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health risks

There are potential health risks associated with moulds and other fungi that can grow in a damp building.

When dealing with leaking buildings, the potential for finding mould in wall cavities is very high, and it is important that the proper precautions are taken to ensure that neither workers nor building occupants are exposed to health hazards from moulds during building repairs.

related resources

For information about these risks and how to manage.

Maintenance and repairs

New Zealand is one of the few countries in the world that requires buildings and building components to last for specified minimum periods of time as part of legislation. Find out about the New Zealand Building Code.

Building Code Clause B2 Durability requires structural components to last the life of the building, being not less than 50 years.

Non-structural building components and systems must last a minimum of 15 and 5 years, respectively, depending on their location, ease of replacement and under what circumstances a failure would be detected.

Normal maintenance

Secondary building elements can meet their minimum durability requirements with the help of what is termed ’normal maintenance’ of the material or system. Normal maintenance is that work generally recognised as necessary to achieve the expected durability of a given building element. It is the responsibility of the person specifying the building element to determine the normal maintenance requirements and to nominate them on the plans and specifications submitted for building consent.

Scheduled maintenance

Commercial buildings that have systems affecting the health and safety of occupants are required to have those systems regularly checked for on-going compliance. Compliance schedules are determined as part of the building consent process and used for the issuing of annual building warrants of fitness.

Appropriate maintenance

For maintenance to be effective, it must be appropriate and able to be carried out. Materials used in places difficult to access that require frequent maintenance may be quite unsuitable. Therefore, it is necessary for designers to choose materials and systems that are appropriate to their application and use, and to clearly nominate what maintenance is required to keep them code compliant. Only when this is specified does the owner and any subsequent owner know what is necessary to ensure the material will be sufficiently durable.

For further descriptions of what is meant by maintenance, see paragraph 2.0 of B2/AS1(B2 Durability Compliance Document).

You can also find information on maintenance and repairs on our ConsumerBuild [External website]. website.