Real estate, post level 4

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17104 posts

Uber Geek

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#3256830 6-Jul-2024 11:30

developer gave us the choice of four colour palettes, but refused any other customisations. That seemed like a good compromise to keep the process efficient while still allowing some personalisation. Having said that, some of my neighbours have smashed out cabinetry and fittings to replace them with their own preferred alternatives. It's probably not very efficient to have nearly new materials thrown away and replaced like that.

It is efficient in the sense it is efficient for the developer meaning costs are lower for everyone purchasing in the development. Likewise if a purchaser bails or fails to settle it's not complicated or half finished and costly.

tweake

2391 posts

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#3257864 9-Jul-2024 19:30

caught a bit of it on the news. found a bit on it but its behind pay wall.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/government-moves-to-force-remote-building-inspections-leader-reacts/WPIGD4GYFREN3OHTOA7EHR7UWM/

basically they want to do all building inspection by remote, ie builder points the camera. guess how many defects that can hide. how long before we start getting housing like aussie www.youtube.com/@Siteinspections

dumbing down the standards to cut costs so people can keep making the $$$$.

kingdragonfly

11190 posts

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#3257976 10-Jul-2024 07:52

I could imagine "remote only" inspections with a car. The orgasm from used car dealers could be heard throughout the country.

And while people will likely recover financially recover get stung by bad car getting stung by a foundation repair could mean a total loss.

Remember when there was the Christchurch earthquake. Fletcher, which reported a $653 million underlying profit in same year to June, has pledged a paltry $500,000 to help fix substandard repairs.

Article notes

The prices listed here are US dollars. The exchange rate is 0.61

In New Zealand, the cost to build a home is approximately US USD 4,485 per square meter

A well built mid-west and very low quality California home is USD 1,428 per square meter. A "best standard" California house is USD 2,777.

So in this article take the prices (includes converted to NZD) and at least triple it for the equivalent NZ price.

Homelight US: How Much Does It Cost to Build a US House in 2024?

kingdragonfly

11190 posts

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#3258007 10-Jul-2024 09:08

How about we look at legislation about the cost of construction materials, and monopolies, instead of a remote inspections only, e.g. scammers' delight?

RNZ: Building consent inspections to be virtual by default, government says

The government wants to make remote virtual inspections the default for building consents across New Zealand.

Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk announced the plan to seek feedback on the move in the second half of this year, saying a video conferencing approach will reduce travel times and delays to get a building consent.

"Remote inspections offer significant productivity gains that make it easier and cheaper to build. However, the use of remote inspections is currently inconsistent across the country, with some councils being reluctant to use it," he said.

"That's why the government is progressing work to make remote inspections the default approach across New Zealand."

Penk said the move would also lower transport emissions, lead to better record keeping and documentation, and reduce the time wasted by increasing flexibility for inspectors and building professionals alike.

Instead of a building inspector turning up with a clipboard to the location, it would be mean video and photos are sent for checks, with possible use of tools like geolocation to verify the place they were taken.

Penk told Checkpoint they would "crack down pretty hard on that" on anyone trying to play the system but "most builders are trustworthy".
...

kingdragonfly

11190 posts

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#3258011 10-Jul-2024 09:11

Related

RNZ: Shoddily-built house ordered demolished after builder forged inspection reports

A builder who forged council inspection reports, glued bolts in place to make it look like they were properly fixed and used another builder's licence without their permission, has been struck off and ordered to pay $4500.

Ting Xie's work was so bad that one of the houses he worked on had to be entirely demolished, while another had to have the cladding stripped off and redone.

He has since left the country and his Otago-based company Lakeside Construction Ltd, has gone into liquidation.
...

tweake

2391 posts

Uber Geek

#3258039 10-Jul-2024 10:31

not to mention the entire subdivision that was bought out by the council over the dodgy earth works.

the house that was signed off by council and it wasn't even finished.

auckland houses that had foundation defects etc.

add in a declining market where there is a lot of pressure to cut corners.

also good builders will want good solid inspections where there is no question marks. because they want to offload the liability from themselves to the council. if inspections are questionable then builders could still be held liable.

if they make an easy way for dodgy builders to get around inspections then you would end up with leaky homes 2.0. we are still cleaning up the mess from leaky homes 1.0.

tweake

2391 posts

Uber Geek

#3260399 16-Jul-2024 17:54

o ffs 🤬

government-considers-rolling-back-insulation-standards

mind numbing bunch of morons for even considering the idea.

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mattwnz

20141 posts

Uber Geek

#3260522 16-Jul-2024 22:58

tweake:

o ffs 🤬

government-considers-rolling-back-insulation-standards

mind numbing bunch of morons for even considering the idea.

There is no logical reason to reverse it except to save investors money on build costs. So people can build their granny flats at lower standards, which saves the investor money, but ends up costing the tenant a lot more in heating costs. But not surprising TBH. Obviously the politician also doesn't understand how insulation works when he said that it was causing overheating issues LOL I also can't see how it is adding 40-50k onto the price of a new build. The problem is that building materials in NZ are far too expensive due to a lack of competition, possibly even worse than the supermarket duopoly.

tweake

2391 posts

Uber Geek

#3260645 17-Jul-2024 09:29

mattwnz:

tweake:

o ffs 🤬

government-considers-rolling-back-insulation-standards

mind numbing bunch of morons for even considering the idea.

There is no logical reason to reverse it except to save investors money on build costs. So people can build their granny flats at lower standards, which saves the investor money, but ends up costing the tenant a lot more in heating costs. But not surprising TBH. Obviously the politician also doesn't understand how insulation works when he said that it was causing overheating issues LOL I also can't see how it is adding 40-50k onto the price of a new build. The problem is that building materials in NZ are far too expensive due to a lack of competition, possibly even worse than the supermarket duopoly.

i think the claims of overheating in winter is just BS claims. Tauranga afaik is zone 1, same as auckland/northland, and the changes with the new rules is minor. afaik its just the change in windows which is never going to cause houses to overheat. i have previously seen builders in southland who complained because they have a big jump in spec.

the building industry is on a down turn due to the housing price falling and they are talking crap in a vain fruitless effort to get more work.

the simple fix for overheating is simply put solar gain limits into the building code. summer and winter limits per room. then design houses accordingly.

tweake

2391 posts

Uber Geek

#3260742 17-Jul-2024 13:38

the stuff comment section has been interesting on this story. very few comments, at least half of mine never made it through. but interesting enough the last comment is from what i suspect to be a building interest group, with the usual misinformation. they delete the good information but leave the misinformation at the top for everyone to see.

Reading the comments here, it's quite clear that most people have not read the full report.

- The new standards are very expensive. Yes, it's only a modest % of the house cost but $40k (the low end of the quoted range) is still a lot of money - the interest alone is almost $3k at current rates.
- Second, the old standards didn't produce cold houses, just houses that were not *quite* as efficient heating - wise. They're still insulated in walls and ceiling, which is a lot better than many NZ houses, including mine.

While at first blush this does sound like a bad idea, I think most people need to sit down and consider if they'd rather have everyone in well insulated houses, or most people in perfectly insulated houses. I know which I'd prefer.

the old standards did/do produce cold homes. houses in southland are built to the same level that houses in northland are often retrofitted to (northland + extra layer of ceiling insulation = southland house). they also all use non-thermally broken windows which can be as bad as wooden single glazing. so the old standard was never "well insulated".

the new standard is not remotely close to "perfectly insulated", it only got us up to bare minimum (hence the big jump in southland). if you want perfectly insulated you need to go to high performance housing eg passive house.

also another comment from this "person" is that they think poor people build houses.

its completely laughable that the building industry will resort to complete BS and advocate making housing worse for their customers, just because the industry is going back down to "normal" levels.

mattwnz

20141 posts

Uber Geek

#3260793 17-Jul-2024 16:36

As much of the heat loss is through the ceiling, the cost difference on a conventional build in NZ to move to R6 insulation in the ceiling is a relatively small cost compared to the amount of energy an money over time it will save. The actual labour costs are about the same. We do however need better insulation options in NZ and the cost is far too high.

The ironic thing is that with the new granny flat plan, no one will know what insulation was installed if they don't need building consent and inspections.

tweake

2391 posts

Uber Geek

#3260862 17-Jul-2024 19:39

insulation-move-bonkers-say-eco-building-experts

eco building experts weigh in. they make much more sense than some Tauranga builders do.

btw stuffs comments section has gone all funky.

GV27

5896 posts

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#3260865 17-Jul-2024 20:00

Ventilation absolutely needs to become part of the healthy homes standard, there's plenty of well-insulated, well-built houses in newish areas of Auckland that have been built without it and you end up with houses that are very effective at trapping moisture. Both houses I've owned had been insulated and both had condensation issues that were completely addressed with a third party ventilation solution.

tweake

2391 posts

Uber Geek

#3260867 17-Jul-2024 20:05

GV27:

Ventilation absolutely needs to become part of the healthy homes standard, there's plenty of well-insulated, well-built houses in newish areas of Auckland that have been built without it and you end up with houses that are very effective at trapping moisture. Both houses I've owned had been insulated and both had condensation issues that were completely addressed with a third party ventilation solution.

actually there always has been. roughly speaking its having windows that open or mechanical ventilation. its a requirement in the building code.

people just do not run houses very well. however mechanical systems do work better than windows or natural ventilation. (when there is no wind you get no ventilation. when its windy and raining you get to much damp ventilation).

mattwnz

20141 posts

Uber Geek

#3260895 17-Jul-2024 23:13

GV27:
Ventilation absolutely needs to become part of the healthy homes standard, there's plenty of well-insulated, well-built houses in newish areas of Auckland that have been built without it and you end up with houses that are very effective at trapping moisture. Both houses I've owned had been insulated and both had condensation issues that were completely addressed with a third party ventilation solution.

There is a new eco house down the road that was built with SIP panels and I noticed that the windows were streaming in condensation tonight. I think it relies on a mechanical ventilation and heat exchange system as I think it is one of those houses that are totally sealed.

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