The New Zealand Forest Industries Council (FIC) has branded proposed changes to building regulations as a result of the leaky buildings crisis as “ludicrous”.
The Building Industry Authority’s recommends that all timber framing in new houses should be treated but FIC chief executive Stephen Jacobi said that was the equivalent of taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut and warned that the proposals threatened the country’s third largest export industry.
He said the proper response to the question of weathertightness should be to address its cause, citing high-risk design, construction and cladding styles that have been clearly established as creating the unacceptable problems of leaky buildings.
While agreeing it would be sensible to require the use of treated timber for high-risk design, he said it would be “intensely damaging” to impose such a strict requirement on all timber used for construction.
He said: “They will not solve the issues they are trying to address and will in the process cost evey person building a new home in New Zealand an extra NZ$4,000-5,000.”
