The Right Stuff

Practical how-to articles for builders and designers showing good industry practice and interpretation of the NZ Building Code and standards.

Showing results 1-10 of 26

Order by:

Keeping in character

By Bruce Sedcole 1 February 2022, Build 188

In Build 186 Houses ripe for renovation, we talked about renovating and refurbishing New Zealand character homes. Now, here is a closer look at some of the common tasks you may have to address.

Read more

Building Code changes 2021

By David Hindley 1 February 2022, Build 188

MBIE recently released energy efficiency changes to the Building Code to help make new homes and buildings warmer, drier and healthier. These include increased minimum insulation requirements for roofs, windows and floors.

Read more

Rule of thumb 1: Increase insulation

By Greg Burn 1 June 2022, Build 190

BRANZ modelling identified six areas for designers to focus on to reduce the carbon footprint of a new build. In the first of this series, we look at the practical considerations for designers using rule of thumb 1 Increase construction R-values.

Read more

Compliance for H1 5th edition design

By Bruce Sedcole 1 August 2022, Build 191

The BRANZ helpline has received many calls asking how to approach designing new houses that are compliant with the higher thermal requirements of New Zealand Building Code clause H1 Energy efficiency 5th edition. The first step is to look further than just the schedule method.

Read more

The finishing touches

By Bruce Sedcole 1 June 2022, Build 190

In this final part of our renovation of period and character homes series, we start by looking at external windows then consider how the houses can be made to fit in to our 21st century lifestyles.

Read more

Inter-tenancy floors in MDH

By Guy Marriage 1 December 2022, Build 193

Part 2 of this Build series on designing and building medium-density housing covers inter-tenancy floors. The most important consideration here is to eliminate penetrations into the inter-tenancy floor zone.

Read more

Clarifying insulation changes

By Andrew Bedford 1 October 2022, Build 192

From 1 May 2023, housing and small buildings up to 300 m² will need to be better insulated. What does this mean in practice for wall, underfloor and ceiling insulation of these buildings when using the schedule method for compliance?

Read more