The old adage. "I've been doing *insert task this for way over 20-years" still rings true around the construction industry. More often than not builders and their subcontractors are just doing what they were shown many years ago, or taught themselves was correct, without ever being told it is not strictly correct.
Now before I ruffle too many feathers, it would be wrong to suggest anyone out there knows how to do everything in their role in construction with 100% certainty. Most clients would not be aware that the builder's bible known as the National Construction Code (or NCC for short) is a document with a fraction under 600 pages that is now being updated every 12-months, yes, every 12-months things are added, deleted, or rewritten. The NCC then comprises over 100 Australian Standards (or AS for short) known as "primary references" and then many of these primary referenced standards refer to other Australian Standards known as "secondary references" and so the rabbit hole begins.
The scary part about the above paragraph is that whilst the NCC was made free a few years ago all the Australian Standards remain individual purchases, ranging from $50 to $500 for each. Is your small builder going to buy that $350 carpentry standard and spend a day brushing up on the changes made in the latest version, or is he going to attend a 2-hour summary workshop from an industry organisation and continue doing what he has been doing for 30-years (which potentially stopped being the correct way 20-years ago)? Next time you sit down with a builder to chat, ask them do you have a copy of AS 1684.2-2021 on hand? If they do not, can you really trust them with your single largest investment?
At Integrity New Homes Coffs Coast and Clarence Valley, we strive to do everything to the best of our ability, and this extends to even the most minor parts of compliance. We not only read the summaries, we write our own summaries, we want to know not only what, but why. To ensure this is possible we have an annual subscription through SAIGlobal which includes the NCC and all primary referenced documents for a fixed annual fee. The NCC and the Australian Standards are available in PDF on desktop PC's as well via mobile devices on our construction sites for our non-office-based staff.
Through the continued personal development of ourselves and our staff we can say with certainty when we build your home, we are building it how it should be built!
If you want to work with a builder that doesn't just do what they saw someone else do on a construction site back in the day, give our sales team a call on 1300 886 793 or send us an email at coffscoast.sales@inh.com.au or reach out through the Contact Us part of the website.
Night time reading for those interested: Understanding NCC referenced documents | ABCB
