The Resident Builder podcast: October 20, 2024

This week on the show, ZB's Resident Builder Pete Wolfkamp discusses the latest issues impacting the world of construction - and answers questions!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Resident build Up podcast with Peter
wolf Camp from News Talks at Bay.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
The house is a hole even when it's darns, even
when the grass is overgrown in the yard, even when.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
A dog is too old to bar.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
And when you're sitting at the table trying not to
start scissor home, even when we leave a band gone,
even when you're there alone. A house is a hole

(00:59):
even when those goes, Even when you got around from
the world you love your move scream does pain to
be an in funder LOCALSSBRE when they're gone.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
Well, very good morning, and welcome along to the Resident
Builder on Sunday. My name's Peak wolf Camp and this
is a program well pretty much all about your place.
So if you've got a project that's underway, or you've
got some house maintenance tasks that you want to undertake.
And I don't know whoever came up with the idea
of maintenance free, I think deserves well halfway decent flogging.

(01:43):
To be fair, there is no such thing. There's always
work to do. That's what I've spent a reasonable amount
of this week doing. With a fairly long list of
tasks to achieve over the summer months, and I'm guessing
that if you own or occupy a property, then you've
probably got that list similar to mine. Is in fact,
even this morning, as I tried to sneak out of

(02:05):
the house just a little bit quietly, notice that the
hinges on the front door have lost all of their
previous lubrication. And there's that gentle sort of squeaking sound
as I try and close the front door quietly without
waking the rest of the household. So that's another job
to go on the list. Do you actually make a list,
That'll be an interesting question too, or is it just

(02:26):
that thing that sort of rumbles round in your head, going,
I've got to do. I've got to do. I've got
to do. I've got to get that done. I've got
to get that sorted out. Anyway, if we want to
talk building all morning till right through till nine o'clock,
we will do exactly that. Eight hundred and eighty ten
eighty is the number to call. I trust you've had
a good week. If you might have had just a
slightly sleepless week as you've been catching up with the

(02:46):
America's Cup racing off bus Slona that has now come
to a conclusion and of course congratulations to Emirates Team
New Zealand for a fantastic victory there. So at around
six thirty this morning, actually we're going to touch base
with Richard from Razine. He's part of the Automotive and

(03:07):
Specialist Finisher's division Coating's division, and it's basically we might
have found the secret source for the reason that the
New Zealand boat is so fast, and that is pretty
much that it's covered in razine coatings. So anyway, he's
there in Barcelona, so we'll get a sense of the
vibe and also just an insight into what goes into
the technology and the development behind razine coatings that allow

(03:31):
it to be applied to those vessels and apparently possibly
to a number of other nations America's cupboats as well,
So we touch base with them at around six thirty.
Then we will also touch base with our regular contributor
from Razine, So painting questions, specific painting questions from seven
thirty this morning. Bryce McDermott, our painting expert from Razine,

(03:52):
will be joining us then so you can text through
your questions. Any specific painting questions. Nine to ninety two
is the text number is BZB. We'll take those. And
then I had a chance this week just leting you
know what's coming up on the show today, to catch
up with Marlon Johnson, who is from Late four Solar,
who are the sponsors of the show, and we were

(04:14):
talking about solar and we had Marlon on a couple
of months ago just to talk about solar panels, how
they work, installation, where you can put them where you can't.
But what we didn't really get a chance to talk
about is batteries and how the two combine and the
interconnection between those two parts of a solar setup. So
I've invited Marlin to come back on the show. He'll

(04:35):
be with us after eight o'clock. And if you've ever
had a question about solar, so in our first interview
we didn't get a chance to take any of your questions.
At eight o'clock this morning, we'll take your questions about
sola if you've got it and you want to ask
a couple of questions, if you're thinking about it, if
you're unsure, if you're unsure about the impact of having
combining solar generation with battery storage, you might have a

(04:59):
question on that will take your text questions on all
things solar after eight o'clock and of course thirty at
climb Past will be in his studio which is in
christ Church, and he will join us and we will
talk all things gardening and the wonderful world of bugs
as well. So it's a busy old show. It'll get

(05:20):
pretty chopper later on. If you've got a question right now,
if you've got a project like me, and you're thinking,
I've got to do something about that squeaky door, or
maybe it's a little bit more significant, i e. You know,
might have discovered a leak, or you've got some rot
that you've seen. I mean, it's terrible in a sense
doing the job that I do, because everywhere I walk

(05:41):
I'm looking for things. And I pulled up at my
brother in law's to place yesterday to drop something off,
and I cast a glimpse across at the neighbors the
upstairs windows, and I was thinking, gosh, you know, if
you don't get onto maintaining those soon, it's going to
become a really big job. I mean, it's a beautiful
house and it was well built. I remember the extension
being added on, but it's timber and it's timber facings

(06:04):
around the window, and it's in a part of the
house that you wouldn't necessarily walk by every time, and
you can just see a little bit of mold growth
starting to come. You can see the paint starting to
peel off or split away. And if you don't get
up there in the next year or so, it's going
to become a replacement job rather than regular repair and maintenance.

(06:24):
And that's what we're looking to avoid, is that whole
thing around having if you do the maintenance, then maybe
you don't have to go to the expense of repairs
later on. Maybe someone could have told Ekipnuku that. In Auckland,
a huge embarrassment for the city, I think is the
fact that the bridge, so we've spent all that time
developing the viaduct put in a funky bridge. Apparently temporarily

(06:48):
it was temporary back in twenty eleven or something like
that for the America's Cup and then somebody forgot to
boil the hinges and the next thing, Orgland councils up
for ten million dollars to repair it, and it's been
a massive disruption. But anyway, I only mentioned that because
I was down that part of town the other night,
thinking well, I could have taken the ferry and walked

(07:09):
if the bridge was working, but it's not, and so
I ended up driving, which is not what I wanted
to do. Anyway, my rant is over. It is your
turn to rant, to rage and just have a bit
of a chat. Really, eight hundred eighty ten eighty is
the number to call if you've got a question of
a building nature. We're into it. Eight hundred eighty ten eighty.
Welcome and good morning to you. Chris. Hello there, good

(07:32):
chrisp hang on, it's there we go, Chris, Good morning, Chris.

Speaker 4 (07:40):
Mate. It's a bit of a pathetic question to be
honest at all. But basically, I've got an old one
of those houses that have been shipped right for aiding ninety.

Speaker 5 (07:51):
Circus on the door of the door on it has
got three hinges, yes, the middle one the hinge pin
that goes them from the top.

Speaker 4 (08:03):
It's been fined for twenty odd years, but it's started
to creep out all time, and it makes horrible screeching
noises when it hits seened. So I think they sort
of keep hamming it back in. And I wasn't sure
what the best way of holding in an ereror is
whether it was I was going to try seperately, but
then I thought that might stop the hinge working even worse.

Speaker 3 (08:26):
So when you say the hinge, when you say the
hinges working out, is it that the screws have started
to Because what happens is over time, of course the
screw you know, the tension on the timber, and especially
if the hinge is not working particularly well, it starts
to pull on those screws and they'll pull out from
the timber.

Speaker 5 (08:43):
Is that what's happening, that's the center hinge.

Speaker 3 (08:48):
Oh, the pin itself is dropping out.

Speaker 4 (08:51):
Pulling out. It's from the top, so it's pulling out
top ways.

Speaker 3 (08:58):
So what it's rising? Yeah, ah, unusual. I mean gravity
typically tends to take care of that.

Speaker 6 (09:07):
Yeah, you think so that.

Speaker 4 (09:09):
It's kind of a it's between the lounge and our
hallway and bedroom, so it's kind of used all the time,
So continuous squeaking. Sometimes I just don't bother thirteam for
a better week, but it just gets irritating.

Speaker 3 (09:23):
Understandably, it is a bit unusual that the pin works
its way up the hinge might be misaligned or something
like that. Look I would I would probably just tap
it back. And if you tap it back in, how
long does it take for it to start rising again?

Speaker 4 (09:37):
A bet a week?

Speaker 3 (09:38):
About a week? Man, it must be out of alignment.

Speaker 4 (09:45):
Yeah, I thought that were either some sort of pressure things.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
I mean, look, if you wanted to, what you could
try and do is tap it out right, So tap
the pin out all the way to the top. And
it must be a replacement hinge, because old hinges like
that don't. You can't tap the pin out. It's only
more modern hinges where you can tap the pin out
in some cases. So some hinges have got the pin

(10:11):
is sealed at both ends or it's rounded over, so
you can't remove the pin, which stops someone taking the
pins out and lifting the door off and breaking into
your house. Or most domestic doors have the pin that
drops in from the top. Gravity holds it in place effectively,
and if you ever need to take the door off,
you can just knock the pin out and take it out.
I would say, probably if it's working its way out,

(10:33):
I'd knock it out, So just use a nail punch
to drive it up and then hok it out. Give
the actual pin a bit of a sand put a
little bit of you can get special like graphite lubricants
that work particularly well on hinges and hardware and door
locks and things like that. A little bit of that,
drop that back in and that should just free it
up enough that it'll stay in place, would be my suggestion.

(10:56):
I think someone else has text through the same thing.
So Chris, good luck on that one. If it's type
removed sand loop and put back in place.

Speaker 6 (11:03):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (11:03):
Absolutely, And there are these. I had it for some
door locks, like actually putting inside the door lock every
now and then they can get a bit corroded or
exposed or something like that. And there's a special type
of graphite lubricant so it's actually feels like it's a
black powdery type material. You biden a little bottle and
just inject that into the locks as well. That makes

(11:24):
a big difference. But there is also what I pick
up the other day, some garage door. So if you've
got an older sort of sliding track garage door, and
again lubricant on that has deteriorated, you can apply it's
out of a spray into the air as well. So
there's some good stuff out there. Oh eight hundred eighty
ten eighty. Were talking all things building in construction this

(11:46):
morning on the program. If you've got a question of
a building nature, oh, eight hundred eighty ten eighty is
the number. So out of the corner of my eye,
I've also got I've got a couple of TV screens
on here in the studio and it is kind of
exciting to watch Liam Lawson getting kitted up and ready
to go out American Grand Prix, and Austin is on

(12:06):
for this weekend as well, and of course he's now
got a full time drive. So Kiwi's winning the America's Cup.
Kiwi's in the Formula one. It's not bad.

Speaker 7 (12:15):
Ah.

Speaker 3 (12:15):
Oh eight hundred and eighty ten eighty is the number
to call quick text hey Pete. I'm in the process
of doing up the on suite of a nineteen seventy
six house. The shower as one hundred and thirty five
by eighteen timber around the shower opening pretty typical. The
timber has rotted out in one corner, leaving a very
small spot of rot and a little bit of black mold.

(12:36):
Am I better off treating this with something or dig
out the minimum minimal damage and use something like Builder's bob.
Before sealing well and replacing the timber, I will be
adding some powder coated aluminum trim to stop it happening again, Jim.
If it's small ish, like the size of a head
of a hammer, let's say, then yeah, you could probably

(12:57):
rather than strip out the whole thing and have to
go through the rebuild process, would I would cut out
or fetch out any rotten material in there. I would
treat the timber with a timber preservative so protein, frame, savor,
metal X, anything like that, let that dry thoroughly. I
probably wouldn't use and I use Builder's bog, but I

(13:18):
wouldn't use it in that situation. I would use something
like repair Care, which is a two pot sort of
it's a mixture of an adhesive and a filler and
a POxy filler. Actually, as it happens, you can get
it at razine color stores, So repair Care use that
to fill the area and then send that off. And

(13:40):
I would paint the whole thing with an ideally an
oil based enamel or at least a water borne enamel
over there. And yes, adding a trim to keep that
moisture away would be a good idea, but I think
if it's relatively small, absolutely use something like repair care.
It'll work well. Good luck to you, Jim. We then
take short break. We're going to talk to Crystal in
just a moment. Your newstalks'd be we're taking your calls.

(14:02):
We're also taking your texts. Apparently it is a common
problem with the pin working its way out. Take the
pin out, replaced from the bottom. Problem fixed. Take the
pin out and replace from the bottom. Yeah, I think
that makes sense. Oh, eight hundred and eighty. Ten eighty
is the number to call Crystal. Good morning to you.

Speaker 8 (14:21):
Good morning. Normally when you pull the pin, it's a
hand grenade on the end of this very good. So
with again, what I would do is just dot punch
the top of it around the circumference of the pin,
you know, put swage at little dot punches, and then
it effectively swages a pin out a big wider and
then tap it back and that should work right because
the doors o'ten closing, it's like it's like riding it up.

Speaker 6 (14:43):
And riding up.

Speaker 8 (14:44):
Yeah, yeah, that's the first thing. Second thing, so you
know the windows days, when you open your window, you
got a little holes and so you can latch the
window in the summer.

Speaker 3 (14:53):
Yes, I've got them.

Speaker 8 (14:55):
All of my windows, and some of the good condition,
but a lot of them are very old. And yes,
I could spend hours pannel being the mount and trying
to fix them. Where would I buy new ones to
replace those at a reasonable price? Like Michael ten months
sixty bucks the one. So is there somewhere else you could?

Speaker 4 (15:09):
She did?

Speaker 3 (15:09):
Yeah, No, that that's kind of the price that they are.
And I've because I used to do a lot of
work on sort of not quite well heretage homes or
homes with timber joinery, and every now and then, if
you were doing a refirb you would you'd go and
buy some more of those days. And yes, they are expensive.
I guess your other option is if you're looking for something,

(15:31):
you could try demolition yards. Yes, but then of course
you are going to end up with something at secondhand
and might require some work. Yeah. Are they what sort
of vintage are they? Nineteen thirties, nineteen sixties?

Speaker 8 (15:46):
You know they're a mixture of all sorts.

Speaker 6 (15:48):
Yeah, mismatched.

Speaker 8 (15:51):
I would have a look at a websites called Screwfix
in the UK. Have a look there and then don't
have a look at the prices, you'll be.

Speaker 3 (15:57):
Just look in crystal. I'm in a sense the same.
I go to the States and I go to hammer
to what is it home Depot or Low's or Rockler
or somewhere like that, and I look at the prices
sometimes and I do despair, saying that actually just doesn't aside.
Last time we were up there, I did go to

(16:18):
a home depot store and have a look at like
the price of plaster board. So an eight x four
plaster board sheet in the States was about twelve or
thirteen US dollars, which is not a million miles away
from what we pay here. And I kind of cruised
around they had a look at lumber and it wasn't
terribly different in price. Things like paint and sometimes tools

(16:41):
to some degree I buy us time. I was, yeah,
some stuff is cheaper, but not necessarily by a massive amount.
But look with the hardware, yeah, I look. Demolition yards
are great, and there is obviously that great delight in
being able to reuse something rather than sending it off
to landfill or recycling, so there's an upside to that,

(17:04):
But otherwise, yeah, they are expensive.

Speaker 8 (17:08):
Can I even forgges something that you might like to
look at. Have you ever heard of Sibsey. Sibsey is
a society of international building engineers and it's all things building.
They develop maintenance regimes and programs with Sibsey Wellington Google.
Have a look up. There's a lot of free semmars
and things on solar, on maintenance regimes, all sorts of stuff.
And it's the worldwide governing body on all things maintenance

(17:29):
for buildings. And they even produce hit to pay for them.
But they produce maintenance planners and maintenance regimes, you know, monthly, quarterly,
annual checks.

Speaker 9 (17:38):
Yeah, have a look at it.

Speaker 3 (17:39):
Look much appreciated. Good luck with the hardware, all the
best chrystals. Always likes to check take care bother there.
Oh eight, one hundred and eighty ten eighty is the
number to call now if you've been captivated as I
have to some degree by the America's Cup racing and
have been. I mean, I'm still pretty convinced by fossic
Around the back of the dry I could probably find
a pair of red socks from back in the day.

(18:01):
But I did actually wait reasonably early this morning and
watch the final race of the Louis Vu Tom Cup,
meaning that the Team New Zealand Emirates Team New Zealand
have again not only won it, but defended it two
times in a row, so three in the modern era,
this is quite unusual. This is quite remarkable for a
team to win three times in a row, which is

(18:22):
exactly what Emorates Team New Zealand have done. And then
I was chatting with a guy during the week from Razine.
He goes, did you know that, as it happens, the
boat has Razine coatings on it, as in, over the
top of all of that fancy carbon fiber, they do
apply a coat and that coat is made by Razine.
And one of the people involved in that is Richard

(18:45):
Mearhead from Razine, part of their Automotive and Light Industrial
Coating's division. Richard, A very well, good evening to you
in Barcelona.

Speaker 10 (18:54):
Yeah, good evening, teat How are you, critics.

Speaker 3 (18:56):
I'm very well and I would imagine it's a fairly
festive atmosphere where you might be it Right.

Speaker 10 (19:01):
Now, I'm about one hundred yards from the main stage
here in the the presentation is just starting, so maybe
we can make this fast.

Speaker 3 (19:10):
We will make it really fast. So tell me what
the what's the razine contribution to this? It's the coating
the boat.

Speaker 10 (19:17):
Yeah, we've been involved with Emra's Team New Zealand for
twenty five years classes their coating supplier and Emma's Team
New Zealand have chosen our product, Durapox for many, many years,
but especially so in the last few years where the
foiling technology is kicked off and as you can imagine,
at speeds of approaching one hundred klometers per hour or more,

(19:38):
there's a lot of pressure on those foils. They've found
that the Durapox is the only product that can withstand it.
In fact, I was talking to some of our distributors
here in Europe over the last few days and we
think Durapox is on every single boat that has challenged
the Cup this year.

Speaker 3 (19:56):
Wow, well, how's that for an endorsement.

Speaker 10 (19:58):
New Zealand Company.

Speaker 11 (19:59):
Right?

Speaker 3 (20:00):
Absolutely. And in terms of like, is that a special
development of that product for this application or is this
a product that back in New Zealand you can go
and order it and apply it in the right situation.

Speaker 10 (20:14):
This is no, it's a commercial product in the beyond
and we sell it all over the world now. But
there is there has been a development for the foil,
of course, acularly because because that was a bit out
of bit out of left field, the pressure and so
forth that they were exerted on. So but it is
a product that we developed here some twenty years ago

(20:36):
and it's still being fine tuned and improved every every
year for the marine industry and the carbon fiber fiber industry.

Speaker 3 (20:45):
Because I guess from an outsider's point of view, we
tend to regard water as somehow quite benign. But as
you say, if you're hurtling through it, it speeds approaching
one hundred kilometers an hour, and you've got all the
way to that boat sitting on those foils. Those foils
want to cut through the water as efficiently as possible.
The coating suddenly gets under enormous pressure.

Speaker 10 (21:04):
Enormous pressure, and I've had varying levels of what that
pressure is. I don't think anyone can really tell us,
but it is just an incredible amount of pressure and
the friction that comes with that. So, yeah, jurapox has
really found its niche in this industry. And talking to
our distributors over here again over the last few days,

(21:26):
we're finding that the opportunity in Europe for us with
this product is just growing and growing, and particularly on
the back of what's going on with this technology with
the America's Cup.

Speaker 3 (21:38):
I'm going to let you enjoy the celebrations. I think
it's hard fought and well deserved and thank you for
your contribution to it as well.

Speaker 10 (21:47):
Thank you, Peter. Fantastic for New Zealand to be involved
in it. Absolutely, I think from our point of view,
everyone in New Zealand should be incredibly proud of what
this team has achieved for us as a country because,
as you said a Newer Intro, it's an incredible achievement
to get the three peet and to be one of

(22:08):
four countries that have that have ever won the Cup
and it's one hundred and fifty four years or one
hundred and sixty four years.

Speaker 3 (22:17):
Yeah, it's a magnificent achievement. Really appreciate you taking the time,
enjoy the celebrations and safe travels.

Speaker 10 (22:23):
Thanks take to you now look forward to.

Speaker 3 (22:26):
Take care by your news. Talk seed B. That's Richard
Muirhead from Razine Automotive and Light Industrial and I got
in touch with him because it mate put me on
to the fact that Hey, look, it's actually Razine Products
that is the coating around the boats has been for
a number of years and a small, well maybe significant
contributor to the success of Emirates Team New Zealand and

(22:48):
Barcelona and defending their ownership they're holding of the America's Cup.
In twenty twenty four, your News Talk Seed B will
take your calls and we will be talking specifically about painting,
maybe not something as high tech as trying to paint
your America's Cup boat in the next hour, but if
you've got a painting project coming up and you need
specific advice from our painting experts, then text me now

(23:12):
nine to nine two and Bryce McDermott, our painting expert
from Razine, will be with us at around seven thirty
this morning. But right now we're talking all things building.
If you've got a question a maintenance one, hardware, hinges,
maintenance repairs, alterations, new builds, products, trades people, get in

(23:32):
the right trades person. Eight hundred eighty ten eighty is
the number to call call us now your News Talk,
said B. If you've got a question of a building nature,
then we've got a couple of spell lines for you
right now. Eight hundred eighty ten eighty. You can also
text through any questions nine to nine two, and if
you'd like to send me an email, I've got back
into the system. You can email me. It's Pete at

(23:55):
Newstalk SEDB dot co dot nz. So Pete at NEWSTALKSEDB
dot co dot nz. If you want to send through
pictures or something like that, which you can't do on
the text machine. I know we can text pictures typically
between phones, but that doesn't work when you're trying to
send them in to me via the nine two nine two.
But your texts are more than welcome. Oh eight hundred
eighty ten eighty, though, is the number to call. We

(24:17):
always get a bit busy towards the end of the show,
so if you've got a question, now is a very
very good time to phone through. Eight hundred eighty ten
eighty is that number to call. A couple more comments
that have come in on the text Claire, there was
rather baffling one. I hadn't watched the America's Cup and
was lying on you not to say anything. We're a

(24:38):
news station. What else do you think we're going to do?
Oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty is that number to call.
And common problem apparently take the pin out replaced from
the bottom. I'm not such about replacing it from the bottom.
I think you just drive it in from the top.
But a little bit of lubricant that means that it
just doesn't bind and work its way upwards as it

(25:02):
as you open and close the door. The reason we
got on to talking about that was was thinking, as
always about repairs and maintenance, and as I was leaving
the house earlier this morning, an hour or so ago,
the we've got an old door, old hinges every now
and then they need a little bit of lubricant to

(25:23):
stop them squeaking, and I haven't done that for a
little while. And so as I'm trying to close the
door quietly this morning, there is not a terribly loud
squeaking sound, but it was. It was there. So that's
another job on the list later on today, after I've
finished the jobs that I started yesterday but I didn't
get quite finished, which are sort of the same jobs
that I started on Friday, but realize that they're going

(25:45):
to take me a little bit longer. So this is
the nature of looking after your own property. Oh eight
hundred eighty ten eighty. If you'd like to call, we'll
take your calls right now, Oh eight hundred eighty ten
eighty back in a month your news talks. The'd be
lines are open. The number of call, Oh, eight hundred
eighty ten eighty. Hello June, good morning, Good morning.

Speaker 12 (26:06):
Now I'll try and explain it. I have a pump
on my lawn because I've got a very wet back section,
and it pumps the water off my sections onto the street.
I have a down pipe off my house between the
two bedrooms. My neighbor next door has a down pipe
off his garage his water. His downpipe comes across my place,

(26:31):
joins up with my lot, and goes out onto the street. Now,
this year, with all the heavy rain we've had, my
pump doesn't seem to be able to cope with all
of that water, and I've been having a great big
puddle on my backyard. How do I tell him to

(26:51):
disconnect with down pipe?

Speaker 3 (26:54):
Can I just ask? Are your two properties joined together?

Speaker 11 (26:59):
No?

Speaker 12 (26:59):
They're not. No, I have a big sense between his
property and mind.

Speaker 3 (27:07):
Okay, So, and the distance let's say, from the wooden
fence to the garage and then the distance from the
wooden fence to your house is how much roughly.

Speaker 12 (27:17):
The distance between I'm in the bedroom now, I just
wanted to hear me exactly. My place in the garage
would be about three meters, okay, and then his down
pipe would be from the fence to his place about
a meter. He did when I first shifted in. The
down pipe wasn't always used to fall down, and the

(27:40):
water that fell off that refused to keep me awake
all night. I said, yes, I said to him, can
you connect it now? It's having trouble with the neighbor
on the other side as well, with water off his
property running over there. Okay, is a pain in the bars.

Speaker 3 (27:57):
So and your properties are not joined. It's not a
cross lea situation. You're on your own title. They are
on their.

Speaker 12 (28:05):
Own time, my own rights.

Speaker 3 (28:08):
Okay, all right, Look, I mean to be fair. If
it was me, I just let go up to the
fence and cut the downpipe off and turn it round
and just poke it back onto his property. I know
that we'll eventually.

Speaker 12 (28:21):
End up the ground though it's dug. It's on the ground.
He's got underground, so he must have done all that.
When some other person was here or when the house
was first built.

Speaker 3 (28:34):
Okay, so I'm wondering whether it may well be possible
that in order to the storm water, the public stormwater
line might be one of those ones that runs, you know,
across your property and goes through a number of properties. Right,
so everyone should connect into it on their own property.

(28:58):
You shouldn't. I don't think you should be able to
connect your stormwater via another neighbor's property into it.

Speaker 12 (29:04):
It runs out my lot and off my roof and
off my property with this pump thing I've got on,
it runs along along the fence line on my side
and out onto the guttering, out into the out into
the gut you know the gas because I watch it.

Speaker 3 (29:24):
Yes, yes, I watch it.

Speaker 12 (29:27):
It runs out there.

Speaker 3 (29:29):
I am still kind of trying to get my head
around how this might all work. But the simple, the
simple factor is there. The neighbors stormwater should be controlled
on their property. It shouldn't have come.

Speaker 12 (29:43):
Everybody tells me, yes, yes, yes. They also people say
to me, he's self aloud, there.

Speaker 3 (29:50):
You can't drag your stormwater across into your neighbors and
attach it to that connection there. I mean, how do
you go about solving that I suppose in.

Speaker 12 (29:59):
The end about telling him, well, it becomes.

Speaker 3 (30:02):
I'm guessing, actually, that'll be a great question to ask,
because in the next couple of weeks we've got a
gentleman by the name of Ben Johnson who's going to
join me, and he's actually a lawyer specializing in property law,
and we were going to be talking about the Fencing
Act and those sorts of things. But I might be
able to get that into the question as well. So
you know, like, you have rights to your land right,

(30:25):
that's the whole point of being a homeowner. And so
the only way that someone gets to interfere with those
rights in terms of putting services in is if they
get an easement right and it's registered on the title,
to say, hey, look to get access to storm water, wastewater, electricity,
telecoms or something like that, I have to intersect or
I have to cross over your property, but it's registered

(30:47):
on the title. Typically, so I would think that a
letter informing them that in fact, the situation is no
longer acceptable, that they have to control their own storm water,
and then saying to them, you've got fourteen days to
comply with this, at which time I'm going to get

(31:07):
a drain layer to come or a plumber to come
and disconnect your stormwater, and that if you don't make
your own connection, it then becomes an issue for the
local council to deal with because there is a requirement
in urban settings right for every property to control their
own stormwater.

Speaker 12 (31:27):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, they've got it. They've got a concrete
path up the drive behind the fence. They've got a
concrete path, so they'd have to rub it under that
concrete path. They're having to be fair. On the other side,
he had a going the fact that.

Speaker 3 (31:43):
It's going to be difficult for them is not actually
your problem.

Speaker 10 (31:46):
So that's true, you know what I mean.

Speaker 11 (31:48):
I know we all.

Speaker 3 (31:49):
Tend to be we all tend to be considerate, and
we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. But in this
instance here, what they've done is incorrect, or whoever allowed
them to do it shouldn't have allowed them to do it.
It's their responsibility to control their own storm water. And
an instance is where people don't control storm water off
their own property. You can go to the council and

(32:11):
sort of go, hey, look this has become a nuisance.
I think there's something wrong with their stormwater system.

Speaker 12 (32:17):
Thank you so much in you way.

Speaker 3 (32:18):
But look, it's never easy confronting a neighbor and having
those conversations. But if it's causing disruption to you, then
I think you do need to say something. Yeah, I know,
I know, it's not an easy one. All the best
of you, do you take care? All right? Then? Now
on this can I seek your advice if you're a

(32:40):
particularly if you're involved in drain laying or plumbing. Very briefly,
it was a conversation I had while sitting at a
cafe yesterday with a mate who lives up the road.
They have a driveway that slopes down to the basement
garage right, So at the bottom of that they have
a catch pit with a pump in it. Because the
stormwater then is below the level of the council stormwater line,

(33:03):
so water that collects into that chamber has to be pumped,
doubt and that's regardless of the level of rainfall. No
water will escape from the pump from the chamber without
the pump, so the pump's pretty important. When the pump
failed during that heavy rain last year, they got the
basement flooded, right, So the pump is really important. The

(33:24):
question is is there like a ups an uninterrupted power
supply system that you can get as a backup, because
in the event that heavy rain occurs at the same
time as the power goes off, likely the flooding is
going to occur. So is there a setup where you
can add a generator or a battery supply that will

(33:44):
automatically turn on in the event of a power cut.
I'm going to investigate on and do a bit of
reading and research. But if someone's already thought about this
and got a solution, feel free to either give me
a call or a text. That'd be awesome. Eight hundred
and eighty ten eighty is that number to call, get
a bigger pump and make them pay for it. I
don't know if that's a great solution. I appreciate the text,

(34:05):
but I'm not sure that's a in able solution. Eight
hundred eighty ten eighty ten away from seven oh and
good morning, Good morning, Good morning, sir.

Speaker 13 (34:13):
I've got I've got a double being a question on
the same topic. One is if you've got home. At
one stage you talked about Taylor Facio, and there's another company.

Speaker 3 (34:23):
Who does custom pasure as well.

Speaker 13 (34:26):
Of concealed What was the other one?

Speaker 3 (34:28):
Sorry, custom, so have a look for customer on you.

Speaker 6 (34:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 13 (34:32):
Yeah, they do a replacement system for concealed guttering. Yes,
and one of those seemed like a good idea at
the time. Things that can sell guttering.

Speaker 3 (34:43):
To be fair, I've always been a bit skeptical about it,
even back in the day, when you know, it seemed
like every house in a new subdivision was getting them.
I was like, no, I don't know.

Speaker 13 (34:55):
Yeah anyway, Yes, but with my place, I've made it
just the right words. So if you try and get
your hand in there to them and clear them in
the nice sharp.

Speaker 3 (35:08):
Edge, yeah, it cuts you the shreds.

Speaker 6 (35:10):
Yep.

Speaker 13 (35:11):
Anyway, what I wondered is to do that kind of change,
do you need a permit? That's the first part of
the question. The other part of the question is, sorry,
I will let you answer that.

Speaker 3 (35:25):
I think in a word, i'd say no, I don't.
I don't see why. I mean, typically things that impact
on weather tightness and that do require consent. But I
think that making a change from a concealed spouting to
an external one with a system, you know, like the
I know that the custom guys have have developed a
system that works. It has well. In fact, it's a

(35:47):
benefit in terms of weather tightness because we know that
those things leak and have caused moisture ingress. So no,
I don't think you need a building consent for that.

Speaker 13 (35:57):
Oh got on. And the other thing is, well, I
the idea of prevention rather than cure. I wondered if
it was because we don't have a leg problem at
the moment. It seems in good neck virvis is sooner
or later everything suffed out. And well, I wondered if

(36:17):
it was possible to put in a Yeah, maybe not,
but no, but you know what I mean, put in
put in an improving because then it only has to
the existing guttering only has to act as a foundation
for it rather than a water trap.

Speaker 3 (36:39):
Yeah. And look, I think the problem sometimes with some
of those ones that have caused issues has been that
often the interior gutter that was put in behind the
concealed facia or yeah, was often laid almost dead flat, right,
and you're always kind of asking for trouble, I think

(37:01):
if you do your spouting dead flat. So if and
also sometimes there were not that many outlets, so again,
in heavy rain, the volume of water that was getting
out through the downpipe was insufficient, and so they would
tend to overtop and then they would overflow, sometimes at
the back of the spouting rather than at the front
of the spouting and out onto the ground. Now, if

(37:25):
you don't have any of those problems, then yeah, I
can see the attraction of going Actually, what about if
I do some really good prep on the inside and
apply like a coating or a lining to it, that
will extend it out.

Speaker 13 (37:38):
Many suggestions on the on the different approaches it could
be used there.

Speaker 3 (37:42):
Yeah, I mean, look, I've done some stuff with a
product called EPM sixty or during one nine to five.
And again I'm not I'm not suggesting either of those
two brush on applications will be a permanent solution, but
I have applied it to internal gutters where I've just
wanted to get an extra couple of years out of it,
you know, for example. And so in that sense, it

(38:06):
might be if you can get in there. Often with
these things, it's the difficulty of getting in, you know,
with a wire brush and then with a vacuum to
clean it out, and then applying the coating and so on.
There's not a lot of gap in there for maintenance, anything.

Speaker 13 (38:22):
You could heat and torturing, or a molding that could play.

Speaker 3 (38:26):
Some h not that I know. I mean, there are
obviously torch on membranes and TPOs and things like that,
but you know, applying them in a way that does
the job become that difficult that you're unlikely to get
a good seal on it, in which case it kind
of defeats the purpose. I think a brush on application,
just because of the complexity of getting in there, the

(38:48):
difficulty of access, is probably going to be the best solution.

Speaker 9 (38:52):
But you know, there was.

Speaker 3 (38:53):
Also to be fair to these sorts of systems. Sometimes
they fail because people don't maintain them, and arguably they're
difficult to maintain because they're difficult to access, and so
we tend to ignore them. But I think if you've
got a system that's still working and you continue to
maintain it, then partly leave well enough alone, because you

(39:14):
know it wouldn't be a cheap exercise to remove all
of that and replace it with an exterior spouting No, was.

Speaker 13 (39:21):
That EPN like November or no?

Speaker 3 (39:24):
EPM Mary, what's what's military for?

Speaker 13 (39:28):
M Mike?

Speaker 3 (39:30):
I think Mike, Okay, yeah, Echo Papa Mike sixty. There
you go. All right, mate, all the very best to you,
Take care, all the best, take care of your newsok CB.
We're coming up to news top of the r at
six o'clock. We'll talk to Mary straight after the news
at around seven thirty. We will have our razine painting
expert Brice McDermott joining us from seven thirty this morning.

(39:54):
After eight o'clock, our solar expert Marlon Johnson from Life
Force Sola will be joining me. So if you've got
any specific questions about solar, about maybe batteries, about generation,
about reply and the other thing we talked about is
some of these eco loans that are available. So we'll
talk all things Sola with Marlon from Life Force Sola

(40:14):
after eight o'clock this morning, back after the news. Righty, oh,
good morning, Welcome back to the program. Pete wolf Camp,
the Resident Builder, with you here on the Resident Builder
on Sunday. If you've got a building question, a maintenance question,
a product question, a subcontract a question, maybe even a
nabally type question. Oh, eight hundred and eighty ten eighty
is the number to call. Trust You've had a good week,

(40:35):
looking forward to your calls your conversation. Remember, at around
seven thirty this morning, we'll grab Bryce McDermott from Razine
Color Shops and here is our painting expert. If you've
got a specific painting question, then text it through right
now to nine to nine two and I can put
those to Bryce when he joins us at seven point
thirty in the next hour of the program. Marlon Johnson

(40:57):
from Life Force Solar, who are our sponsors, obviously he
will be joining us. We had Marlon on the show
a couple of weeks ago just to sort of do
a basic introduction into Solo, but it's surprisingly complex and
there's a lot more to it. So I thought, right,
we'll get them back on the show and if you've
got any specific questions about Solar, and to be fair,
I had some. I had a chat with them this

(41:19):
week and I found out that I had a whole
series of assumptions around Solar and around batteries that were
not quite fully formed. Let's say I'm being kind to myself,
so we're going to talk about batteries solar, the connection
between the two, how they link together. Are they are
so intertwined that you I had basically come up with

(41:41):
this idea that you to make use of it, you
really needed to have battery. Turns out that that's not
quite completely true, So we'll talk about that. But if
you've got any specific, any specific solar questions, feel free
to text those through now as well, because Marlon, our
expert on that, is going to join us after eight o'clock.
So it's a busy old morning. Take the opportunity to

(42:03):
jump in now, eight hundred and eighty ten eighty if
you've got any questions. I mentioned just before the news
about this particular dilemma that I happen to be chatting
with a mate who lives up the road about yesterday.
We're sitting at the cafe and coffee wanders over and
he goes, oh, can I talk to you about this? Yeah,
of course, no problem at all. So an issue with
a pump or no, no problem with the pump. Pump

(42:26):
works fine. It's in a chamber. It catches the water
that comes down from the driveway, but that is below
the level of the invert for the stormwater mainz right,
So it has to be pumped from the chamber to
get into the council stormwater line. So someone said, what
about a bubble up sump, and I had a quick
look just to refresh myself as to what they are. Well,
that wouldn't work because when it bubbles over, it's going

(42:48):
to bubble over and go straight in the garret. So
that's not an option. It's got to be a solution
for when the pump if there's a power cut, how
do you keep the pump running? Is are there batteries
or generators that you can hook up specifically to the pump.
If you've got a solution, feel free to text it through.
I w eight hundred eighty ten eighty. Otherwise I'll continue

(43:10):
to answer your questions rather than ask them. I wait
hundred eighty ten eighties the number to call Mary A
very good morning.

Speaker 14 (43:16):
Oh, good morning, Pete, Hey Mary Scott query. I was
looking into the shower dough yes to put in the
bathroom to help keep keep steam down. But I wonder
if the regulations have changed a tool on extractor fans
for bathrooms, because in their advertising it says there's no

(43:38):
need for an extractor fan, and I thought you had
to have one in your bathrooms.

Speaker 3 (43:45):
To the best of my knowledge, certainly the building code
requires extraction from bathrooms and from wet areas increasingly, right, So,
and I I'm not sure if you submitted a building
consent and said this is going to be my solution,
whether it would be accept to counsel or to a

(44:07):
territorial authority as part of a building consent application. So
typically we install extraction in bathrooms to deal with moisture.
That's the common way, and that is approved by counsel.

Speaker 14 (44:22):
So I can see how it would suppress it. But
the steam's still got to go somewhere.

Speaker 3 (44:27):
Yeah, I mean, I think the theory behind them is
that essentially it becomes condensation and drains down the inside
of the shower and into the waste, and in that
sense it's a neat solution. I would have to do
some more research to see whether or not that would
suffice for building consent, But I think in all the

(44:48):
bathrooms I've done, we've installed extraction. We had Storm Harpen,
a ventilation expert, on the show a couple of weeks ago,
and I intend to get her back as well. She
had some great advice on ventilation and extraction and so on.
I think a good solution is getting it out. So
if you've got bathroom, I would always go for extraction. Yeah, okay,

(45:10):
then you know, and maybe do both of them.

Speaker 14 (45:12):
But yeah, extraction to me, it just doesn't seem totally right.

Speaker 11 (45:17):
Hey.

Speaker 3 (45:18):
Look, the people that I know who have that I've
spoken with have got them swear by them, right. Yeah,
So in that sense there's there's a real efficacy about them.
But in terms of compliance, I'm not sure. Okay, I
can find it. I will find out. There we go.
I'll add that to another nice of you to take
care of. Bye by then, Oh eight hundred and eighty

(45:40):
ten eighty is that number to call Tanya A very
good morning to you.

Speaker 14 (45:46):
Oh, good morning. Deep.

Speaker 6 (45:48):
I've got mold on my Queen led.

Speaker 7 (45:51):
Dick and I've used lissons to get and hit the deck,
which hasn't worked in removing them mold. Could I use
a light water blood?

Speaker 3 (46:03):
Be very careful, I know, seriously, And to be fair,
it was on my list to do some water blasting
yesterday of concrete paths. I wasn't going to water blast
any timber yesterday. I just didn't get round to it.
I big fan of water blasting, but I prefer to
call it pressure washing, right, So there's a role for
the water blasting it is not going two thousand psi

(46:24):
at two and a half inches above the timber, ripping
through all of the fibers, right, which is what I
saw someone do the other day. And it looks great today,
you know, it looks bright and all the rest of it.
But the damage to the fiber is now permanent. Right,
So look, I think, yeah, I've used the wit and

(46:47):
forget the had the deck right, and had quite good
of results from it. Right, So I wonder whether another
application of that might help. And certainly applying like applying
a proprietary deck wash solution is far more effective than

(47:08):
not applying a solution. So just hitting it with water
blast or hitting it with a scrubbing brush is not
as effective as treating it. So that's definitely the way
to go, whether or not you might have to do too.
And then the other question is if what you're going
to do is just clean the deck and then wait
for the mold to reappear, you might want to start

(47:31):
looking at well, if I clean the deck, let it
dry thoroughly, do I apply a coating to it, maybe
like a penetrating oil stain that will help resist some
of that mold growth.

Speaker 4 (47:41):
Yeah, I do want to stain it.

Speaker 7 (47:43):
There's a stain on there at the moment, but just
needs restain there.

Speaker 6 (47:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (47:47):
Now it's the other thing, and I'm sort of straying
into Bryce's territory here, but one of the things that
I have learned from both Bryce and Jay our razine
experts is whatever system you've got, you kind of have
to stick with it. So, you know, if it's a
waterborne stain, then stick with water born. If it's an
oil based stain, stick with oil base. And if you

(48:08):
if you're unsure about what system was already there, do
a little bit of testing to make sure that you
don't run into incompatibility issues.

Speaker 4 (48:16):
Yep, understand what you're saying. Yep, I've got that.

Speaker 3 (48:18):
Oh you know what it is. Okay, then it's fine. Yeah,
maybe just another application of the cleaner and certainly rinse
off with a water blaster. But either if you've got
the function to dial down the temp the pressure of them,
or just you know, come back a little bit further
understand Yeah, little alrighty all the best take care. By then,

(48:41):
oh eight one hundred and eighty ten eight, you've got
time for a couple of calls before we talk to Bryce,
our painting expert, at six seven thirty this morning. It
is currently just after seven point fifteen here in New Storks.
The b a couple of texts through. I'll give them
some good painting questions, which is awesome, so send those
through for Bryce. Someone has steps through to say shower

(49:02):
domes do not meet the Healthy Home standards and you
still require extra when renting. I thought that would have
been the case because it's quite clear in the Healthy
Home Standards this is for residential tendencies that you now
must have extraction from bathrooms and of course you have
to have extraction from ventilation into kitchens as well. So

(49:22):
thanks very much for that. And with regard to my question,
I was looking for an uninterrupted power supplier a UPS,
so you get a battery bank that will automatically change
over when the powers interrupted. This is if you've got
a in this instance a chamber that collects a bit
of storm water but also groundwater. Will surface water drops
into a chamber in front of a basement area. The

(49:45):
only way to get rid of the water from there
is via the pump. So even if it was a
bubble up one, that's not useful. So can you get
a system whereby if you get heavy rain and a
power cut, which, to be fair, is not unlikely that
you've got a dedicated power source for that, that will
change over automatically. And I mean automatically too. If you

(50:06):
weren't home, would it change over? And apparently they're out there.
If anyone happens to have an name, that would be
even more helpful. Oh, eight hundred eighty eighty is the
number to call Fred A very good morning to you.

Speaker 11 (50:17):
Oh, good morning, So Fred might be a a week question.

Speaker 3 (50:23):
Well, okay, ask it first.

Speaker 11 (50:27):
We've got a shower which backs onto the hall, and
I'm getting a little bit of water back into the
carpet in the hall.

Speaker 3 (50:34):
Gotcha.

Speaker 11 (50:35):
The house is about twenty five years old, so I
don't know where they where. Your ceilings for showers was
strong in those days. That is what it does now.
It doesn't appear to be any obvious from the grouting
from the inside. The shower looks.

Speaker 3 (50:53):
Okay, yep, twenty five years ago. Is it a fully
tiled shower, so the floor and the walls are all tiled.
Do the tiles extend outside of the shower and onto
the walls?

Speaker 15 (51:08):
No?

Speaker 3 (51:10):
Okay? And is there a. Is it level entry or
is there a hob like a little upstand that you
step over?

Speaker 11 (51:17):
There's an upstand.

Speaker 3 (51:18):
There is an upstand. Okay. Is the mixer or the
shower rose itself on the wall where you're seeing the leak.

Speaker 11 (51:30):
No, it's on the opposite wall.

Speaker 3 (51:32):
Okay, all right. The reason I asked that is sometimes
you know, the leak can actually come from the fittings,
in which case it'll be draining down through the wall
cavity and you'll see it on that side because the
waterproofing is stopping it going into the shower in this case,
and it's pointing it the other way. And I presume
that the leaking or the moisture that you're seeing is

(51:53):
around the skirting line. So it's at the bottom, yeah, yeah, yeah, yep.
Concrete floor, timber floor, concrete floor. Right, So it's not
like you can get under and have a look.

Speaker 11 (52:02):
No difficult.

Speaker 3 (52:07):
I think if it's obvious, and given that you've seen it,
let's assume that it is. I wonder whether the first
thing you're probably going to have to do is cut
a section out of the plaster board on the hallway
side and have a look inside, and that'll because in
the end, you know, if you have to do a
repair there, it's not actually that hard to repair plaster board,

(52:31):
but it'll give you an idea of what's happening. I suspect,
knowing what I know and having done waterproofing twenty five
years ago, it's some systems were good. Many systems were
not as good as what we've got today. And so
I do wonder whether there's been either some movement and

(52:52):
some tearing in the junctions, particularly often ninety degree corners,
or around the shower waste itself, if that's not particularly
well sealed. When you have a shower, does the water
go out through the waste quickly?

Speaker 11 (53:08):
Well, it's not not a shower I personally use very much.

Speaker 3 (53:11):
But right, okay, from.

Speaker 11 (53:12):
What I remember when I did use it, it was okay.

Speaker 3 (53:16):
Yeah, went away quickly. Okay, Look, I think Fred unfortunately,
I would probably cut a hole in the plaster board
so that I can see what's happening there and then
go from there. And you know, if it is a
case that yes, it's obviously leaking through. You know, when
you have a shower, the water is going through the tiles,
through the groud, through the waterproofing and coming out underneath

(53:38):
the bottom plate and into the hallway. Then it's going
to be a strip out of the shower and a
complete replacement. There's there's no easy repair to that.

Speaker 11 (53:50):
Yeah, So so if you went the whole hog replacement,
would would you retile and that sort of thing or
would you go for the cubicle showers.

Speaker 3 (54:03):
Look, there's no reason that you shouldn't retile it, like,
if that's your preference, then, but you'd have to do
it to today's building coat, so the substrate might be
slightly different. Certainly, the waterproofing systems have improved dramatically, whether
that's a peel and stick type system, so a membrane

(54:23):
type system or a brush on waterproofing system. But today,
you know, we often put bond breakers in and tapes
and those sorts of things that we might not have
done twenty five years ago. And then but chances are
when you take the tiles off, it'll damage the waterproofing.
Waterproofing's already failed, so you got to take the waterproofing off.
You won't get the waterproofing off without replacing the substrate.

(54:46):
So in that shower area and probably for quite a
distance beyond you'll be pulling it right off back to
the beer framing and starting again and building up from there.

Speaker 11 (54:57):
So yes, stupid question. On a substraate, Oh.

Speaker 3 (55:00):
Substrate is just a term that we have for the
layer underneath the waterproofing. So in some cases it might
be a fiber cement sheet is an option, and other
cases you can use specific types of plaster board are
options and they are the substrate for the waterproofing. So
again it depends a little bit. Today there are other

(55:21):
options as well where you've actually got wall linings that
are the waterproofing system. Now that might that might actually
work as a substitution. So there's there's specific boards that
are available. I think probably your next step after investigating,
and that might be a job for a plumber or
possibly a tiler would come and have a look, or

(55:43):
an experienced LBP would be to then you know, talk
to someone and get them to facilitate the coordination of
all of those trades. Yeah, and bathrooms are complicated because
there's so much happening in a small area. You know,

(56:03):
typically if you think about doing some work on a bedroom,
you know, if you strip it out, you've got a
carpenter comes in strips, the wall lining out, replaces the
wall lining, does the trims, stopping and painting. Right. But
in a bathroom, suddenly you've got you know, tyler, waterproofer, carpenter, plumber,
glass installer. That's why bathrooms are expensive because there's so

(56:25):
many subtraits involved.

Speaker 11 (56:27):
M well, sorry, it's well.

Speaker 3 (56:33):
I can tell you one thing with les, they never
get better on their own. Yeah, very good, all right,
good luck with that. But a bit of investigation is
the first step. Yeah, all the very best. You take
care for them. Let me see I need, I need
to take a break. Let's do that, and then we'll
have a chat with Daniel back in a moment a
year with news talks there we're talking all things building. Daniel,

(56:55):
Good morning to you. I have a game mate, not
too bad in yourself.

Speaker 15 (57:01):
No, good, good. I just had a quick question. Sure
the council like they they wrung me up and the
next door neighbor had been flooding, and they were like, oh,
can we put a pipe running straight through the back
of your section and you know, to get rid of

(57:24):
their water. And I said, oh, you know, that's fine.
That was just on a phone call. And then and
now they've just I've just noticed that there's there's a
manhole in the back of the section, you know, right, yeah,
And I don't know what to do about because I
never signed anything, or I was just wondering sort of
how will you go about that?

Speaker 3 (57:45):
I have to say it sounds a little bit unusual
that just verbally, like on a phone call, council would say, hey, look,
can we come and extend the public storm water through
your property and to your neighbor because obviously did they
rock up there with diggers and rip open a trench
lay and pipe and all that sort of thing, or

(58:07):
did they thrust it through.

Speaker 15 (58:09):
Most of I was never there because it was a
rental property, right okay, And the people have moved out,
And now I've just noticed that there's a dirty, great
big manhole there, you know.

Speaker 3 (58:19):
And that manhole is that there to allow your stormwater
to connect to the new Like where was your storm
water going?

Speaker 15 (58:29):
Well, my stormwater was already there was already one going
straight through my property from the man hole above their property,
right okay, So since they like their man hole was
always like blowing out and all the water was rushing
down and flooding this other place. And then so they

(58:52):
must have put a pipe from down there somewhere and
right and shot it across. But now there's a manhole
right in the back of my.

Speaker 3 (59:02):
Section, which I mean.

Speaker 15 (59:07):
We would I would have thought there there would have been,
you know, something there. We would have awad to sign
and plans. I would have seen them to be fair.

Speaker 3 (59:16):
That's the bit that I'm a little bit perplexed by,
right that, like, there must have been even even for
them to go and get the work done, they would
have had to have drawn a plan, submit it and
given it to their contractors in order to follow. You
don't just ring the contractor and say, hey, look, just
pop round to Daniel's place there, rip up the back
law and throw in some pipe, whacking a manhole while

(59:37):
you're there, and you guys just do what you feel
like doing. So there's got to be a bit of
a paper trail. I think in the first instance, I
would probably go back to counsel and go, look, I'm
the property owner of such and such a property DP
number Da Da da da da. Can you please send
me a copy of the plans that consent or the

(59:58):
authority to do the work and an as belt for
my records? Right, because you've obviously entered my property to
do this work. See what their response is. I mean,
if they don't have a response to that, that would
be quite interesting. But I would start there.

Speaker 15 (01:00:15):
Yeah. I did go to the council and then the
body of the city council one and then they said, oh,
I know, there's not something we would have done that
there would have been well Into Water okay, And yeah,
they sent something through to them and said that they'll
get hold of me and and they sent an email.

(01:00:40):
But I've tried getting hold of them.

Speaker 3 (01:00:42):
But yeah, yeah, I can understand the frustration. I think
in this instance, if it is Wellington Water acting sort
of as the authority in the area, I would still
have thought that they would have needed permission to enter
the property and there would there should be a paper trail, right,
So I'd start with them. I can imagine that it
might not be that easy, but you're just going to

(01:01:05):
be persistent and get a paper trail and get an
ass built. Ideally, if it's a public line that runs
through your property, I would ask for a copy of
the cc CCTV survey that they should have done at
the end of it to show that it works. Properly,
and yeah, there's got to be a paper trail.

Speaker 15 (01:01:28):
Yeah, yeah, it's just everyone. I'm talking to them. No
one knows nothing, you know, and you know, and they
put you onto someone else and then they know nothing.

Speaker 6 (01:01:36):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 15 (01:01:38):
Bar want to gone?

Speaker 13 (01:01:39):
Do you know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (01:01:40):
I don't know that you'll have much luck in getting
it gone. And I raised an issue a couple of
weeks ago where I'd read an article online about a
guy who kind of was a bit upset and a
bit you know, perplexed as to how this manhole suddenly
appeared in his driveway right outside his front door. And
it was a development across the road where they thrust
a new storm water line underneath the road, underneath his

(01:02:04):
driveway or shared driveway to make a connection to a
public stormwater line, and then installed, as they often do,
a manhole at that point for maintenance purposes, right, And
I think he had little to know ability to prevent
that from happening. So I think in these instances where

(01:02:27):
it's a public good, let's say, counsel could possibly override
your individual rights. Again, great question to ask our property guy,
who's going to join me in a few weeks time.
Got a specialist public property lawyer coming on the show,
so I'll add that to my lot increasingly growing list
of questions to ask him. But I think in your instance,

(01:02:50):
none of this could have happened without there being some
paper trail. So it's just a question now of going, hey,
I need answers for this. The other thing is if
you're not getting answers from the bureaucrats right the people
at Wellington Water, is to go to your local board
representative and go, hey, here's a good issue for you.
Can you give some heft Given that we've all got

(01:03:12):
local body elections happening next year, you'll tend to find
that you get a decent response from them. So try
Wellington Water tray your local board representative, and I'm pretty
curious to be honestandiel, So if you get some answers,
give us a call back in a couple of weeks.

Speaker 15 (01:03:27):
Yeah, yeah, because when when when I when I was
talking to them and I said, oh, yeah, it's okay,
I said, but I want to I want to build
down there at some stage.

Speaker 3 (01:03:36):
So they've got afore you in which case now you
have to bridge over it. So that's not easy.

Speaker 15 (01:03:44):
Yeah, but but I said to them, as long as
you know, as long as it doesn't you know, you know,
you're given the way of what I'm trying to do,
and it.

Speaker 3 (01:03:54):
Will be now, and you don't want to go through
the expense of changing it, so suddenly you'll be bridging it.
Oh yeah, get onto council and let us know how
you get.

Speaker 15 (01:04:07):
On Yet thinking alright, you.

Speaker 3 (01:04:10):
Take court care all the best by way. Um, someone's
text through and said, if it was a rental property,
I bet you they dealt with the tenants thinking they
were the owners. It's possible, but you'd also look at
that and go, crikey, that's that's pretty poor administration if
you don't. Actually, I mean, how long would it take
to figure out who the actual legal owner of the

(01:04:32):
property is a couple of minutes with the records that
they've got. I mean, Daniel's paying the rates. You think
you'd give him a call, but he's not there. It
could be the landlord's permission to the owners pipe through
our question who pays on our section? That's a big ouch.
That's a good question. Oh eight one hundred and eighty
ten eighty. Well, we'll put that on hold for a

(01:04:52):
minute because we'll take your text questions for our painting
expert Bryce McDermott from regularly contributed to the show. Always
great to have him on. He's going to join me
in just a moment straight after the break. If you've
got some specific painting question. Nine to nine two zid
BZB is the text number for you right now. You
when you talk, there be people of camp with you

(01:05:14):
and our painting expert Bryce from Razine A very good morning, sir.

Speaker 7 (01:05:19):
Good morning, how are you good?

Speaker 3 (01:05:20):
Good? And we talked to one of your colleagues earlier on,
Richard Meurehead, who does the automotive and light industrial stuff,
so he's up in Barcelona. Because it seems like the
secret sauce for the for the Kiwi's has been the
razine coating. It makes it all go faster.

Speaker 7 (01:05:37):
Yeah, that's exactly sure. What the coating is.

Speaker 3 (01:05:40):
Dura box Apparently, whatever it is, it's worked, it's worked.
Theah absolutely. Hey, as it happens, one of our earlier
callers was saying, look, I've had a go at cleaning
some moss and mold off my queeler deck and now
I'm thinking about water blasting, at which time I sort
of went, oh, I'm not sure about the water blasting.
So if we are cleaning our decks, and it's pretty

(01:06:02):
much that time. I bumped into another guy yesterday we're
down at the food trucks, and I said, what you've
been up to? He says, I've just finished coating the deck,
done all the cleaning, getting it all ready for summer.
So it's the season, right, If we're cleaning our decks,
what do we do.

Speaker 7 (01:06:17):
Well, We've got a product called Timber and Deck Wash, yep.
And you apply that with a garden spray or something
like that and basically scrub it as well, you know,
as roughly as you possibly can with a stiff nylon
bristle broom, and it will basically render the deck ready

(01:06:37):
to accept stain. The material actually opens up the timber
fibers and allows the timber to readily accept some more stain. Yes,
it also removes old stained residue as well, and then
you're basically ready to go. If it's moss and mold
there as well, you could probably use it in conjunction
with moss and mold killer, but not at the same time.

(01:06:59):
But yeah, it gets timber quite quite clean. There's a
good video on YouTube that we've done called how to
clean your deck with wrist and stain with Zum decking
oil stack and it shows you graphically how good this
material is without wanting your listeners to abandon you.

Speaker 3 (01:07:18):
No, I agree. If you need some online content, check
it out. It's great.

Speaker 7 (01:07:22):
Yeah, you know, physically actually seeing the material in action,
it is quite a good thing. I watched it on
Friday and I said, I mention that absolutely.

Speaker 3 (01:07:33):
Is this the one that features our co collaborator on
this jay he's out there doing No, it's another one.

Speaker 7 (01:07:42):
I think it's brilliant. I think it's somebody from Wellington
perhaps who was doing it. They never showed their face. Awesome,
but you know it's well worth the look and it
just shows you how good this stuff is.

Speaker 3 (01:07:52):
Tips and tricks okay, and the product is timber and
deck wash. Yes, okay, all right, now here we go.
First text in good morning. My deck has had the
full water blast treatment. It's not great now, very black
and mildewy. Any tips on recovery. So in this instance
here they've cleaned it. The mold growth has come back.

(01:08:16):
So for Sarah, it's a case of timber and deckwash,
stiff broom agitate rintse.

Speaker 7 (01:08:23):
Yeah, you actually leave the material on the timber for
about ten to fifteen minutes, yep. Don't let it dry
in that time, to just sort of hang around and
retauch it, work it around a bit, you know, scrub
and leave it on for fifteen minutes and it should
do the trick. If it's still black. You may want
to use some moss and mold killer as well, but

(01:08:45):
you do that separately to the timber and deckwish. I'll
probably do the mossi mal treatment first, Yes, the the
timber and deckwish after that.

Speaker 3 (01:08:53):
After that everything right. Just in terms of like you
made the comment about the timber and deckwash opens up
the fiber to make it more readily acceptable of a
coating hatten, Like does it need to be dry when
you apply the coating? Like how do you determine when
is the right time to then start the coating after

(01:09:14):
you finish the washing.

Speaker 7 (01:09:16):
Well, I would do all your preparation one day, and
depending on the weather, the timber should be dry enough
to accept stain or whatever coating that you're putting on
there the next day. So yeah, if you've got a nice,
good drying day, you know, the sun's out, the winds
carrying on, you know, like it normally does. You should
be able to do it the next day, but you know,

(01:09:38):
use your judgment obviously. If the timber still looks wet,
then you know, just make it hold as you see it.

Speaker 3 (01:09:44):
Yeah, okay, brilliant, Thank you, Stephen has taxed through. Hey
I've got a forty year old house. I'm planning to
paint it, but I have found that the top enamel
coat can be separated from the undercoat very easily with
a scraper. Is this usual? Do I need to remove
the whole top coat to achieve a good job?

Speaker 7 (01:10:05):
Yeah, it's sounds like there's something in this there. It's
probably mean to actually strip that material off, you know,
take it back to be a timber and start again,
because it'll just, you know, it'll just create problems further
down the line for you.

Speaker 3 (01:10:17):
Yep, Because otherwise all you're going to do is apply
your new paint to the old paint. The old paint's
going to fall off and take the new paint with it.

Speaker 7 (01:10:26):
Well, yes, and you know, the the new paint as
it's drying and during it creates surface tension as well,
and you know it can actually right after the old
coating is right back to be a timber and the
annually way to fix it is tostrip it.

Speaker 6 (01:10:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:10:39):
Absolutely. It also hadn't another one interesting one where someone
has had some painting done recently and admittedly they've used
razine paint, so they've done the sefites. It was painted
about three weeks ago. When it's a bit cold or damp,
they're seeing bubbles appear, and then as the temperature heats up,

(01:11:00):
the bubbles disappear. What's happening there?

Speaker 7 (01:11:03):
It could have been applied and you know, too cold
or too damp conditions, right, or maybe you know late
in the day when you know you're not actually getting
proper curing of the paint coating. Yes, so you know,
when moisture gets on it and it blisters, there's you know,
it says to me that something's gone wrong at the
point of our initial application.

Speaker 3 (01:11:27):
Solutions start again.

Speaker 7 (01:11:28):
I've seen you know, the whole side of the house
blister and then you later on in the day it's
all sucked back and looks fine again. You know, It's right.
Paint does very odd things sometimes.

Speaker 3 (01:11:39):
I guess the paint itself holds itself together, but might
not stick always to the to the substrate. And that's
the preparation issue, isn't it.

Speaker 7 (01:11:48):
Yeah, But you know you've got to you've got to
allow you know, the paint to do its thing. You know,
if it's it's not put on in the right conditions,
then it will suffer. So paint too late in the
day and it's been pretty cold and wet of late,
so which is unus surprising yep. Yeah, So just bear

(01:12:11):
that in mind. You know, as you know I've said
in the past, we lifted days cold or if it's
you know, there's a bit of moisture around in the year,
check your humidity on you on your whether at on
your phone yep. And you know, paint between ten and
two and everything should be fined. But you make a
judgment call at the time.

Speaker 3 (01:12:31):
Absolutely. Now, this is a classic what's the best practice
when painting old wood grained, hardy plank weatherboards. If you
do the sanding, you only end up hitting the high spots, right.
So in that instance there where you've got effectively a
wood grain or a textured surface to it. Preparation prior

(01:12:51):
to painting for that.

Speaker 7 (01:12:53):
Ye, well, if the if the paint cating that's there
already is in sound condition, and a good scrub down
with house washing paint preple get it ready for painting.
I mean, you know, yes, you can't really sand it,
so the house wash and paint prep. We'll we'll bring
that up and you know, nice and clean and get
and ready for a new coat of paint. Any beer areas.

(01:13:15):
Just spot that was the good old shore.

Speaker 3 (01:13:17):
Seal yeap, okay, so sure seal, clean, sure seal and
then top coat.

Speaker 6 (01:13:23):
Yep, yep.

Speaker 3 (01:13:25):
Someone has used a five year old water based paint
on the inside of a double wardrobe and now it
smells slightly of cat We I've redone it with a
wall board sealer, but it's still detectable. What to do now?
Just before that in terms of you know, I mean,

(01:13:45):
we're we all do this right. We do a job,
and then we keep the tin and we keep it
under the bench and the workshopper and the garage and
all the rest of it, and then we drag it
out years later and we go, oh, just use that last.
But how do you know when paint's basically gone.

Speaker 6 (01:13:59):
Off, Well, you'd be able to smell it, right.

Speaker 7 (01:14:04):
If it's more than five years all depending on how
it was stored. I would be viewing it with some caution.

Speaker 3 (01:14:10):
Yes, it's not a good cat.

Speaker 6 (01:14:13):
I don't think I.

Speaker 7 (01:14:17):
But you know, I would probably you'd probably have to
look at you know, maybe coating it with big mended
Zieler and getting a new batch of paint to try
and lock at it. M Yeah, okay, so strange things sometimes.

Speaker 3 (01:14:36):
Sure does Now roof painting, how do you wreck This
isn't good news. How do you rectify a ten month
old paint job that's bubbled? What causes the bubbling? The
house roof is about twenty two years old. It's an
old iron trappersoidol. Let's assume that it might have been
a color coated product in the first place. It's faded,

(01:14:59):
they've had it repainted. Now it's bubbling.

Speaker 7 (01:15:02):
So when you say color coated, you mean something.

Speaker 6 (01:15:04):
Like like color steel like that. Yeah?

Speaker 7 (01:15:07):
Yeah, Well, I mean the only time I've ever seen
rufes blister like that is there are previous coatings that
are already right that maybe the preparation wasn't that great
in the first place. When whoever did it originally didn't
do their preparation well and the old coatings are blistering away,

(01:15:31):
So you might want to pop a couple of those
blisters and just see how far back that goes, gotcha. Yeah,
you might find a couple of layers of paint underneath it.
So it depends. But if it's color steel and it
hasn't had a coating on it before, if it's bubbling
or blistering, then again it could have been affected by

(01:15:52):
weather and temperature, because steel is normally about ten degrees
colder than the surrounding atmosphere. So another thing you have
to take into account. You know, if you're doing it
on a cold day, maybe it's not a good idea.

Speaker 3 (01:16:06):
And the other thing is if you are painting over
something that's already had like color steel or one of
those sort of pre finished coatings on it, is that
there's a specific primer. Is that right?

Speaker 6 (01:16:19):
There is?

Speaker 7 (01:16:21):
The product is called three coated steel primer, right.

Speaker 3 (01:16:25):
Okay, So if you're thinking about recoating something that's already
had a coat or repainting, you need to use that
primer to get that bonding.

Speaker 7 (01:16:32):
Yeah, and make sure that you give it a good
washdown and just to remove all the lichen and dust
and yes, and sold if you're right next to the ocean.
Mind you, you know in New Zealand everybody lives right
next door to.

Speaker 3 (01:16:45):
The ocean pretty much.

Speaker 7 (01:16:46):
Even if you live on Mount Cook. Evidently you can
get salt in the atmosphere, right.

Speaker 3 (01:16:52):
And I think to your comment about allowing enough time
for product to dry properly is really important. And I
went and had a look at a property the other
day and they said, oh, they've just repainted the roof.
And I got up on the ladder and there was
all us water in the spouting and it was the
same color as the roof, so that obviously painted it

(01:17:12):
in a hell of a rush. And then that had
some rain and half of it was in the spouting.

Speaker 7 (01:17:18):
So one of the first things I ever had a
look at when I started, you know, being a sales
with it, chat brung me. He says, I painted this
roof yesterday and now it's all gone, Oh no, yeah,
And I, you know, being a bit green, I didn't
know what all that was. There was basically the primer

(01:17:41):
and color and the channels of the corrugated iron. It
had been hit by dew overnight before it had cured properly, right,
and ran down together.

Speaker 3 (01:17:51):
Yeah. So even if it's not the rain, it's the
dew overnight that'll take it off.

Speaker 7 (01:17:56):
And again the temperature of the metal as well if
it was painted.

Speaker 3 (01:17:59):
Yeah, all right, pace to read the instructions. A.

Speaker 7 (01:18:03):
Yeah, just what's that you the ad.

Speaker 3 (01:18:10):
A think about it, think about it for a moment.
Very wise words. As always Bryce McDermott, our painting expert
from the good people at Razine, Thank you very much
for your time this morning. Much appreciated. Take care all
of us. By then we'll take a short break. We'll
be back with Brian in just a moment. I typically

(01:18:35):
use this music when I think back of someone that
I've encountered during the week who's kind of gone above
and beyond or helped me out in some way. So
I just want to take a moment before the break
to shout out to hire Paul to the North Shore
branch in particular. So I'm involved in a number of
community projects over various over time and that sort of thing,

(01:18:59):
and every now and then I'll sort of reach out
to someone that I know and go, hey, look, can
you help me out with some materials or some labor
or some product or supply something, and so when the
local school that I'm involved with needed to separate out
the work area repainting the hall from the kids, obviously

(01:19:21):
with their return at the beginning of the week, I
went to hire Paul and said, hey, look, can you
help out with some sight fencing, which they did, which
I thought was pretty damn stunning. So my thanks to
them for their support. And this isn't the first time,
and to be fair, it probably won't be the last
time that I sort of reach out shoulder tap them
and say, hey, look can you help me out? Can

(01:19:43):
you be my hero for a day? So thanks to
the team out at Highpool for that. The other one
is I just want to let you know. Last week
on the program we had a call from Rachel, who
was a woman who lived in an older bungalow was
really worried about the state of the electrics and had
been told that there was some risk. I rang my
mate Paul, who's an electrical inspector, just to get some

(01:20:03):
advice and to ask whether he knew someone in the area.
In the end we chatted for a few months and
you said, oh look mate, leave it with me. I'll
go and have a lock and I'll go on and
sort it out. Give us some advice. So again, Paul
from Devenport Electrical. Thanks mate, So thanks to hypoul. Thanks
to those guys for helping me out on the show.
Your news talk z'd b. It is almost eight o'clock. Well,

(01:20:25):
very good morning, welcome back to the program. Oh eight
hundred and eighty ten eighty is the number to call
for all of your building questions. Where we can take
one more call. Then we're going to jump into our
expert segment with Marlon Johnson from Life Force Solar. So
I had a bit of a chat with Marlon on air,
probably a couple of months ago. There were a couple
of other issues that we hadn't covered. So we've got

(01:20:47):
him back. He's going to be joining us in just
a moment to talk all things solar. If you've got
any specific questions around SOLA, maybe a unit that you
already have, maybe it's something you're considering as part of
an alteration, maybe you're just going to add them in.
Feel free to text those questions through Marlon. Our expert
will join us in the moment. But Brian, thanks for

(01:21:08):
holding on. A quick question for you.

Speaker 9 (01:21:09):
Sir, Yeah, quick question was We've got some got some
commercial building and outside of there, there's some concrete sort
of foundations, you know, coming up out of the ground
with still coming out of the top of them. And
it's got a sort of a light texture on it,
almost like it's been it's sprayed with sand and then

(01:21:30):
and then painted over the top, right, and it it
had some blistering, and I popped the because I do
a bit of maintenance, so I popped popped the holes
on the thing, and some water came out. Now, how
the water is getting into those pillars, I have no idea.

Speaker 6 (01:21:43):
But I did try.

Speaker 9 (01:21:45):
Painting some of the paint off and repainting it, and
that's just removed that that very fine texture that was
originally on there. That's uniformly over now you go all
the sides of the thing. So I'm just trying to
work out what the heck that is.

Speaker 3 (01:21:59):
What the moisture is, what the texture, No.

Speaker 7 (01:22:01):
What the texture is?

Speaker 9 (01:22:03):
Yeah, because I can't you know, I've painted the top
with a with a decent paint, but unfortunately you can
you can see it's quite obvious death the actual the
paint that was textured because it was painted over the
it's almost like the you know, the cast the cast
the concrete supports, and then sprayed it with with sort

(01:22:23):
of like a feedy, grainy sort of sand and let
that dry, and then they've painted over the top. So
it's got this very fine years.

Speaker 3 (01:22:33):
I wonder whether you know, if you think back in
the day she was we used to do like fiber
cement sheet. I mean, this isn't best practice, right, but
this is what we used to fiber smentt sheet. Take
the joints and then just spray like with a hopper
gun a texture coating over it, and then paint over that.
And I wonder whether that's what they've done. If the

(01:22:53):
grains are reasonably large, as in sort of three to
four millimeters, then typically sorry, they're not. They're smaller than that.

Speaker 9 (01:23:04):
It's almost like almost like you base your base sand
you put under cobblestones.

Speaker 3 (01:23:09):
When you're doing.

Speaker 6 (01:23:11):
That sort of size.

Speaker 3 (01:23:12):
There was a very popular paint system again back in
the day called sand. It was like a sand text. Essentially,
it's just sand in paint, right, So I would probably
do exactly that. Now that you've got a good new
surface on, just take some of the same paint that
you had add some some grip to it, so maybe

(01:23:32):
some silica sand, quite fine sand, make sure it's really dry,
make up a paste and then just paint that on
and it'll be your van go moment. Whether you can
get it to blend in and look a bit like
what was already there. Okay, that will get you somewhere
towards making it match.

Speaker 9 (01:23:51):
Yeah, yep, we'll do that. And before you go, I
just wanted to make a cheek comment about last week.
I was going to I was going to ring your
last week and if you can become a successful builder
and run run a building show on a three week apprenticeship,
then when then we need to send everyone on the
three week alls.

Speaker 3 (01:24:12):
There was a beauty was it? That was awesome? Caller
of the year that guy, Thank you all. You take care.
Then right, we're starting to get some text questions, which
is awesome around solar because it's one of those things
you know, it seems simple, but it is quite complex.
And I have to say, for all of the years

(01:24:32):
that I've been involved with building, and I've had some
interest in solar because of its you know, eco credential
sustainability endurance in terms of resilience and that sort of
thing I had I had developed in my own mind
a series of assumptions. It was great to actually have
a chat with Marlon during the week, and I thought

(01:24:53):
we'd share that conversation with you today around the combination
between solar and batteries and how they link together and
what the benefits are and so on. So it is
my great pleasure to welcome back onto the program the
smalling Marlin Johnson from Life for Solar. A very good morning,
and thanks for joining us this morning.

Speaker 6 (01:25:11):
Thank you, Pete. Great to talk to you again as well.

Speaker 3 (01:25:13):
It's a pleasure, hey, Marlon. So one of the things
that we talked quite a bit a couple of probably
a few months ago now around solar and some tips
and tracks in terms of installation where you can put it,
what size panels are, pre wiring, those sorts of things.
So one of the other things to talk about is

(01:25:34):
often we're often talking about solar and battery right with
the assumption being that will hang on at night time
when I might want to watch television, for example, then
a battery is quite useful. So just run me through
that combination solar and generation and storage effectively.

Speaker 6 (01:25:57):
Okay, sure, So as you've said, most people assume that
you should have a battery when you're getting a solar
system because people are using their energy in the evenings,
and so there's a couple of things with that, And
the main thing would be if you're getting sold with

(01:26:19):
a battery, there's usually a much larger upfront cost, right.
And when when you have a battery, you do use it,
use the stored energy in the evenings, but you don't,
it's not always the most cost effective or the best
returnament of investment type of solution, right.

Speaker 3 (01:26:42):
And that's a really honest appraisal, isn't it, Because if
you're adding batteries, batteries typically are expensive. You would be
spending five to ten thousand dollars for battery storage.

Speaker 6 (01:26:53):
Yeah, you're probably starting more closer to ten and moving
up from there just for the battery portion. And so
what people will typically do instead of getting batteries go
to the boundy soon as well. But what people typically
do otherwise is get panels only. And what most companies,

(01:27:15):
what most solar companies will try and do in terms
of right sizing a system, will be to generate as
much energy as you're using across the year day and night. Right.
So let's say you use seven thousand units of power
in your home and night. The goal would be to
then generate seven thousand, at least seven thousand units on

(01:27:38):
your roof during the day.

Speaker 3 (01:27:40):
Yeah, okay.

Speaker 6 (01:27:41):
And the reason for that is if you're over generating
in the summer, which you would be in that sort
of scenario, if you have that amount of panels, then
you would be exporting energy to the grid and getting
a credit for it, which will supplement that even usage, right,
and will supplement the winter usage as well, if you

(01:28:03):
have enough generation on the roof. So that's how you
would go about having the evenings covered without a battery yep, right,
and is typically the more cost effective way to do so.

Speaker 3 (01:28:19):
Okay. So and I mean, taking that sort of financial
analysis of the investment, that that's kind of the conclusion
that you get. I mean, I think that no one.
I mean, I think that batteries can be an enormous advantage,
but it shouldn't be. I think in our conversation we
kind of got to the place where if you can

(01:28:41):
afford the solar and not the batteries, it shouldn't put
you off getting the solar. Yes, that's right, Okay, the
generation side of it, yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:28:50):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right, because you're still getting a
massive benefit.

Speaker 3 (01:28:53):
Yes, And I would say that.

Speaker 6 (01:28:56):
The people that go for batteries will typically have more
of a use case than just the savings side of it.

Speaker 3 (01:29:04):
Right, So we're talking resilience. We're talking people that might
be isolated and main supply is unreliable, or possibly main
supply if you're doing sort of new development, might be
prohibitively expensive to bring mainz to the property exactly.

Speaker 6 (01:29:20):
Yeah, yeah, that's exactly right. So we find that typically
people that are getting battery storage are needing that resilience.
Maybe they have water pumps that need to be backed
up in the case of an outage. Ye. And then
also people as well that just want to have that
protection even though they don't experience that many power cuts.

(01:29:41):
But last year, when we had a lot of areas
having massive power cuts or for long periods of time,
people wanting to just protect themselves against that.

Speaker 3 (01:29:51):
Yeah, because I mean most of us in an urban environment,
you can put up with power cut that might last
a couple of hours, but if it's a few days,
then it's a pretty big issue, isn't it.

Speaker 6 (01:30:01):
Yeah, absolutely, and usually the people that will typically have
there would be a couple of hours you usually had
more of their systems running off there, you know, like
water septic tanks running off the electricity.

Speaker 3 (01:30:17):
Yeah, and these are critical systems that are part of
being able to live comfortably in the house exactly. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Hey,
I've invited people to send through a couple of text
questions as well, so I'm starting to get a couple.
You never know what you're going to get when you
invite people to send in questions. So let's start with
this one which I've never thought of before. Can you

(01:30:39):
please comment on how to remove birds nests from under
solar panels? Also, is there a tip to preventing birds
from nesting under the panels?

Speaker 6 (01:30:48):
It's a great question. Yeah, So in terms of the removal,
I haven't heard of, you know, a specific method to
do so it would probably be very carefully. So in
terms of preventing it, which I know it doesn't really

(01:31:11):
help if it's already occurred, but in terms of preventing it,
there are little skirts that you can put around your
panel array and install around the panels in order to
not have the birds be able to get under the panels.

Speaker 3 (01:31:27):
Yeah, just in terms of maybe doing that work the
underside of the panel. Is there anything sensitive or delicate
or that can be broken on the underside of the panel?

Speaker 6 (01:31:39):
Not typically no, no, okay, so yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:31:43):
But it also asks the further question, which is typically
in terms of maintenance. So if the panels are up
there on the roof, what is the preferred or recommended
maintenance schedule for panels over time?

Speaker 6 (01:31:55):
Yeah, So panels are pretty static, right, they don't need
a huge amount of maintenance, But in terms of cleaning them,
it kind of depends where you are in the country.
We'd usually recommend once a year to give it a clean.
Some places will need less than that, some places will
need more. I was in Nelson recently at their trade

(01:32:19):
show down there, and every second person talked to me
about the pollen, right that is in Nelson. So that's
a huge thing Nelson in terms of pollen that'll get
on the panels and if it doesn't rain too often,
they'll stick on there. So maybe in Nelson it might
be a case of every six to cent a months

(01:32:41):
or something like that instead of every year. Yeah. There
are also services around that will do this for you. Yep.
If your roof is more a more dangerous one to
get up to a ponto.

Speaker 3 (01:32:53):
Yeah, I think we've this sort of a note of caution.
There isn't it. You know, if it's a roof where
it's you know, relatively low pitch and you can do
so safely, sure, But otherwise I think that work should
be left the experts. In terms of cleaning it, is
it just water and a soft broom, is it? Can
you use a detergent or a cleaner on the surface

(01:33:14):
of a solar panel?

Speaker 6 (01:33:16):
Yeah, just a soft bristle brush and distrushing the quid
that kind of thing. Just very very like not to
embraces right.

Speaker 3 (01:33:23):
Certainly no water blasting. We've been talking about work.

Speaker 6 (01:33:26):
Yeah, okay, yeah, definitely it does come up.

Speaker 3 (01:33:30):
Yeah, I bet it does. Ridio, Marlon, just stay on
the line. We're going to take a short break. Marl
and our solar expert from Life Force Sola is with
me this morning. If you've got a question, I've still
got a couple of texts to get to, but feel
free to text them through. Who's going to be with
us for the next five ten minutes. Are going to
take a short break. Be back in a moment thinking
about renovating your kitchen. Here's an interesting development. This year

(01:33:50):
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market called Imperio. Made of a new layered compound, Imperio
offers the texture and durability of stone without the presence
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(01:34:12):
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(01:34:34):
making for a stylish centerpiece to your home. Best of all,
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dot co dot enz. There you go, Imperio dot co
dot Nz. You're with Peak wolf Camp here at Newstalk
zedb Marlon is with us just a couple of minutes

(01:34:56):
to go, Marlon, couple of quick questions for you, Um,
A couple of people have sort of asking in terms
of commercial. So if you you are running a business
and you've got warehouse or office space, what are the
advantages of solar for a commercial situation one person's takes
through in a farming situation for example, Are you starting

(01:35:19):
to see an uptake in commercial applications of solar?

Speaker 6 (01:35:23):
Yes, absolutely, definitely seeing more commercial come through as well.
And it makes sense right for a lot of businesses,
especially if they have a very long term lease, or
they are the building that they're operating out of, or
the owner of the building is happy with putting solar

(01:35:43):
on the roof. A lot of businesses are operating during
some light hours, yeah, you know, and so their main
loads are during the day, which can be brought down
by the use of solo on the roof. There is
a little bit of is there enough roof space for
the amount of power needed the type of business, but

(01:36:08):
it's you know, it's still a really good option to
reduce some costs.

Speaker 3 (01:36:14):
Another quick question, I am someone who has sixteen panels
already and they actually have Tesla power wall as well.
Can do you easily add solar panels and nets in general?
If you've got ten and you want to do fourteen,
can you do that?

Speaker 6 (01:36:30):
You can? You can? There's there is a little bit
of resistance from solar companies to add panels to other companies, right, right,
And that's you know where that sort of comes from
is around warranties and guarantees, especially around electrical work. One

(01:36:54):
company does the work on one person's home and then
someone else they want someone else to do additional work
on their system. That company can't guarantee the work done before,
and so adding to it is a liability because they's
sort of take on the responsibility of everything else. You know,
if they're connecting to the original system, right, it is possible,

(01:37:20):
best usually to go back to the company that did
your solar system originally. If that's non an option. You
can have a parallel system, right having another one there
as well. And I mean some companies will have more
appetite to add to an existing system than more than others. Right,
So it might be a case of shopping around a

(01:37:41):
little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:37:42):
Yeah, now talking about shopping around, because we're only a
couple of minutes. One of the things that I found
fascinating the other day is I was reading about various
banks and I'm not sure whether they all do it,
but certainly a number of banks are offering essentially eco loans. Right.
So they're saying, if you're doing something to increase the
sustainability of your house, you can borrow a certain amount

(01:38:05):
for very low rates. And we're talking like one percent.
And I know a couple of people who have taken
that up to add, for example, solar to their houses.
So is this something that you've encountered as well.

Speaker 6 (01:38:18):
Absolutely, I would say it's like the vast majority of
people that get solar presently are taking advantage of these loans. Wow.
And so it's most large banks. So you need to
check with your mortgage provider if that is one of yours.
But basically the different terms three or four of them

(01:38:43):
are three years at one percent for up to eighty
thousand dollars for things like solar yep. And then also
one of them is five years fifty grand, zero interest. Yeah,
and so you need to have a mortgage with the bank,
haven't had a certain level of equity, But then it's

(01:39:04):
very cheap lending in order to get something that will
further reduce the costs.

Speaker 3 (01:39:08):
Yeah, absolutely right, So that that's with people checking out, Marlon.
We've we've got some more texts. Unfortune we run out
of time, so I'm going to keep them and I
think we'll get you back at some stage. But if
people want, if people have got technical questions and they
need answers, they can call you guys. Yeah, absolutely, what's
the number?

Speaker 6 (01:39:28):
Got me on the spot there one moment.

Speaker 3 (01:39:31):
Please, no worries at all.

Speaker 6 (01:39:33):
I used to have it ingrained in my mind, but
that's all right. This one's sick ALRIGHTY one hundred five
three seven six five to seven. Alternatively, you can send

(01:39:53):
me an email as well, and then I can direct
you in the right place. And that's my name, Marlon M.

Speaker 7 (01:39:59):
A R.

Speaker 6 (01:40:00):
L o O N at Lightforce dot com dot Oh brilliant.

Speaker 3 (01:40:04):
I think your inbox is going to be full shortly.
We've got a lot of questions, answer the questions. Really
appreciate your time this morning, Marlon. Thank you very much
for your time. Take care all of this. So that's
Marlin from life Force solo and very generously. If you've
got a specific question, he's happy to answer it so,
Marlon at lifeforce dot co dot m zaid right, we're
going to jump into the garden. The Red Climb passed

(01:40:25):
in just a moment.

Speaker 1 (01:40:27):
For more from the resident Builder with Peter Wolfcamp, listen
live to News Talk said B on Sunday mornings from six,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.