Public consultation: Earth building standards

The public consultation on earth building standards listed below has now started:

DZ NZS 4297 Engineering design of earth buildings

DZ NZS 4298 Materials and workmanship for earth buildings

DZ NZS 4299 Earth buildings not requiring specific design

The revised earth building draft standards continue to be a core resource and reflect advances in earth-building practice, research, changes in referenced standards, and changes in building legislation: the Building Act 2004 and the New Zealand Building Code (NZBC). They have been prepared with the intention of being referenced in the NZBC Approved Documents as acceptable solutions for relevant parts of B1, B2, C1-C6, E1, E2, E3, and H1 by the building regulators within the Ministry of Building, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). Commentary clauses are provided throughout to explain methodologies and provide additional information.

We are now making the drafts available for public comment for a period of 8 weeks to allow comments on the earth building standards. All comments submitted during this period are reviewed by the standards development committee before the standard is balloted on.

You can view or download the New Zealand draft standard on the Standards New Zealand website. The closing date for comments is 11 September 2019.