Approximate cost to reclad weatherside

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Taubin

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#239513 21-Jul-2018 15:30

I know this varies a lot, but I'm just wondering if there is a good place to get some information, or if anyone has had their house reclad recently. My wife and I have been house shopping for a while, and have found a house we are pretty keen on, however, the cladding is weatherside, which we understand has some major faults.

The house is single level, three bedrooms, with a single floor. It 's 170 sq m (per the paperwork), and is on the north shore. I haven't found a way with my limited searches to figure out how much it might cost (very general ballpark) to have a house reclad. If it's 10-20k, it might be doable due to the house price, if it's like 100k it's a deal breaker. So we are just curious what it may be, and how we would find out without getting an actual estimate, so we know if we are truly interested in the house, or not.

I know it's impossible to give an actual price, but a general guesstimate would be great, if anyone has had it done.

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antoniosk

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#2060027 21-Jul-2018 15:52

You need to get a builder in to quote. No other way.

I have heard of people who purchased leaky homes being hit for $250-300k to reclad. I doubt it will be $20k - materials, labour to remove and dispose, labour to install new, building consent forms, painting plus the inevitable fix what you found under the weatherboard.

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Taubin

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#2060030 21-Jul-2018 15:55

That's unfortunately going to make this place a no go for us, I hate the Auckland property market. The rest of the house is great, and in much better condition than others we've seen, it's just the exterior that worries us. I guess we'll keep searching. Sadly most everything on the market is made with crap materials.

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alasta

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#2060031 21-Jul-2018 16:08

You need to be really careful with your due diligence on this one. If the faulty cladding has caused moisture damage to the timber framing then you could have structural problems on your hands, and a re-clad is the least of your worries.

I would think this would be less of a risk than some of the more recent 'leaky homes' which were prone to rotting framing because of the lack of a breathable cavity in the cladding, however you still need to get some expert advice before you go any further.

Taubin

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#2060036 21-Jul-2018 16:11

Unfortunately most everything we've seen has been clad in leaky cladding (one house literally had condensation pouring down the walls at the open home). We've been looking for a couple of years and had actually only gone to this open home to show my wife's dad how things are done up here (he lives in CHC). We were quite surprised that the house was solid, dry, didn't smell, was on a decent lot, and the agent actually gave us the time of day and answered our questions while we were there. Aside from the cladding it seems quite nice, but man is it frustrating trying to find a decent house to *gsap* live in in Auckland. Moving isn't an option otherwise we would have done so by now.

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alasta

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#2060082 21-Jul-2018 16:53

I definitely feel for you. Here in Wellington house prices and rents seem astronomical relative to the quality you get, but from what I've seen the Auckland market is even tougher.

Good luck!

tdgeek

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#2060090 21-Jul-2018 17:14

Weatherside? Do you mean weatherboard? I think your American, maybe wring terminology?

Our other house was weatherboard, had it reclad. Was about 40k+ and that includes other bits and pieces. A single tradesman, awesome job. He removed the cladding, batted it, added building paper, reclad. Custom made window surrounds around the double glazed (added at the same time).

I'd ask an old school tradesman than a modern, hip company. For better price and tradesman finish. One does the job to a high standard, the other does the job to get a sale.

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Taubin

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#2060092 21-Jul-2018 17:18

It's weatherside, the brand. It's listed on the government website as one of the things to avoid. It gets damp and crumbles like wheat Bix does. I'll pay the site when I'm back home, it's difficult on mobile. I am American, it's not something that's ever been used in the US. They had a lawsuit a number of years ago, and settled with people, but that's all long gone now.

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tdgeek

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#2060094 21-Jul-2018 17:31

Thanks for the update, googled it. Ive been to the US many times so I assumed it may be a jargon thing.

It should not be that expensive. I recall our cladding material (primed H4 weatherboard) was about 10k or so. (2008) Labour to remove it (not hard), building paper, labour to add it. Should not be too costly. Plus you can add batts, and update/add wiring, run ethernet cheaply as well. If you had a single older school tradesman, you can possibly remove some yourself to save cost. Crowbar and skip pretty much. If this property was then wall insulated and ethernet capable anywhere, you have added energy savings and convenience for yourself and added value for the next buyer.

Bung

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#2060101 21-Jul-2018 17:53

Taubin: It's weatherside, the brand. It's listed on the government website as one of the things to avoid. It gets damp and crumbles like wheat Bix does. I'll pay the site when I'm back home, it's difficult on mobile. I am American, it's not something that's ever been used in the US. They had a lawsuit a number of years ago, and settled with people, but that's all long gone now.

In the US that type of board is called Masonite. It had a similar history when used as exterior cladding.

Aredwood

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#2060111 21-Jul-2018 18:42

If you need a mortgage, and the bank asks for a building report. They will probably refuse to lend on it due to the weatherside. Unless you have a very large deposit or lots of equity in another property. I assume that you have confirmed that the cladding is definitely weatherside and not hardiplank?

As for a reclad, If you get a consent, the council will probably insist on adding a cavity. That plus the thickness of weatherboards, means that the windows will need replacing. As they won't stick out enough to match the cladding. You would also need to remove and replace things like drain pipes that are attached to the outside as well.

It could be a good project for someone.

Could Hardiplank be classed as similar enough, that you could get away with a reclad using the "like for like" provision of the building code.

Maybe if you could sneak it past the bank, buy it anyway, and after 20 years. You would have probably saved enough compared to paying rent. That you won't care if the property is worth pretty much land value only.

Also supposedly you could make weatherside last, by keeping the paint in good condition, and making sure that any holes / cracks / exposed edges get repaired promptly.

If it is not currently rotten, you could probably get away with buying and living in it as is. Then recladding in in 5 years time or so. When you have some more money.

Taubin

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#2060218 22-Jul-2018 06:26

I had forgotten about masonite, it did cause a bit of an issue in the states.

We won't be getting a mortgage through a bank, so that's a plus. We are going back today to have a closer look, and confirm if it's weatherside (which is what the agent stated). Is there an easy way to tell?

It looked in good condition, with the exception of one corner, which had some cracking/deterioration. I'll try to get photos while we are there today.

Thank you all for the replies, things are a bit frustrating for us, so I apologize if I sound a bit frustrated. We've been on the search for a couple of years now, and it seems everything is either a tiny crap box that smells of mould that the owner wants a mil plus for, or a mcmansion listed as a "handymans dream" which we will definitely avoid.

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Sidestep

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#2060226 22-Jul-2018 08:01

Aredwood:
If it is not currently rotten, you could probably get away with buying and living in it as is. Then recladding in in 5 years time or so. When you have some more money.

We did this.

Bought a property with a large 80's building clad in Weatherside (not in Auckland).

The building Inspector told us to 'run away'.. bolded and underlined the cladding materials and his advice about it in the report.
However we could see there was only very minor deterioration in small areas of the weather facing side of the building.

Everything else about the property was perfect.

We took the risk and bought the place. A builder mate removed the boards that had deteriorated, temporarily replacing them with treated ply ripped to weatherboard widths and painted to match.

We got 4 years out of that.

In the meantime I managed to buy a houselot of Hardie board cheap from a builder (customers had changed their mind), delivered to our local Carter's, and from them to our garage
We used the like-for-like provision to reclad the building two years ago.

We were lucky, the building had been framed in treated timber, just had to replace some diagonal galv bracing which had rusted, one stud and a small section of bottom plate. Took the opportunity to insulate and wire for security cameras etc.

All up cost us just under $40K

Not saying it will always work out like this, but it might still be worth investigating.

tukapa1

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#2060232 22-Jul-2018 08:30

Last year we reclad in Palliside - we're in Taranaki.

Our place is only 95 square metres and the cost was $14k to supply and install the palliside, and an estimate of $6k for removal of old cladding, insulating all the exterior walls and new building paper installed prior to reclad.

Roughly double that as your house is more or less twice the size, and then I guess add an 'Auckland margin' on top...

It's made a big difference to our place.

Just make sure there is no asbestos anywhere or your costs will go through the roof, unless you're prepared to do the work yourself.

Taubin

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#2060237 22-Jul-2018 08:38

Thanks for that, that's pushing it closer to the "no-go" territory for us. We'll have a look today and make sure it is actually Weatherside and not another material. The nails are flat into it though, so I'm assuming it is (sadly) Weatherside. It's a shame there are so many issues with different sidings in NZ that you have to watch out for. It makes it even more difficult to find a decent place to live in.

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Taubin

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#2060483 22-Jul-2018 16:13

We've decided in the end to pass on this house. It's simply too much of an unknown, so the search will continue. We know there will always been things needed, but this one is just too much of an issue for us to be comfortable with.

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