Inspectors warn of new building quality crisis

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gzt

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#320256 23-Jul-2025 12:16

Inspector concerns and negative buyer experience:

OneRoof: Building inspectors are warning of a new leaky home scandal coming down the pipeline. As the country attempts to solve its housing crisis, many have noticed an increase in low-quality and non-compliant work. The OneRoof reporting team investigates.

Looks like it is not a new technology or technique required problem like the 90's. Personally I read this one as a general failure of the training pipeline. Imo there does need to be easily deliverable practical in-work trade training and technique qualification that does not require constant tech attendance.

The LBPs involved are no doubt using whatever labour they can get. There needs to be a practical way to qualify and standardize that labour base in the expected practices.

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#3396533 23-Jul-2025 12:37

If I was building a new home, based on the stories I've heard and read about in the last few years I'd be on site doing quality control checks personally.

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Andib

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#3396535 23-Jul-2025 12:46

I have heard some horror stories about some of the new builds in Auckland from LBPs. The main solution they give is that building work needs to be more tightly controlled on who can actually do the work like Electrical & Plumbing.
They say allegedly it's not uncommon for the only LBP in some of these companies to be the owner who signs everything off using their registration while most of the work is completed by cheap labourers.

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wasabi2k

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#3396545 23-Jul-2025 13:31

And we're in the process of allowing builders to self-inspect and certify....what could go wrong?

Bung

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#3396556 23-Jul-2025 14:08

Andib:

They say allegedly it's not uncommon for the only LBP in some of these companies to be the owner who signs everything off using their registration while most of the work is completed by cheap labourers.

That a failure of the EWRB. AFAIK labourers need to be supervised on site not by remote control. The amount of work signed off by qualified individuals should be audited. One person can't be everywhere at once.

larknz

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#3396562 23-Jul-2025 14:30

the EWRB is nothing to do with LBP's. The EWRB is for electricians, not builders.

mattwnz

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#3396567 23-Jul-2025 14:47

Honestly the systems is a mess already. Council inspectors don't usually even get up on the roof for example to check that the flashings etc has been done ok and rely on the record of works of the LBP. Consumers deserve better especially wit the high price we pay in NZ.

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tweake

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#3396568 23-Jul-2025 14:52

gzt: Inspector concerns and negative buyer experience:

OneRoof: Building inspectors are warning of a new leaky home scandal coming down the pipeline. As the country attempts to solve its housing crisis, many have noticed an increase in low-quality and non-compliant work. The OneRoof reporting team investigates.

Looks like it is not a new technology or technique required problem like the 90's. Personally I read this one as a general failure of the training pipeline. Imo there does need to be easily deliverable practical in-work trade training and technique qualification that does not require constant tech attendance.

The LBPs involved are no doubt using whatever labour they can get. There needs to be a practical way to qualify and standardize that labour base in the expected practices.

its not surprising. building co's are going broke. the largest group of liquidations etc is building industry. which is much the norm as the building industry booms/busts following the housing market.

its not a training issue, or even licensing issue. its simply that they are shortcutting everything they can to stay afloat. that will still happen regardless if training or certification etc. only thing you can do is inspect the work constantly. kiwis don't seam to want a consistent housing or building market, which would fix most of these issues.

on a side note i see building industry has conned northland into lowering insulation standards. govt sucking up to the building industry (isn't that one of the root causes of leaky homes in the first place?).

Bung

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#3396572 23-Jul-2025 15:20

larknz:

the EWRB is nothing to do with LBP's. The EWRB is for electricians, not builders.

Sorry I misread the post I was replying to. More tightly controlled like plumbing and electrical would be fine except there are horror stories involving those trades as well.

tripper1000

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#3396579 23-Jul-2025 16:00

As someone who has replaced roofs, gutters and cladding in the battle to stop water ingress issues on my poor quality/hi-risk 1990's design house, I am confident that many new houses I see being built will also leak badly.

1) Lots of houses with sub 10 degree roof pitch and/or sub 10 degree internal valleys.
and/or
2) No eave, so a) gutters overflow directly into the walls, b) rain gets in around door frames, windows frames and glass.

Turns out our houses have had eaves for the last 3,000 years for good reasons.

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#3396584 23-Jul-2025 16:18

It's incredible what you hear/see when it comes to large scale build areas, like Long Bay and Hobsonville Point.
We have frineds who live in both areas and they've seen building companies lay reinforcing steel/mesh, get their pre-pour sign-off and immediately remove it prior to pouring concrete, to be used at the next site.

It's mad that this is such an obvious one - I hate to think how many houses are being signed off with much worse shortcuts.

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Bung

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#3396594 23-Jul-2025 16:49

Handsomedan:

It's incredible what you hear/see when it comes to large scale build areas, like Long Bay and Hobsonville Point.
We have frineds who live in both areas and they've seen building companies lay reinforcing steel/mesh, get their pre-pour sign-off and immediately remove it prior to pouring concrete, to be used at the next site.

It's mad that this is such an obvious one - I hate to think how many houses are being signed off with much worse shortcuts.

How long before that became an open secret in that area? A modest house close to home has just swallowed 48m³ of concrete in the slab, 3 concrete trucks shuttling to and fro, 1 pump truck and maybe 6 other workers so if the s load of steel disappeared there'd be at least 10 witnesses.

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Handsomedan

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#3396596 23-Jul-2025 17:18

Bung:

Handsomedan:

It's incredible what you hear/see when it comes to large scale build areas, like Long Bay and Hobsonville Point.
We have frineds who live in both areas and they've seen building companies lay reinforcing steel/mesh, get their pre-pour sign-off and immediately remove it prior to pouring concrete, to be used at the next site.

It's mad that this is such an obvious one - I hate to think how many houses are being signed off with much worse shortcuts.

How long before that became an open secret in that area? A modest house close to home has just swallowed 48m³ of concrete in the slab, 3 concrete trucks shuttling to and fro, 1 pump truck and maybe 6 other workers so if the s load of steel disappeared there'd be at least 10 witnesses.

Yeah, I mean, if we know about it, surely everyone in the supply chain knows?

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tweake

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#3396602 23-Jul-2025 17:39

tripper1000:

2) No eave, so a) gutters overflow directly into the walls, b) rain gets in around door frames, windows frames and glass.

that first problem is not really caused by lack of eves. the 2nd it has a bit to do with it.

first one is internal gutters. thats why it leaks or overflows into walls. even with eves the leaks/overflow can still end up in the wall with some types. if you overflow an external gutter it overflows outside the wall or eve.

the bigger the eves the less rain the door/windows get and the less problems occur. there is an Canadian study on that. but doors and windows are never perfectly sealed, so they always leak. the trick is to allow that water to drain out and dry.

tweake

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#3396603 23-Jul-2025 17:40

Bung:

How long before that became an open secret in that area? A modest house close to home has just swallowed 48m³ of concrete in the slab, 3 concrete trucks shuttling to and fro, 1 pump truck and maybe 6 other workers so if the s load of steel disappeared there'd be at least 10 witnesses.

i'm sure they know. but they want to keep their jobs so they keep quite.

mattwnz

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#3396633 23-Jul-2025 19:42

Handsomedan:

It's incredible what you hear/see when it comes to large scale build areas, like Long Bay and Hobsonville Point.
We have frineds who live in both areas and they've seen building companies lay reinforcing steel/mesh, get their pre-pour sign-off and immediately remove it prior to pouring concrete, to be used at the next site.

It's mad that this is such an obvious one - I hate to think how many houses are being signed off with much worse shortcuts.

They should video it and report that sort of thing. Anyone doing that sort of thing should never be allowed in the building industry again. The problem is that the building industry in NZ relies on a lot of trust and there are still far too many cowboys. Someone down the track could end up with a nightmare.

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