Publications update

Statement of Intent 

The Department's first Statement of Intent (SOI) is now publicly available. The SOI outlines the principles and intentions of the Department's operations, and is a key document for determining strategic direction.

Amendments to E2/AS1 and E2/VM1

Amendments for the above documents are due for release in June 2005. This is timed to coincide with the implementation date of 1 July 2005 for E2/AS1.

Those who are considering purchasing a copy of the E2 Compliance Document are advised to defer doing so until after release of the amendments. In the meantime, the existing documents can be viewed and downloaded from the Department website free of charge.

Consultation on proposed amendment to B1/VM1

The Department of Building and Housing is seeking feedback on proposed changes to Verification Method B1/VM1 contained in the Compliance Document for Clause B1 Structure.

This Verification Method provides approved means of designing structures that comply with the Building Code, largely by citing New Zealand Standards. In this case the emphasis is on timber construction. The relevant Standard is NZS 3603: 1993 Timber Structures Standard.

The proposal is to cite Amendment 4 to NZS 3603 in B1/VM1. Amendment 4 to the Standard was subject to the normal Standards New Zealand public comment process before being published on 31 March 2005.

Amendment 4 results from the general acknowledgement that structural and framing timbers are not achieving the engineering properties (stiffness and strength) specified in NZS 3603. It introduces and provides the engineering properties of verified timber. This applies to both visually graded and machine stress graded timber.

Amendment 4 also down-rates the properties of unverified visually graded timber.

The closing date for submitting comments on the proposed changes is 15 July 2005.

Download a copy of the consultation document from the Department's website call 0800 242 243 for a hard copy.