Transcript: Remote Inspections, Mackenzie District Council

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Drone footage of Mackenzie district, Lake Tekapo, lake Pukaki, Southern Alps.

Graphic of map of New Zealand showing location of Mackenzie District.

Drone footage of Twizel township and Mackenzie Council office.

Tina on screen in outdoor location.

Text on screen: Tina Donald, Building Manager, Mackenzie District Council

Audio

The Mackenzie district covers approximately seven thousand square kilometres, and with the council having only one in house building control officer, consideration needed to be given to how we were going to deliver inspections throughout the district. Hi, my name is Tina Donald. I am the building manager for Mackenzie District Council.

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Drone footage of a white van travelling on a rural road.

Rob on screen inside partially constructed building.

Text on screen: Rob Davis. Director, RAD Building.

Audio

The single biggest challenge we face in Mackenzie basin is distance, which equates to time. My name's Rob, and I've lived in Twizel for the last 24 years. We've been building here for the last 15.

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Building site with staff stood talking outside site office.

Drone footage of Lake Tekapo.

Text on screen: Building Performance. Case Study. Mackenzie District Council Remote Inspections.

Tina on screen in outdoor location.

Drone footage of rural area with building site.

Audio

The driver and consideration that we gave to doing remote virtual inspections was very much around the time, the cost and the resource. The time it takes to get across from one area to another can be three hours before you can actually arrive on site to get to an inspection.

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Rob on screen inside partially constructed building.

Drone footage of building site.

Man performing remote inspection on site.

Man inside house making phonecall, and then waiting for phone to ring.

Drone footage of traffic on rural road.

Footage of building site showing construction workers.

Rob on screen inside partially constructed building.

Audio

If we can't get an inspection on time, there are obviously delays that follow on from them. Before the virtual inspection system came online here in the McKenzie, you could look forward to a wait of around three days. And if you were the last inspection on the day, and the four, five or six previous inspections prior to yours were taking longer, then naturally you get bumped. That means the trades that are driving from the East Coast get delayed, stopped, or they arrive and you're still paying them to stay here, but the building inspection team hasn't been able to arrive for whatever the reason is.

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Man in office looking at computer screens. Computer screens showing live feed of remote inspection from building site.

Tina on screen in outdoor location.

Graphic of map of Mackenzie District showing location of Twizel and Fairlie.

Text on screen: Distance 102km travel time 1.5 hours on a good day.

Main in office looking at computer screens and talking on headset. Computer screens showing live feed of remote inspection from building site.

Audio

By using remote inspections, it's allowed us to deliver the inspections in a very timely manner and a number more than what we'd be able to deliver on a daily basis if we had to travel. When someone's sitting in an office delivering a remote inspection, they literally can go from one end of McKenzie being Twizel right down to Failie within minutes, changing from one screen to another. 

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Dawson in office.

Text on screen: Dawson Gilchrist. General Manager Focus Consultancy.

Graphic of map of New Zealand showing location of Mackenzie District and Nelson.

Drone footage of Nelson.

Audio

I’m the manager of Focus Consultancy, and we're a company based here in Nelson. We provide a range of BCA and TA services throughout New Zealand.

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Man in office.

Text on screen: Glenn Buckley. Director Focus Consultancy.

Drone footage of Twizel showing Mackenzie Council office.

Woman in office at desk looking at computer screens, and answering phone.

Audio

My name's Glenn Buckley. I'm one of the directors of Focus Consultancy limited. My key role in our business is doing building consent application processing and remote inspections. So in regard to McKenzie District Council, how we do our remote inspections was decided initially during a phone call that the only takes from the contractor who wants the inspection.

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Rob in building talking on telephone.

Drone footage of truck arriving on building site in urban area.

Man in office working on computer.

Rob inside partially constructed building.

Man answering phone call. 

Drone footage of construction site showing construction workers.

Rob inside partially constructed building.

Audio

When we book an inspection with the local council, we have to provide the address, the building, consent number, and the type of inspection. They're not collating it so that they can drive in a circle. They're collating it so that it suits best the time that the building team needs. The team ring to give you a time the day before, and then the very next day, they ring on time every time.

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Tina on screen in outdoor location.

Phone on a table, screens screen shows call being received.

Man inside building answering phonecall.

Main in office looking at computer screens and talking on headset. Computer screens showing live feed of remote inspection from building site.

Audio

Remote inspections are delivered, similar to on site inspections using the same software, the only difference being that we utilise Zeit, which is the video conferencing side of things, to undertake the inspection.

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Dawson on screen in office.

Computer screen showing remote inspection being conducted.

Glenn in office looking at computer screens and talking on headset. Computer screens showing live feed of remote inspection from building site.

Audio

Zeit provide us with remote inspection platform. The platform that we use is extremely user friendly.

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Rob inside partially constructed building.

Remote inspection being carried out on site of building work.

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They text your prompts to your phone. You open up the link simply by pushing the screen, and then you follow the voice prompts that your inspector's given you.

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Remote inspection being carried out on site of building work.

Glenn on screen in office location.

Glenn in office looking at computer screens and talking on headset. Computer screens showing live feed of remote inspection from building site.

Audio

If we find something on site that we'd like to ask the builder a question about, instead of asking them to go to the office and digging through all their supporting documentation on one of the screens, we've got all the specification supporting documentations and the plans, so we can see them all at hand.

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Tina on screen in outdoor location.

Construction worker walking into Mackenzie Council office and collecting a moisture meter.

Audio

Of the inspections undertaken where you are required to do moisture testing, we've overcome that problem by having a loan moisture metre. 

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Moisture meter and digital thermometer being used by construction workers on site during remote inspections.

Rob inside partially constructed building.

Audio

The council here have provided the moisture metres and thermometers for us to borrow. The nice part about that is that the council pay for the calibration of those things so we can be sure that they're accurate. 

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Dawson on screen in office location.

Drone footage of vehicle driving through urban area arriving at building site.

Construction worker using phone to show inspector measurement of solid fuel heater installation as part of remote inspection.

Construction worker using phone to show inspector measurement of foundation as part of remote inspection.

Construction worker using phone to show inspector timber framing and services installation as part of remote inspection.

Dawson on screen in office location.

Audio

The cost savings to the BCA is the biggest advantage that I see, the reduction of travel requirements by the building inspectors, the ability to perform multiple inspections within the day, at short notice. And also the end report that goes out to the user is a far more detailed report.

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Tina on screen in outdoor location.

Construction worker using phone to show inspector measurement of solid fuel heater installation as part of remote inspection.

Construction worker using phone to show inspector measurement of foundation as part of remote inspection.

Audio

Since we started delivering remote, virtual inspections we've received phenomenal positive feedback from the builders.

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Construction worker arriving on site in truck.

Rob inside partially constructed building.

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It takes a fraction of the time that it normally would. It's actually more thorough now for me than it ever was in the past.

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Glenn on screen in office location.

Construction worker using phone to show inspector measurement of foundation as part of remote inspection.

Glenn on screen in office location.

Drone footage of van on rural road.

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

Glenn on screen in office location.

Audio

From my time being an on site inspector. If you ask me now, should a BCA be going to remote inspections? I'll be saying, yes, it's a no brainer. Probably one thing that building inspector will miss when they get into doing their remote inspection part, getting out into the country, leaving the office, but you still can get to eat your pie.