This guide contains practical guidelines for good timber-framed house building, written in an easy-to-read style with hundreds of diagrams, easy to follow tables for quick reference and bullet points for easy reading. Informative illustrations show how all the elements fit together.

The majority of housing and other low-rise timber framed buildings in New Zealand are designed and constructed using the methods described in NZS 3604:1999 Timber Framed Buildings. The original BRANZ House Building Guide was first published in 1993 in response to industry requests for an illustrated guide to NZS 3604:1991. Since that time, the publication has been completely revised following the adoption of the 1999 version of NZS 3604 that included an Acceptable Solution to the New Zealand Building Code (NZBC) for B2 Durability in addition to B1 Structure.

This latest version of the BRANZ House Building Guide takes into account the latest edition of the Acceptable Solution for Weathertightness, E2/AS1 (2004) and B2/ASI (2004) Durability, which changes some of our construction procedures and methods of keeping our buildings weathertight. In addition, other non-NZBC related areas of building are included to provide a fully comprehensive guide to timber-framed construction in New Zealand.

This book contains practical guidelines for good timber-framed house building, written in an easy-to-read style with copious diagrams. It is a key reference for anyone involved in house building, helping them comply with NZBC requirements and avoid common problems and excessive costs. The BRANZ House Building Guide is an extension to, and requires some knowledge of, other essential publications, particularly NZS 3604:1999, NZS 3602:2003 Timber and wood-based products for use in buildings and the New Zealand Building Code Handbook and Approved Documents. While brief extracts from these documents are included in this guide to demonstrate how they can be applied, the reader should always refer to the actual documents themselves for full information.

This guide follows the steps involved in house construction up to and including the lining out stage. Some of the work by sub-trades are included, such as specialist roofing applications that a contractor must prepare for or wait on, but other work such as plumbing, electrical work and joinery are not. Some of the more traditional details that users will find when planning or carrying out alterations are also included, to provide a rounded picture of common house building practice in New Zealand.