Stuff
Opportunist builders, dodgy steel and shonky standards create new building crisis ‘worse than leaky homes’
Take a building inspector through the soon-to-be city of Flat Bush in Auckland’s south-east, and watch his hackles rise.
He shakes his head and laments the state of building in New Zealand today. He picks his way through Double Happiness cigarette boxes, jagged bricks sticking out of mud, broken bottles, twisted steel mesh to tut tut at wonky flashings. He – Gerard Ball from Babbage Consultants – notices walls are out of plumb and that polystyrene, plastic bags, and chip packets have drifted into nearby streams.