Articles

Leaky Buildings - Government and Legislation By: , Tuesday 6 April 2010

Around 1993 there was a change in our legislation regarding Boric Framing. Initially, one political party made a move towards banning these chemicals, as the effluents were apparently damaging our environment as a result of the way one of our major timber companies processed the wastes.

Instead of forcing the company to change their effluent disposal, the legislation was changed, making Boron in effect, redundant. Boron was as we all know, for prevention of borer attacks, however, the chemical had a secondary inherent quality where it prevented "rot" where the framing carried a bit of moisture. NZ buildings were traditionally designed, accepting the fact that some moisture will get into the walls, therefore the type of construction would allow the egress of this moisture without damaging the structure.

It is generally accepted that NZ rains approx, 50% of the time, so bevel back weatherboards and brick veneer construction were normal. The final nail in the coffin for Boron, was when one of the largest plaster board manufacturers released a statement to all Architectural offices nationwide saying they will not warranty any claims for a plaster board product, fixed to a "wet frame". Boric treated wet framing died, and chemical free dry framing was forced on the market. All the timber reps came around and told us that, "In NZ, we have built out of untreated framing for years!" While this is true, it was mainly with Rimu not with Pinus Radiata.

Also, in 1992, there was a significant change to the education system, where Technical Drawing was removed from Secondary school, and replaced by a topic called "Graphics". This was a crazy move where the government felt the need to change the curriculum, to try and keep up with Information Technology, which was moving very quickly. Unfortunately, this change was at the expense of common sense.

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Tagwords: leaky buildings

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