Making your own inspections of work on the building project and requesting inspections from building officials at the right times are important steps in the building phase.

Owner's inspections

In the plans and specifications put forward for building consent, you can specify owner’s inspections. These are in-progress inspections by yourself, or delegated to someone else, such as your project manager. Owner’s inspections are in addition to inspections by authorised inspectors.

Authorised inspections

During construction, the work has to be inspected at various stages. This is done by your Building Consent Authority (BCA). The inspections confirm that the work has been done in accordance with the plans and specifications approved in the building consent. For example, the depth and placement of steel reinforcing is inspected before the footings can be poured, and the moisture content of the timber framing is inspected before interior wall linings can go up.

Work cannot proceed until the inspection for each stage is completed. If the inspection is not done first, the BCA can make you undo the subsequent work, for example, take the wall linings off to inspect the framing.

Similarly, if work differs from the plans the inspector can order it to be demolished and done again.

Either you, the builder or your project manager must arrange for the inspector to come at each stage, depending on what is agreed in the contract. It is often the builder who makes the call but you must confirm this as you need to know that the inspections have been done.

The inspection stages are listed in the paperwork you get with the building consent.