Specifi FAQ's

Specifi can design the following engineered elements for residential buildings:

• Simply supported & Cantilevering beams and lintels
• Design of beams / lintels that support other beams, that are supported by other beams and so on
• Face-loaded members; sill trimmers and transom beams
• Portal Frames
• Cantileverd Posts
• The following Foundations for land class TC1 and TC2
  • Concrete 'standard' and 'monolithic' foundations
  • Strip footings with masonry header blocks
  • Timber subfloor
  • Masonry block foundation walls
  • Waffle raft floors / foundations
  • Thickened slab edge floors / foundations
• Ground improvement for all foundation options above, including;
  • Site concrete
  • Compacted fill trench
  • Compacted raft
  • Deepened foundations
• Associated connection design and selection for all of the above mentioned elements
• Production of structural member elevations and all connection and foundation details
• Production of specifications, calculations, Producer Statements and final documentation
• Peace of mind that all designs will be reviewed and have QA undertaken by an experienced and qualified structural engineer within two working days

Specifi is for anyone preparing plans for residential projects including architects, design technicians, architectural designers and engineers.

Specifi has been developed over a period of five years by Kirk Roberts Consulting who provide services in structural, geotechnical, fire, environmental and civil engineering as well as project management. Kirk Roberts have offices in Auckland, Tauranga, Hamilton, Christchurch and Queenstown and over 170+ employees.

This unique online design tool enables you to undertake the engineering design of structural elements without the need to engage a professional engineer directly. We want to save you time and raise the overall quality of engineering in New Zealand.

Yes. They have been part of our consultation process and the software is in accordance with all regulatory industry requirements.

You only pay for elements when you submit for QA and final documentation. This enables you to undertake preliminary designs at no cost. Specifi charges per element when documents are issued. For more details refer to our pricing information.

Yes. Various councils were part of the consultation process when developing Specifi. Their input was invaluable and resulted in several modifications to refine the programme for the benefit of the user, including the implementation of QR codes, Project and QA Summaries.

At the end of 2022, over 4500 projects had been processed by councils.

Specifi provides support throughout the consenting process. RFI queries relating to any calculations undertaken by Specifi will not cost you.

None. Specifi specifically calculates every structural element and undertakes all relevant standard/code checks. Specifi does not just look up tables. Only structural elements, connections and foundations that have the required stiffness and strength are available to select in Specifi. The software has been developed by New Zealand professional structural engineers.

Specifi aims to raise the quality of engineering design and documentation within New Zealand in the following ways:

• Unlike other manufacturer developed software, Specifi only provides complete solutions. All loads must ‘go to ground’ so Specifi requires all components of the structural system to be designed. For example, a beam requires the design of all supporting posts, connections and foundations to ensure that all loads 'go to ground'.
• All documentation produced is site specific and not generic. This includes details, calculations, quality assurance summaries, producer statements (PS1) and LBP forms.
• Specifi only presents solutions that work, therefore councils have assurance that everything complies with the relevant standards. There are no 'rule of thumb' assumptions used. Only structural elements, connections and foundations that have the required stiffness and strength are available to select in Specifi.
• Quality Assurance (QA) by experienced New Zealand-based engineers is carried out on all projects before building consent documentation is issued.
• Specifi documentation provides councils with clear, easy to understand summaries of the project, element design and QA questions. This enables territorial authorities to quickly verify the design parameters are correct. For example the correct selection of roof weight, loaded dimensions and the like.
• Councils can quickly check that documents are the latest version by scanning the QR code provided on all documentation.