Is the knowledge of a monumental labour shortage influencing how specifiers choose products and systems for projects in Christchurch? The imbalance of supply and demand will no doubt force tradesmen's hourly rates to increase and make it hard to get the skilled tradesmen needed to achieve a quality finish, without further delays in project timelines. So how is it possible to minimise this impact on projects, budgets and timeframes?

Here are four questions to ask when selecting products, brands or systems:

What products are the most time efficient when it comes to installation? Do the products have to be installed by specific contractors? Can the products be installed by the average builder with a clear installation guide? What products and systems can be pre-manufactured off site to a specific time frame, undercover, unaffected by weather delays, then transported to site and assembled very quickly by the average builder?

Let's take outdoor decking materials as an example, be it for decking over a waterproof membrane or on bearers and piles over soil. Typically deck construction takes many days and often weeks to complete. OUTDURE, an innovative New Zealand company, has developed QWICKBUILD, a complete decking system that can be pre-manufactured off site, is light enough to be manhandled by builders and can be assembled on site in a matter of hours or days by your typical builder.

It's of great value to everyone in Canterbury if specifiers share with the specifier community and construction industry the prefabrication construction methods they're using to eliminate the impact of the labour shortage for the Canterbury rebuild.