Leaky Homes

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"Your home, the main asset in your life, around which all your futurefinancial plans revolve, suddenly becomes unfit for habitation, costshundreds of thousands of dollars just to keep standing and ultimatelybecomes unsalable."It sounds like a nightmare..."
- Herald on Sunday

In the 1990's Mediterranean style homes built with monolithic cladding wereextremely sought after.

Whilst building these homes it was vital that metalflashings were used to keep water out.Instead sealants and silicon's wereused as a poor substitute because the building code failed to specify howthe products should be installed.

This was the beginning of a nationwideproblem which affected thousands of NZ families.

By 1998 the problem wasaccelerated when the government decided to approve the use of untreatedtimber.

This proved to be a devastating blow to home owners in the yearsfollowing when they discovered their homes were slowly rotting beneath them.

The problem occurs once the water or moisture gets behind the cladding, ifthere is no cavity between the framework, the water gets trapped andtherefore cannot easily evaporate.In addition to the problem, when the timber is untreated it rots.

The rotcan create an unsafe environment, which becomes toxic and inhabitable.

Several types of fungi are known as being harmful to humans and theinhalation of these can lead to serious respiratory problems and otherillnesses.

The current government has recently announced its decision to assist leakyhome owners involved in this crisis with a financial assistance package.

The package centres on the Government and local authorities eachcontributing 25 per cent of agreed repair costs and affected homeownersfunding the remaining 50 per cent backed by a government loan guarantee.Renovations.co.nz can assist any home owner who thinks they may have a leakyhome.