What is a Leaky Home?
Most people by now are aware of the Leaky Building Syndrome in New Zealand. A ‘leaky home’ is a home that has water entering the building and causing substantial damage. The background to the problem stared in the early 1990’s when the ‘Mediterranean look’ had become fashionable for houses in New Zealand. Complex architectural designs started appearing with flat rooves, minimal eaves, multi storey, built in decks, parapet walls, internal gutters and monolithic plaster finishes. Unfortunately, some of New Zealand's most fashionable homes are taking in water through the exterior finish.
The introduction of new synthetic plaster cladding systems without a proven track record was also another factor contributing to water entering the building envelope. Working drawings lacked the details necessary to install these new products and manufactures made little effort to provide information for installation of there products. Subsequently a shortage of labour during this time meant unqualified and inexperienced workers installing these products. Other poor details like no head flashings on windows, ground levels raised against the exterior claddings and no cavity systems in place didn’t allow water to drain and deflect to the outside of the buildings.
A further introduction of allowing untreated timber in the building industry made matters worse. Untreated, kiln-dried timber rots once water has entered the building. This decision meant a leaky home, which could have been repaired relatively easily, is now faced with a huge task of replacing damaged and rotting timber which is no longer structurally sound.
There are an estimated 30,000 - 80,000 leaky homes in New Zealand. The repair bill is estimated by the government to be around $8 billion dollars. If you are living in a leaky home, or suspect you’re living in a leaky home call us today for a free consultation on solving your leaky building problems.
