Career Guide: What Building Certifiers Do

There are countless professional career paths for those who want to work in the construction industry. One of them is building certification. Building certification is the process of independently inspecting and approving a building construction to ensure all work has been carried out in accordance with all relevant building codes and standards. If you are interested in pursuing building certification as a professional career, it is important that you first gain a good idea of what this field of construction work is all about.

As a building certifier, here are some tasks you will be generally required to perform:

Assessing and approving building plans: As a building certifier, you have the responsibility to assess all plans drawn up to be used as a guide for the actual construction work. Usually, architects and building designers are the masterminds behind the drawings. Your work will be to establish whether or not the sketches are drawn up in accordance with the set building codes and standards. If the plans are in order, you can proceed to give your approval. If they are not, then you reserve the right not to give your consent. No building work should commence without the necessary plans being approved. This applies even when an extension is being made to an existing building.

Inspecting ongoing construction work at all mandatory stages: Another obligation of a building certifier is inspecting and approving work at all critical stages of the building construction process. This may include after the foundation of the building has been laid, plumbing systems have been installed, major electrical installation work is done, and so forth. You will be required to issue a certificate upon completion of each stage of the construction process for subsequent work to continue.

Final inspection of a new building before occupation: For buildings where all construction work is complete, you will be required to conduct a final inspection to ascertain if the building is safe and healthy for your use. At this point, you will need to check for compliance with applicable occupational health and safety standards. You will need to make sure the building is structurally sound and has good lighting and ventilation.

As a building certifier, you are generally neither responsible for quality control at the worksite nor ensuring that a building contractor fulfills their part of the contract. All you have to do is to issue or fail to issue certification based upon the inspections performed.


Share