Weathertightness and your building – what to expect

Expect good weathertightness performance from your property

Everyone wants a building that gives you and others a place to live, work and play. Therefore a building should have good weathertightness performance to keep you protected from the weather. More specifically and you can legally expect your property to provide you protection from moisture causing undue dampness causing damage or ill-health, as described in section E2.1 (External Moisture – Objective) of the NZ Building Regulations 2007:

However, no building can be completely weathertight and no matter how much money is spent, all buildings can and will leak. Minor leaks that do not cause damage, health concerns, or impact the ability for building amenity to be used are inconsequential to the demands of a building since they do not impact on the use of the building, as described in section E2.2 (External Moisture – Functional Requirement) of the NZ Building Regulations 2007:

Overall, the weathertightness you can reasonably expect from your property is that with only normal maintenance the various elements and design of the building are constructed in a way to prevent undue dampness or damage to building elements (as stipulated by the Building Regulations E2 and B2 (Durability) performance requirements).

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