Renovating Leaky Homes

Leaky Home. Two words that will send a shiver up the spine of any homeowner. It has been a blight on the New Zealand housing market for almost two decades and still affects the buying and selling of houses to this very day. So how did we end up in this situation? And is a leaky home the financial death sentence many believe it to be?

There was a whirlwind of circumstances that culminated into the nationwide leaky home dilemma. Unforeseen consequences of design decisions, incompetence and lack of accountability were all ingredients in creating the situation.

The leaky home crisis is an issue that relates to a high number of homes constructed between 1994 and 2004. These timber-framed buildings share a common issue revolving around a fault in their weather tightness. This resulted in a range of serious issues for the building and homeowners. One of the most prevalent issues is the timber framing decaying, and in extreme situations resulted in the building itself becoming structurally unsound and therefore unsafe to reside in. Leaky homes also were prone to mould and spores developing around the damp timber framing, further imposing health risks on their occupants. By 2009, the repairs and replacement costs were estimated to be over $11 billion and have continued to grow in the 11 years proceeding.

A major contributing factor to the leaky home crisis was the 1991 Building Act. This came into law in 1993 and ultimately changed a prescriptive system into one that is more of a self-regulated regime. This resulted in a handing over of responsibilities to the private sector to hand out building consents. This system was taken advantage of, resulting in a cash grab to hand out these consents without the adequate documentation, failing to conduct building inspections during construction, and handing out compliance certificates for buildings that should never have been granted one in the first place. It is unclear if builders were knowingly taking advantage of this change, but due to the regulations at the time, many buildings were constructed with numerous faults and short cuts during this time.

To further complicate the situation during this time period, manufacturers were releasing a number of products onto the New Zealand market that were approved by BRANZ. Many of these products were not fit for purpose, and should not have been approved in the first place.

This drastic change in regulation and sub par building products coincided with a shift in architectural taste for home design. A trend in Mediterranean style homes swept the new home market. These homes were designed to have complex roofs, plastered exterior walls and internal decks. This style of home lent itself to allowing moisture into the walls of a home if construction was not meticulously planned out, particularly due to the small or the complete lack of eaves when it came to roofing design. If implemented incorrectly, this had a tendency for water to drain off the roof directly into the walls.

And that is why to this day plastered home sales are approached with scrutiny and scepticism.

But is it all gloom and doom for the owner of a home that has been deemed a leaky home? While it is by no means ideal needing to reclad your home, there can be positives if it needs to be done.

With crisis often comes opportunity.

Many property experts will claim that curbside appeal can increase your property value by up to 25%. Recladding your home can be an opportunity to modernise it. It offers you a blank canvas to create a home that is distinctive to your taste and an opportunity to breathe new life into a home that has great bones. As mentioned earlier, the Mediterranean plaster buildings of the leaky home era have left buyers apprehensive. This drives down your property value even if your home doesn't have any faults, and therefore recladding can be an expense that is not only recouped on sale but can lead to a more profitable property value.

In addition to this, recladding opens up your home to additional renovations. It is often used as an opportunity for home extensions, as the recladding process requires going down to the framework of the home, to begin with. As many New Zealand homes were built without the modern design foresight contemporary homes have, an opportunity to increase the floor space in your home is a welcomed renovation for most.

So if you are in the situation in which you need to repair a leaky home, take a breath and see if there is an opportunity in it. If the renovations are implemented smartly and by a knowledgeable team, you may have the chance to improve and modernise your home. It can be a chance to use recladding to create a statement home, one that fits the vision of your perfect abode. In Auckland's ever-growing property market, renovations often pay for themselves in the long run. So if you are looking to invest in increasing your property value, whether it is due to the leaky home crisis or not, get in contact with the knowledgeable team at Renovation Works today.

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