Building envelope assessment process

Find out about the building envelope assessment process for school-led property projects.

School-led projects

The following school-led property projects must be reviewed by the Construction Advisory team:

  • all new builds
  • any building work that affects the building envelope.

When planning a school-led project, you must make sure the design meets our weathertightness design requirements and the New Zealand Building Code.

If the project requires building consent, a building envelope assessment (BEA) must be completed before the project manager submits the project plans to the council for consent.

For projects that are designed, consented or constructed in stages, a separate building envelope assessment submission form must be submitted for each stage. The submission should reflect the scope and design documentation relevant to that stage.

For projects that don’t require building consent or a full set of construction documentation, a procurement brief (scope and details required for pricing/tendering) and concise justification outlining the reasoning for how the scope was determined must be included in your BEA submission.

Weathertightness design standards for school buildings

Building envelope assessment submission form (1.4 MB, Docx)
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Building envelope assessment submission

Project managers and designers must submit a building envelope assessment submission form to the Construction Advisory mailbox at construction.advisory@schoolproperty.govt.nz.

The submission form must be completed and signed by both the project manager and designer, confirming that the design has been reviewed against our weathertightness design requirements prior to submission.

If a design is submitted incomplete or with key details missing, Construction Advisory will ask you to resubmit the design. Incomplete submissions limit our ability to provide meaningful feedback and don’t meet the expected requirements for a full and effective review.

Assessment and feedback

Construction Advisory will issue a report confirming the assessment outcome and whether any further action is required.

  • No action required: the project has satisfied the assessment requirements and may proceed.
  • Action required: Additional information, clarification, or design changes are required.

The 'action required' process

Where a report is issued with an 'action required' status: 

  • the project manager and designer must review all actions raised in the report and provide a consolidated response addressing them within 10 working days of the report being issued 
  • Construction Advisory will review the responses 
  • When the review is complete, Construction Advisory will issue a final report. 

Preparing an action response

Responses must:

  • clearly reference the action being addressed
  • refer to relevant drawings, specifications, reports, or other supporting documentation
  • provide concise, factual information that directly addresses the action
  • explain the rationale for key decisions and the benefits of the proposed approach.

Timeframes

  • Construction Advisory will issue an assessment report within 20 working days of receiving a complete submission.
  • Where a report is issued with an 'action required' status, the project manager and designer must submit a consolidated response to all actions raised within 10 working days of the report being issued.
  • The 10 working day response period applies only to the initial response and does not restart following subsequent reviews, comments or correspondence.
  • There are no prescribed timeframes for subsequent reviews. The overall duration of the assessment process will depend on the complexity of the actions raised, the quality of the responses provided, and the time required to address outstanding actions.
  • Once review of the responses is complete, Construction Advisory will issue a final report:
    • 'no action required' where all actions have been satisfactorily addressed, or
    • 'action required' where actions remain unresolved.

Unresolved actions

While it is strongly recommended that all actions are addressed and closed out, unresolved actions do not prevent a project from progressing. However, projects proceeding with unresolved actions do so with the associated risks remaining the responsibility of the project team.

If actions remain unresolved:

  • the actions will remain recorded against the project
  • unresolved actions may be escalated to the appropriate Infrastructure Manager for review and decision making.

Construction Advisory will retain an 'action required' status on the final report where actions remain unresolved.