will meet the requirements of the Building Code before they can issue the building consent. This is not always as simple as comparing the plans with the performance requirements of Building Code.

You would have heard the sayings 'designed to a budget' and 'built to a price', both of which have negative connotations, but surely being 'cost informed' will lead to better design outcomes.