Rotorua Lakes Council - Building E-Newsletter - May 2019

Kia ora,
Welcome to the May 2019 edition of Rotorua Lakes Council building services newsletter. in this edition you will find useful building related information, our hot topics for this month are:

BCA Accreditation Review
LBP Nomination
Gas/Plumbing/Drainage Licenses
Building Code Clauses
Dragon Ties
Wet Area Tanking
Certificate for Public Use
Designers' Meeting

BCA Accreditation Review
Once again, Rotorua Lakes Council Building Services team, under the Building Consent Authority (BCA) mandate, went through its bi-annual accreditation audit. The purpose of the BCA accreditation scheme is to set out the minimum policies, procedures, and systems that a BCA must have, and consistently and effectively implement, to perform its building control functions. The audit commenced on 9 April and was completed by 12 April.

As a result of the audit findings, IANZ (International Accreditation New Zealand) identified that there were deficiencies in a number of building consent applications reviewed including incomplete or incorrect completion of the building consent application form and inspection and maintenance information relating to specified systems.

These findings mean that any future inaccurate or incomplete building consent applications from now on will be turned around at lodgement or become subject to a request for further information.

LBP Nomination
If your building consent is issued and includes a yellow Licensed Building Practitioner (LBP) notice within the consent pack, then the scope of work for the project includes restricted building work (i.e. will affect the structure and weather-tightness of the building). Rotorua Lakes Council must be notified by completing the Advice of LBP form and submitting to Council prior to booking inspections before any work commences on site for the specific LBP required trade.

If you do not advise before the respective inspection that would trigger LBP work, our inspection team will not be able to complete the allocated inspection.

Gas/Plumbing/Drainage Licenses
Renewal of Gas/Plumbing/Drainage licenses – reminder that licenses need to be renewed each year, if you haven’t renewed your license by 1 April 2019, Rotorua Lakes Council will be unable to accept any gas/plumbing/drainage work that you have completed, and you will be unable to certify the work.

Building Code Clauses
Building Consent Application Form 2 itemizes all the 38 technical clauses within the building code, including Acceptable Solutions, Verification Method, Alternative Solution, Waiver/Modification and Proposed Inspections.

For building consent applications, it is a requirement under the Building Act that the correct building code clause is ticked, i.e.:

Acceptable Solution (whether Verification Method/Alternative Solution) is being ticked
Whether any Waiver/Modifications is being proposed and is ticked,
and it is a requirement for Rotorua Lakes Council that the identification of who is completing the inspections under the building code clause must be ticked.

As a Designer or Applicant, it is your responsibility to clearly identify which building code clause elements of the proposed work is being designed to.

This is because your Building Consent will be assessed against the relevant Building Code clause you nominate.

Dragon Ties

Dragons Ties under NZS3604:2011 may be used with a braced wall system to permit the construction of spaces up to 7.5m x 7.5m, without the need for a ceiling diaphragm, see the layout and construction technique Figure 8.1 NZS3604.

To demonstrate compliance with dragon tie construction under NZS3604, every external wall with a dragon tie attached to the top plate shall have a bracing capacity of at least 100 bracing units.

Note this wording from NZS3604 refers to dragon tie (as a singular member) when compliance can only be achieved with pair of dragon ties. This means that where the two ends of the dragon ties finish on a single external wall, that wall must have a minimum of 200 bracing units (i.e.100bu's for each end of a dragon tie). It may be challenging to provide this minimum 200 bracing units if the dragon tie ends are over top of a garage door opening (with a minimum of 600mm bracing element either side) and you may require Specific Engineering Design from a Structural Engineer.

Read more here at BRANZ guidance document

Wet Area Tanking

Penetrations through the water proof membrane (i.e. taps, shower outlets and waste outlets) require sealing around the perimeter of these penetrations in accordance with the specific membrane installation specifications. The Statement of Compliance certificate provided by the water-proofing membrane installer must reference that sealing of penetrations have been completed as per manufacturer's installation requirements.

Certificate for Public Use

A Certificate for Public Use (CPU) is a tool that can be used to certify that premises or parts of premises affected by building work are safe to be used by members of the public.

A CPU can only be applied for if a building consent has been granted, but the code compliance certificate has not been issued yet.

It can however, be provided as part of your building consent application if you want to continue to use part of a building while construction work is underway. An additional CPU will need to be applied for if you wish to use the completed building before a code compliance certificate has been issued.

A CPU application form must nominate (and show on a floor plan attached) how:

- Specified systems will be maintained and be kept operable

- Restricted access is being maintained within the work area

- How means of escape will be maintained during construction (a floor plan showing the escape routes around the work site is a good way to show means of escape)