Safety glass requirements under NZS 4223 for NZ glaziers

How safety glass is actually required in NZ

There is no single “glazing licence” and no rule that says “safety glass is required in doors” written into the Act itself. The obligation runs through the Building Code. Clause F2 Hazardous Building Materials requires glazing that people could hit to be safe if broken, and its Acceptable Solution F2/AS1 points to NZS 4223.3:2016, Glazing in buildings — Human impact safety requirements as the way to show compliance. That standard defines the locations where glass is exposed to human impact and sets out which glass is acceptable in each one. It applies to glazing that sits wholly or partly within 2000 mm of the floor or ground and is not otherwise protected. Clauses B1 (structure) and F4 (safety from falling) lean on the same standard for glass that carries load or acts as a barrier. The standard itself is sold by Standards New Zealand, so work from the current copy for the tables rather than from memory or a supplier’s summary.

Critical locations: the usual suspects

NZS 4223.3 is organised around critical locations, and the ones glaziers meet daily are doors and glazing next to doors, side panels and low-level glazing in walls and screens, glazing in and around wet areas such as showers and baths, and glass used as a barrier or balustrade. The exact dimensions, zones and the glass thickness or type allowed for each belong in the standard’s tables, and they are the part people get wrong when working from rule of thumb. The glass products themselves are covered separately: safety glazing material is marked to AS/NZS 2208, and that marking is how you, the inspector and the owner can tell toughened or laminated safety glass from annealed float glass once it is in the frame. A good habit is to decide for every pane, before you order, whether it is in a human-impact location, write that decision down, and if you are in any doubt, specify safety glass. The cost of the upgrade is small next to replacing a pane and answering for an injury.

• Ask whether the pane is within 2000 mm of the floor or ground and can be struck by a person.
• Check the location against NZS 4223.3, not against last week’s job.
• Order glass with the AS/NZS 2208 safety marking and confirm it is visible on the delivered pane.
• Record type (toughened, laminated, safety IGU), thickness, location and your basis for the decision.

Glass balustrades and barriers under F4

A glass balustrade is two things at once: a human-impact location under NZS 4223.3 and a barrier under Building Code clause F4 Safety from Falling. The required barrier height is not one number. F4/AS1 sets it depending on the building’s use and where the barrier is, and the fall height also matters, so always read the height for the particular building off the Acceptable Solution or the consented drawings. Then measure what you actually installed, after finished floor levels and fixings are in, and write that figure down next to the required one. Many barrier failures at inspection are not bad glass but a barrier that finished short because the finished floor level was not what the drawings assumed. The fixing system, whether it is a channel, spigot or standoff, is part of the barrier design, so record it alongside the glass type and thickness. Do not rely on a supplier’s generic “compliant balustrade” claim in place of the barrier height for your site.

Building consent for glazing work

Under Schedule 1 of the Building Act 2004, general repair, maintenance and replacement is exempt from building consent when the new component is comparable and in the same position. For windows there is a more specific exemption for existing dwellings and outbuildings. Both carry an important exception: if the unit you are replacing has failed to meet the Building Code durability provisions, for example a window that has leaked early, the exemption does not apply and the replacement may need a consent. New openings, enlarged openings, and glazing on new builds are consented work. Exempt work must still comply with the Building Code, which means safety glass in the right places and no downgrade of existing performance. If a customer asks you to confirm “no consent needed”, the safest wording is that like-for-like replacement is generally exempt and that the council (the building consent authority) can confirm in a borderline case. District plan rules are a separate matter and may apply as well.

H1 window records and restricted building work

On consented work, new windows must meet Building Code clause H1 Energy Efficiency. Window performance is the construction R-value of the whole window, frame and glass together, not the glass alone, and it is shown for each window on a WEERS certificate or in the designer’s H1 calculation. A low-E double-glazed unit in a poor frame does not show compliance by itself. The current acceptable solution is H1/AS1 6th edition, in force since 27 November 2025, with the 5th edition usable for consent applications lodged up to 26 November 2026. For each consented window, record the frame type, the glazing unit specification, the WEERS certificate number or calculation reference, and the construction R-value. Separately, installing exterior windows and doors in a home under a building consent is restricted building work because windows and doors are part of the external moisture-management system. It has to be carried out or supervised by a suitably licensed LBP, who must give the owner and council a Record of Work on completion. A like-for-like replacement with no consent is not restricted building work. Commercial buildings are outside the residential RBW regime.

Recording it so it holds up later

The records above are not heavy, but they are rarely written at the time. Toolie’s glazier pack works out which records apply from the facts of the job: is any pane in a critical location, is it a glass balustrade, is the work consented, is a new window going in. Its safety glass register takes each pane (location, glass type, thickness, whether the grade marking was seen, whether it is in a human-impact zone) and warns you when a human-impact pane is recorded as annealed or when the marking was not checked. For barriers you enter the height that F4/AS1 requires for that use, because Toolie does not state a height for you, plus the as-installed height, and it flags any barrier that finished lower than required. The result prints as an installation record you can give the owner. See Toolie for glaziers if you want it connected to your quoting.

Sources

Official sources this guide relies on. Rules change, so check the current version before relying on a date or threshold.

• Standards NZ: NZS 4223.3:2016 Glazing in buildings, Human impact safety requirements
• MBIE: F2 Hazardous building materials, acceptable solutions and verification methods
• MBIE: Windows and exterior doorways in existing dwellings (exempt building work)
• MBIE: Restricted building work
• MBIE: H1/AS1 6th edition

Related: glazier software · H1 6th edition explained · LBP Record of Work · building consent tracker. Back to glaziers software · software for every trade.