Full Show Podcast: 09 February 2025

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to The Resident Builder podcast with Peter wolf
Camp from News Talks at B. Whether you're painting the ceiling,
fixing the fence, or wondering how to fix that hole
in the wall, give Peter wolf Cap a call on
eight The Resident Builder on News Talks at B.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
A house sizzle even when it's dark, even when the
grass is overgrown in the yard, even when a dog
is too old to bar, and when you're sitting at
the table trying not to stop.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Scissor hole, even when we are band, even when you're thereon.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Did house sizzle Wolf, even when there's even when you
go around from Mors you love your most scream broken pains,
appeeing in front of locals Lisball when they're going.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
Leaving them, even when will even when you're in there alone.

Speaker 4 (01:33):
Yeah, he.

Speaker 5 (01:40):
Is a cool, very very good morning to you, and
welcome along to the Resident Builder. On Sunday you were
with maybe Peak wolf Camp the Resident Builder, and we
are talking all things building and construction on the show
this morning, So I trust you had it might have
been a long weekend. White Tongue Day of course was Thursday.
Attendance at school I think was probably fairly light on

(02:02):
the friday. Not where our boy goes to school, but
other schools perhaps. And maybe you've taken advantage of some
really good weather, some settled weather that we've had, and
cracked into a project. And I'll tell you about my
little project a bit later on. If you hear creaking
in the occasional sort of cracking sound, that's me. To

(02:22):
be fair, I don't build as much as I used to,
so that when I do have a full on day
on the tools, I can certainly feel it at the end.
And I was thinking this morning as I rose gingerly
from my bed, thinking, crikey, I didn't know that I
hurt in that place and that place, in that place,
that yeah, it's the better part of getting on to

(02:45):
thirty eight years since I first swung a hammer in
a in paid employment, let's say so. The fact that
I'm still doing it is great, I think, but also
that maybe I don't quite have the agility that I
might have had as a twenty year old. But anyway,
these things happen. Oh wait, one hundred and eighty ten eighty.
Let's talk about building. Let's talk about to your place.

(03:07):
Let's talk about the materials, that you need, the tools
that you need, the compliance issues that you might have
to go through the rules and the regulations the contractors.
I sat yesterday actually while I was having a bite
to eat and read through about you. But I tend
to not always have time to read the newspaper, so
I only get the paper Saturday and Sunday, and so

(03:28):
if I don't get a chance to read them either
on Saturday or Sunday, they sit in a basket near
the breakfast bar. And then if I've got a moment,
I'll go through old articles. And there I was reading
a story about, you know, a family that contracted someone
to come and do, I think, relocate a house for them.
So that obviously bought a second hand house, had it
moved to a site. You know, there are one hundred

(03:48):
and eighty thousand dollars down on a chippy that did
a useless job. Turned out that the person was had
been bankrupted, had been banned from running their own businesses.
And these sorts of stories unfortunately appear in the news
from time to time. So how do you know you're
getting a good contractor? And by compare listen to that.
I visited some friends who are doing a big, reasonable

(04:09):
size renovation at the moment, and as clients they said,
one of the things we really appreciate about our main
contractor is the quality of the subby's that he has
brought with him to the project. This is an experienced
builder who works locally, who's got a good reputation, and
along with them sort of brings a package which is, hey,

(04:31):
let me introduce you to the electrician that I like
to work with. Let me introduce you to the plumber.
He's the tyler that I work with all of the time,
the joinery people, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. So you know, getting
the right trade is a key component of a really
successful project. I do have to say I had a
moment yesterday when I was nailing facierboard on so decent

(04:54):
heavy size facier board. Thirty two mil facier board six
meters six point two eight I think was the length
of the run that I had to put up, which
is just slightly more than one length of facier board,
So you're going to do a nice little miter job
in there. I had to nil it all out, the
rafters had to be trimmed off, et cetera, et cetera,
standard stuff stuff that if you're on the tools, you're
doing it every day. And because to be fair, I

(05:16):
don't do it every day, it was might have taken
me a little bit longer. Might I had to think
a little bit more about it. But the sheared delight
of driving a ninety mili jolt galve head through a
jolt sorry jolt head galvanized ninety mili through a piece
of facierboard without leaving a dollar mark on the surface
of the framing of the facia was absolutely delightful. I

(05:40):
have to say I was there and I was just
I was as happy as a boy in a sand pit. Right,
So that's the sheared delight of doing it for yourself.
If you'd like to talk about your project, oh, eight
hundred and eighty ten eighty is the number to call
on the show. This morning we had a brief chat
with Mike Olds from Razeing Construction System. Had a bit
of a chat about the Integra paneling, which is a

(06:02):
lightweight concrete that they have for flooring, for intertendency and
for exterior cladding. I was going to grab some because
I've got this idea about making planner boxes. I'm doing
another little project with Razine construction systems resurfacing old concrete,
and we'll talk about that when that it's kind of
in development anyway, we're working on that. We're going to

(06:24):
talk to red Climb past as well at eight thirty,
but right now it's an opportunity to talk all things
building and construction with you about your project or about
a friends project. And it might be compliance, it might
be materials, it might be tools. Actually that's another little
insight from yesterday. I suppose the benefit of having done

(06:45):
what I've done for as long as I have is
that typically I've got pretty much the right gear for
most things, so you know, being able to go to
the back of the ute or go into the workshop
and grab a little router. And I had to make
the rebate. Normally rebates on the back of facier board
are set up for six millimeter or four and a

(07:07):
half millimeter five A sment sheet, which we use typically
for Sefite's. I wanted to use some twelve mil PLI
mainly because I had twelve mil ply and I didn't
have any five A sment sheet floating around, so I
needed to widen that reback. So I had a route
I had the right bits, I had the guide for it,
could do that, grab it in a paint, prime all
of the exposed edges, if I needed to use an

(07:31):
impact driver, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So having
the right gear is actually quite important as well. We
can talk about what you might need to get your
projects underway. RIDIOH, let's get into it. Eight hundred eighty
ten eighty is the number. It always gets busy later
in the show, so I suggest if you've got a question,
call me now eight hundred eighty ten eighty. Before the break,

(07:52):
we'll take up the first couple of text messages that
have come through morning Peak. The powder coating on the
inside tracks of the aluminum joinery is wearing off. The
house is an earthquake rebuild and Christy so it's about
eight years old. Should I be concerned? Have you seen
this before? And then they've added I find your show informative.

(08:12):
Thank you very much. It's very kind of you to say.
Look in the end, if you've got movement, you're going
to get where. So if you've got the door, I
presume it's the door sliding across there, it will over time.
Were off the powder coating, so I probably wouldn't be
too concerned. However, it seems to have happened quite early,

(08:33):
so I just wonder whether one of your rollers might
be poorly adjusted or slightly stuck, or might have lost
a bearing or something like that, and it's dragging on
the powder coating, in which case getting an aluminum window
and door maintenance company and there's a few of them
out there to come along and just check it like
it should run smoothly. If you hear a sound, then

(08:57):
you'd be a little bit concerned. So that's how I
would probably approached it. And another quick text, Hey Pete
got removed TG and TG flooring that is soft to
walk on. Cannot get it under the floor to brace it.
What can I do to fix? So I think by
that question was it's more about that the boards might

(09:19):
be moving. I think if you can't get underneath it, it's
pretty much impossible to fix because you can't fix it
from the top right, not without just overlaying it. And
that's not the point of it. On my very long
list of things to do around my place, is going
to be doing exactly that. We had the floor sanded
a couple of years ago. Obviously the tongue groove doesn't

(09:42):
have as much bite as it used to because we've
taken the top surface off for the second time. So
I'm going to go through screw plywood to the underside,
and that will give me a bit more strength and
stop some of those creeks, especially the ones that I
make when I'm walking around the house at five o'clock
on a Sunday morning. Oh eight hundred and eighty ten
eighty the number to call. Oh, can I also say

(10:03):
there's another PSA? In a sense, was lining up for sushi.
It was a Friday, I think, down at the local
in Devonport, and a guy came up to be fair.
He was strikingly handsome, this sold boy, and with a
magnificent bed, and I was looking at his bed, going
I wonder if I could get away with a bed
like that. But anyway, we were standing there grabbing some sushi,

(10:25):
and he said, look, really enjoy the show on a Sunday.
We got chatting for a bit. Used to be a builder.
Now he's mowing lawns, just kind of in his semi retirement,
I presume. Anyway. Delightful gentlemen, Thank you very much. For
saying hello radio, I'm going to take a break. We're
going to come back with Helga in just a moment
if you'd like to join us. Oh, eight hundred and
eighty ten eighty is the number to call a squeaky

(10:47):
door or squeaky floor.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
Get the right advice from Peter Wolfcare, the resident builder
on newstalk semb For those of.

Speaker 5 (10:55):
You who are not quite sure about my reference to
a dollar mark, I don't know whether you still call
them that. Basically, if you're finishing off timber, if you're
nailing into timber, that's going to be seen so facier boards,
weather boards, et cetera. What you don't want to do
is miss and hit the timber and leave the mark

(11:16):
of the hammer the hammer face on the timber right.
And so for as long as I can remember, that's
been called a dollar mark, as in you should pay
your boss a dollar every time you do it. That's
how I always saw it. But anyway it was it
was just a moment of quiet satisfaction yesterday after I'd
nailed up that sort of sucks med along length of

(11:37):
faci aboard on my own, which was a bit of
a challenge, and with ninety Mili jolt heads and didn't
leave a single hammer.

Speaker 6 (11:46):
Mark.

Speaker 5 (11:47):
I was quite happy about that, to be fair. Oh
eight hundred eighty ten, Small things, ay that make us happy? Oh,
eight hundred eighty ten eighty the number Helga, good morning
to you.

Speaker 7 (11:57):
Oh you know it's trenchy degrees.

Speaker 8 (12:02):
That's just gone sick.

Speaker 5 (12:03):
Saying tell me about it. When I was tossing and
turning last night and it was I don't know anyway.
It's hard to sleep in this weather, isn't it.

Speaker 7 (12:13):
Yeah, well, I sleep on the couch, So don't sleep
upstairs because they've got a new townhouse and it's about
the degree is upstairs.

Speaker 5 (12:21):
Which is that if we can just divert for just
a second. This has been a sort of a story
that's been in the news quite a bit over the
last twelve months or so, where you know, people are
living in newer townhouses, sometimes two story but in some
cases three story, and look to be blunt because the

(12:42):
designers and maybe the developers are not thinking about how
that building's going to perform over time. They don't put
a lot of care and attention into things like shading
and ventilation and so on, and exactly what you're saying
is a common experience for people moving into new houses,
and then mistakenly people are starting to go, well, it's
because we've done so much more insulation, which is utter,

(13:05):
utter rubbish. Yeah, it's not about the insulation. It's it's
about ventilation, and it's it's about you know, if we
design buildings that have great big bits of glass that
face west right, and then what else are they going
to do. They're going to overheat, so we need to
introduce shading and those sorts of Anyway, that's just a

(13:27):
rent on my part, But that's unfortunate to hear that
in a brand new house you find that the bedrooms
upstairs are uninhabitable because they're so warm. Anyway, that's not
what you wanted to talk about, I'm sure, but.

Speaker 7 (13:43):
I only just bought this in all, Yes, I owned
it October because I didn't know text season was ever
that the developers said to three of us were bought,
bought the last three would you mind paying rent for
three months and you get a free heat pump and curtain.

Speaker 9 (14:01):
So that was good.

Speaker 7 (14:02):
So I didn't get the sun curtains like the you
know ones that we used to have old fashioned, Yes,
and good creations. Of the big problem here is, you know,
with the hot weather we've got more or less a
drought this summer, and walking around looking at all piles

(14:24):
because I'm a bent our place, the new designed ones
near the racecourse. You know you're going to build hundreds
of houses of the old racecourse. Well it's we're on
the side of the hill and this used to be
a paddack where the horses for the racecourse eight grass.
And though they have designed it where where I lived

(14:45):
and walk with. You know, you have the thing that
has the light on side for the surge. We got
all that. We've got the underground pair, we've got solar lights. Well,
the piles that go for the house and for the
ground of God, no cracks on the big wooden piles.
But I'm walking around outside the car ports and along

(15:07):
by the fences, and they're not such deep one, and
they've all got big cracks down the side of them.
The cracks are long and very I could put my
little finger into the crack.

Speaker 5 (15:20):
This is a crack in the timber, or a crack
between a gap that's opened up between the concrete around
the post and the ground.

Speaker 7 (15:28):
No the posts themselves, the wooden ones that they put
into the ground, the big you know, the round ones
that go into.

Speaker 5 (15:37):
Stabilize into a retaining wall.

Speaker 7 (15:42):
Well, not the retaining one this is. Those ones are
okay because we're facing down hole and they've had to
make them really stable. But it's the ones that are
up the side where the fence. We're off Great North Road,
just around the corner from kfc R. It slightly slopes down,

(16:02):
but yeah, the car ports the big like square with you. Yes,
I've got huge cracks, and then you've got the piles
that go into ground by the fence.

Speaker 5 (16:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (16:16):
And I'm going to go down today and examine again
the house ones at the back here, because there's forty
six places here.

Speaker 5 (16:25):
Yeah, I think in general, I kind of have a
picture of what you're talking about. You will get that
sort of the timber opening up with certain types of
I suspect you're talking about sent in piles or one
two five by one two five tena pile something like that.

(16:45):
They might, Yeah, they will get a little bit of
cracking and gaps opening up. Typically, it doesn't impact at
all on the structural integrity of it. It's it might
be a little bit unsightly structurally, it's not a concern.
If it's probably not a lot that you can really

(17:06):
do about them. You could always try painting them and
filling it, but then you're just making work for yourself.
So I think in general, I would suggest to you
that talk to the builder. I mean, if it's brand
new and you've got concerns, you should go back to
the builder or to the developer and ask them if
there's anything any remedial work that they should be doing.

(17:27):
But in general, Helga, it's not unexpected and I don't
think there's any structural issues there. So good luck with that,
and you know, hopefully you can find a solution to
the overheating as well. It's probably worth something. It's probably
something that we should actually will. We've got Storm Harpham
who was on the show last year talking about ventilation

(17:47):
and extraction. I'm going to be at a conference with
her in the next couple of weeks and so we'll
jack up a time for her to come back. It's
been a fascinating discussion in terms of in the media
over the last couple of years about ventilation and about
overheating in new houses. So maybe we can talk a

(18:09):
little bit about that later on the show as well.
Oh eight hundred and eighty ten eighty is the number
to call Murray. Thanks for you call Murray. Good morning.

Speaker 10 (18:20):
I'm in a board in Badden House which I repainted
about eight years ago and paint which has got no siding.
Where When do you think I should do a repaint
on that or when it shows where or what sort
of I'm just sent a bound where I should let

(18:41):
it go for another couple of years and then just
clean it and paint it or what am I looking at?

Speaker 5 (18:47):
Yeah, a really good question, And to be fair, I
think I'm in a sort of similar situation. I think
it was about eight years ago that we did quite
a lot of painting work on our place and spending
a bit of time working on the house at the
moment I realized that there's areas where either the paint's
peeled off completely or where I've just got cracking and

(19:07):
movement and boards and that sort of thing. Look, I
think it probably comes down to how much like if
you continue to delay, right, then the amount of work
that you have to do, increases. Right. So if you said, actually,
you know, eighty five percent of the exterior of the

(19:29):
house is actually in pretty good condition now, And if
I was going to repaint it, I would just target
some areas where there might be a couple of bubbles
or a bit of flaking or something like that. I
can attack those, scrape them back, prime them, get them ready,
and then I can give the whole house a wash,
and my preparation is less and the painting is easier. Right,

(19:50):
you spend more time painting than you do prepping. If
you said, look, I'm going to leave it a little
bit longer, then you will spend more time prepping, and
that's going to increase your cost. The other important consideration is,
and I was talking with someone about this this week around,
and in terms of durability of our cladding, it often

(20:12):
our paint systems, if it is painted, have a direct
bearing on the durability of the cladding. So if, for example,
what you're getting is you're actually getting moisture ingress because
the paint is breaking down, then that's going to accelerate
the opportunity for delay for decay. So again you'd balance that.

Speaker 10 (20:33):
Yeah, I've got no decay, It's in perfect condition and
it just probably needs a little bit of a wash
on the south side. That that's the sort of thing.
But you know, I used up about three hundred tubes
of silicon. Yeah, yeah, and I used one brand that
wasn't UV resistant, ah, right, and then I had had

(20:56):
to cut it all out and more expensive tube of
silagon that was UV resistance. So that was a learning curve.

Speaker 6 (21:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (21:05):
Yeah, it's just it's some perfect condition. It's just like
I'm going looking and do I just give it a
clean and then just slap another coat, cutting out of
coats on top of it, and then that's good for
another ten years. That's what I was sort of thinking.

Speaker 5 (21:20):
I would be inclined, and I again, it's sort of
in the back of my mind at the moment is
you know, I've got some work to do on my
own place, right, typical old house is always work to do.
So I'm sort of starting to think I can kind
of understand why my dad spent seemingly every summer painting
the house. Right, Whether he painted it, I can't remember

(21:41):
it so long ago. But you know, you I think
staying on top of it and makes it just means
you spend more time painting rather than prepping. So yeah,
you can, you can put it off, but you'll do
a lot more work in the future.

Speaker 10 (21:58):
Yeah, one more question, what's your knowledge like on cross
leaf sections?

Speaker 5 (22:05):
Ah, starting to get a little bit more familiar with them.
And just the other day in a discussion was the
term defect title or defective title popped up. So if
it's something like that, we can have a crack at it.

Speaker 11 (22:20):
Ye.

Speaker 10 (22:21):
What I've got is a cross free section my sex
and at the back I've got a right angle driveway
going on my driveway twenty meters up right hand right
sharp right angle and then up to the house.

Speaker 11 (22:33):
So that's fine.

Speaker 10 (22:34):
But on the corner of that driveway, i own that
corner of that section and I've just had it surveyed
off because i want to dig it out and use
it as a turn bay and possibly a park bay
for me because it's land on our Probably I've had
it surveyed. But what I want to know is what
right has that owner of the other cross release property

(22:59):
has over the subdivided that the concreting that corner. Right,
He writes, No, I don't want you to do it,
or can I just burrown on and do it? So
that's my property of how it survey there's the line that's.

Speaker 5 (23:18):
It I wonder whether it depends on the actual terms
in the original cross lease document, which could possibly be
quite old. And again you should seek proper legal advice
for this. But I understand that there is a distinction,
let's say, between cross leases. Essentially means that you don't

(23:41):
own your land. You lease it from your neighbor, and
your neighbor leases it from you. And I was reading
one the other day, but some agreements have exclusive use right,
so you would need to know that the patch that
you want to turn into a bit of car parking
is actually on your part of the lease and is

(24:02):
covered by the exclusive use clause, and your cross lease
is where I would.

Speaker 10 (24:08):
Way, yeah, I think it is.

Speaker 5 (24:11):
But anyway, that's yeah, you want to check the title.

Speaker 12 (24:15):
Wouldn't you.

Speaker 10 (24:16):
Yeah, And that was the other thing, as I was
going to take the cross lease and change it and
put it in a separate title.

Speaker 5 (24:25):
Yes, but.

Speaker 10 (24:27):
That's about thirty to forty grand They say, wow, ye see,
But see the beauty of a cross lease, I feel
is that the house that is front of me the
nineteen seventies at nineteen sixties house never had anything done
to it. So it's basically anyone that's going to bolt
buy it, will bowl it, and they'd want to put

(24:49):
a free story house on that to get a see.

Speaker 6 (24:51):
You yes, and then that would bring it up, to
bring it up to my level. So to my thinking
is now, is that if I keep the cross lease,
I can go no, no, no, Yeah.

Speaker 5 (25:04):
I've heard people talk exactly in that sense, so yes,
being strategic for you, there may well be an advantage
to keeping it as a cross lease, which is kind
of counter to how most people view cross leases these days.
And it seemed to be I remember working for a
couple of sort of you know, part time developers gosh,

(25:26):
back in the late eighties, early nineties, right, and it'd
be the sort of thing you'd roll into a street.
You'd buy an old bungalow on eight hundred square meters,
you'd cross lease the back back then it costs you
like two and a half grand right to cross lease,
create a new site and whack up a little townhouse

(25:47):
on the back that we would build, and then you'd
keep both of them. Whatever. But you know, the cross leases.
The number of times you talk about cross leases and
the kind of the issues that come with them, typically
people go, well, it'd be great if I moved my
cross lease to a subdivision and fee simple ou da
da da day. But your case and you're probably being

(26:07):
quite strategic. I really appreciate talking with you. Mary. Good
luck with the painting and good luck with that little
bit of concreting as well. All the best, Take care,
all the best, take care. Your News Talks B Open
Line on all things building and Construction will be back
straight after the break with Margaret.

Speaker 1 (26:26):
Helping you get those DIY projects done right. The resident
builder with Peta Wolfcat Call eighty eight TALKSB.

Speaker 5 (26:35):
Your News Talks HEB it is what are we calling it?

Speaker 7 (26:39):
All?

Speaker 5 (26:39):
Well, thirty eight minutes, thirty nine minutes after six. Remember
we've got new Sport and we're the top of the hour.
We've got Mike Olt's dropping in briefly next hour, and
then at eight thirty we're into the garden with Red
Cline Pass. But right now we're talking building. Margaret A
very good morning.

Speaker 4 (26:55):
Hey, good morning, Pete. Thank you for taking my call.
I really enjoy your program to every every Sunday morning.
So's you do. It's really interesting. But my question is
I've got a nineteen seventies townhouse which is two stories.

(27:16):
If you like because you drive into the garage underneath
and then there's an internal access staircase. But the whole
time that I've been here, there's this sort of lingering,
sort of like an earthy smell that I notice when
I'm walking up the internal staircase. And and you know,

(27:38):
it's obviously built on piles the house, you know, above
the ground, and there is access there. There's a couple
of when you're walking up the internal access staircase, there's
a couple of cupboards that you can open which give
access to under the house foot and what there is

(28:03):
no lining there's on the dirt you're if you go
into this sort of covement, there's no lining like polythene lining.
And I just wonder whether that would be the reason
why I get this earthy sort of smell. It's not
really really strong, but sometimes it's stronger than other times.
At the moment, it's not, yes, very strong, But what

(28:24):
do you think might be going on there?

Speaker 5 (28:28):
Undoubtedly you'll have you know, I suppose it's a combination
of moisture and lack of ventilation, right, So yeah, and
it will that musty smell will appear in those conditions.
I guess in what you're describing to me. So you
can come in at the ground floor into the garage,
and then there's internal access from there upstairs, and then

(28:52):
these cupboards or these openings that you describe, when you
open them, you're looking into the sort of unconditioned underfloor
space of your house.

Speaker 13 (29:01):
That's right, yes, right, so.

Speaker 4 (29:04):
There for access. See your only way you can get
under the house, if you like.

Speaker 5 (29:10):
I guess that. The problem or the challenge with that
is that, in effect, you've got no barrier from inside
to outside bar the door, and the door is going
to be leaky in terms of air. So you know,
I mean, I completely understand utilizing storage space underneath the house,
but you wouldn't want it in any way directly connected

(29:32):
to your internal environment. So if your staircase is part
of your house, which it sounds like it is, and
from that staircase or that stair well, you can get
into the underfloor and the only thing stopping it is
the door. That's that to me seems part of the problem.
So ah, okay, because ideally you want your subfloor space

(29:55):
to be isolated from your habitable space, and typically we'd
do that by having a wall. Ideally, the wall. Should
I mean. I went to a property actually on Friday
and similar sort of thing. Actually there was a downstairs flat.
There was a because of a sloping area. Half of
the house was on piles right and it was open

(30:16):
soil and da da da da da. Between the habitable
space and the subfloor space was a petition. It was
jibbed on one side, but that was it, right, So
there was jibboard framing, no insulation, no lining on the
other side. So between inside and outside, because that underfloor
is technically outside. All that's keeping in keeping the foul

(30:40):
air out, keeping the vapor out, keeping the moisture out,
keeping the cold out in winter. All the rest of
it was one lining of plasterboard. So you know, if
to me, I think if you wanted to look at
a long term fix, you'd look at going, can I
close off those doors and create some access for storage

(31:01):
from somewhere else that's not directly attached to my habitable space.

Speaker 4 (31:07):
Because of the that's the only way that like electrician
like the roof is there's no it's a flat roof.

Speaker 14 (31:16):
You can't.

Speaker 4 (31:17):
Yeah, So it's the only way that the plumber or
the electrician or anyone can get into actually fixing your
pipes or lay any more cabling and things. So it
probably just needs to have more of a Do you
think that the actual door to the the cavery hole
door needs to be made in a different material or

(31:39):
line differently or something.

Speaker 5 (31:41):
Yeah, I mean, look at it might be as simple
as getting some draft seal, you know, the single side
of and putting that around. Just making sure that you
don't get that air leakage around that door. Sure again, okay,
you know my advice would be if you could change
it so that you're you know, you don't basically you're
going from your habitable space to an uninhabitable space fire

(32:05):
door and so trying to keep out. The other thing
would be, is there much ventilation in that subfloor space.

Speaker 4 (32:14):
There's those grapes, you know, those grapes you have at
the outside, You've got those that I think pretty much
that's really yep.

Speaker 5 (32:21):
I think that typically there's never enough of those, you know,
like I've I was underneath the house a couple of
weeks ago. Typical sort of nineteen sixties construction had a
concrete ring foundation had a number of those grates in it.
But for the size of the floor, I would have
liked to have seen twice as many grills right to

(32:43):
get that airflow through there. There is a calculation in
the code for how much airflow you require. So again
and look, I've been in situations where the airflow has
been insufficient to thoroughly ventilate a space, and so people
have actually installed a fan in there that just runs
slowly all of the time and just continually has airflow.

(33:06):
The other thing, of course, is because you've got access
under there you can see the unconditioned soil, is to
do a vapor barrier that will make a difference as well.
So draft seal vapor barrier and possibly add some v
infilation that'll make a big difference.

Speaker 4 (33:20):
Okay, okay, so the vapor barrier is definitely something.

Speaker 5 (33:24):
Definitely worth doing. Absolutely, yes, okay, nice to talk to you, Thanks,
take care, all the best, Bob. Your news talks they'd
be will talk to Gordon after the break. Will have
time for your calls before the news as well. So
call us now, oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
Measure twice god was, but maybe called Pete first, your
WorkCare the resident builder news talks, there'd be.

Speaker 5 (33:46):
Your news talks. They'd be eleven minutes away from seven Gordon,
good morning to you. But it doesn't work there you go,
gotcha Gordon, good morning, Yeah.

Speaker 15 (33:57):
Good morning, Peter. Always enjoy your show.

Speaker 12 (33:59):
Thank you many question.

Speaker 15 (34:01):
I remember saying once that you'd better to stay in
your timber rather than just leaving it. And is that
time where I've got to do all my fences. Yes,
so it's just be a timber. I was wanting to know,
am I better within a critic or a not Bastain.

Speaker 5 (34:21):
Interestingly enough? And this is where you know, I suppose
we all have our opinions. I was chatting away with
actually one of the j from Razine, you know, who's
often on the show, and we were talking about exactly this,
and and he was like, well, actually, if it's be
a timber, I would probably paint it as in waking

(34:45):
coata primer and top coat. And I was thinking, surely
that's just going to make more work. I think what
it is is the paint will probably last longer before
you need to repaint it. But at the same time,
you know, because the stain will absorb and you know,
diminish over time. Said, so what you might find is

(35:07):
that you'll get seven eight years out of a paint surface,
and you might get three or four years out of
a stain surface.

Speaker 16 (35:16):
The advantments of the stain as you know, the grain
and the timber exactly situated more. Yeah, a paint can
look like a bit of a flat surface, whereas a stain.
Those things has got quite a nice brain in it.

Speaker 5 (35:31):
Yeah. Look, and I suppose the other advantage maybe to
staining is you could possibly get one of those little
airless sprayers and spray, yeah, you know, and you can
cover a lot of area, particularly if you've got someone
who can hold a drop sheet up and move along
with your So, I just in.

Speaker 15 (35:52):
Terms of the oil or the well, have you heard
much about the you know, these these whether they I
haven't used the acrylic stains typically if I've done staining,
it's been an oil based one.

Speaker 5 (36:05):
But you know, crylics are increasingly able to do more
and more, you know what I mean in terms of Yeah, yeah,
you know water born enamels, right, the technology behind them
is pretty impressive.

Speaker 15 (36:20):
Yeah, a lot better least. And the second question has
to do with my son's drive where it's cobbles. Someone's
obviously water blasted the top over years and it's they're
all sort of puttered the cobbles. So yeah, just wondering
what as options are there. I even thought of reversing them,

(36:40):
as that.

Speaker 5 (36:44):
Just depends on exactly what type of cobble they are.
So some Holland pavers, for example, have got a bevil
on the top edge and on the underside they've actually
got like a little rib that keeps them elevated. So
if you flip them over, that wouldn't be good. However, yeah,
standard you know, your typical sort of two thirty one
eighty cobble that will have the same face on both side.

(37:06):
So yes, it makes a lot of sense. You could
just literally do that, flip the whole lot over. You
might find where there's some cuts and things like that
it won't work, But in terms of resurfacing it, there's
probably not a practical solution to that.

Speaker 16 (37:26):
Saving that concrete.

Speaker 5 (37:29):
Yeah, I was just going to say, there's a bit
of a teaser. There's a little project that I'm going
to be working on shortly, and it's using a new
product from Razine Construction Systems, which is a semontitious type
render that you can apply, but you can add color
to it. So actually I'm going to be doing a
little project, you know how we get on. It's it's
a bit secret squirrel right now. But that could be concrete, yeah,

(37:54):
and it might not be suitable for exteriors, but like
I'm going to use it on an old garden table,
and i might use it on a pitted concrete floor.
And I've seen it laid out in another place that
could quite interesting. All the best with that, you think
this eight hundred eighty the number to call Dave. Good

(38:14):
morning to you.

Speaker 13 (38:16):
Yeah, Hi, Pete, thanks for taking my call. I've got
an old house down here in tokr Oh, one of
the old cottages that they built. Yep, the little precangular things,
the foundations that have got a subpile that's like concrete
comes up about two hundred above the ground. Then there's

(38:36):
a wooden pile one hundred year one hundred by seventy five, yes,
which goes from the concrete up to the bottom plate.

Speaker 14 (38:44):
Yep.

Speaker 13 (38:46):
Now a few of them are rotten and I want
to replace them. Yes now I'm looking at them. And
back in the day they've used old nine inch nails
to drive through the wooden pile into the concrete.

Speaker 5 (38:59):
Yes, yes, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 13 (39:06):
And the same up into the bottom plate. What should
I use to attach the new wooden foundation to the concrete?

Speaker 5 (39:15):
Great question. Actually, I was underneath the house on Friday
looking at exactly the same thing, and I mean, you know,
if you if you're looking at anything from the nineteen
forties to the nineteen seventies, that's basically what you're looking at.
Concrete pile set into the ground and then a timber
jackstud or pile on top of it. I would probably

(39:39):
look at using like a six k in connector like
a strap, and then into the block use a masonry
screw so it's it's not like a diner bolt, and
you could actually use something that wasn't particularly heavy, like
in terms of like a six mil or an eight

(39:59):
mil bolt maybe forty or sixty milimeters long, And that
way you can just drill in a pilot hole into
either side of that concrete block and you'd want, you know,
if it's sitting up two hundred miles out of the soil,
then I'd go down at least one hundred mil and
have my strap running from there. Just you know, obviously

(40:21):
with masonry, you don't want to split a part of
it off. So I'd aim to be dead center and
down a reasonable way so you're not fracturing the edge
of the concrete block, and then pop that in and
then have the strap running up the side of the
tenna pile, and then you can use some text screws
into there and what you'll find, because obviously the tenner

(40:44):
pile is wider than the pile on top, the timber
pile on top is you actually get a little bit
of tension if you screw the top of it first
and then as you come down it literally binds, you know,
it's dumping it down. Yeah, so that's what I.

Speaker 13 (41:01):
So screw into the wooden piling first and then.

Speaker 5 (41:04):
The concrete one first, then screw the top of the pile.
I've got to go for news, but that'll that'll sort
it out. That'll be a great solution. All the very
best to you. Right, we've got new sport and we're
the top of the hour at seven. Back straight after the.

Speaker 1 (41:15):
News, dowing of the house, sorting the garden, asked Pete
for a hand the resident builder with Peter Wolfcap Call
eighty eight News togs V.

Speaker 5 (41:25):
Well, very good morning, welcome back to the program. Oh
eight hundred and eighty ten eighty is the number to call.
It is six and a half minutes after seven. We'll
take your calls right through this hour into the next
hour eight point thirty. We'll jump into the garden with
Red Kline pass. Of course, we'll touch base with Mike
Olds from Razine Construction at around seven forty five this morning.

(41:46):
Just a quick I realized they might have presented a
slightly confusing picture when we were talking with Dave before. So,
Dave's got the classic concrete pile with a timber pile
sitting on top of it that goes up to the
underside of the bearer, and he wants to replace a
couple of the timber piles or timber jackstuds, and wanted

(42:06):
to know how you fix them down. My suggestion was
to use a bit of call six K and connector,
which is like a galve or stainless steel strip with
holes in it. You could use some concrete screws, which
are really effective to go into the blockwork. And then
the block is slightly wider if you imagine, it's slightly
wider than the pile above. So when you bend those

(42:29):
six K and connectors, those straps across you'll end up
with effectively like a little triangle, right, so you don't
bend it at ninety degrees and then ninety degrees again
and up. If you fix the top of the strap
as you come down and you screw the strap into
the timber pile, you're tensioning that strap and that helps

(42:50):
bind it down. You don't want to be too excessive
about it. That's what I found a useful little track
is that you can use the tension of the screw
or the binding of the screw to tension that little
strap up. Funny that you mentioned it, because I was
scrambling around underneath the house on fret looking at those,
going gee, I wonder how many houses. It's got to
be tens of thousands of New Zealand houses are literally

(43:13):
sitting on exactly that foundation system concrete block into the ground.
Often they're just in the ground, right, they don't even
have concrete around the concrete, let's say. And then on
top of it will be a good old fashioned bit
of four to three probably a bit of remove, might
have a little piece of DPC that's underneath there. And yes,

(43:33):
back in the day, probably when the concrete was green
or the blocks were not particularly strong. You just drive
the nail into it. Sometimes you see like a bit
of number literally a bit of number eight fencing wire
that gets passed through. Some of them have a hole
in them. The concrete blocks. The pass a bit of
number eight wire through it, bend it up. Use a
couple of those horseshoe nails, and when you think of it,

(44:00):
it all sounds ropey, but hey, most of our houses
are sitting on them. Eight hundred eighty ten eighty is
the number cork quick text as well over son in
law that has weather side in terior on their house,
what's the best sealer to use prior to painting pat
that's bad news like that? If it is weather side,
it's basically it was a composite product brought out actually

(44:21):
by Cardholt Harvey probably in the nineteen seventy sometime. It
failed extensively, and for a period of time there was
like a compensation scheme. I think the time for that
has lapsed. If it is weather side, you can paint it,
but it's still going to fail, So you're probably looking
at a reclap to be blunt. Unfortunately, by eight hundred

(44:44):
and eighty ten eighty the number to call get a Keith,
how are you this morning?

Speaker 8 (44:49):
Morning? We have a home well Holloway Hand that was
relocated to a land block Randall, which is pretty much
complete now and it's on piles and the distance from
house to ground ranges from about six fifty to pretty

(45:11):
much a meter, so there's lot the room under there,
and there's this slight slope underneath the house. We haven't
yet addressed the moisture barrier issue, mainly because council had
a broken stormwater pipe which was discharging onto our land

(45:32):
and running under the house and so that became a
problem and they've now actually dealt with it fixed it.

Speaker 15 (45:40):
Not one hundred confident I want to just rely on.

Speaker 13 (45:44):
That, but.

Speaker 8 (45:47):
Seeking to look at the building coat because of co compliance,
it appears to me that if you can demonstrate that
there's adequate ventilation, which there is on our side because
it's just the wind just whistles through the Valis elevators,
then that may not be required. So I've got a

(46:09):
couple of questions. There's a moisture barrier absolutely required under
the code, and if it is, can it be attached
to the underneath of the house rather than sit on
the ground, because I think sitting on the ground is
not going to be particularly satisfactory, right, So that's kind

(46:30):
of a keep stage question.

Speaker 13 (46:31):
Yeah, if you can help.

Speaker 5 (46:33):
Me with that, unless there's been a change in the code,
I mean, ultimately it'll come down to what's on your
building consent, right, And if there's no mention of vapor barrier,
and I'd be to be fair, i'd be very surprised
if there was, then obviously you don't need to do it.
You just need to do what's on the consent. So

(46:55):
that that's kind of the beginning and end of the argument,
I think, because we talk so much about about vapor barrier,
and like I believe it's really useful, right, Like, the
the science is firm around the benefits of having vapor
barrier over the top of the soil, over the top
of the ground underneath any enclosed subfloor space. So but

(47:23):
and the reason we're talking about it so much is
because it relates to healthy home standards. So any mental
property in New Zealand now has to comply with healthy
home standards and part of the healthy home standard is
to install the vapor barrier. But it's it's actually I
don't think it's actually in the Building Code as such

(47:43):
as a requirement for new builds or renovations.

Speaker 8 (47:48):
Okay, interesting, Yeah.

Speaker 5 (47:50):
But this is not to be fair, This is not
there's a requirement for extraction in the Healthy Home standard,
which is more than the requirement in the Building Code.
In the Building Code, so you can satisfy the requirement
of the Building Code by having an opening window that

(48:11):
will technically satisfy the Council inspector at final inspection, but
it would fail on a healthy home standard. So healthy
Homes is more than the Building Code, which isn't a
bad thing. So yeah, and I think too, like if
in your situation, even if you were to do let's
say you wanted to do you wanted to close in

(48:31):
the subfloor space, and you had maybe some horizontal battens
or some vertical battens around it. Right, if let's say
there was twenty five percent that was open, So if
you had one hundred mil board, then a twenty five
mil gap, and then another one hundred milli board, you
would probably have sufficient airflow there to allow ventilation that

(48:54):
will control the moisture in that environment. But you know,
I was underneath the house the other day, as I mentioned,
a concrete ring foundation on all four sides with a
couple of little vents in it, there's very little air
flow in there, So putting a vapor barrier there on
the ground, that's the other thing it's about. Putting it

(49:16):
on the ground. You're wanting to trap the moisture in
the ground rather than have it circulating in the subfloor space.
So there might be some advantages to having a type
of vapor diffuse barrier on the underside of the floor joists,
but it's doing a different job to the vapor barrier
on the ground.

Speaker 8 (49:35):
So our situation is we haven't yet put any horizontal
batons on the pile, so we've got a completely open
yep subftable and it's.

Speaker 13 (49:45):
As dry as a baron.

Speaker 8 (49:46):
I well, I would like it to say zero more sure,
there might be point something over one percent. I don't know,
but just the wind comes through and it's just you know,
any cans of moisture build ups zero. So I want
to have that discussion.

Speaker 13 (50:05):
I want to be prepared to.

Speaker 8 (50:06):
Have a discussion with the building inspectors when the time comes.

Speaker 5 (50:09):
Look, I think ultimately go back and have a look
at your building consent, and I would be incredibly surprised
if on your building consent it specified the installation of
vapor barrier. If it does, then you'll need to do it.
If it doesn't, then you don't need to do it.
And also we're inspectors sometimes, you know, I get that
they might pack up something that that processing has missed.

(50:32):
But if the inspector packs it up and goes, oh
I think you should, you go, well, it's not on
the consent, therefore I'm not going to do it.

Speaker 8 (50:39):
Yeah, fair enough, that's a good point. Yeah, the plan
show horizontal batons being in stalled. Oh yep, we just
haven't got to that point yet. And I don't recollect
there being any mention, but I will go back to
the paperwork and well, just.

Speaker 5 (50:55):
Have a look a cross section. So there'll be a
cross section showing piles embracing. You know, because on the
because it's a relocatable house, they would have specified the
location of the piles, the depth of embedment, the difference
between a regular pile and an anchor pile, the type
of bolt that you can use for your angle bracing.
All of that will all be in your building consent,

(51:16):
and probably on that same page there. If there is
going to be something about vapor barrier, should be on
that page of the drawings.

Speaker 13 (51:23):
Yeah, all right, it's good advice. Good luck, Thank you very.

Speaker 5 (51:26):
Much, Pasure all the very best, Take care, Bobo. Oh
eight hundred and eighty ten eighty is the number to call.
We're talking all things building and construction. Else was I
going to mention, oh, just quickly before we talk to Allen.
Every now and then I do go to hardware stores
and that sort of thing, and I mooch along the

(51:47):
toll section and I go, ah, there's nothing I need.
That was not the case the other day. So I'd
seen something online about it's a little Ryobi tool and
I've got a bit of Ryobi gear, and it was
what they call a tool station, which is essentially, you
know how there's the little engraving tools and grinding tools

(52:08):
and that sort of thing. This one's attached to a
cable or a wand that goes back to the unit
and then I can use the batteries that I've already
got to power it. So you just buy the skin
and it had as part of the basic kit, you know,
some grinding bits, some cutting bits, some polishing bits and engraving,

(52:30):
but little wire brushes that you can use to clean
up smaller areas that sort of thing. Anyway, I went
and bought one of these little tool stations. Now that
I got at home, unpacked it, and now I've gone
through all of my secateurs and loppers and that sort
of thing, and I'm sharpening up the blades. And I've
always sharpened them using a file, and there's nothing wrong

(52:50):
with that, but it strikes me as a hell of
a lot more fun and a lot faster just using
this little tool station tool and rotary tool just to
clean them all up. That was actually a deeply satisfying
couple of hours, or not even a couple of hours,
maybe half an hour or so, just sharpening secreateurs and

(53:11):
loppers and so on. Actually, once I'd done it, I
was so keen. I went out into the garden for
a little bit and started lopping off little bits and
pieces here, and they're just because it was so nice
to use a set of lappers that I just recently
sharpened using that little like I say, that little Rhobi tool,
which was compact and nifty and came with all a
little bit. So happy days, oh eight hundred and eighty

(53:31):
ten eighty the number to call Ellen talk to me
about decking.

Speaker 17 (53:35):
Yeah, good morning, Pete. The first thing is that I
heard you talk about a horseshoe nail as I call
him a stable.

Speaker 5 (53:42):
Yes, sorry, that's the word that I was looking for.

Speaker 17 (53:46):
I thought you'd last it.

Speaker 5 (53:48):
It happens from time to time.

Speaker 17 (53:50):
I cover amentaria verbs. I've used a lot of those things.

Speaker 5 (53:54):
I think I've still got a packet of them sitting
in a box at home. I mean, you use them
rarely these days. Certainly if you're fencing you'd use them
all the time. But in terms of you know, residential,
I mean we stopped using bits of number eight wire
to lash things down years ago.

Speaker 17 (54:13):
Well the hand, if you want to things on, you
just give it a couple of bangs and the visa
timber and you like on it.

Speaker 18 (54:22):
But anyway, back to the deck. Yes, we've got a
pine pine deck and it's been put upside down for
a start. The grooves are on the top.

Speaker 12 (54:36):
Yes, it's about.

Speaker 17 (54:40):
Four years old. Half of the deck is under.

Speaker 16 (54:45):
A roof, right yep, that's.

Speaker 17 (54:47):
Been there for about thirty years and it's pretty good neck.
It looks like new, but the others are all out
in the open. Now the problem we I only figured
that out. I've bought some paint that we're going to
paint the deck, and I was thinking around again, I

(55:07):
have to go and hit these nails down because it
gets hot and the hot and cold, hot and cold,
and then you've got to hit the nails down. Now,
if I painting over there, that's that's going to do.
So would I be better the oil oil the deck
or what would be the best solution?

Speaker 5 (55:28):
So the decks regardless it's age, it's about four years old,
but it's never had any treatment on it at all.
So it's bear timber.

Speaker 17 (55:37):
It's bear timber.

Speaker 3 (55:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (55:40):
Look, I think that you can paint it, but a
couple of things there. As you you sort of it's
much harder to maintain as in repainting. So when you
do have to repaint it, you'll need to scrape it
and prep it and all the rest of it. And
also you'd be a little bit concerned about slipperiness, right,

(56:01):
So a painted surface will be potentially slipperier than if
you were to do a decking stain. You would still
need to do preparation for the decking stain, so you'd
want to use one of the proprietary deck stains, deck
wash and prep systems. So you apply that, let it
at soak in, It'll do the mold control part of it,

(56:24):
agitate it, rinse it off, allow that to dry. The
other advantages that by using that particular product you open
the fibers of the timber, which means when you introduce
the stain, it'll suck in a little bit more. And
then I think here and then the prepper or the

(56:45):
recoating of a stain surface clean it thoroughly, reapply the stain,
stay with the same system. Again, if you introduce the paint,
it's a lot more preparation. The other thing is where
you've got some of those nails that are popping up,
why not just pull those out and replace them with
a decking screw because the decking screw will will bind

(57:08):
a little bit better. And you know, possibly if you've
used if they've used a sixty mil jolt head nail,
especially if they've used just a regular nail rather than
what we call an annular groove nail which has like
a little shank on it. Sorry, just straight old jolts.
So if you were to increasingly. We pretty much use

(57:33):
decking screws all the time now, So you know, either
you could go through and look, I wouldn't try and
pull out all of the nails. Are just the ones
that pop up when you take them. When they pop up,
pull them out, replace it with a decking screw. But
I would probably go for stain rather than paint. Something

(57:55):
to think about. Appreciate you helping out with my vocabulary
as well. Yeah, it's a staplehoe thing. Well it's it's
like a horse shoe. Anyway, we've got there in the end.
Texting eight hundred eight, call eight hundred eighty ten eighty
text nine to nine two um someone's text about the

(58:16):
vapor barrier, Pete, a question that has always plagued me.
Do rats not nest under the vapor barrier? I quite
like what you did there with the language column rats plague.
Very good. I take it it was intentional anyway. Look,
it's not something that I've ever encountered, so no, I

(58:38):
don't know that. It then provides an environment um for
rats to grow in. And if you've got a problem
with rats, join your local ecological restoration society, get yourself
a rat trap and be part of Predator Free twenty
fifty would be my little plug. Would that set sharpen orgabits? Ah? Yeah,

(59:01):
you could orgabits. There are always a real challenge to
sharpen older drawbits. You can do them on a grinder.
I've got a bench grinder. I know people that have
sharpened them using a belt sander. I know you can
buy little cats specifically for sharpening drawbits. Yeah, you probably.

(59:24):
It would be enough to add an edge to it
from this little this roobi rotary tool that I bought
the other day. I have found endless uses for it,
to be fair. I'm just waiting for the next rainy
day where I feel that I can be inside the
workshop rather than doing jobs outside of the workshop, and
I will I will sharpen more things within my little workshop. Oh,

(59:45):
eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the number to call.
We'll talk about the water leak underneath the concrete floor
in just a moment as well. And we'll talk to
val straight after the break.

Speaker 1 (59:55):
Whether you're painting the ceiling, fixing with fans, or wondering
how to fix that hole in the wall, you have
Peeder Wolf Gaffer call on the resident builder on youth
dogs b.

Speaker 5 (01:00:07):
Sorry, just to clear up something else as well, someone
else's text through exactly what's the name of that ryoby
tool that you mentioned that sounds really useful? Second text,
I need to get a present for habby and how
much is it? In which one did you happen to get?
So there's rotary tools which you can get, which are

(01:00:29):
there's a couple of different varieties. Look, the one that
I ended up getting is what they call a tool station,
which is the tool connected to a cable to the
rotary bit itself. There are one hundred and seventy eight dollars,

(01:00:49):
so that's what I got. There's a couple of different
varieties of them, so some that are corded, some that
are not corded. I opted for this one because I
wanted I figured that it would be useful to have
to be able to use my other batteries to power it.
And I didn't mind having a cable attached because and
so that it's going to be near it. So rotary
tool station r RT S one eight that you go

(01:01:13):
r RT S one eight is what it is. If
you're out there doing a bit of shopping for presents
for hobby or why doesn't matter either way. Oh, eight
hundred and eighty ten eighty and thank you for the
comment about Lee from the Horseshoe Nails. You're right, umm right, well,
good morning to you, Good.

Speaker 19 (01:01:34):
Morning to you, Pete. Indeed, my question is I wouldn't thraw.
It's a mashai and when we first had it done,
it wasn't such a great job. So it has been
written once. But there's only a few marks. And I
just wonder if there's any professional people that do partial

(01:01:58):
bits without having to shift anything out of the room.

Speaker 5 (01:02:02):
When you say a few marks as in scratches and
things and that sort.

Speaker 19 (01:02:05):
Of thing, the yeah, they're around the table. There are
tear marks and then an ornerment drop, but that most
of it's good and eighty five and eighty eight. Last
time we shifted everything out, it wasn't that easy, and
I don't really shifting it again.

Speaker 5 (01:02:25):
Yeah. Look, I think like typically when you talk to
the flooring guys, the guys that do the sanding and coating,
they'll say to you, in order for it to appear consistent,
we need to sand the entire surface, saying that you know,
typically you know, if you look at floorboards, you really
only want to send them twice in their life. Anything

(01:02:46):
more than that and you lose too much out of
the top groove that they start to get weaker. Right,
there's nothing to stop the movement anymore. That's a side
in some situations where I've had to do repairs, like
you're discussing that, they'll come in and they'll mask along

(01:03:07):
the line of a join and they'll just work on
one or two boards and it might appear slightly inconsistent.
That'll settle down over time. But yes, you know, it's
like the best practice is to restand everything. But yes,
you can target repairs.

Speaker 19 (01:03:25):
So the ex flooring specialists are.

Speaker 5 (01:03:28):
They if you have a look in your local area
for someone who does floor sanding and coating, there'll be
some locals that'll do it. The other option is to
you could try like there might be some local builders
who've got contacts for floor sanding contractors.

Speaker 19 (01:03:49):
That's an idea.

Speaker 5 (01:03:51):
Yeah, so maybe try a local hippy, particularly someone who
does a lot of renovations. They'll know someone, right, all
the best fail take care. It is a bit of
a knack, and I think it's again. I was looking
at the house the other day and said to the people.
You know, when you think about a timber floor, when

(01:04:14):
it goes down in its original state, it's about nineteen
twenty milimeters thick. So you've got roughly, what are we
talking six and a half millimeters of the top board
before you get to the groove, and then you've got
other six mil or so, and then you've got another
six mil And that's how the tongue and groove system works.

(01:04:36):
So if you take that top surface off and that
top groove or the overlap of the groove is let's
say three millimeters, and then it goes or it goes
to four and then it goes to three. You know,
if you continue to stand it, you'll end up with
nothing holding the tongue and groove together. So you've got

(01:04:57):
to be a little bit careful about that. I have
heard of one story where client was insistent that they
wanted the floor sand it again, and the floor sander
did it and ended up dropping right through the floor.
And look, in some cases, I've been underneath houses and
just screwed up like large sections of ply between the
joists the underside of the individual boards to support them

(01:05:21):
to get rid of any squeaking. Oh eight hundred eighty
eighty is the number to call. Let's talk to Evonne. Greetings,
my pete.

Speaker 3 (01:05:31):
How are you.

Speaker 5 (01:05:32):
I'm very well in yourself.

Speaker 20 (01:05:34):
Fine, thank you. I like you have got a villain.
Mine is a big blue yep. It has got a
ring foundation.

Speaker 6 (01:05:47):
Oh okay, it has been.

Speaker 20 (01:05:49):
It has been rough cast, including the ring foundation. It
is on a hell The foundation floats from about a
foot to about forefeet at the front which looks out
at the see gotcha. It has only got toe those

(01:06:11):
little metal vents in it.

Speaker 14 (01:06:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 20 (01:06:17):
The fact that it's sloping, does that change the ground
is sloping? Does that change the need for a vasa area?
No question.

Speaker 5 (01:06:34):
I mean all that that slope is doing is allowing
moisture to move from one end to the other. You know.
The bigger issue is around ventilation in that space, and
the fact that it's it's a masonry ring wall and
that it's got very limited number of events means you're
not getting a lot of ventilation underneath here at all.

(01:06:55):
So yeah, I wouldn't if you can get access to
there and it's safe to do so, I would.

Speaker 20 (01:07:02):
That's what I want to talk to you about is
access where the manhold is and it's only a small one,
is probably about of not much more than a foot
on the ground. So to do the vator barrier easily,
we would need to cut a decent sized man hole

(01:07:25):
in the floor right over closer to the where that
it's highest. Would you agree with that or not?

Speaker 5 (01:07:35):
You know, if, for example, at the shallowest end there
was maybe four hundred millimeters or five hundred millimeters from
is that from the underside of the floor to the ground,
or from the underside of the joist or the bearer
to the ground.

Speaker 20 (01:07:54):
Well, when you when you're locked, when you open the
man hole and you're locked down, it's only about probably
fifteen inches.

Speaker 5 (01:08:04):
Right when you say the manhole, do you actually have
a hole cut in the floor already that you can
get access to the underfloor. There's no access through the
foundations through the ring wall. No, no, ah, okay.

Speaker 20 (01:08:22):
That hole would only be about oh, fifteen inches by
eighteen inches.

Speaker 5 (01:08:31):
It's really small, obviously. When I again, funnily enough, I
was in an older house this week and I was
looking up at the ceiling and you could see where
they'd patched the old access into the roof space. Right,
and if you have a look at old villas. Typically
they've got batin and board on the ceiling. Right, so
they've got a board that might be about three hundred millimeters,

(01:08:54):
so twelve inches, and then they've got the batons and
often they would just leave a section of that loose
that you could get into there. Now, that effectively gives
you about two hundred and thirty two hundred forty millimeters
in which to wiggle through. Now, there might have been
a time when I could get through there, but increasingly
I can't. So yeah, whereas ideally you want something around

(01:09:19):
six hundred by six hundred. Look, I do wonder whether
for your situation, if you're going to have to cut
up floorboards and so on in order to get in there.
It's a little bit of a big ask. What we
know is the vapor barrier works, so yes, it would
be an advantage to do it in your situation. Do
you want the disruption in order to do that, because

(01:09:41):
you'd need to cut a bigger hole somewhere in the floor.
You need to try and cut through the ring foundation
to allow access. It's not great. I mean I wonder
whether if you've got some unsuitably experienced to come through
you might be able to look at adding additional ventilation
through that masonry wall, even if it's a case of

(01:10:02):
drilling for example, you know through the wall at two
and a half meter centers. It wouldn't necessarily loosen or
weaken the structure, but it would allow you to get
more ventilation.

Speaker 20 (01:10:15):
How much how much if we did the vapor area,
and if we if we did some cut the whole
ye and did the voter breer, and we put some
sort of well we need to put some sort of
information on the on the underside of the floorboards, and
how much difference would it make to the heating issue

(01:10:39):
in the house. So it's we're down on the South Island.

Speaker 5 (01:10:42):
Yeah, okay, yeah, look you know, so you've now got
a couple of things going on. Right. So there's the
original floorboards with no underfloor insulation, I presume because it's
just been so difficult to get into there, and obviously
no vapor barrier. So if, for example, the you've got
insulation in the roof and you won't have any insulation

(01:11:04):
in the walls. If it's an old house, you'll have
double hung sash windows with single glazing. There'll be a
couple of things happening. One is that obviously cold will
be migrating through your floorboards, and also drafts will be
coming through your floorboards. And so in terms of energy
loss inside the house, about fifteen to twenty percent of

(01:11:27):
the heat that you create inside the house will be
lost through the floor. So if you could reduce that
down by adding insulation, it will make a significant difference.
If you can then create a drier environment underneath the floor,
that will help in terms of not having the cold

(01:11:48):
migrating through like literally from the ground coming up through
the house as well. So I think it will make
a difference, and it will. It will also make a
difference because the insulation coincidentally will help reduce the drafts
that are coming through your floor as well.

Speaker 20 (01:12:07):
Okay, so six hundred by what size did you say
to the manhole?

Speaker 5 (01:12:12):
Well, I'm just thinking about one that we would typically
put in a ceiling. You'd aim for sort of six
hundred by six hundred. But in your case, so your
joists will be set at about five hundred centers, So
I would just make it as wide as the joist.
That way, you can cut if you've got someone to
do it, you could cut neatly along either the edge
of the joist or in fact exactly midway through the

(01:12:34):
joist lift up. Some of those boards create a decent
size access. You know, if we're talking health and safety.
The other thing you've got to consider is if you're
going to send people underneath the floor in the event
that you needed to get them out. You know, that's
got to be practical, right, You've got to be able
to get in there and get people out. That's important.

(01:12:55):
But I also understand that, you know, typically there'd be
a side door you could crawl around underneath the floor,
and in this instance, you're having to sacrifice your floor
inside the house to create it's fine an opening. Okay,
look if.

Speaker 20 (01:13:10):
That's fine, because we've got two large rooms over the
four hundred area side that are just plunge and growth,
and I've got no problem with having a decent manhold
there and just having a large rug over the top
of it vanished floors and stuff.

Speaker 15 (01:13:33):
So yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:13:33):
The other thing is because it's it's going to be
you know, I mean, you're you're a little bit disruptive
to do what we're suggesting you do, and I do
think there will be a benefit, right, just make sure
that perhaps you have someone check the quality of the
work at the end. Right, So what you don't want
to do is have someone and I don't mean to

(01:13:55):
be dismissive or disrespectful to trades people or anything like that,
but what you don't want is someone comes in there,
does a half assed job and you get bits of insulation,
bits of vapor barrier and all the rest of it.
If you're going to put the effort into it, make
sure that the person you get to do it does
a really good job, that they're really thorough with the

(01:14:15):
underfloor insallation, they're really thorough with the vapor barrier to
get the maximum benefit out of it. Given them confistrations. Look,
i'll tell you what. If you have a look on
I don't know if the ECA website, but if you're
looking for an installation insulation installation company, it's a mouthful.
They should have some association with ECA or the Insulation Association.

(01:14:41):
So look at some of those professional bodies and make
sure that they're a member of those bodies. OK, thank
you all the very best.

Speaker 20 (01:14:49):
If we go, as we go a site, the vapor
barrier and the unflorization, is it polystyrene or is it
toil or.

Speaker 5 (01:15:01):
It won't be foiled. Yes, you can use polystyrene. There
are other systems of well so ortex green stuff I've
used myself. I know that the mammoth ortex is a
very good one for underfloors.

Speaker 20 (01:15:16):
Yeah. Yeah, and what you're looking at for something like.

Speaker 5 (01:15:19):
That, I think that for the complexity of this job,
I don't think you'd have much change out of about
four to five thousand dollars, maybe a little bit less.

Speaker 20 (01:15:30):
I was expecting a lot more than that.

Speaker 5 (01:15:31):
Don't say that to the person when they come to
quote you to talk to you.

Speaker 7 (01:15:39):
Take care.

Speaker 5 (01:15:40):
Oh what a delightful call. Right, I'll let the cat
out of the bag. Talking about this new product from Razine.
We're not going to talk about that on the show
until it comes out, but we are going to talk
to Mike Olds in just a moment.

Speaker 1 (01:15:52):
Squeaky door or squeaky floor. Get the right advice from
Peter Wolfcare, the resident builder on News Talks b Right.

Speaker 5 (01:16:00):
Coming up thirteen months away from eight. Always good to
catch up with Mike Olds from Razine can Struction System.
It spending a bit of time with Mike this week
as we're working out colors for a new system that
we can't talk about yet, but I've let the cat
out of the bag anyway, Mike, good morning.

Speaker 12 (01:16:17):
How are you, Pete? Very well, it's it's always tending
to talk about some of Avenue products, but we'll leave
it as a teaser at the moment. Fair enough too,
It's yeah, I want I want to show people that
obviously the project we're going to be doing with you
over the next couple of weeks, yep, so they can
actually get a.

Speaker 5 (01:16:32):
Full yeah, that Mikey is still with us. Yeah. One.
That a product that has been around for a while
and it's sort of integral pardon the pun to the
Razine construction system is lightweight concrete. So just describe to
me what a lightweight concrete panel actually is and what
it might look like.

Speaker 12 (01:16:52):
So our lightweight concrete product is an auto played aerator
concrete or shortened down to AAC. So many people here
tecting in the construction sector the term AAC, which is
auto aerator concre and basically that's it's a process where
BlimE sand cements are put into basically a caketin they

(01:17:14):
have steel installed into that wet mix that is then
cured and sliced into whatever thickness is required, and then
it's put into an autoclave, and an autoclave essentially forces
the moisture out of the product to dry it faster,
so we put into the markets faster and sooner.

Speaker 9 (01:17:37):
One of the.

Speaker 12 (01:17:37):
Keys with this process is not necessarily autoclaving, but the
actual the ingredients within this concrete matrix and that forms
tiny air bubbles. So the concrete is generally around about
a third to forty lighter than conventional concrete, so it's
it's easy to handle and is far more versatile in

(01:17:58):
terms of the product offer that we have in place,
which allows us to go into external wall systems, so
for SAD plotting systems are substrate for our rendering systems.
Then also we have it for our intertenency walling systems
so for fire and acoustics that are amazing properties in

(01:18:18):
that space, and then also into a flooring system so
we have a slightly thicker product. On this morning, you've
been talking a lot about the flooring and subflooring. My
renovation that I did an extension to my property is
on timber piles and I install the seventy five mile
lightweight concrete flooring, so you walk into the sort of

(01:18:39):
space and you're not quite sure how you've actually managed
to the concrete floor onto a timber piled structure. So
it has benefits because of its light weight, but also
it's hardness as well.

Speaker 5 (01:18:52):
I suppose if you were to use the integral flooring,
it's a great substrate for tiles.

Speaker 12 (01:18:57):
Absolutely absolutely so, treated as any conventional underlay that you
would use, except the thickness. So thickness for example flooring
is seventy five milsack, but that is double steel wiry
enforcing it as a tongue groove join, so the firm interlocking,
you know, so even with some of you, some of
you apply woods and they have their interlocking joints with

(01:19:19):
the GT grooves and things like that. But really it's
versatility and its performance and durability and dispose. It's the
comfort levels you can get with these types of systems.
We know what their intergendency walling and our external cladding.
Just the acoustic benefits absolutely phenomenal if you combine that

(01:19:41):
with your with your double glazing these days, and they
actually absorbed so much noise from road noise or from
neighbors or the light that the benefits are absolutely incredible.

Speaker 5 (01:19:54):
And to find out more, people can just go to
the Razine Construction website then search and Integra and all
of the details will come up there. Mike, thanks very
much for joining us this morning and we'll catch up soon.
Well we'll get this little project underway as well. Appreciate
it mate, all the best, Take care bother then, Mike
Old's from Razine Construction system. You check it out online,

(01:20:15):
so just go to Razine Construction dot co dot nz
and then have a look for Integra. Like I say,
incredibly versatile in terms of plating, flooring potentially and inter
tenancy as well. Oh eight hundred and eighty ten eighty
back after the break with.

Speaker 1 (01:20:29):
Paul, were helping you get those DIY projects done right,
the resident builder with Peta Wolfcat Paul, Oh eight hundred
eighty eight, you've talked sad when you talk, said be Paul,
good morning.

Speaker 9 (01:20:42):
Hi Pete. Why do you to help me? I've got
a eleven year old shout which is cleared in linear board.

Speaker 14 (01:20:49):
Yep.

Speaker 9 (01:20:49):
And when the Tina we painted it with a color
called racine call color, all black with a white trim. Yes,
looks really great. Now we had to get it signed
off to get that painted black, which we did, and
then the first timmer came along and all the joints moved. Yeah,
you've got a gray line down and they were seventeen
of them. I can count them all, and they look

(01:21:10):
really bad. So we call back the painters and they
put in a flexible sentence down all the joints. They
fixed the sort of problem. But then in the winter
when it contracted, you've got to like a raised lip
on all the joints will stood out again. So now
ten years forward we just got a painted again. Went
back to Racine and asked them what to do, and
they said to use a repair here dry flex of

(01:21:32):
POxy and all the joints, which we did with the
painter and painted it again with two coats of Lumberside
cool color. And they've actually cracked again or they move again.
Especially in summer. You can see every joint again and
you get a gray line down the joints, which stands
out because it's black. And I went back to Racine
and I see them and they said, well that's the

(01:21:52):
best you can do. Get a small brush and paintful
with joints. But I'm doing that all the time. So
have I done something wrong or whatever should I do?

Speaker 5 (01:22:04):
I've got twenty seconds which I can't answer the quick
and so this is the cliffhanger leading up to the news.
Ladies and gentlemen, what's going to be the answer? Stay tuned.
I'll be back straight after news, Sport and weather and
we'll talk about that. Got some great texts, got some
quite challenging texts around the vapor bury and the installation,
so we'll have a deal with We'll deal to that
straight after the news, Sport and weather as well. Remember

(01:22:27):
red climb pass at eight.

Speaker 1 (01:22:28):
Thirty met it twice, God was But maybe call Pete first,
Peter wolfcaf the Resident Builder News Talk, sa'd.

Speaker 5 (01:22:35):
Be your news talks. The'd be we are talking all
things building in construction because this is the resident builder
on Sunday with me, Pete Wolfcamp, resident Builder, right through
till nine o'clock. Of course, we change gear jump into
the garden with red climb passed at around eight point thirty.
I got a couple of texts that I must answer
about installation because it's fascinating. And just before the news,

(01:22:58):
Paul was talking about a linear weather board house which
you own obviously, and that you've painted basically black using
the cool color technology, which is nifty, but you're still
getting movement where the boards. So the linear which is
a fibersment board about nineteen millimeters thick, you can butt

(01:23:19):
join it with a tongue and groove, but that will
always be subject to a bit of movement. I'm right there,
A yes, yeah, right, yep. I look to be fair.
I don't actually like to disagree with other people's advice,
but I wouldn't use repair care in that situation. And
I used repair Care just a couple of weeks ago

(01:23:40):
in a situation where it's static. Right, So the weather
boards in that instance there are dynamic and you'll have movement.
So I think a flexible sealant that is paintable is
going to be your best option. But even you know
the flexible sealant will if the boards are pressing together,
the sealant will bulge. If they are contracting moving away

(01:24:04):
from each other, the flexible sealent will stretch. So when
you do it, you almost need to do it at
the height of summer, where the boards have retracted and
the groove is open. But I would just put a
minimal amount of sealant in there. In fact, it would
almost be scolloped so that when inevitably the boards expand

(01:24:26):
due to moisture and they push together, that you don't
get a bulging. So I think flexible sealant with a
paint over the top is the best solution. But you
do have to be a little bit diligent and conscious
around how you install the flexible sealant to allow for movement.
And I think unfortunately I wouldn't have used repair Yet

(01:24:47):
it's a very good product. I just wouldn't use it
in that instance.

Speaker 9 (01:24:50):
Range judge jam Tarti and they said they wouldn't put
anything at all. Nothing.

Speaker 5 (01:24:55):
Yeah, And to be fair, there's a logic behind that
as well, because you know, typically if we if we're
looking at a crack and cladding or a gap, we
think about moisture ingress. But in this instance here it's
a groove right, and it's probably on a cavity system
as well, so if a little bit of water got
in there, it's it's unlikely to go in turn left,

(01:25:16):
turn turn right, turn left, turn right again and drop
through the back right. It's going to be impeded by
the tongue and groove and I have to say, allowing
for that little bit of movement's really important. I saw
a drive past a building almost every day where they've
installed that type of platting. They've obviously butted it together

(01:25:37):
really tightly. Now that and then it's expanded and all
of the grow all of the joins have peaked, right,
So that's to me, it looks bloody terrible, to be fair.
So I'd rather have a small gap there that allows
for movement, so that when the boards expand they touch,
and then when they retract that you're being protected from

(01:26:00):
moisture and gress by the tongue and groove.

Speaker 14 (01:26:03):
Yep.

Speaker 5 (01:26:03):
So yeah, a little bit of seilent and you'll be fine.
All the best you, Paul, Thank you very much for calling.
Really appreciate it. All the best and the repair care.
What do I do the other day? Oh, faceboard round
the top of a building where overhead lines had been connected,
so good old fashioned overhead power and so on. There

(01:26:25):
was the mounting block. I'm sure there's a technical term
for it. Whether the overhead cable comes in then goes
through the facierboard into the big screw a hole where
the islet for a to hold the fiber connection was there,
so they all came off. I just cleaned up the
fasierboard because there are relatively small holes. I just used

(01:26:48):
some repair care there, filled them up, let it dry thoroughly,
primer a couple of top coats, and it looks tidy
and there's no holes and it's so much nice and
they're having overhead cables running to the house quickly on
the insulation before I grabbed John's call, thank you for
your patience. So someone's text through and I'll just read

(01:27:10):
it out as it is, vapor barrier don't need to
be put in. If it's not accessible, which is around
four hundred less, don't do it. This is with reference
to Yvonne's call in the previous out. You're right in
terms of access, like an accessible space is I think
defined as being having about four hundred millimeters of space

(01:27:31):
underneath the bearer. Now in Avonne situation, she's talking about
fifteen inches, which is about four hundred mil isn't it
from the underside of the floor. So if you've got
a six inch bearer and then one hundred mili six
inch joist in a four inch bearer, not a lot
of space left. So it might not be practical to
do it. And even in terms of healthy homes legislation, yes,

(01:27:54):
you have to install insulation in underfloor spaces, you have
to install vapor barrier where accessible, and in her case
it might not be accessible. If she wants to rarely
put the effident and someone's prepared do it safely, then
we know that there are benefits. Someone else's texture and said, hey,
morning Peak, to keep an old house warm, you need
to insulate the ceiling in the walls as heat rises datata.

(01:28:15):
That's true. Very little goes through the floor. Also true,
but not nothing. So I think if it's often impractical
or more difficult to insulate walls because you need to
remove lining or you need to inject in those sorts
of things. Floors are ceilings. Typically in a villa, you
can install. Walls might be a bit challenging. If the

(01:28:38):
underfloor is accessible, then adding insulation there helps to reduce drafts,
helps to keep heat in, helps to keep cold out.
So it's worth doing. But you're right, it's about fifteen percent.
But hey, fifteen percent is fifteen percent. It's worth doing.
Oh eight one hundred eighty ten eighty. The number to
call John good morning, Thanks for waiting.

Speaker 11 (01:28:58):
Oh, good morning. Yes, look, just wind your life on
my garage. At the back of my garage is cracking along.

Speaker 15 (01:29:08):
The back and concrete okay, yep.

Speaker 11 (01:29:12):
And I did have a friend over, yes, and he said, well,
I could actually fill that with something and smooth it off.
I forget what it was, but I'm just wondering whether
it was probably missed by u Q. You see, when
I have my work done, it's no good going back
to them now it's too late.

Speaker 20 (01:29:29):
And that.

Speaker 5 (01:29:31):
Most likely also, there.

Speaker 11 (01:29:34):
Is there anything I can do if I'm if I'm
wanting to put the house on the market, is that
is that going to affect myself? Do you think.

Speaker 5 (01:29:43):
I can't really answer that? And you know it's up
to you to declear that sort of thing as well.
So yeah, And also do you get the sense that
the crack is let's say cosmetic as in you'll often
get cracking and concrete or is it there because the
ground is unstable and you've got bigger issues?

Speaker 14 (01:30:03):
Oh?

Speaker 11 (01:30:03):
Okay, then so it's can I actually someone file that
out and fill it with something?

Speaker 5 (01:30:13):
How extensive is the crack? Is it like from the
ground all the way up to the top.

Speaker 11 (01:30:18):
No, it's on the floor.

Speaker 5 (01:30:20):
Oh, it's a crack in the slab.

Speaker 11 (01:30:23):
And there's concrete.

Speaker 5 (01:30:24):
Yeah yeah, I mean, look, the concrete cracks, right, All
concrete cracks, and so we tend to control it with
control joints, but essentially it will crack. Look, there's a
there's a bunch of what we call simontitious repair products.
So it's often a very fine powder that you can
either brush and dry into the crack and then add

(01:30:46):
a little bit of water to moisten it and to
activate the repair. Or if it's slightly larger crack, you
can mix it up as a slurry and pour it
in and scrape it off later on. So either of
those two solutions would work.

Speaker 11 (01:31:02):
Okay, then, so yes, we're gonna put anybody off the house.
Just the crack on the floor.

Speaker 5 (01:31:09):
That's up to the individual who's buying the house. I mean,
it wouldn't necessarily put me off. I think if there
was dislocation between either side of the crack and movement,
then that might raise concerns.

Speaker 14 (01:31:21):
But I think it cracke long.

Speaker 5 (01:31:25):
Just fill it with c mix maker product and seek
and make products and that sort of thing. Sementitious repair
is what you're after.

Speaker 11 (01:31:35):
Okay, well, thank you very much.

Speaker 5 (01:31:37):
Pleasure John, all the very best to you. Take care now.
I got this text a little while ago, so my
apologies for not getting onto it sooner. From Kate Morning Pete.
I've asked the LBP builder of my new build, so
this is underweight, to use a roofing contract who is

(01:31:57):
associated with the Roofing Association of New Zealand so RA
and Z. He didn't, and now we've got problems including
dents in many places and the soft edge of the
flashing under the ridge needs to be dressed into the
corrugations where that's missing in some places. I've got no
faith in the roof are Now I've asked that the
whole roof be replaced or inspected by another contractor from

(01:32:20):
the ram Z as per my original request, and then
repaired it's brand new. Is this the best way to
protect my roof and make sure it's properly installed or
being told by another builder it will fail the final inspection.
Thanks for your advice. Just with regard to the failing
the final inspection, I mean if the quality of the

(01:32:41):
workmanship is so poor that perhaps the dents are likely
to cause leaks and that's sometimes what happens. If you
stomp around on a corrugated iron roof of whatever particular
variety in such a way that you dent some of
the ridges and cause a crease that's going to cause
a leak, then yeah, that might fail the final inspection.

(01:33:08):
I think it's why I mean good. It's annoying, isn't
it that your LBP didn't want to use a contractor
who has taken the time and if it to be
part of the Roofing Association of New Zealand. Ultimately, I
think your LBP builder should be responsible for the quality
of the work done by their contractor, and if it's

(01:33:28):
poor work, which it sounds like it is, then they
need to come back and fix that. I understand that
you won't have too much confidence in the contractor, and
if they've done a shoddy job by stomping around up
there and not trusting things off, I can understand your concern.
You do have to give the original contractor the opportunity

(01:33:49):
to come and rectify their work, and it's ugiven that
they're not a member of the ra rn Z, the
Roofing Association. I don't know that they would necessarily send
out one of their inspectors or members to inspect somebody's
work who's not one of their members. H. I think

(01:34:15):
it's I think you could then. I mean, if you
wanted to pay someone to come and do that inspection,
that would be wise. So you'd get a suitably qualified
and experienced roof to come and be as impartial and
as pragmatic as they could be in terms of what
they're looking at, and then write a remedials list and

(01:34:35):
then give that to the contractor and say, look, I
believe that these things need to be replaced, and the
person who is offering up this opinion has this level
of qualification. Bearing in mind that the person who did
the roofing should also be an LBP or the LBP
for the building is going to sign off the roofing,

(01:34:58):
in which case they have an obligation to adhere to
the code of ethics as well. So you've got a
couple of opportunities. Their code of ethics might be an
interesting one to raise with them as well. Righty oh,
we're going to take a short break. It is nineteen
minutes just gone nineteen after eight. We'll talk to Rodney.
We've probably still got one or two calls that we
can squeeze him before eight thirty, but at eight thirty
we're going to jump into the garden. Rid climb passed

(01:35:20):
as always with us from eight thirty this morning.

Speaker 1 (01:35:23):
Doing of the house storting the garden, asked Pete for
a hand the resident builder with Peter wolfcap call oh
eight hundred eighty News talks.

Speaker 5 (01:35:32):
V quick text as well, morning Pete. Is it worth
insulating internal walls in a new build? Yes, yes, yes, yes,
absolutely take the opportunity because you'll never get to do
it again. So for all of the sometime criticism of
block and the blockhouses and all the rest of it,

(01:35:53):
the one thing that I'm kind of proud to have
been able to influence is that almost from the get go,
all of the blockhouses that were built in ten seasons
we insulated all of the internal petitions. And that makes
a huge difference, not just in terms of warmth, but
in terms of its acoustic performance. Because typically internal petition

(01:36:15):
of a house you got a bit of ninety mil
framing and a bit of ten mil plaster board on
either side. The sound transmission coefficient the SDC rating is
very very low. So add some insulation, maybe beef up
then in the lining as well, and it makes a
massive difference. So yeah, that's a really simple Yes, it's
a great idea. Rodney. Greetings to you.

Speaker 14 (01:36:38):
Hey, good ah, Peter. I've heard you show a number
of times to know you're giving extant advice over the years.
This is the first time I'm calling nice to be
the call. So mine are a bit more of the
management of a building questions. I've done five subdivides where
you buy a house with a big session, build a
new house and live in it or sell it aumented.

(01:37:01):
I've done it five times going back. I repeated twelve
years ago, ten years ago, so ten years ago, last year,
So prost me about eleven hundred a square met yep,
that's a.

Speaker 12 (01:37:12):
Two stories two forty square meters sort of thing.

Speaker 14 (01:37:18):
I'm hearing at them right now. That well, building costs
have been terrible for I'm flying three thousand square meters upwards,
and that's one thing is the building materials about are
they going to get much better? And another question is
council inspection costs, And the number of inspections has just

(01:37:39):
blown out to a absolutely crazy level, at ridiculous crisis.
So I was wondering if that's actually going to get
any better. I've got to develop a place I'm in
in the next one to two years. It's actually a
legal right, and that's my plans from the next one
to two years to do it. And I'm just sort
of important about these building costs, these council inspections and

(01:38:01):
their costs. Are they going to get realistic?

Speaker 5 (01:38:06):
I mean, that's a bit It's a crystal ball question,
isn't it. And the flippant response would be it's unlikely
that they're going to go down right, So councils are
trying to do cost recovery in terms of their inspections.
What's inspections about one hundred and seventy bucks per inspection
one hundred and thirty at the moment something like that.

(01:38:26):
A typical new build will require about thirteen building inspections
and then of course if you happen to fail one,
then you've got to repeat that and so you're paying
double for your inspection. Obviously, this dis government's looking at
trying to get some cost reductions there, and so there's
a bit of talk about remote inspections where rather than

(01:38:49):
having the inspector physically on site, they'll be able to
do it off site and use your camera, the camera
on your phone to capture the information that might have
some savings. There is a little bit of talk around
self certification for some building companies, so that they won't
actually have counsel inspectors on site at all. They'll do

(01:39:11):
it themselves on an audit basis. That might happen. Whether
it's going to make a significant difference to the cost
of the final build, it won't. And I mean anecdotally,
there's a lot of developers that have basically just stopped
at the moment because they've gone, look what it's going
to cost me to build this two story, three bedroom

(01:39:34):
home or this three story walk up or something like
that is actually more than what I can get for
it on the market. So there ain't no money in
selling a house that costs you, or there's no profit
in selling something for more less than what it cost
you to build it. I think undoubtedly. And I was
listening to a guy called, actually he's been on the

(01:39:55):
show last year, Andy Thompson, who runs a company called
Cost Construction Cost Consultants, And we saw rates for example,
for certain time types of materials, and you know, like
you can do a square meter rate for block work, right,
And it used to be go back three four five
years ago about four hundred dollars a square meter, so

(01:40:17):
that's your block, you're laying, you steal, you're grouting, and
all the rest of it. That shot up to about
eight hundred and twenty dollars a square meter. Two it's
now come back to around the four or five one
hundred dollars a square meter.

Speaker 13 (01:40:35):
Again.

Speaker 5 (01:40:37):
Look, there's a lot of chippies that are looking for
work at the moment. People are often reluctant to drop
their rates from what they were getting, you know. But
in the end, sitting at home going, I'm worth eighty
bucks an hour, where you could be on the tools
for sixty, I'd rather be on the tools for sixty.
So maybe there'll be some opportunities, but at this stage

(01:40:59):
year it's it's still tricky I think for developers to
get the numbers to work and get it done. Saying
that some groups have got it sorted. And I noticed
in the paper the other day that Simplicity Living, who
are part of Simplicity Kiwisaver, who are building build to rent,

(01:41:21):
are about to start another two hundred and sixty apartments
in morning Side. So they've they've cracked it in terms
of making the numbers stack up. Yeah, and look, I
shiver was six seven years ago. We were working on
a site and across the road with some people doing
some stuff for KO and they were struggling to get

(01:41:42):
their affordable housing in at three and a half thousand
dollars a square meter.

Speaker 14 (01:41:46):
There's a war up the road here. But there's a
big development going to happen and developer just going to
go ahead with it, yep, and then it's going to
flod a lot of KO and wreck the area. Anyway,
Aside from that, So you were talking to someone six
months to a year ago and I just caught the
tail end of it. They were bringing the child in
from Australia and saving twenty thirty percent or something.

Speaker 5 (01:42:07):
Yeah, there's always and that might be the other thing
that changes the landscape a little bit as there's either
legislation in place, are about to come, which is let's
say you can bring in let's say tube of sealant,
right and you buy it from a well known European
manufacturer that's got all of the testing data and all
the rest of it. So you bring it into New Zealand,

(01:42:29):
and typically it then needed licensing by a New Zealand
authority to use if it was part of a building consent.
So that will change soon that you won't have to
get local testing on a product that you can prove
its compliance. I saw that by another means through.

Speaker 3 (01:42:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:42:47):
But and look, I think all of these things combined
might make a difference. But you know, let's say the
twenty or thirty tubes of sealant that you buy to
build a new house. You can save a dollar on that.
It's not going to make a huge difference, is it?

Speaker 13 (01:43:03):
Okay?

Speaker 14 (01:43:03):
If I can just move something else too, st.

Speaker 5 (01:43:06):
Very quickly, Sorry, I've got to go.

Speaker 14 (01:43:07):
So i'most have such a world of trade min tickets
and done a lot of building univation, Studdy, I don't
have any LBP. I'm going to manage the whole thing myself,
employ the conflicts and employ the survey and the draft
and all that. Ye should I get site 'LBP or
something would make any difference if I go and put

(01:43:28):
it on eighteen months of studying or whatever I need.

Speaker 5 (01:43:33):
I mean, look, as effectively, you're the developer, right, so
as long as you don't need to be an LBP
in order to do what you're doing, because you're going
to use an LBP for your building, for your roofing,
for your waterproofing, you're going to use registered plumbers, drain
laws and so on. So you could manage the site
without having a qualification.

Speaker 14 (01:43:54):
I can site manage that of qualification.

Speaker 5 (01:43:55):
Still, yeah, absolutely, Oh that's one thing. Yeah, good luck,
got to run. Nice to talk to you. Let's talk again.
So take care of Rodney right over a little bit
late now, sorry about that. Right, I'm going to take
a short break and then we've got a red coline passed.
If you've got a gardening question, just like the three
callers that have already phoned through, give us a call now,
oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty.

Speaker 1 (01:44:17):
Whether you're painting the ceiling, fixing the fence, or wondering
how to fix that hole in the wall, give Peter
Wolfcamp a call on eight hundred eighty ten eighty The
Resident Builder on News Talk s EDB. For more from
The Resident Builder with Peter Wolfcamp, listen live to News
Talks EDB on Sunday mornings from six, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.

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