The review took two years with some challenging aspects, but the result is a building standard that is outstanding in its field.
Wanganui builder Jamie O'Leary was the Master Builders' Association representative on the New Zealand Standard 3604:2011 review committee and his two-years of hard work was recognised with a Parliamentary
invite to Wellington to celebrate the winners in the Standards Council and Standards New Zealand 2010 Meritorious Awards.
Mr O'Leary, twice former president of the New Zealand Master Builders' Association, was in the review committee that worked on the 1999 version of the standard for timber-framed buildings.
"We took out a lot of material that was no longer pertinent and introduced new material," Mr O'Leary said, of the reviewed standard that will become mandatory in 2012.
The committee worked with two different governments and "cut the cloth" to suit at the changeover.
Mr O'Leary said designers could design a building from the construction detail standard, which a licensed building practitioner (LBP) had to build to the permit consent and get sign-off on.
When asked about an alternative design to the standard, Mr O'Leary said the applicant had to prove categorically that it was an alternative solution.
Mr O'Leary said the building industry was "constantly evolving" and those involved in the industry were receptive to what was going on around them; any changes to the "living" standard would be added to replace material that had been superseded.
The committee had also taken out key construction elements from the standard and produced a booklet, that was not a standard per se, that third and fourth-year apprentices could pick up on a building site.
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