Builder to assess monolithic property in AKL

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sudo

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Master Geek

#272553 1-Jul-2020 10:52

Does anyone have a recommendation of a builder I can hire to practically assess a property (in central-east Auckland)

I will organise a comprehensive weather-tightness inspection. But I am just looking for someone who can do a cursory inspection and advise (from previous experience) whether they can see obvious warning signs, and an estimate of remediation for each common type of issue.

dafman

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#2515627 1-Jul-2020 12:41

A builder once said to me, it's not a matter of if a monolithic clad building will leak, just a matter of when.

Batman

Mad Scientist
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#2515647 1-Jul-2020 13:37

madness. only pay the value of the land for these things.

Involuntary autocorrect in operation on mobile device. Apologies in advance.

allio

651 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2515652 1-Jul-2020 13:45

As I'm sure you have your reasons for looking at this property...

Get a registered building surveyor (not building inspector) who specialises in monolithic cladding and weather tightness.

We used Andrew McIntyre from Forensic Building five or so years back. The report was probably the best $1k I've ever spent.

Dugimodo

160 posts

Master Geek

#2515734 1-Jul-2020 16:29

All buildings leak to some extent at some point. Monolithic cladding itself isn't the issue with leaky homes, it's the way the wall under the cladding is constructed that caused the problems. When water gets in there's no way for it to exit so the wall stays damp and starts to rot or grow fungus. If the wall is constructed properly this shouldn't happen.

It can be inspected with thermal imaging or you can have a hole cut in the wall to do a visual inspection but I can't help with who to get to do it. I have a book on it somewhere given to me by a prendos guy who came to my house and assured me I was up for $100K plus to strip the cladding off my house and redo it.

As it happens he was wrong, my house has many of the features of leaky homes, monolithic cladding, no eaves, etc, but the walls are constructed differently. I got a second and third opinion, a couple of quotes, and had my cladding repaired professionly for approx $13k. Heart attack averted.

One easy thing anyone can do is inspect the walls for cracks, that's what started the whole thing for me. The corners of my house and where the panels join, around the doors & windows etc, were starting to crack quite visibly in multiple places. With this style of cladding the layer of paint is all that makes the wall waterproof and needs to be maintained, you can't afford to let it deteriorate to the point where water is getting into the walls. You are supposed to repaint every 5-7 years but could maybe stretch it a bit with a quality paint job in good condition.

Having said all that, when buying a new house maybe just avoid monolithic cladding altogether. Sucks for people like me who own one, but is just good sense for buyers.

MikeAqua

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#2515738 1-Jul-2020 16:33

Monolithic cladding has bad name in NZ due to lax regulations and cowboy building. It's OK if its installed properly and maintained. E.g. cavity construction, eaves, flashings ...

Mike

sudo

199 posts

Master Geek

#2515900 1-Jul-2020 20:24

The house I'm looking at does have eaves/pitched roof and is tidy without any obvious cracking/seams.

(hasn't been painted recently, so they haven't been trying to hide anything).

It's also elevated on a sloping section, so I have the opportunity to go under the house and look at the state/type of wood framing they used.

This is one area where I would like a builder/surveyor to take a look (also window fitting/flashing/drainage and the attachment/offset of the wooden deck that was added a few years ago).

Handle9

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#2515923 1-Jul-2020 22:09

sudo:

The house I'm looking at does have eaves/pitched roof and is tidy without any obvious cracking/seams.

(hasn't been painted recently, so they haven't been trying to hide anything).

It's also elevated on a sloping section, so I have the opportunity to go under the house and look at the state/type of wood framing they used.

This is one area where I would like a builder/surveyor to take a look (also window fitting/flashing/drainage and the attachment/offset of the wooden deck that was added a few years ago).

Take a look at the council file. If it's a plaster house built after 2005 on it's likely got a cavity system and ok. If it's 1994-2004 be very very careful.

I own a plaster / polystyrene house built in 2006. It's got a cavity, eaves, flashings and they sell like very easily in our area for high prices.

dafman

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#2515980 2-Jul-2020 08:53

Handle9:

If it's 1994-2004 be very very careful.

+1.

That is the decade to avoid, it's just not worth the risk if you have the option to avoid it.