Transcript: Remote Inspections, Auckland Council

Visual

Drone footage of Auckland city showing motorway with heavy traffic in foreground, urban area with housing, building site with housing under construction.

Jeff Fahrensohn on screen in office location.

Text on screen: Jeff Fahrensohn, Building Inspection Manager, Auckland Council

Audio

Auckland's the largest city in New Zealand, and it is the largest council in Oceania. We have about 1.8 million people living here. Last year, we produced about 40 to 45% of the building consents in New Zealand. My name is Jeff Fahrensohn. I'm the Manager of the building inspection team at Auckland Council.

Visual

Construction site with builder taking photo of timber framing for remote inspection.

Ryan Macmenigall on screen in construction site location.

Footage of construction site and Auckland urban areas.

Text on screen: Ryan Macmenigall, Site Foreman, Waller Projects

Audio

Consent inspections can be difficult sometimes, purely on timing, and sometimes when you try and book one, they can be quite a few weeks out, which can slow projects down. Hi, I'm Ryan. I'm a builder. I'm site foreman for Waller projects. We're based in Hobsonville, but we will go Northwest Auckland, try not to do as much traveling generally because of the traffic.

Visual

Drone footage of Auckland city showing construction sites, heavy traffic on motorway.

Text on screen: Building Performance Case Study, Auckland Council Remote Inspections

Audio

Living in Auckland traffic is always going to be a problem. So that's one of the challenges we have getting inspectors around the region. 

Visual 

Jeff Fahrensohn on screen in office location.

Drone footage of Auckland city showing construction sites.

Construction site with close up of phone being used to take photo of measurement of bottom plate fixing to slab for remote inspection.

Audio

One of the great benefits of remote inspections is the inspector can be based in one area in Auckland and cover the whole region from where they are. Likewise, if he's doing inspections for other BCAs around the country, that's a great benefit.

And we can do this for customers or builders that have a very good reputation or a track record of good compliance. There is a certain element of trust needed, and we have them out there, so it's almost like we're rewarding the good players in the industry by allowing them to use Artisan. 

Visual

Adrian King on screen in office location.

Text on screen: Adrian King, Building Inspector, Auckland Council.

Man walking into Auckland Council office building.

Adrian King in office working at computer, carrying out remote inspection.

Footage of remote inspection photographs of timber framing being taken on building site using a mobile phone.

Audio

Adrian King, I’m the Artisan inspector. Council uses two forms of remote inspections. One is Artisan, which is a shot list based system. 

Once they're set up with an Artisan shot list, they're then able to take the photographs and submit them for review. When the shot list gets sent back in to me from the builder, I have a set of plans open on one screen that I can scroll through and search for the details that I'm looking at on the photographs, so that I'm determining that they match up and that it is compliant.

Visual

Mark Waller on screen in construction site location.

Text on screen: Mark Waller, Owner/ Manager, Waller Projects.

Footage of construction site with sand blinding being raked and reinforcing being installed in preparation for concrete slab being poured.

Audio

I'm Mark Waller from Waller Projects, we design and build houses.

The benefit for us in the remote inspections and using the artisan is first and foremost, probably the predictability. If we've got a concrete pour on a Friday, we want to know we're pouring on Friday.

Visual

Jeff Fahrensohn on screen in office location.

Adrian King in office carrying out remote inspection.

Remote inspection photographs of building work being taken on building site using a mobile phone.

Drone footage of Auckland showing urban developments.

Drone footage of construction sites showing building work being carried out.

Thermometer being used to check water temperature for remote inspection.
Computer screen showing remote inspection being carried out by live stream connection to site personnel.

Digital building plans on screen being checked in office.

Printed building plans being checked on site.

Audio

There is a little bit of risk management that needs to go into planning Artisan. 

With Artisan, the building inspector is really bound by what the builder sends in terms of the photo shot list. When you have an audit carried out with Artisan, the there has to be a certain level of trust in the builder. 

With Zyte inspections, because it's live the build, the building inspector has a very good degree of control in terms of what they go and look at. It's really important that the inspectors are able to check and inspect the same scope as they would if they were doing it face to face. It comes down to training and a skilled operator will know how to work their way around the building site, generally having the plan in front of them, being situationally aware at all times, and knowing when to ask the questions. 

It's important that the scanning of the building is done verbally, you're instructing the builder what to look at, rather than allow the builder to guide you through the building site.

Visual

Timber framing and concrete slab with tape measure along bottom plate.

Ryan Macmenigall on screen in construction site location.

Close up of phone being used to take photos as part of remote inspection on building site.

Audio

The whole system teaches me how to look at the job and see it from a point of view of an inspector, and then work the guys and make sure they're doing it the correct and right way, because you then have to take a photo of that and send it through. Plus, timing means I can do it whenever I need and it's then submitted, and it can come and it comes back pretty quick, so it doesn't have any hold ups.

Visual

Adrian King on screen in office location.

Audio

It saves time, it saves money, it's efficient, and it's easy.

Visual

Mark Waller on screen in construction site location.

Audio

Get into it mate. It's a it's a builder driven process. Take the lead role. Basically, you're incorporating everything between consent, design, the engineer. Is putting it together in a seamless process.

Visual

Drone footage of Auckland city showing city and motorway with traffic.

Text on screen: Building Performance, Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment Hīkina Whakatutuki, Te Kāwanatanga o Aotearoa New Zealand Government

Jeff Fahrensohn on screen in office location.

Audio

As the industry becomes more adept at using remote inspections, their quality increases. This is only going to help the industry as a whole with quality built environment in the future.