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Eliminating quality issues

The aim of this programme is to help eliminate quality issues by identifying the most common problems and the possible solutions to them. More importantly, it looks at why the industry is not making the necessary changes and explores ways to encourage this.

A housing shortage and a repeating boom-bust business cycle put the construction industry under pressure. This pressure carries the risk of varying levels of quality in building work. Recent examples of quality issues range from poorly installed insulation to badly poured concrete slabs and problems with steel reinforcing.

Quality in buildings can be defined around three key parameters:

  • Functionality - the building meets all of the functional requirements set out in the building contract.
  • Durability - the ability of building materials, components and construction methods to satisfy performance and functional requirements of the Building Code for the expected life of the building without a reconstruction or major renovation (or repair).
  • Performance - defined through measurable aspects of the building's design (thermal, structural, seismic, acoustic, etc.). Performance, as built, must be verified during construction and upon completion of the building process.

The critical success criteria of this programme are that the building industry:

  • has identified common quality issues that occur in construction
  • understands why some previous work to solve common quality issues has not been successful
  • understands the need to change its practices
  • has determined the best way to reduce the incidence of common quality issues
  • has eliminated common quality issues by using existing knowledge
  • has eliminated common quality issues by designing new solutions.

To find out more about the programme, please contact the Programme Leader Matthew Curtis.

Research under this programme

Identifying common quality issues that occur in construction

What is quality in buildings?

The purpose of this project is to develop a definition of acceptable quality in different building types. This includes both compliance and aesthetic quality. The project will initially focus on generic quality problems and then look at quality problems specific to particular types of buildings. Base data will come from a new survey on housing construction quality. The project will also assemble a panel of experts to help decide how we identify and assess quality.

Identifying the most common quality issues using a building pathology approach

At present, information about quality issues is held privately or in hard-to-access databases. The purpose of this project is to see if it is possible to develop an improved source of information about quality issues and building failures. The data will then be analysed to identify the quality issues that most commonly lead to building failure - what is known as a building pathology approach. This information will make it possible to provide the industry with advice on the issues that need to be addressed.

Prioritising quality: identifying key quality issues

Quality issues can range from relatively minor problems to those that are likely to have serious long-term impacts. This project will identify the quality issues that cause the most concern, both from the point of view of owners and in terms of a building's long-term durability and usability.

  • SR398 Prioritising quality

    This report identifies quality issues ranging from minor problems such as aesthetic issues to those that can have serious long-term impacts that should be prioritised based on frequency and impact from the perspectives of industry experts.

    Download [PDF, 2.1MB]

  • SR387 Prioritising quality: Literature review of common residential housing

    This project is to determine the barriers to achieving quality housing in New Zealand. 369 sources of literature were identified through keyword searching of databases and hand searching of relevant New Zealand industry websites.

    Download [PDF, 1.9MB]

  • SR380 What is quality in buildings?

    This report addresses the quality requirements, in broad terms, of residential, commercial, institutional and industrial buildings and discusses three levels of quality: basic, enhanced and high quality.

    Download [PDF, 2MB]

  • SR375 Building-quality issues: A literature review

    A literature review acting as a stocktake on what work has already been undertaken to solve common quality issues in New Zealand and what successful solutions we can learn from.

    Download [PDF, 1.8MB]

  • SR366 A building pathology system in New Zealand - what is possible?

    This report explores the feasibility of implementing a building pathology approach to monitoring building defects in New Zealand. The focus of this research is on residential buildings.

    Download [PDF, 2.7MB]

Why previous work has not been successful

Finding ways of encouraging the industry to adopt new ways

Industry buy-in is essential to eliminate quality issues. However, it is human nature to resist change - particularly when we don't understand the reasons for it. This project will look at the factors that make it more likely those working in the industry will adopt new practices and processes.

Encouraging industry to change practices

Evidence around quality issues - what can industry data tell us?

Significant data is collected on the building and construction industry by a range of agencies and organisations across New Zealand. However, these individual datasets only ever tell one part of the whole story about the industry, with limited ability or infrastructure to connect data to derive new insights from it. This project explores opportunities to join existing datasets to gain these insights around building industry quality issues and identify ‘quick wins' available to improve performance.

Updated: 29 January 2024