Full Show Podcast: 23 March 2025

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Resident Builder podcast with Peter Wolfcamp
from US Talks it by helping you get those DIY
projects done right. The Resident Fielder with Peter Wolfcamp call
eight hundred eighteen eighteen US Talk said, be.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
The house sizzle even when it's dark, even when the
grass is overgrown in the yard, and even.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
When a dog is too old to barn, and when
you're sitting at the table trying not to starve, sissor hole.

Speaker 4 (00:46):
Even when we are ben gone, even when you're therellone
house sizzle hole, even when even when you go around

(01:10):
from the ones you love, your mom screams bording pains
being in fund.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Locals er when they're going leaving theirs, even.

Speaker 5 (01:26):
When we'll be.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Even when you're in there alone.

Speaker 6 (01:32):
Yeah, and a very very good morning and welcome along
to the Resonant Builder on Sunday. You with me Peter
wolf Camp, Resident Builder, and we are talking all things
building and construction, lots and lots happening in that space

(01:52):
at the moment, and especially in terms of legislation. We'll
go into it a little bit more detail later on.
You know, change of government feels like it's a little
while ago now, lots and lots of talk about we're
going to make things more efficient, We're going to make
some changes, we're going to make it quicker, easier, faster,
to build houses more affordably, etc.

Speaker 7 (02:12):
Etc.

Speaker 6 (02:13):
And in fact, a couple of quite big announcements that
came out on Friday. So I've got the press releases
and we can have a look at some of that detail. Now,
maybe those things are actually of little importance to you.
Perhaps you're struggling along trying to get a job done
around the house, a practical type of job where maybe

(02:34):
you're trying to finish fixing some squeaky floorboards, or perhaps
you're looking to upgrade the extraction from your bathroom, which
is exactly what I'm only saying that because that was
my task last couple of days. The old ceiling fan
had finally given up the ghost. It wasn't terribly effective.
This is the extraction from the bathroom. It wasn't terribly effective.

(02:59):
To be blunt, I didn't do a great job installing
it in the first place. So I found a replacement
which was the same size, which is good. It had
a slightly different arrangement, which means I needed to redo
the ducting and I needed to redo the exit point
out of the building as well, so old house one

(03:19):
hundred and twenty odd years of dust up there. It
was hot yesterday. It was hot the day before as well,
so it was nice thirty eight degrees, nice brisk thirty
eight degrees up inside the roof space. And excuse me,
by the time you get out to the outside edge
there's not a lot of headroom there either. Anyway, it

(03:42):
got done and I was delighted with that. Albeit, yeah, anyway,
it was a bit dry and dusty up there, but
that's my job done. Yesterday, wrapped up at about I
don't know, five thirty quarter to six something like that,
just in time for dinner. So if you are working
away on a project and it's maybe it's going well,

(04:02):
or perhaps it's not going particularly well at all, and
you'd like to talk about it, this is the show
for you. So all things building, construction, regulations, the legal
side of it, what you can do, what you can't do,
where to go and find the correct answers. In fact,
I was at I had to go and pick up

(04:23):
some taps yesterday as well, went into Chesters Plumbing and
we got talking about tile showers. Tile showers seemingly are
a bit of a nightmare in terms of compliance. All
well and good when you're doing it from scratch, but
in terms of can you do a tile shower without
a building consent as sort of an alteration to an

(04:45):
existing bathroom, I think the short answer is you always
need a consent for that. But in reading more about it,
I've found some information that goes well, actually, if it's
a certain type of tile shower, maybe you don't. We
could go into that detail as well. Oh, eight hundred
eighty ten eighty, let's rip into it. It is coming
up just gone eleven minutes after six on. Actually it

(05:08):
was quite a pleasant Sunday morning, certainly, getting a little
crisper out there in the morning. Car's got a bit
of dew on it when I jumped into the truck
this morning. And the days are just a little bit shorter,
and I think daylight saving ends a couple of weeks away.
Something like that's not too far away. So if you're
thinking about doing outside jobs, now is probably the time
to get cracking. Or perhaps your attention has already turned

(05:32):
to some of those indoor tasks that you'd like to
get sorted out. We can talk about all things inside outside,
under the floor, up on the roof, inside the roof,
where I spent a decent couple of hours the last
few days, or any other building construction related issues that
you would like to discuss. Eight hundred and eighty ten

(05:53):
eighty is the number nine two nine two is the
text number. That's zbzb off your mobile phone. And if
you'd like to send me an email, you are absolutely welcome.

Speaker 7 (06:04):
To do that.

Speaker 6 (06:04):
It's peaked at Newstalks. It'd be dot co dot NZ.
A little later on the show, a story that was
kind of well did it make headlines that might be
overstating it to be fair. It popped up during the
course of the week around an application by a developer,
Kirkpatrick Group and Auckland to develop a eleven story mix

(06:28):
of retail and commercial space so shops down below, offices
up above on a fairly prominent site on Auckland's K Road.
The pretty much the end of K Road near where
it meets was it New North no Great North Road?

Speaker 8 (06:44):
And is it Great Norroad?

Speaker 6 (06:47):
New North Road, Great North Road and Potsbury Road and
Newton Gully around that area there it's the old site
for those of you who might have had motorbikes in
the past. It's where the old Coleman Suzuki was up
on K Road and the developer had proposed an eleven
story building, which is not insignificant, but it had a

(07:09):
couple of unique features. It was going to be a
mass timber building, so I celt or something similar, which
is cross laminated timber. It was going to have a
very high ecological rating, so it's a Green Star six
rated building. It's in an area where you know, we've
just spent four and a half almost five billion dollars

(07:31):
building a railway line that will encourage mass transit. It's
walking distance to the train station, these sorts of things,
and well it's a little bit of a walk, I
have to say, it's not like it's right round the corner. Anyway.
The building went into Auckland Council. It goes because it's
a notifiable building. It went to the planning committee. They

(07:53):
sought submissions from people and they ended up deciding that
it wasn't the appropriate type of building for that area.
There was concerns about its scale, about its appearance on
the skyline, et cetera, et cetera. So they've turned down
planning permission for it, and I kind of read through
the article. It seems that Chris Bishop, member of Parliament,

(08:14):
also read that article and talked about insanity and absurdity
and the ridiculousness of the planning thing and why the
RIMA Resource Management Act needs reform, et cetera, et cetera.
I think a number of other people said this is
absurd and then out of the blue, someone involved in
it who's been on this show before, Hamish Firth, sent

(08:37):
me an email as well, going, hey, your thoughts on this.
We had some email correspondence. I thought, ah, let's chat
about it and just in general terms, what happens with
these large, significant developments, what the planning processes, Who the
planning committee are. I'm curious to know as to how
they get appointed to these roles and what happens when

(08:59):
they make a decision that perhaps you will be appealed
or needs to be appealed. That might be a little
bit subjective, but we can talk about that. So Hamish
Firth from Mount Holpson Group, who, as I say, happened
he's been on the show regularly as an expert, but
he also is involved on behalf of the developer in

(09:20):
this particular case. So I'm not going to lobby for
or against it, but I'm always interested to see how
these things work out in terms of you know, a
development lad this goes to council for planning approval, could
be anywhere in the country. Sometimes it gets permission and
sometimes it doesn't. And what do you do afterwards. So
we've been talking with Hamish about that after eight o'clock
this morning, but right now it is the perfect opportunity,

(09:43):
given that you're all up and about and thinking about
the jobs that you want to get done today. Either
like I say, under the house, in the house, on
the house, outside the house, inside the house. You tell
me what you're up to, we'll talk about it. Oh,
eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the number to call.
Call us now.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
Measure twice God was, but maybe call Pete first, feed
your wolfgab the resident builder news.

Speaker 6 (10:06):
To lines are open if you care to call, and
a trust that you will. Eight hundred and eighty ten
eighty is that number to call. Quick text hey Pete,
enjoy the show. Unfortunately I can't ring because I'm busy milking.
I think this person is a regular contributor. I often
get the tagline busy milking, which is fair enough, wondering

(10:27):
about your thoughts on how to attack our house that
isn't level. The main issue is that there is very
little room between the floor and the ground. It has
both totra piles and concrete ones, as it must have
been added on to at a later date. Whatever the
solution is, I don't imagine it'll be that cheap. You're

(10:47):
probably right, and you know typically if you can get
in underneath the house, then you know and safely do
so too, because it's quite a process to repile a house. Obviously,
you need to hold the house up, which generally involves
lugging in lots of what look like short sleepers. So
STIs building up piles underneath the house, jacking the house

(11:10):
up level, supporting it so you can remove the existing piles,
digging a new hole where there might just have been.
In this case of it's totraal ones, they would have
just been sort of not even driven into the ground.
They would have dug a small hole, pop the totra
post on top of it, and then trimmed it off
level with where they wanted the bearers to go. And

(11:30):
that would have been it, and they would have sat
there for years. And I've pulled out some that when
they come out, they kind of look like a rotten tooth,
you know. They're just like a V shaped where they've
rotted around the outside, and eventually they rot to the
point that the house starts to subside. So if you've
got those old toutraal matti piles like that, you'll need

(11:50):
to pull those out, dig down, require depth probably four
fifty to six hundred deep, hang a new tennelized pile there,
and then pump in concrete in there. Now, all of
that you can do if there's sort of five six
hundred millimeters underneath the bearer. Anything less than that that
gets quite challenging. I suppose. The other option is you

(12:14):
look at getting the whole house lifted to redo the
piles and then drop back down, or the house ends
up being at a higher level. If there were lots
of existing piles and the movement was quite within let's
say one hundred millimeters, you can block and chock. I'm
sure there's a slightly more technical term than that, but

(12:35):
typically it just involves leveling the house and cutting little
blocks on top of your existing piles, strapping those down
in a way that means the house is still secured
to the piles. And that's basically it. You can chock
and block if you can get in there, and it
can be no more than one hundred millimeters, and I
think there might even be a regulation around how many

(12:58):
sort of chock and blocks you can do. You know,
not every single pile in the house can be cut
or can have a block and certain in the top
of it. So those are your options. But if it's
really really low to the ground, in some cases I've
seen it and had to do it myself over the years,
cut the floor out and work from there and then

(13:20):
sort of reinstate everything. But that's when the cost really
starts to ramp up. So the yeah, a couple of issues.
Therefore you good luck with that, and good luck with
the milking. This morning. Another text that's come through. I
made the comment about tile showers. I've it should be simple,

(13:42):
shouldn't it. It should be relatively straightforward. If you are
doing an alteration. Let's say you've got an old The
classic example is, you know, typical sort of nineteen sixties
nineteen seventies bathroom will have if it's a complete bathroom
with a toilet of vanity and a bath and maybe
a shower over it, you want to rip that out

(14:04):
and you want to install. You're going to upgrade it.
You want to tile the shower tile, the floor tile,
the shower enclosure.

Speaker 8 (14:11):
And so on.

Speaker 6 (14:12):
You're not adding any the number of sanitary fittings, which
is a trigger for a building consent. You're simply keeping
the shape of the room. But you're going to change
a bath over a shower to a tile shower. And
does that automatically trigger the requirement for a building consent?

(14:32):
And as soon as you talk about showers, you talk
about waterproofing, and typically that requires a building consent. Except
when you go through and read the Building Act E two,
I think it is control of internal moisture. It starts
to talk about tile showers and then it refers you
to the Waterproofing Association of New Zealand Guide steps three

(14:57):
through six or something like that, and it says if
you comply with that, if you do it as per
those standards, it's deemed to be compliant. And there it
talks about having hob I know, this gets all incredibly
technical and a bit boring to be fair, but though
that's what I've sort of got to with my reading. Actually,

(15:17):
when I was in it Chester yesterday we were talking
about tile showers, and again, you know, if you're in
a situation where you're selling plumbing fittings and someone says,
do you think I need to consent with that? It
puts the people in the store in quite a challenging position.
What's the advice and their advice. The conversation I had
yesterday was, look, go back and talk to your local
council about it.

Speaker 8 (15:39):
It should be a little bit.

Speaker 6 (15:40):
More straightforward than that someone's text through. Anyway, Good morning, Pet,
I hope you will thank you. I am as I
believe it is. In the Mbie determination zero five to
four concluded that you can replace an acrylic wall lining
with a waterproof tile without a consent as long as
the shower tray is not tiled. Yes, that may well

(16:00):
be true because typically if you've got a crylic shower base,
it'll have an upstand, and I guess the really critical
part is often that is an area where it leaks. Right,
if you've got a tiled floor and a tiled upstand,
that ninety degree bend from flat to vertical is where
you may get some leakage. So if you've got a

(16:22):
tile in acrylic shower tray with an upstand and your
tiles come down over the top of that, it's less risk.
Plus the waste is more easily formed. You're not worried
about how water actually gets into the waste and where
the water that gets through the tiles and sits on
the waterproofing is still actually directed into the waste. I'll

(16:44):
go and have a look at that. I have spent
when I've got time, a little bit of time reading determinations,
So you can go to the INBI website and read
through determinations about when there has been a dispute between
let's say a builder or a homeowner and council about

(17:05):
issues of the building code, you can apply to MB
for a determination. It goes to the specialist team. They
review it and decide whether the work is compliant with
the building code or not. What was the one that
I was reading the other day, Oh, I was searching
for stuff on tile showers. I don't know if it
was determination zero five to four, but I'll certainly go home.

Speaker 8 (17:26):
And look at that.

Speaker 6 (17:27):
During the course of the week, right your opportunity. I've
said enough your time to talk. Eight hundred eighty ten
eighty is the number to call. What's on your mind?
What are you trying to get done? What are the
challenges out there right now around your place? Jobs that
you'd like to get done? How to get them done?
Eight hundred eighty ten eighty Call me out you doing on.

Speaker 9 (17:46):
The house, sorting the garden?

Speaker 1 (17:48):
Ask Pete for ahead the resident builder with Peter Wolfcap
call oh, eight hundred eighty ten eighty.

Speaker 9 (17:53):
News Talks EDB you.

Speaker 6 (17:55):
And News talk Z'B lines are open for you right
now on eight hundred eighty ten eighty. You can text
as well as a couple of people have already done
this morning. Nine to nine two is bz BE And
if you'd like to send me an email, you are
more than welcome to give me a call on that one.
I was just listening to that little promo during our
ad break there talking about the building Minister Chris Penk

(18:18):
and his references to building consents and the time that
it takes to get those. So the press release that
came out, when was it twenty first? Okay, so Friday.
I don't know if it's great releasing these sorts of
things on a Friday, but new annual data has exposed
the staggering cost of delays previously hidden in the building

(18:42):
consent system. According to Building and Construction Minister Chris penk
he quotes I directed the Building Consent Authorities the BCAS,
to begin providing quarterly data the last year to improve transparency,
followed repeated complaints from tradespeople waiting far longer than the
statutory twenty days for a building consent. For the first time,

(19:06):
we have a consistent nationwide data proving statutory frameworks masking problems.
Councils are stopping the clock on applications by requesting additional information,
extending the processing time beyond the official twenty working day's target.
The complete data for twenty twenty four paints a stark picture.

(19:28):
Two thirds of applications required a request for information or
an RFI, adding an average of nearly twelve extra days
to processing time. That's twelve more days of projects. Stalling
time is money for our Tradees and officials estimate a
twelve day working or twelve working day delay because of
an RFI could cost around four thousand dollars per dwelling

(19:52):
last year, forty ninety four three hundred and sixty two
applications triggered an RFI. So that's from Minister. I'm happy
to talk about this as well, and it's the timing
all the time is interesting. We've been waiting in terms

(20:13):
of the sector. We've been waiting for this for a
little while as to see what's going to happen. Of course,
telling us what we already knew might not be that useful.
Most people who have submitted a consent have kind of wondered,
you know, why didn't I get my building consent in
twenty days? What in the next few months. I'm just

(20:41):
reading more from the press release. In the next few
months we will finalize decisions on major initiatives to speed
up the process. These include streamlining inspections, enabling trusted builders
to sign off their own work, restructuring the bcas the
building consent authorities to ensure that they're fit for purpose,
and adopting a more balanced approach to liability for defective work.

(21:03):
I have to say that within that particular power, that's
an enormous amount of potential changes to the way that
building regulations are administered and the way that we go
about I suppose providing the compliance pathway for construction work

(21:24):
in New Zealand. There's a lot in that. If you're
a tradee, if you're a developer, if you're a homeowner
waiting for a building consent to be issued for let's say,
an alteration for a bathroom, this will impact on you.
I will ensure that we get the Minister on the
program the next couple of weeks to talk about this

(21:45):
and sort of drill down through it.

Speaker 7 (21:46):
But it's.

Speaker 6 (21:48):
I guess what the counter to this is if plans
require RFIs if councils sit down and they're looking through
the plan and they have to they have to send
it back to the architect or architectural designer whoever, the
LBP that submitted it, the design LBP who submitted it,

(22:10):
for further information. The implication out of this feels like
it's council's fault that the plans aren't right, Whereas I
just wonder whether there's a flip side to this, or
there's an alternative alternate to this particular issue as well,
where you go maybe the quality of the plans that
are being submitted for building consent are not that good,

(22:34):
or our council being too risk averse and not how
do I phrase this properly? I guess it's it's around
you know, do you? Yes, you have to put every
single detail now into a set of plans in order
for it to prove compliance with the code. Look, I

(23:00):
just and I said this the other day at a
sort of group of building professionals. In fact, there was
some council people involved in that as well. You know,
I built a house. It was a labor only contract
that I had with my mate Dan. We were we
got we put in a labor only price to I
don't think we had to do the slab, but we
did everything from the slab up right. So we nailed

(23:24):
the frames together, pot the trusses on, did the cladding,
put the windows in, did the jib, did the finishing line.
So typical three bedroom house, maybe one hundred and twenty squares,
And the plans for that I've still got. I've got
a copy of the plans. They're in a file of
old plans and I think there may be four or
five pages right of plans sufficient to build a house

(23:46):
in nineteen ninety one, ninety ninety two, and today I
would suspect that if you submitted a set of plans
for a building consent for a similar type of house,
it would be I don't know, fifteen pages of plans
of details right cross sections, elevations, details of window flashing,

(24:11):
sell flashing, side flashings, junctions.

Speaker 8 (24:13):
Etc, etc.

Speaker 6 (24:15):
Etc. So have we made it too complex in terms
of what council need to know in order to build
a relatively straightforward building? Or flip side to that is,
are the quality of the plans that are being submitted
to council so poor and people are leaving out details

(24:35):
that they know they should include, And that's why councils
have to come back and go, we don't think this
is going to work. You need to give us more information.
Hence the RFIs a couple of texts that have come in.
Councils are using the RAFI process to extend time. We
used RFI to manage workloads and workflows when I worked

(24:55):
in that role. So yeah, look, and that's the sense
I think that most people have is that if council
or the people doing the processing are a little it
under the pump or they're under resourced, then the quickest
way to give themselves a bit of extra time is
to pop out an RFI, and some of the rifis

(25:18):
I think are and I'm sure I've told this story.
I'll tell the story a little bit later on about
an RFI that I made of mine got with regard
to double glazing. But it's probably an extraordinary example, but
I know that it's absolutely true. Right Oat, let's get
into it. Twenty three minutes away from seven o'clock, Sandy,

(25:39):
A very good morning. Good morning, Hey there, how are
you doing?

Speaker 10 (25:44):
Good thing? So I got a question about my sense.
It's a concrete block sense which the neighbors have built.

Speaker 9 (25:49):
Yes, wow, it's a really great sense.

Speaker 3 (25:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (25:52):
I was going to say that's awesome because.

Speaker 10 (25:58):
I know on their side, I haven't seen it, but
they've done something like plane it off or something and
then paint it. Oh yeah, I can I leave it
or that need to be painted? I like the way
it looks. I like the plain sort of gray color.
Is there a disadvantage to leaving it like that?

Speaker 6 (26:13):
Not for something like a fence? Right? You know, if
it was a building and we're concerned about you know,
potentially moisture being absorbed into that and impacting on the
interior environment, and that sort of thing we'd have a
concern about it. But in terms of if you like
the look of it, it will change over time. So
one of the advantages to either painting it or sealing

(26:34):
it would be that it prevents basically mold growth, right
or moss and mildew and those sorts of things. Soft
A wall like that left on its own, over time
will darken and potentially you'll get basically like a it's
not quite a mold, that is really a bit of will.

(26:57):
But then, and in fact I was looking at I
did some concrete retaining walls as part of garden landscaping
at my own place about twenty odd year ys ago,
and we plastered them and I just leave them natural,
and it's a bit mottled and a bit this and
a bit that, and that's all part of the character.
So if you like that, it's great. If you wanted
to take sort of a medium approach to it, I

(27:20):
suspect what your neighbors have done if it's because it's
quite an architectural finish is you hone the surface of
the brick, So you use a grinder with a diamond
blade and you just hone the surface, so it makes
it slightly flat, but it also highlights the actual aggregates
that are in there, right, and then put a sealer

(27:40):
over the top of that. That's quite nice. I'm not
suggesting you need to do the honing. You're welcome to,
but you don't have to. But you could apply like
a clear sealer over it, which will just mean that
it sheds water a bit more and it will just
give a little bit of protection to the surface from
that organic growth.

Speaker 10 (27:59):
If you want to do what you do when you
get to the ground level, Like, let's so you're painting,
painting down, down, down, and then it's sort of sand dirt,
do you know what I mean? How do you paint
up to that line?

Speaker 6 (28:11):
Yeah, well, I suppose I would just go along maybe
with a like the day before you wanted to seal
it or paint it, dig it out, just dig it
out a little bit, or rake it back and hose
that down. So because eventually that wall will come down,
and I would imagine today, is there a fairly wide
and significant footing that the block wall sits on.

Speaker 10 (28:33):
I think so, because it's like a part retaining wall for.

Speaker 6 (28:37):
Them, Like, oh okay, so yours is higher, so they've
excavated down. Yes, so yeah, can I ask then, I'm
curious about these things. If it's acts as a retaining
wall for their benefit, is the block wall on their
side of the boundary, I would have no idea.

Speaker 10 (28:59):
I mean, I wasn't part of the surveying. They were
paying for it all, So I'm just happy to have
this great fense it's gone up.

Speaker 6 (29:04):
Yeah, Because the reason I ask is that you know,
if you imagine the line which is your boundary between
you and your neighbor, because the wall acts as a
retaining wall for their benefit at the lower at some
sections of it, theoretically the entire wall should be on

(29:25):
their side of the boundary, So you know, if you
do a timber fence often will determine the boundary. We'll
put the post smack bang in the middle, and then
both people lose fifty sixty millimeters of their section to
get the fence in. But in this case here the
face that you see on your side I think should

(29:46):
be on their side of the actual boundary line.

Speaker 10 (29:51):
It wouldn't surprise me if they have done that, because
the composts been right up against the old fence, yes,
and a now gap between that and the new sting. Wow, yeah, no,
I think yeah, I certainly don't feel like they've done
any wrong. But it's a great fence, so I'm happy again.

Speaker 6 (30:08):
I'm also curious about these things. So where where it retains,
so where your property is higher than theirs. Did you
notice when they were doing it, whether they put any
drainage coil at the bottom, or you know there's scoria
or waterproofing against the back of the wall.

Speaker 10 (30:29):
No, I didn't notice, to tell you the truth, Yeah,
I know it was. It was like filled with concrete almost.

Speaker 6 (30:36):
The actual blocks themselves.

Speaker 10 (30:38):
Yes, I feel like they had you know, sort of
lines up with concrete going down into the bricks.

Speaker 6 (30:44):
Yes, that'll be right, yep. Yeah. Back in the day
we'd often just fill the cause that had the reinforcing
in it, but increasingly the you know, we just grout
all of the blocks.

Speaker 3 (30:58):
Right.

Speaker 6 (30:58):
So, look, I have to say, given that I know
kind of what the square meter rate for block work is,
did they ask again, you don't have to tell me,
but did they ask for a contribution from you for
the fence.

Speaker 10 (31:11):
They contacted me, but they know my circumstances and they said, look,
we'd love it if you could but there's no expectation.
And I said, but I'd love to be able to
but no, but yeah, I understand it cost around thirty
five thousands.

Speaker 6 (31:23):
I was going to say, I mean, and again, interestingly enough,
in terms of the Fencing Act, while they can enforce
a contribution from a neighbor or from you, it's only.

Speaker 10 (31:35):
For a standard fence exactly.

Speaker 6 (31:37):
Yeah, yeah, wow, I mean, hey, look what a great neighbor.

Speaker 10 (31:42):
To be fair, Yeah, well I paid it the other
way I want when I had small children.

Speaker 11 (31:47):
Yeah, there was a dangerous.

Speaker 10 (31:48):
Dog that lived over a very low fence next to me,
and the landlord didn't want to make that sense higher
and I was very confirmed about the safety, so I
paid for the whole entire fens that time. So you know, yeah, yeah, anyway, Hey.

Speaker 9 (32:05):
Thank you so much pleasure.

Speaker 6 (32:06):
So look, there's not a definitive yes, you have to
if you wanted to protect it, you could put a
clear seala on it.

Speaker 12 (32:13):
You can leave itush.

Speaker 7 (32:16):
You might have to.

Speaker 6 (32:17):
If you use a really fluffy roller, it will be
able to get into the grout lines because they're recessed slightly.
Or you can go through do those with a brush
first and then roll over the entire surface. But like
I did some clear sealer on a project on Wednesday,
and it's pretty easy to apply, just with a roller

(32:38):
and you put it on, you let it saturate. You
might give it a second code if you want to,
but yeah, it'll that'll just keep the weather off it
and stop it, you know, looking old quickly.

Speaker 10 (32:49):
Or would you just brush it off first.

Speaker 6 (32:52):
Yeah, just in terms of prepping it, because like at
this time of year, you could even even if you
don't have a water blast, even if you just gave it,
you know, use the hose directly on it, maybe a
soft broom to sort of scrub it down, let that
dry for a day, and then apply the seal of
the next day. That's that's enough preparation.

Speaker 10 (33:14):
To ring because I get lots of.

Speaker 6 (33:15):
Absolutely, hey, lovely to chat with you, all right, enjoy
that block wall. That's fantastic. Take care, Bob. I'm curious
about that because if if the wall is acting as
a retaining then it definitely needs to be on the
side of the boundary, and I think too all of
the foundations should be on their side of the boundary

(33:37):
as well, and ideally it should have some drainage behind
there as well. Some people are suggesting a couple of
clear seilers. I agree. Look, I think and you can
get them. You know, they don't look glossy, they absorb in,
they're almost a matte finish. But it will help just

(34:01):
keep you know, the inevitable organic growth that mold and
mildew that that rows on to expose surfaces at bay
for a little time. Oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty.
I'll take a short break, but if you've got a question,
you should call us now. We've got plenty of time.
Oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the number to call.
More than happy to take your comments. With regard to

(34:23):
the announcement from Chris Pink, the Housing and Construction Minister
Building and Construction rather Minister with regard to building consents,
a couple of interesting texts coming in on that, including
this one. I think Pink is being disingenuous here. As
a former quantity server, the amount of time wasted chasing

(34:45):
up information missing information was infuriating. Yeah, I wonder whether
I wonder whether that potentially should have acknowledged the fact
that a certain number of consents that are submitted are
probably of poor quality and in order to execute their

(35:05):
duties appropriately, they need to go back and say to
the designer, hey, there's information missing here. You need to
provide more information. However, the story I was going to
tell you, so someone I know who was doing a
reasonably innovative build, right, it was, it's not a standard

(35:26):
go to three six o four and put a house
together type build ended up getting I think after the
first submission of their building consent plans something like a
ninety seven individual RFIs. And part of that would have
been because it was a complex and innovative build, and

(35:50):
there would have been features in that house that wouldn't
have been part of the standard building code, right, in
which case it's fair enough that the consenting or the
processing officer goes, hey, look, how's that going to work?
How's that going to work? However, and this is increasingly common,
one of the things that they will often ask for
is a maintenance schedule. So, yeah, you're going to use

(36:12):
this particular product or methodology, where's the maintenance schedule for it?
In this particular RFI. And I swear to you this
is one hundred percent true. One of the RFIs that
came back was what is the maintenance schedule for the
gas inserted into the double glazed units. Have a bit

(36:33):
of a think on that. If you think about double
glazing and you know how double glazing goes together, and
these days, rather than just sort of air in it,
we're often inserting argone or other gases into that space.
And so the RFI from council was, how what's the
maintenance schedule for the gas inside the double glazed unit?

(36:54):
Ponder on that during the break. We'll come back in
a moment whether.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
You're painting the ceiling, fixing with FEDS, or wondering how
to fix that hole in the wall.

Speaker 9 (37:00):
Give Peter wolf gabbercall on the resident build up on
you talk.

Speaker 6 (37:07):
We're taking your calls on eight hundred eighty ten eighty
is the number to call. So and texts as well.
They're coming in. But I love the chat, So eight
hundred eighty ten eighty. If you want to talk about buildings,
about ceiling around you know, I mean, look, a lot
of it is around protecting what you've got right, So
you know, the maintenance that we often talk about is

(37:32):
I always tell a story about maintenance in terms of
I got a phone call from someone one time and
they said, oh, could you come around please, and we
need to replace the window, as in, replace the opening sash.
And what had happened is it was an upstairs window.

(37:52):
It was a simple, you know, two sash window with
a million in the middle. Both of them opened and
they had been left slightly open, and the wind caught
the sash, whipped it back against the building and pop
the hinges, and so the entire opening sash fell out,

(38:15):
crashed to the ground a story below, smashed into a
couple of pieces, and the glass was broken and so on.
So in order to repair that, I had to go
measure the opening size, go to the joiner, get a
new sash made, go to the glazier, get some new
glass made, put some scaffolding up, go up, replace the hinges,

(38:36):
fit the new sash, redo the hardware, get someone to
paint it. So all of that, you know, it's quite
a process. There's weeks involved in measuring, going to the joiner,
going to the glazier, getting the painter on site, putting
the scaffolding up, et cetera, et cetera. And in talking
to the homeowner later on, she said, well, I had

(38:58):
asked my husband if he could tighten the hinge because
it's been loose for about three months or something like that, right,
so you know, hinge gets a little bit loose, you
can see it flapping around, and then you don't get
that done. And look, we're all guilty of it. I've
got a thousand things that I need to do, so
I'm not pointing the finger at anyone, but it's that

(39:19):
classic example of a little bit of maintenance delayed can
cause much bigger problems. So that's why we do maintenance.
Just quickly to answer the RFI story that I was
telling you just before. So the house was complicated, it
was unusual, It used a whole lot of building methodology
that perhaps is not common and it's not found in

(39:39):
the building code, but it had an approved compliance pathway.
And so one of the RFIs was what's the maintenance
schedule for the gas in the double glazed units? Now,
if you know anything about double glazed units, they are
installed in the factory. Sometimes they put argon in there
because it's more effective, and that just sits inside the

(40:00):
double glazed unit, right, and the double glaze unit is sealed,
so there is no way back into the afterwards, I
mean apart from the fact that the person that I
know was flabbergasted that that was the question. They also
in their reply to the ninety seven RFIs they got
from council for their funky new build, they simply replied

(40:24):
to number whatever it was, seventy six or whatever, that
they would that it had a valve and they would
pump it up as required. And that was their response
to the RFI sufficient to say, I think the person
realized that that was a bit of a foolish question.
In the same way, look to be fair, I was
doing a code of Compliance application and one of the

(40:46):
RFIs that came back was, Hey, there's no detail about
subfloor ventilation. It was a concrete slab on grade, right,
So I don't need to provide information on ventilation to
the subfloor given that there is no subfloor.

Speaker 8 (41:04):
So look at it.

Speaker 6 (41:05):
You know, I want to be fair to counsel. But
at the same time, I think there is cases here
where where perhaps the processing officers are asking questions about
things that they should know, and then they're using the
RFI as a way of getting around that. Right, We're
going to talk about this a little bit more in
the next hour. Join us now, oh eight hundred eighty ten.

Speaker 1 (41:23):
Eighty squeaky door or squeaky floor Get the right advice
from Peter Wolfcare, the resident builder.

Speaker 6 (41:31):
On News Talk SEDB, You and News Talk SEB. We're
talking all things building in construction. Welcome back to the show.
If you've got a question, eight hundred eighty ten eighty
is the number to call. Just before the news start
to talk a little bit about I guess press release
that came out from the Construction and Building Minister Chris

(41:52):
Penk on Friday, this is sort of I guess new
government comes in talks about wanting to make things more efficient,
wants to speed up the build process. There was lots
of figure is around. You know, it takes this many
days from building consent to CCC. Can we shorten that up?
I think one of the figures was it was like

(42:14):
something like five hundred days from building consent to CCC.
Then it identified the processing time for a building consent.
So a lot of focus on Council bcas building consent authorities,
how long it takes them to process a consent and
is the delay? So they have a statutory requirement to

(42:38):
process a building consent in twenty days. What typically happens,
and almost everyone I know has had exactly this experience.
Building consent gets submitted, the clock starts, and you know,
around fifteen eighteen days after the consent is submitted, an
email arrived saying hey, look we need this information, an

(43:01):
RFI request for further information. And at that point, as
soon as the email go out, as I understand it,
the clock stops. So if it's day fifteen, then they go, right,
we've stopped at day fifteen, and then they wait for
the response from the designer or the architect the architectural
drafts person to provide the information, and when it's received back,

(43:26):
then the clock starts again. They start processing. So you know,
if they're under you could argue that if you're under
the pump as a processor, what you do is you
flick off an email going hey, look I need more
information on this, that and the other thing, and that
gives you time to do other work while that consent
sits there in a holding pattern until the RFI comes back.

(43:48):
That's one way of looking at it. I guess the
other way of looking at it is that you know,
a consent is submitted, it's lacking in detail. Maybe there
is some complex junctions that are not fully detailed. These
flashing details that are not included. There might be waterproofing details,
anything in the building consent and so the consent is
incomplete and the processing officer can't say it complies with

(44:13):
the code if those items are missing, right, in which
case it's not actually the fault of council, it's the
fault of the person who's submitted the plan. Is the
quality or are the quality of the drawings less than optimal?
You may have some thoughts on this. Oh, eight hundred
and eighty ten eighty, we're going to talk installation. Good
morning to you, carry How are you this morning?

Speaker 7 (44:35):
Yeah?

Speaker 9 (44:35):
Good?

Speaker 11 (44:35):
Peete yourself?

Speaker 1 (44:36):
Yeah, not bad?

Speaker 9 (44:37):
Actually yet cool?

Speaker 11 (44:39):
Hey listen, pete, I've got a late nineteen seventies unit.

Speaker 9 (44:42):
Yes, And on one of the lounge.

Speaker 11 (44:45):
Walls is also the garage wall.

Speaker 7 (44:47):
Yep.

Speaker 11 (44:49):
And she's a bit cool in the garage. And we've
changed the tilted door to a sectional door, insulated. And
I noticed that that war with the lounge felt a
bit cool. So I peeled back some of the hardboard
and had a look.

Speaker 7 (45:05):
There's no.

Speaker 11 (45:08):
Yeah, So I thought, do I take the hardboard off,
insulate it, reline it, or is there anything that I
can just put over the wall on the garage side
to help insulate.

Speaker 6 (45:20):
Yes, yes there are if you wanted to. So there's
the most commonly used product would be it's by Kingspan,
So it's an insulated plasterboard. So if you imagine fifty
millimeters of polystyrene effectively with a plaster board face so

(45:44):
they're laminated together. You can simply fix that on and
you'll get an our value. Off the top of my head,
it might be our one point seven or something like that, right,
But what will happen obviously is skirtings and scotias and
door reveals. You'll have to extend those for the extra depth.
So if you're prepared to lose some space in the garret,

(46:06):
I know it's not much, but you will lose a
little bit. Okay, that's one solution where that particular type
of insulation works really well. Is typically all if you're
going to retrofit insulation into an existing wall into as
in remove lining, add insulation, that actually triggers the requirement

(46:30):
for building consent in this instance here, because you're adding
insulation to the face of it, you don't need to
worry about building consent, so it's a completely compliant way
of retrofiting insulation in your situation. Technically that wall between
the lounge and the garage is the exterior wall of

(46:50):
your building. I know it's completely interior, but in terms
of how the building's designed, it's effectively an outside wall.
So I wonder whether no, actually, I actually think in
that case, you could remove the lining insulation into the
wall and redo the lining without needing building consent because

(47:13):
you're not worried about moisture into the wall because the
wall is inside the building envelope.

Speaker 11 (47:19):
It's correct.

Speaker 6 (47:19):
You know, Look, I I suppose it's quite disruptive for
the lounge if you had to pull all the lining off,
install insulation into there, and then reline, you'll have to
take skirtings off, Scotia's off, the dust and disruption of
pulling the wall lining off. Then you've got to put
a new lining on, stop painting and sign So you know,

(47:41):
that's quite disruptive to the lounge. So if you worked
on the other side, what about taking the lining off
on the garage side, where it's probably easier to get to.

Speaker 11 (47:50):
You know, That's what I was a moving to.

Speaker 6 (47:52):
Okay, Sorry, yes, okay, so work from the lounge side,
work from the garage side.

Speaker 5 (47:57):
Yep, yeah, it's got I'm guessing it's probably tempered hard boards.
And then there's some building paper and so I cut
a panel away and have a look, and I could
see there's no insulation, and yeah, so I figured, do
I strip that or do I just put something over
the top like that kingspan.

Speaker 12 (48:15):
I think you said, yeah, look, I.

Speaker 6 (48:18):
I'm thinking when you do the numbers, you'd probably find
that just stripping the lining off from the garage side
of that wall, adding insulation and redoing the lining. And
because it's a garage, you know, you could put plasterboard
up and stop and paint it. You could line it
in plywood, for example, and then it's you know, I mean,
like it's inside the garage. It's quite handy if you've

(48:40):
got tryboard or something like that as you're lining, because
then you can fix your hocks for your rakes and
extension cords and you know that sort of thing. It's
a good opportunity for a bit of an upgrade.

Speaker 11 (48:54):
Really Yeah, yeah, well you stole my very thoughts.

Speaker 6 (48:57):
Ah, okay, yeah, look I what do I do the
other day? I used triboard tongue in groove right, which
is a four hundred wide panel, So it's tongue and groove.
So it's easy to install because once you cut it
at two four or something like that, it's quite manageable
on your own. And it's fifteen mil thick, so it's

(49:18):
quite robust. You can screw hocks into it and all
the rest of it and then just paint that great well.

Speaker 11 (49:26):
I can probably also if I do that, I can
probably get a better rating of product than the wall
as well.

Speaker 6 (49:31):
You know, yeah, yeah, ideally, And you know, it's an
opportunity maybe to run a couple of extra you know,
if you wanted to get an electrician to come and
put an extra power point in, or run you know,
like a Cat six cable to the TV on the
other side, all of those sorts of things. So you know,
there is an opportunity to do other work when you've
got that wall exposed.

Speaker 11 (49:52):
Yeah, and it just happens to be the wall that
where the aerial wire is and where the all the
other electric components that come into the home come along
that wall as well.

Speaker 6 (50:02):
And you know, when you think about nineteen seventies, houses
typically like in a you'll have one power point, right
and you know modern living, we probably need a few
more than that, so it's an opportunity to get the
electrician in and to add a PowerPoint or you know,
data excess and all those sorts of things. So yeah,

(50:23):
and then you got a nice durable wall in the
garage as well.

Speaker 11 (50:29):
Absolutely all right, my own space, I know what you mean.

Speaker 6 (50:36):
Oh fantastic. All right, buddy, all the best. You take
care care of it. See there, it is just coming
up sixteen minutes after seven. If you'd like to join us, well,
give us a call right now. Oh eight hundred and
eighty ten eighty. We're talking all things building construction, lots
and lots of texts with regard to the sort of

(50:57):
press release that came out. And I think Chris Pink
did a couple of interviews, so I will reach out
this week and see whether we can. We had Chris
Pink came in. It was very good of them, I thought.
So I approached through his office the minister, to go, hey,
look I'd like to do an interview. You're the incoming

(51:19):
construction and building minister. And he said, oh, look, I'll
come into zid B during the week, we can record
the interview and replay it on the Sunday. So I'll
reach out again and get that underway, because there's a
lot in that particular press release of what we think
might come up. A couple of people have sent some texts,

(51:43):
especially the comment around some builders being able to self certify.
We'll unpack that a little bit later this morning. Oh,
eight hundred eighty ten eighty give us a call. The
lines are open.

Speaker 3 (51:57):
It is.

Speaker 6 (51:59):
Seventeen minutes after seven. Back with Matt after the break.

Speaker 1 (52:02):
Freak helping you get those DIY projects done right.

Speaker 9 (52:06):
The resident builder with Peta WOLFCAF call eight Talk ZB News.

Speaker 6 (52:12):
Talk ZB and we're talking with Matt. If you'd like
to join us, eight hundred eighty ten eighties the number
of morning Matt, Good morning, Hey.

Speaker 13 (52:21):
I have I have an old house like it's like
from the nineteen fifties and there it's got like an
iron up steel roof on top of it, and it's
started with age of time like you, nobody can run away.

Speaker 11 (52:36):
From tom of it.

Speaker 7 (52:38):
Ultimate and set up.

Speaker 13 (52:41):
I'm thinking about it. How do I steal my roof paint?
My roof paint is good, but what do you put
on iron on middle roof. Roofing was kind of stew
it like a tail, but mental anything like that. You
can tape on your roof.

Speaker 6 (52:58):
Yeah, it's it's one of those things that's become There's
there's a lot of talk about it at the moment
in terms of, you know, don't replace your roofs it,
But it depends a little bit on what what the
existing condition of the roofing is. Right, so, you know,
like most things, it has.

Speaker 13 (53:18):
It's been my roof for twenty years, okay, so pretty dadd.

Speaker 6 (53:23):
Yeah, but look I've I've got a twenty year old
roof too, and it's an okay condition, you know. So
I think if if it's sound right, if there is
solid yeah, there's there's not a lot of russ, there's
you don't have issues with leaking and so on, and
you're looking to protect that surface, then either a paint

(53:45):
or a sealant over the top is a good option.
It'll extend the life of the roof.

Speaker 13 (53:51):
I'm just sicking your advice. I'm thinking more sealant than
than a lot's paint.

Speaker 6 (53:56):
Sure excuse me. Then it all comes down to preparation, right,
So the contractor doing the work needs to ensure that
y you want to do it yourself.

Speaker 12 (54:12):
A little lot cheaper.

Speaker 6 (54:14):
Yeah, true, there's obviously.

Speaker 12 (54:18):
From you have to go better.

Speaker 13 (54:20):
Say, if you do a job to once do it
right a yep.

Speaker 6 (54:25):
Typically though these applications are sprayed on right.

Speaker 13 (54:30):
So now the kind of like kind of set up,
I have no idea how to go better apart from
that old number eight pin brush.

Speaker 6 (54:39):
Yeah, well that that won't Yeah, I don't think you'll
find a product that you could apply yourself that will
give you that finish right?

Speaker 13 (54:48):
So do I have to go like commercial customer based
voice to get some piss and do it? But I'm
just thinking just yourself. You know, you've a tradesmen in
that that what would you apply to to to a
middle root to still a roof that's twenty years old?
Not paint that looks like a ceiling kind of thing?

Speaker 12 (55:11):
You pissed me?

Speaker 11 (55:12):
What kind of product would you.

Speaker 14 (55:13):
Get to my tea?

Speaker 6 (55:14):
I probably I don't know that I would do it right.
I think that if the roof needed a coating, I
would stick with paint. If it was in poor condition,
I would probably look at replacing it. So if your
roof is sound you can certainly clean it, apply the
right primer and then do two coats of roof paint.

(55:39):
You know, obviously if you're working, if you're working on
the roof, you've got to be really conscious around safety
in terms of making sure that you don't end up
skating off the roof and landing on the ground. And
then I've painted plenty of roofs, so yeah, you can
do it. In terms of a brush on application for

(56:00):
a seiler, I'm not sure that there's anything that I
could could actually honestly recommend to you. Good luck with
that though, and please be safe. That's the key to
it all. The best to you, Matt oh eight hundred
and eighty ten eighty is the number to call just
talking about safety. Actually, so the job that I was
doing yesterday involved replacing the extractor fan in the ceiling.

(56:23):
Had the electrician come round on Friday just to check
that the existing three pin plug. So these days often
when you buy a new extractor fan, they actually come
with fixed wiring and a three pin plug on it.
So up in the roof space in this instance, there
was an existing it had been wirened by the previous
electrician three pin plug and because I had the electrician

(56:46):
do a little bit of other few other jobs around
the house. I said, can you just go up and
test that plug, just to make sure that it's safe.
So they go up with a little meg tool. I'm
sure there's a more technical phrase than that, but I'm
a chippy not a sparky. Anyway, tested it, it's okay.
Plug the new fan into it, replace the ducting. Made
sure that deducting ran as straight and as level as

(57:09):
I possibly could across the ceiling. So I had to
sort of move insulation aside and clear a path and
all the rest of it. And then with an old house,
I needed to go out over the top plate obviously,
and then drop then have a bend and go down
through the safit. Now, on an old house like mine,

(57:30):
the safit is twenty mili thick caraie so and also
this is often the track. Actually, this is a good one.
I've seen this so many times, and people involved in
ventilation or extraction see this all the time as well.
So off the fan is one hundred mill port and
then you have to extend that out to one hundred
and fifty millimeter diameter, so round semi rigiducting which I

(57:55):
ran out. But then when you get to the junction
between the roof coming down to the top plate and
the safit, you know, you there's just not enough space, right,
There's not one hundred and fifty mil clear there. So
sometimes people just squish the ducting down. So they take
the circle and they kind of squish it down a

(58:17):
little bit, turn it into an oval, and kind of
bend it through that corner and hope that the airflow
still goes out through the grill to the exterior. I
ended up getting some so simics to a range of ducting,
so I transferred from one fifty round to I think
it's two hundred by ninety rectangular section, so it's got

(58:38):
a transfer like a little adapter from round to rectangular.
Then I had a short section of the ninety by
two hundred ducting, so it's a similar volume to what
you get in fifty one fifty round and then a
ninety degree bend and that tucked neatly over the top
of the top plate through the safe. I did have

(59:00):
to cut a little bit of the there's like a
board that runs round over the top of the ceiling
joists on an old house at the raft land on.
I did notch a little section of that out. Didn't
make a great deal of difference structurally, but I needed
to notch that out, and I needed to cut through
the Safit obviously not with a whole sort, because I'm
creating a rectangle out let. The reason I say all

(59:23):
of this partly is that it's that way of doing
it is the optimal way to ensure that you don't
have any restriction on the airflow from the extraction. That's
really important. And then the other thing that I did
is I've got a little mobile scaff and took the
time to go lug that round from the other side

(59:44):
of the house put it up so that when I
was doing the work measuring out the cutout in the safe,
then using the drill to sort of pre drill it,
then getting the multi tool out and cutting it out
and all the rest of it, I could do that
while standing on a platform, which is way more comfortable
than trying to do it off a ladder. I mean
we're talking, I don't know, to be four and a

(01:00:05):
half five meters from the ground to the underside of
the safe and trying to do that off a ladder.
It's not terribly pleasant to work on, certainly not as
safe and it just takes more time. So for the
time that it's spent that it took me to take
a little mobile scaff around there, set it up and
do all of that, he just way safer. Hence my

(01:00:28):
comment to Matt, if you are going to go up
there and do work on your own roof, make sure
that you do it safely as well. Oh, eight hundred
eighty ten eighty is the number to call. Remember after
eight o'clock, we're going to have a bit of a
chat with genuine called Hamish Firth. He's been on the
show before. He is a planner, a good old fashioned
town planner as he describes himself, and so we've had

(01:00:49):
him on the show to chat about boundaries and planning
regulations and these sorts of things. I'm just going to
get them on for a bit of a chat around
what happens when applications for developments get turned down. The
reason for that is currently in the news. Bit of
a story about a quite modern, quite environmentally friendly, quite

(01:01:11):
innovative building that was going to go up on k
Road crang Ah Happy Road in Auckland went to the
planners at Auckland Council and it got turned down. The
building is too big, it doesn't maybe fit with the heritage.
Da da da da dah. Now he's been involved in
that directly, so acknowledging his interest in it. But it's

(01:01:35):
looking forward to that chat with him around what happens
when these sorts of consents, the applications for resource consent
for the planning of these buildings gets turned down. So
we'll do that after eight o'clock. But right now it
is your opportunity to talk all things building construction. Eight
hundred and eighty ten eighty is the number to call.

Speaker 1 (01:01:53):
Seven thirty met twice God was, but maybe called Pete
first be you Orcaf the resident builder news talk sa'd be.

Speaker 6 (01:02:02):
I'm sure this is slightly tongue in cheek, this particular text.
What are the legalities are putting razor wire on a
fence to keep people out of our industrial workplace?

Speaker 8 (01:02:12):
Please, it's a very good question, to be fair.

Speaker 6 (01:02:22):
Look off the top of my head, I don't know.
I'm just wondering because it's not uncommon to see, you know,
security fences that are topped with either barbed wire or
not a lot of razor wire. Around to be fair
or spikes. I wonder where the part of it would be.
It would clearly need to be within your own boundary.

(01:02:48):
Maybe it needs to be of a certain height. I
do know if someone knows the answer to that, that'd
be awesome. Oh this is interesting too. Code of ethics.
There's a code of ethics for LBPS. So someone's taxed through.
How does the lb ethics deal with an LBP defaming

(01:03:10):
other members? An LBP designer has called a new immigrant
LBP a cowboy and not a real builder, without having
any evidence of his prior knowledge or prior knowledge of
this person. And the person who's said this is Canadian, apparently,
I'm not sure you'd have to take it to the
LBP committee and have them decide on that. We're talking

(01:03:33):
about RFIs and council and delays. So where a lot
of this comes from is the when you submit a
building consent, the building consent authority typically that your local
council has a statutory obligation to process your building consent
within twenty days. Now, the number of building consents that

(01:03:55):
actually get processed within twenty days is relatively small. The
Minister Chris Penk has gone to mby who have gone
to the bcas to go. You need to tell us
exactly the data on how long it takes you to
process consents and that gives them some insight. So in

(01:04:16):
the press release from the Minister, I directed the building
consent authorities to begin providing quarterly data last year to
improve transparency, followed repeated following repeated complaints from trades people
waiting far longer than the statutory twenty days for a consent.
For the first time, we have a consistent nationwide data

(01:04:37):
proving statutory time frames are masking problems. Councils are stopping
the clock on applications by requesting further information, extending the
processing times beyond the official twenty working day target. So
council will issue an RFI, they'll stop the clock. When
they get the information back, they will then start the clock.

(01:04:58):
If they then have a further request, they'll stop the
clock and start again. So you know, if it RFI
comes into the design, they need to look at it,
they need to prepare a response, they need to submit
it and then the clocks you know that might take.
That's an extra week, right, We're going to get the
Minister in to talk about this, but I do wonder

(01:05:19):
whether are they ignoring the fact that sometimes plans are
incomplete and they can't be processed based on the information provided.
And that's of no, that's not the processing office's fault.
That's the person who submitted it's fault. But lots of
texts on this. It's quite interesting. And also someone has
text through what defines a trusted developer when it comes

(01:05:42):
to self assurance? Where is the independence of a review?
As it is a as we know there are some
reputable developments that have also had leaks. If that is
the case, Can I also provide a building inspection report
about the house that I'm selling from Gerardo? You can
probably do that, but I think people would be unwise

(01:06:02):
to accept it. Oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty the
number to call Michael. Very good morning.

Speaker 15 (01:06:07):
How are you doing so?

Speaker 6 (01:06:09):
Yeah, very well?

Speaker 15 (01:06:09):
Say oh, well, I'm I'm waking up when you when
you get past three quarters of a century quarter. But
every morning is a bonus.

Speaker 6 (01:06:21):
Every morning is a delightful surprise.

Speaker 12 (01:06:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 15 (01:06:27):
Now I got a place that I think it's sixteenth
or something. It's only a small, two bedroom place. I'm
in Mongry and had hope and rail mesh fence all
the way around it with a moan strip.

Speaker 7 (01:06:39):
Yes.

Speaker 15 (01:06:41):
And and I was the last house on the street.
And they put another street down down, and the oh
that's all been done quite a little while ago. Now
when they did, Dad had got destroyed. And then Housing Corp.
Brought the property next door to me and they they
destroyed that, and they put another wooden fence up. Yes,

(01:07:05):
and they never replaced the moon strip. So I rang
them up and I got hold of some woman and
she says, yes, yes, yeah, you know, carried on. She
she was quite pleasant, and we'll send somebody around o
a look. And I was still my own lawns at
the time. So I waited about two weeks. I had

(01:07:26):
heard back. I said, oh, well, I ring up again
and I, oh, she's not here anymore. And I got
some other woman and I said to her, well, she
went absolutely so she went berserk. She just yelled and screamed.

Speaker 6 (01:07:47):
And what this is an official working for a government department.

Speaker 15 (01:07:52):
Carried carried on like a bloody idiot.

Speaker 6 (01:07:56):
You know, And I just you know this, I am okay, okay,
we get the picture.

Speaker 15 (01:08:03):
So well, you know, trying to get cooperation out of
people at times.

Speaker 6 (01:08:14):
Is your concern that they haven't replaced the mowing strip.

Speaker 15 (01:08:17):
It's too late now, Yeah, I'm just saying someone I'm
trying to deal with people. Oh, you know with government,
you know, with thing to date.

Speaker 6 (01:08:29):
Look, we would all expect that someone working for a
government department undertakes their work professionally and with a certain
sort of courtesy. So if your encounter has been that
they haven't been professional, I can understand the frustration there.
I suspect that in replacing the fence, they're unlikely to
give you back the mowing strip. It's a bit of

(01:08:50):
a I mean, I think they're actually a great idea
to do, but they are when you're doing fencing, they
are quite a lot of extra work to go. You know,
excavate it down, box up both sides, pour the concrete,
et cetera, strip the boxing, redo the grass around. So
it's not surprising you don't see them as much as
you used to. But yeah, they are a great idea.

(01:09:12):
It's just I'm kind of not surprised that they haven't
done it unfortunately. Thanks very much for you call all
the best. Oh eight hundred and eighty ten eighty the
number John Good morning morning. Hey, how you doing good?

Speaker 7 (01:09:24):
Thanks?

Speaker 12 (01:09:25):
Look, I just have a concern, you know with the
council's consenting. Recently it was requirement to get a fire
engineers been poured on a commercial building. Yes, which Julie
dad a seven brand for engineers report submit that the

(01:09:47):
council the next request for more information come back and
all the answers were in the report of they hadn't
read it.

Speaker 8 (01:09:58):
So I.

Speaker 12 (01:10:00):
Highlighted everything down, got it approached by the processor. But
why why are councils academics overriding firing engineers who are
professional if they wanted that information and they override it.

(01:10:21):
What qualifications people and the council have and or what
what qualifications does a processing Yeah, person and the council
needs to process, you know, the complicated regulations where up

(01:10:43):
agains now put that.

Speaker 6 (01:10:45):
Yeah, look, I understand where you're coming from. I think
it is unfair to you know, like there's a whole
bunch of texts that are coming through here going Look,
it's because the people that work at council don't know
anything and they've never been on a building side, et cetera,
et cetera. I've met a number of people at council
who are extremely competent, right, and their professionals in their field,

(01:11:07):
and they've got a tremendous amount of knowledge, now, whether
that's a processing officer or an inspector on site and
so on. At the same time, I've also encountered council
officers who perhaps are learning and so they don't have
all of the experience or knowledge that someone who's been
around for a few more years has got, and that

(01:11:30):
can be a bit frustrating. With regard to professional reports
like that, I would tend to agree. I think that
if you've gone to an independently and suitably qualified person
got a professional report done that's specific to your building,
you're relying on their experience to say and knowledge to go,

(01:11:52):
this is now compliant. What you know the advice that
we've given you, If you undertake this work, the building
will be compliant. You're right. Why would counsel then go, well,
hang on, no, We've we've got a problem with that work,
Like what's their core competency versus the person that you've got.
There's a similar frustration sometimes on building sites, where you know,

(01:12:17):
if the work is of a certain scale, you might
have your own structural engineer right who does the design
and then will come to site and do the supervision.
It's not uncommon. For example, if you're doing piles, or
if you're doing particularly complicated reinforcing or some steel beams
or something like that, the person who does the designs
will send someone out to look at it on site,

(01:12:40):
and then the council inspector will come along and go,
I'm not sure about this, and you go, well, hang on,
I've had my structural engineer has approved it. They're going
to issue a producer statement. They are effectively taking responsibility
for this part of the structure. Why do I even
need you? You know what I mean? And that's a

(01:13:02):
similar frustration.

Speaker 7 (01:13:05):
I think.

Speaker 12 (01:13:05):
Look personally, I went, I went and actually spoke directly
with the process and I had a really great response.
It was very very helpful. In no disrespect, she's exception
to the majority of them. But yeah, I know a

(01:13:30):
guy you know who's built a twenty meter steel framed
shit it's got a five meter study. He's got to
put a fire alarm in there. How the hell do
you burn down when you've got you know, they assume
that he's going to do storage in there, and it's

(01:13:53):
at the wording. I read the fire report, fire engineers report,
and it's capable of storage. That's not what he applied for.
He's got a five so he can put the horse
up on the truck, right, networks on there.

Speaker 16 (01:14:07):
And now.

Speaker 6 (01:14:09):
I guess though, you know, to be fair to counsel
and to be fair to to regulations that you don't
know what someone's see this is the thing. You don't
know what someone's got to do is going to do
with that building in the future. So a safe precaution
is to ensure that it's got a fire alarm in it.
But then at the same time, you're not asking for

(01:14:30):
consent for a building that what somebody else does with it.
Somebody might turn it into apartments, right, but that's not
the intent of the consent at the time that it
was submitted. And why should counsel go, Well, we don't
know what's going to happen in the future. Therefore we're
going to get you to protect against potential change of
use for the building. That's not their remit. Their remit

(01:14:53):
is is it compliant right now for the intention that
I want to have.

Speaker 12 (01:15:00):
The application specific Yeah, has assumed that he's going to
do something else. Uh, that is that although I mean
that allows.

Speaker 6 (01:15:11):
Just like just to be Devil's advocate for a minute.
You know, if he's going to be doing maintenance, for example,
on vehicles, so he needs the five meter stud so
that he can put a vehicle on a hoist and
lift it up. Then in that environment there's likely to
be oils and lubricants and possibly flammable materials. So it's

(01:15:31):
reasonable to say it probably should have a fire alarm
in it. I mean, there will be things that are
flammable that he will use while doing that maintenance work.

Speaker 12 (01:15:45):
But I would think he's got all the doors. He's
got four roll of doors on the two excess doors
which are just standard doors. You know, if that thing
catches on fire, it's flamble stuff. Yeah, he's got plenty
of exits. The was designed for those in mine. It's

(01:16:09):
got any of air movements yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:16:12):
Like yeah, yeah. I mean look still still buildings can collect.

Speaker 12 (01:16:20):
In a commercial building. Look at loacers Lodge. Did the
council inspect that, No they didn't. How many the fine
youths occur and residential where people are sleeping, and that's
that's not a commercial where you're standing vertically, when you
lower blowing, lie in horizontal and you are affixiated before

(01:16:42):
you sit the death Yeah, different risks. I just I
just think it's so it's so expense to do anything
now it's not possible.

Speaker 6 (01:16:54):
But again, if I'm going back to the press release
from the minister, one of the things that is key
is that, and this is quoting directly from the press release,
adopt a more balanced approach to liability for defective work.
Now that's not quite what you and I are talking about,
but you know, one of the things right now in

(01:17:15):
terms of building consents and council signing off on buildings
is that with joint and several liability, council end up
in some cases being on the hook for all of
the defective work because everyone else has gone right. So
in that case, you know, maybe that's another part of this.

(01:17:36):
And potentially what you're saying as well is that you know,
if someone has built a building and it's for their
use and it's not a public building, it's a private building,
and they're prepared to take the risk, then maybe the
risks should sit with them, Whereas when council get involved
and they're looking after rate payers, money because if it

(01:17:56):
goes wrong, they're paying out rate payers money. That's where
they become much more risk averse. And as a ratepayer,
we kind of want them to be, don't we. Oh
you know what I mean? So, yeah, we don't.

Speaker 12 (01:18:09):
People's fact and.

Speaker 6 (01:18:11):
In the same way, you know, maybe it's not unreasonable.
We've just had a quick text on this as well,
you know, like we've got fire alarms, fire exit signs
and firefighting gear in our workshop. It's just health and safety.
I would want them as well in a workshop.

Speaker 12 (01:18:26):
Well, Peter, you know, you you have a fire alarm
and things, and then you've got a fire extincture and
have a look above the fire alarm the core point
and it says in case of fire ring one on
one and get out of the building, the stay what's
the fire extinguish are doing beside it? What's that telling
you do? Pick it up and try and put the
fire round. Now, those fire extinguishs have been taken out

(01:18:51):
of commercial.

Speaker 6 (01:18:53):
In the same way they don't often put fire hoses
into commercial buildings anymore either.

Speaker 12 (01:19:00):
Not require you know, because basically people's lives are at
resk if you haven't person to operate the fire extinguish.
They don't pull print out been Yeah, the fire in
three minutes and that that regulation has and if you

(01:19:21):
look at the fire people that fire sell fire extinguice
is look at their report. It's a recommendation, it's not
a requirement.

Speaker 6 (01:19:30):
Oh on, some really good points that you raise, and
will continue to discuss this interesting though, Like I was
involved in a no I'm aware of situation recently where
there was the beginning of a fire and someone because
they it's an older building and it still had a
fire hose, they were able to put it out, and

(01:19:53):
I guess without it then they would have had to wait.
They'd already notified the brigade and they were on their way,
but they were able to extinguish most of the fire
before the firebreak gaate came. But that's unlo likely now
in a modern building where I don't think they typically
install fire hoses. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I
think that's pretty much where we're heading. Nine minutes away

(01:20:13):
from it. We'll be back with thee in just a moment.

Speaker 1 (01:20:16):
Doing of the house extorting the guard and asked feet
for a hand. The resident builder with Peter wolfcap call
oh eight hundred us dogs V.

Speaker 6 (01:20:25):
I'm just reading this text weld and guess this is
someone talking about sort of workshops and having extinguishers and
the potential for sort of flammable activity all materials. Weld
will guess cut and use an extinguisher once or twice
a year. Yes, we've also got extinguishers in our chemical shed.
There's no way we're going in there. Even the Fire

(01:20:46):
Brigade has a policy to let chemical sheds burn and
maintain a safe zone. Makes sense to me, does. I
had a job long time ago, like almost forty years ago,
working as a laborer basically in an engineering shop, and
one of the jobs we were doing was on top
of a machine welding on an oil reservoir, And my

(01:21:10):
job was to stand there with the fire extinguisher so
that when the guy who's doing the welding the flames
got too high, I would put them out and then
he could carry on welding. Anyway, it was a long
time ago. Don't text me and tell me it's unsafe.
I know that it was a long time ago. Ian greetings, Oh,

(01:21:30):
good morning.

Speaker 14 (01:21:31):
He interesting discussion. This morning's been good to listen to this.
A bit of a change of subject. We've just bought
an old bungalow and it's got a dechromatic roof tile
on Y had it tested. It's got a bit of
a spestos in it, and we're just considering what whether

(01:21:52):
we replace the roof with new roofing or go for
one of the rubberized paint systems that seemed.

Speaker 16 (01:22:02):
To be around at the minute.

Speaker 14 (01:22:03):
And we're just interested in your opinion on I'm sure,
I tell.

Speaker 6 (01:22:08):
You what what I'm sorry, what I realized is we're
going to run into the news in about twenty seconds.
Can I ask you to hold We'll come back straight
after the news because there's I guess there's a couple
of alternatives that we can discuss, So just stay with
us and we'll come back straight after news, Sport and weather,
which is on the way in the next hour as well.
We're going to have a bit of a chat with

(01:22:29):
a town planner around you know what happens when designs
and buildings get turned down. That's a bit topical at
the moment, so we'll do that after the news at eight.

Speaker 1 (01:22:40):
Whether you're painting the ceiling fixings or wondering how to
fix that hole in the wall, you have Peter wolf
Camp call on.

Speaker 6 (01:22:48):
Eighty the resident filder on News Dogs, your News Talks.
There'd be Pete wolf Camp with you this morning. Couple
of things coming up. We're going to have a bit
of a chat with Hamish first. Now, Hamish is a
town planner. He's been on the show a couple of
times because of his expertise around resource consents and planning
issues and that sort of thing which packed on most
of us. And I caught that story the other day

(01:23:11):
about a new development in k Road being turned down
by the sort of planning commission for Auckland Council because
it didn't meet the requirements right in terms of heritage
or height or appearance and da da da da da.
So I just wanted to touch base with him to
give some general guidelines around that. So we'll do that shortly.

(01:23:32):
But just before the news we were talking with Ian
about his dechromastic roof. Has Ian still there was He gone,
he's gone, oh okay, not to worry. So Ian was
talking about dechromastic roof, which is probably forty odd years old.
It's got some asbestos in it which makes removal quite expensive.

(01:23:54):
The last one that I have some awareness of sort
of the removal of the roof went from maybe one
thousand dollars for just the labor and tip f to
I think it was about sixteen thousand dollars as an
exercise to remove reasonably sized roof quite high obviously, but
because it had asbestos and needed to go to a
special tip site, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, it

(01:24:18):
became expensive. So in this case, I'm just oh Ian's
back with us, which is awesome. Ian greetings, Oh, good morning,
good morning, Petter. Hey, good on you for testing the roof.
So it's a dechroymastic type roof, so a metal tile
with like the chip sprayed onto it. It's obviously getting
to the end of its life. You've had it tested.
It's got some asbestos in it, which means, as I
just mentioned that, the you know, the cost of removal

(01:24:42):
goes from maybe a thousand bucks to fifteen or sixteen
thousand dollars, so it's really tempted to leave it there.
The biggest issue that I often have with them is
that typically what happens is when people walk around on
those types of roofs, they don't know where to stand
and so they end up walking in the middle of
the tile. They crease the ridge and the tile, and

(01:25:04):
that causes it to shear right, to actually split, and
there's not a lot that you can do about that.
You can try and panel beat it from underneath and that,
but you'll always have a tear in there, which case,
if you were to coat it, you're relying on the
coat and the coating to seal that gap. And I
think that's a little bit of an ask. If the

(01:25:26):
roof is actually in reasonable condition, i e. Not that
many people have stomped around up there, then yeah, potentially
coating it will give you more time. You know, you
might get another ten or fifteen years out of the
roof if you give it a really good coating. But
ultimately it probably needs replacement, and the replacement can often

(01:25:48):
get a bit complex because the existing metal tile will
be onto a baton, which is like a two B one,
whereas if you were going to do Corrigoi dine or
long run iron on there, you'll need to replace those
battons with peerlins. You should be able to do it

(01:26:08):
underschedule one of the Act, which means you don't necessarily
need a consent for it. But you will need to
strip the roof, strip some of the batons, relay the
perlins that will lift the roof up, so you might
have to change the facier and the spouting. You can
see how this just gets bigger, bigger and bigger.

Speaker 16 (01:26:26):
That's right. Yeah, So we've had a couple of quotes
and there's a huge difference in price. So yeah, it's
quite a big roof. But so we've had pricing ranging
from up to sixty thousand for a new roof and
I'm not sure that that covers spouting and down types

(01:26:46):
and faceboards and like that through to you know, maybe
ten or fifteen grand for a new sort of quoting.
So huge difference in price.

Speaker 6 (01:26:59):
Oh, it's massive, and you know that's a lot of
money that you've got to find, right, there's a lot
of money to inject into the property. I mean, it's interesting.
I just got a text from a contractor that I
have worked with for a number of years and I
hold in quite high regard to be fair, very experienced,
very knowledgeable, and he just texts because we've been talking
a little bit about roof ceiling on the program. He said, look,

(01:27:22):
I've just been on a roof where the owners had
it coated with a sealant and he said, it's just
a sticky, gooey mess. Yes, this is months after the
coating went on. Now, in this particular instance.

Speaker 16 (01:27:41):
Been made over the top of the old iron roof
as well. Does that make any difference do we need
to take No, it's.

Speaker 6 (01:27:48):
Not a great idea, to be fair, you get issues
with condensation and fixings and it's not uncommon. In fact,
what you might find is that, depending on the age
of the house, your dechromatic roof for want of a
better term, might actually be laid over the top of
an old iron roof that on a number of occasions.

Speaker 16 (01:28:08):
That's what I believe is the case.

Speaker 6 (01:28:10):
Really, Okay, so you've actually got to take off two roofs. Yes.
What it will mean though, is that there will be
perlins underneath the old roof. So that whole issue around
height might actually not be an issue in terms of
where you probably need to replace the spouting, but you
may not need to go through and adjust all of

(01:28:31):
the faces and that sort of thing. So look, if
you are going to go down the ceiling pathway, I
think you need to be really really diligent around which contractor,
how well they do the preparation, what the warranties are,
what the you know, the state of the company is
to ensure that they're not a bit of a fly

(01:28:52):
by night. And then if you've satisfied yourself that it's
going to be durable and give you another ten years,
then by all means go for it. But you know
it might also feel like you're just putting off the inevitable.
All the best I leave you those options. Take care.
We're going to take a short break. Then we're talking

(01:29:12):
with Hamish Firth Planner in just a moment.

Speaker 1 (01:29:16):
Squeaky door or squeaky floor, Get the right advice from
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Speaker 6 (01:29:24):
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a speedy click and collect or home delivery.

Speaker 9 (01:30:15):
News talk ZB righty.

Speaker 14 (01:30:17):
Oh.

Speaker 6 (01:30:17):
Now, A story that got my attention during the course
of the week was an application by a developer, in
this case Kirkpatrick Group. I think it was to do
an eleven story building on a vacant lot on K
Road towards the Pontsmbe Road end if you know Auckland.
It was going to be an exemplar I guess of

(01:30:38):
some really innovative and sustainable technology. So the building was
eleven stories. It's I think it was going to be colt,
so a timber structure eleven stories high. We don't have
any of those in the country. It was going to
get a Green Star rating, a six green star rating,
so it's a sustainable, environmentally friendly building. And it was

(01:31:02):
submitted to Auckland Council. That goes to a planning committee
I think, and they've turned it down. So what happens
in these situations? So a very good morning to you,
Hamish Firth from Mount Holbson Group. Thanks for joining us again. Hamish,
you've been with us a couple of times on the
show because of your expert knowledge in this area. And

(01:31:23):
I you and I know that you guys are acting
for the developer in terms of preparing the submission, so
we recognize your involvement with it. But in these cases,
what happens when you know you've prepared an application goes
to the planning Commission. Who's the planning commission? What's the process?
What happens? Hamish?

Speaker 7 (01:31:44):
Yeah, that's on. Pete, good morning. I'm the application was
lodged yet, can you yeah, go for it?

Speaker 6 (01:31:52):
Hello?

Speaker 11 (01:31:53):
Can you hear me?

Speaker 7 (01:31:53):
Sorry? Pete?

Speaker 6 (01:31:54):
Hello, I've got you now, Hamish?

Speaker 8 (01:31:56):
All right.

Speaker 7 (01:31:56):
So the application was lodged in twenty twenty three and
it was publicly notified, so that allowed members of the
public to make submissions. Yes, And in late twenty twenty
four a hearing was held where three independent commissioners who
were appointed decided to decline the application.

Speaker 14 (01:32:18):
Right.

Speaker 7 (01:32:19):
We have then appealed that to the Environment Court and
we will have mediation. The first step of any environment
called process is mediation, and we'll probably have that sometime
in May. But if I can take you back a step,
what if the existing rules of the old rules, which
were probably established in the late nineties for the CBD,

(01:32:44):
have been superseded in part in twenty twenty two when
a planed change came out to allow for more intensive
buildings in this area. This application relied very heavily on
the new rules. Yes, three years later, those new rules
are still not in place or in four because Council

(01:33:07):
has not made a decision. So we were told that
these rules would be in place in April twenty twenty four. Now,
because the rules aren't in place effectively, we have to
go back and use the old rules, which are now
some twenty five thirty years old, and they become the

(01:33:27):
default position. So the issue here is probably not that
the building can be approved or should be approved, or
will be approved under appeal. It's the fact that the
baseline was the old rules and that the new rules
haven't been given effect to and it's taken an awfree
long time and are still not in effect.

Speaker 6 (01:33:50):
Right and yet obviously if the new rules were put before,
created by Council, why haven't they adopted them if they
wanted the rules to change to allow intensification in urban
areas close to transport hubs. And I guess this Bishop
as Minister, has been quite vocal and quite blunt in

(01:34:10):
his assessment, calling this sort of thing insanity, given that
what we're after is intensification in the city near transport hubs.
And Auckland's just spent almost five billion dollars creating a
rail link and now we can't have tall buildings near it.

Speaker 7 (01:34:27):
So I've heard Minister Seymour, I've heard Minister Jones, and
I've heard Minister Bishop pontificate and rattle their change about
how these things are inappropriate. What Council does is it
goes back to the Bible and it says, here's the
process we have to follow. So until the process is changed,

(01:34:48):
Council follow the letter of the law. And that's what
they've done. And I think that this is tragically an
example that is all over the country where our innovation,
our progress is held back by the fact that the
bureaucracy slows things down. I'm comfortable we make a judgment

(01:35:08):
call on whether it's right against a new set of rules,
But what we need is those rules to become operative
or enforced much quicker. So I think we have to
work backwards and say all of these processes to take
no longer than one year, and we work backwards from
hearing in one year's time, and then we make it
more streamlined. So what you've got, as with Plan Change
seventy eight is everybody's gone on hold because the new

(01:35:30):
rules allow two or three or four times more development,
and everybody's weighted and weighted and waited. So you've actually
put economic development on hold through bureau but the slowness
of the bureaucratic process.

Speaker 6 (01:35:46):
So just to be really clear on this, So in
this case we're talking about Auckland councils specifically. So Auckland
Council looking to the future goes, we're going to change
planning regulations because we want more intensification in the right
areas and that's often related to transport and amenity. So
they want it, so they set out a new set

(01:36:07):
of plan changes or propose them, but then they don't
adopt them. So what's the hold up between we want this,
but we're not going to adopt it. What's the gap there?

Speaker 7 (01:36:20):
If I knew the answer to that, team, we'll have
solved everything. And I think I came back to you.
What we actually need is a change in legal regime
at the government level which requires these processes to be
quicker and to be adopted quicker or not adopted quicker.
So we want we want certainty faster. And I think

(01:36:41):
if this also correlates to a really good I few
you guys have been discussing today, which is RFIs on
building consents and if we just trip this all back.
The complaints are that there's rafies that come on the
nineteenth day, yes, and that there's what you might say
subjective RFIs, so a different a building officer may have
a different level of experience or a different interpretation. So

(01:37:01):
the solution is, or if you break it really down,
we want we don't mind if there's rfies. I think
it's really important that plans are drawn correctly following a
process through. So what we're asking for is RFI is
to be made within say five work days, and need
to be a consistency in approach, and I think the
only way we're going to get that, and Pete, we
have touched on this before is technology. So plans are scanned,

(01:37:23):
a computer program reads them, and the same decision will
pop out every time. You'll always have the humans. There
is the backstop or the final check. So you're not
losing jobs, you're just speeding up the process and making
it more consistent. It's the same thing with this RAMA processes.

Speaker 14 (01:37:38):
Recently up north.

Speaker 7 (01:37:38):
You may be aware in Kitty Kitty a public boat
ramp has also been declined because so for the public good,
because the necessary legislation has not been changed to allow
these things to happen in a much easier way. And
so I think what we need to do is we
need to look at these things much more careful. And
so it's the legal process at the top of the

(01:37:59):
tree which are forcing the local government's hands to decline.

Speaker 6 (01:38:05):
And when you say the legal pro is at the
top of the tree, this is effectively government as a
nationwide government policies that are not changing. That's where it
is being held out.

Speaker 7 (01:38:15):
To make plan you're allowed to make plan changes and
resource consents, and the RAMA or the planning legislation directs
how they're made. So if you want to allow boat
remps and eleven meter eleven story buildings are massed in
the buildings very limit of buildings to go ahead, you
need to have processes within the RIMA that allow council
to flexibilities and the speed in which to make changes

(01:38:39):
are appropriate changes.

Speaker 6 (01:38:41):
Just in terms of this particular building, you know, concerns
around heritage. Again, you know, I can't see it, and
I'm all for heritage, right but given that there was
well there's nothing there right now? What was there was
not of any particular charm. Yes, it's in the heritage zone.
I love k Road and in fact, I think it's

(01:39:03):
much upgraded from what it used to be. But is
this building in the location that it is kind of
at the end of the strip. I mean, it doesn't
feel like it's going to impinge on heritage in any
significant way. But then, you know, I'm saying that as
a chippee and a local res or a resident in
a sense.

Speaker 7 (01:39:23):
But yeah, I find that what's really important context Across
the road from US is an enormous mobile petrol station
with a very large, flat, empty four court. Behind that
is a watercre reservoir would probably be eight to ten
meters high and is a solid concrete mass. On the
other side of the road is another vacant site used

(01:39:44):
by Wilson's for parking and a couple of digital billboards.
Our site is vacant with hoardings, and the site beside
us is a building with metal screens and billboards on it,
So contextually there's not a lot of heritage. However, we're
in the K Road Heritage precinct. So what the client
did not a developer, an investor, long term investor holds
property and has held property since thennineteen sixties. Nothing ever

(01:40:08):
gets sold, and so they are not doing this in
a speculative way. They chose probably the architect at the
top of the tree fear and hate. They gave them
a solid brief that had to recognize and respect the
heritage character. If you go anywhere in the world, you
will see a modern interpretation of a building wedged between

(01:40:28):
heritage buildings at times, which actually enhances the other heritage
buildings by highlighting them through the contrast of difference. So
if you look at their fine details of this building,
the line, the verticals, the horizontals that have all been
taken from Ques from the buildings along k Road. The
proportions the window sizes that there is such a depth

(01:40:52):
of detail that whilst it may not appear to be
solid masonry and little tiny windows, it more than more
than reflects a heritage and respect and also will highlight
any other building in the nearby area and its heritage status.

Speaker 6 (01:41:10):
And to be fair, if you wander a kilometer down
Ponsby Road almost to the Franklin Road intersection there frank
Richmond Road, you know there's a redevelopment on that corner
with the old building and then it's wrapped around by
new But it's one of my favorite buildings in Ponsby Road.

Speaker 7 (01:41:30):
You get the right architect and you can do a
wonderful job. And the architect has done a brilliant job
here to respect the herod aqualities of the heritage in area.

Speaker 6 (01:41:40):
So where do you think this? So it's in the paper.
It's suggested that now that the RMA or the resource
consent has been declined by the Planning Commissioners, it will
go to the Environment Court and that'll be mediation.

Speaker 9 (01:41:54):
Is that what happened?

Speaker 7 (01:41:56):
Yeah, it is, But what we really rely on or
need is counsel to make a decision on Plan Change
seventy eight for the CBD. Of all the submissions made
on that plan change, this is the best place for growth,
so let's get that out. The other process we've got
to go through is what's called a possible fast track application,

(01:42:16):
So we're investigating that right now. And that's another piece
of legislation which speeds things up and gets you decisions,
big decisions faster for regionally significant projects. This is one
hundred million dollar project and what it does is you've
built a five billion dollar city rail at karrang A

(01:42:36):
Happy station is five hundred minutes from the site, so
this will allow people to come in from all over
West Auckland. Four five hundred thousand people stop there, walk
or scooter up to this modern office building and get
home again. This is why the CRL was constructed. So
there is a real nexus between this building, the regeneration

(01:42:59):
of this area, and in the station.

Speaker 6 (01:43:03):
Look, it's a great insight on please that we're able
to have that discussion, and I recognize your direct involvement
in it, but I think you've also presented it impartially
and I really appreciate that we'll get you on because
I've had so many planning questions, so I'll reach out
for your expert advice again. Shortly, Hamish, thank you very
much for your time. All the best, take care of

(01:43:24):
you and news talk Seb. Let's jump into the garden
the Red Clone past us with us. Actually just before
we go to root, a little project that I've been
working on is going to be available for you to
watch later on tonight. I think so I did a
project which I'm calling my host project. Host is the
Dutch word for house. It's a renovation a little cottage.

(01:43:47):
We did it a couple of years ago. Video that
back then that I've kept the footage. I'm now going
to release that. So we've made a bit of a
story about this host project and from tonight you be
able to look at that on YouTube. So check out
my socials in terms of resident builder at Facebook or
Instagram that'll give you the link, or just go directly
to YouTube search for me reson build of Peter Wolfcamp.

(01:44:08):
You'll find it there and the slightly longer format video
so talking about the renovation and that sort of thing.
So enjoy that.

Speaker 1 (01:44:17):
It will be back with through it in just a moment,
helping you get those DIY projects done right. The Resident
Builder with Peter wolfcamf call oh eight hundred eighty ten
eighty Use Talks EDB.

Speaker 9 (01:44:31):
For more from The Resident Builder with Peter Wolfcamp.

Speaker 1 (01:44:33):
Listen live to News Talks EDB on Sunday mornings from six,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio

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