You're listening to the Resident Builder podcast with Peter Wolfcamp from News Talk said baby squeaky door or squeaky floor. Get the right advice from Peter Wolfcamp, The Resident Builder on news Talk said, by.
The house sizzoro, even when it's dark, even when the grass is overgrown in the yard, even when the dog.
Is too old to borrow, And when you're sitting at the table trying not.
To stop.
Scissor hole, even when we again, even when you're there, house.
Sizzle hole, even when there's go.
Even when you go around from the mornes.
You love your most.
Scream broken pans appeeing in fund.
Locals Westrong when they're gone leaving never has even when will then, even when you're in there alone.
Yeah, and a very very good morning and welcome along to the Resident Builder on Sunday. You're with me Pete wolf Camp, the Resident Builder, And this is hey just by the way, the first of June. Already know, I
know the year is racing along. I trust that you've had an opportunity, perhaps over the long weekend, not that the long weekend is over Tomorrow is a public holiday of course, to oh maybe even do what I did yesterday, which was actually get stuck into the workshop, had a reasonably early hour of the morning's around than sort of lolling around for a bit. I thought, right, I've got things to do. I want to get them done. I'm
into the workshop. And at the end of the day, after having sort of loaded the trailer and taken a whole lot of stuff around to the resource recovery center and put that in the appropriate piles hard fill in one part, metal in another part, timber and another part, and a general bag of rubbish that unfortunately will go to landfill, came home, looked around the workshop and thought, actually,
it feels quite good. A little bit more space, a little bit more ordered, and hopefully a little bit more productive. So you can't underestimate I think the power of having just a little bit of order. And I think if you look at people working in general, and if you look at trades people working, there are those for whom it feels like, you know, it looks like everything is just scattered from from one end of the job site
to the other. There's gear everywhere, there's tools. Just I went to a job Oh do you I hope the people aren't listening. I went to a job the other day, and at the end of the day, the builders obviously when it's time to go, like literally unclip the apron, drop it on the ground and walk out the door.
It was in the middle of the floor, and I'm like I would I would probably just put it to one side, right, you know, I have a bit of a sweep up at the end of the day, have a bit of a tidy up, and then the next morning when you arrive it feels like you're ready to work, is my feeling. And I think it's the same round the house. Look, I can say these things, but nine times out of ten my shed looks like a disaster zone as well. But it was good to be in
there yesterday, which was great. So if you've got a project on that you would like to talk about, you can call eight hundred and eighty ten eighty. We can talk all things building, construction, legislation, rules, regulations right through till just a bit after eight o'clock. Then we're going to have a bit of a catch up with Storm Harpham, who has been on the show before. I first encountered Storm at a I think it was New Zealand's suit
of Building Surveys conference she's presenting on ventilation. She is, in my opinion, a ventilation expert. And so it's been in the paper and it's been in the news a little bit over the last little while, including a comment sort of off the cuff comment from Chris Penk, the Minister for Building and Construction, at a conference that I was at a couple of weeks ago, where he was saying, look,
you know we've we've had the leaky building crisis. Now we're starting to have a crisis where houses are overheating and sort of you know, we're sweating from the inside out. And there's been lots of stories over the summer. We've had a great summer about houses, townhouses, brand new builds right that are thirty five degrees in the bedroom at six o'clock in the evening and what's causing that? What can we do about it? So Storm is going to
join us after eight o'clock. Of course after eight point thirty we're into the garden with th red climb pasted as well. But right now your opportunity to have your say on anything around building construction, new products, new ideas, working with tradespeople and another fascinating story that popped up during the course of the week was an article.
It was a piece.
Of research from Brands, the Building Research Association of New Zealand, and they published a list of how which trades have to come back to repair work and in an order. Right, so, who was the what trade is the most called back? And it didn't quite in the article that I read
had too much of the detail on it. What I found intriguing was quite a way down the list was plumbers who didn't get called back that often, but when they did it was for product failure, be an item that they installed has failed, rather than their workmanship has failed.
Either way.
I think there's a lot in that. I was quite surprised at how many callbacks there are. Someone has emailed me the article as well. I saw the article online. I'll try and put it up on socials a little bit later on. The really good thing is during the course of the week, I'm actually going to do an interview with the researcher who compiled that, and we will have that interview next Sunday on the show. Right enough for me, it's your paint was number one. You're absolutely right,
as are my producer. He's absolutely right, painter's call back kind of not surprising when you think about it, because you know, inevitably, and I think even in the interviews that I heard during the course of the week, you know the painter will get called back.
Let's say, if.
I don't know when the kitchen's being installed, the guy scrapes the wall, right, So technically that's a callback. At the end of the job, I tell you the one and oh, I'm going to cop in the neck from rufers. Rufer's got called back a lot, seemingly, way more than I would have expected. Seriously, I can't think of the last job that I have done and I'm going back to over the last twenty twenty five years where I've had to call back the rufer for something. Now, maybe
you've got some stories on that. Oh, eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the number to call. You can text as well, that's nine two nine to two. Thank you to Ian Owen Rother who emailed me that article as well and just to remind me to look at it. So it's in the Herald Building Sector Insights which trades have to come back and fix things the most. If you search for that, you'll find it there so oh and thanks very much for your email.
I might even reach out.
And give you a chat and give you a call to chat about that. Oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the number to call if you've got a project on, if you're taking advantage of the fact that tomorrow perhaps you get to stay at home and do some work around the house.
What are you going to do?
What would you like to get done? And do you need some help with any of it? Oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the number to call.
We're helping you get those DIY projects done right. The resident builder with Vieta WOLFCAF call, Oh, eight hundred eighty ten eighty, youth talk deadv.
We're taking your calls. Oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty is that number to call. Todd sens Pete says the texter from Ray, I was an island bay yesterday, ge with some of those abodes are precariously perched on the hillside. Those builders are artisans like UA. Well, Ray, thank you very much for your for your message.
Ray, very kind.
Oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the number to call. And from Ray on the text to Ray on the phone.
Good morning, Ray, Good morning, I just wanted to get your advice. Sure, we live in a house where we have bottled guests two forty five kg cylinders, and we also have a pump for water for the for the house. Order supplied from tanks and the pump is around the corner from the gas bottles. It's so the gas bottles to the corner of the house are probably about eight hundred and in the distance from the other corner to the pump is probably about three or four hundred. On Friday,
we had the gas supply deliver two new bottles. And we've been in the house for three years, but the house is about twelve years old. In the letter box we received a notice that said that they're checking on compliance of gas bottles and that our gas bottles were too close to the point of ignition, which is the pump.
I guess I found that very difficult to understand. One that we've been the house is twelve years old, got a certificate of compl clients and in order to I think, move the pump, you have to move the piping and the electricity and it's going to be a very expensive job. I wonder that maybe it's not easy to move the bottles as they're close to a drain. I'm not sure what other solutions are, whether I can put a flame
proof cabinet over the pump. But it did drag the question to me that when the house was built in haddus to the compliance, would the builders still be libel or it was built by a rapid or building company. I'm just not quite sure.
Where to go to here.
Yeah, no, obviously, I mean the first thing is that the you know, the regulations are there for a reason, right, and they are to prevent in this instance, the possibility of a guest leak then being ignited and causing a gas explosion, which is you know, the potential for damage is huge, right.
Yes, they building it's against as a garage, you know, it's.
So, I guess.
So the house is how old?
Twelve years?
Twelve years? Okay, so the bottle for twelve years, and the bottles.
Were part of the design originally, right, so they were installed as per whatever the regulations were at the time. Potentially the regulations have changed a little bit. I suppose what would be helpful.
Is if.
Regulations a little bit as they were now.
Right, I guess you've got a couple of options. One is it would have been useful for the company that supplies the gas and gave you the notice to actually provide you with, you know, a reference to what the regulations are done that oh yeah, and what is there?
There is a minimum, yeah, one point five meters in a straight line, but in our case.
It's around the corner, around the corner.
And probably a few they actually draw a radius around the top of the bottles of one point five But if yeah, I think the fact that they're around the corner is you know, helps helps the problem.
But maybe that's how it was interpreted. I wonder whether when when they were installed and when the location. The other thing would be is potentially the has the location of the bottles changed?
Do you think, no, it's it's always been in that place. I think that what they said is that they've either got a new driver or and they're having a blitz on compliance but that quit later.
No, well, yeah, except again for something that is that has the potential to cause significant damage. I don't get the feeling that we should complain about the stringency of the regulations, right, you know, the regulations are in my opinion, there for a very good reason. So in that instance, I think, I mean, realistically, how difficult would it be to move the outdoor power point further away?
I don't know if it's the PowerPoint. I think the I don't know whether it's the PowerPoint or the pump. Actually, I think that's the pump that has to move, both the pump and the PowerPoint. If you just have to move the PowerPoint, that.
That would be relatively straightforward.
But to move the pump you have to move a whole lot of piping. Yes, I have to move a whole lot of electricity.
And are they I'm just thinking about now solutions, right, So I wonder have you had any discussion, like with a registered gas fitter.
Yes, I have. I rang yesterday and he's coming next week.
Okay, Look, they may well be able to offer up a solution in terms of saying, look, while we understand that you know technically it's it's within that one and a half meter radius from the location of the tanks, because it's around the corner, we're happy to sign that off.
And then if you get something like that from the gas fitter, if they're prepared to sign it off, you could submit that to the firm and say we've assessed this or had the situation assessed by a registered and competent tradesperson who has determined that, in fact, there's very low risk from that and he's happy to sign it off.
That's probably And if.
They agree, let's say, with the assessment from the delivery driver and the auditing within the company, then maybe you do have to look at moving the pump or like you say, putting in some sort of fire separation on one side of it to ensure that if there was a spark at the pump or from the electrical outlet,
that it was deflected. So you know, potentially a if you imagine, like if what I've got this picture in my mind, you've got the corner of the house, You've got the tanks on one wall eight hundred milimeters to the corner three hundred millimeters the other way. So if you had if you needed one point five meters separation, if you were to extend like a little fence or a wing wall for another.
On a path, Okay, we get the way, the.
Path seven hundred millimeters or something like that, then or maybe what you end up doing is putting a cover around the pump which means that the spark is not open anymore.
It does have a place to cover over it at the moment, or polycarbonate cover over it. Yeah, but you know, there are little intrusions for getting the pipes in. But yeah, that is an option. But I'm not sure whether there is such a fireproof cover or it'd have to get something made. But I could imagine if I have to move the pump and the.
Yeah, it's it's I don't know if it would be many thousands, to be fair, but you know, I mean, look, I tend I get where you're coming from, the sense that it seems like an overly cautious approach. And I just wonder whether you know, the driver perhaps has been instructed to just measure the distance from an ignition point or any other fitting electrical fitting. He's measured it, it's less than one point five meters, so he's handed out of notice.
In reality me a letter, clarify what it is, and have even taken a photo.
Okay, Look, I really have to applaud them for doing these sorts of audits in the same way that you know, essu. I was reading an article about you know, the house or the fire that happened in the Loafers Lodge in Wellington, right, the five people lost their lives. And you know, as councils now are going through auditing buildings, they're finding lots of stuff where people you know, have locked fire doors or remove smoke alarms or you know, all sorts of compliance stuff.
So you know, in question I have this, do I have any claim against the company who built the house?
Because unlikely, I would say, I mean you could try, but twelve years ago, I mean twelve years ago, there would have been the person who completed the house would have completed a had a final inspection and done a CCC, whether or not.
An inspector would pick up on that. Go through, see if you can get from the council the property file, have a look at the cease, the actual CCC application, and see who the gas fitter was, and approach the gas fitter directly would be another option. Hm, okay, Well would it be the gas fitter or would it be the plumber?
Well, because in the end that the electrician because the electricians no longer in business. Yeah, okay, I think that's an unlikely route.
I think I want to find her.
I think getting redressed from any of those parties is probably going to be a bit challenging. I just wonder whether getting a gas fitter, and you've already reached out to someone someone you know, experienced and professional who can assess the risk and say, actually, in this instance there is very little risk. You're okay sort of thing and go from there.
Ye all right, thank you much.
You have a good luck with all of that, and I hope it goes well. Thanks for calling Ray Bob
interesting that. I mean, in some ways there's that thing you kind of betwixt them between, aren't you, in the sense that I think having those sorts of audits on what could potentially be a really serious safety issue, right, you know, if let's say, after the gas bottles, the systems set up, the gas bottles are delivered, and then someone decides, oh, actually, what I really need is an outdoor PowerPoint over there, because when I do the water blasting,
it's too far to walk around the other side of the house, or I don't want to run a lead inside, so I'm going to have a gas bottle. I'm going to put an outdoor PowerPoint, not realizing the potential for an ignition source nearby. HM oh eight one hundred eighty ten eighty if you'd like to give a call on that or any other regulation rules and regulations, or perhaps you want to comment on that story about the which
trades come back the most often. Bearing in mind we will be doing an interview with the lead researcher which I'll have available next weekend on the show. Oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty. It is bang on six thirty here at NEWSTALKSZP.
Meta twice God was but maybe call Pete first, feed your workcab the resident builder News talksb.
You a News talksp Indeed, it is time for your calls. Oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the number to call. I'll just try and deal with this text. Actually just before we talk to Heather from David. Hey, guys, we did a conversion to our home which is forty plus years old by converting a large four car garage which was done strictly by the books with the Council Older Rural Property and it added two large bedrooms and a hallway.
Only one external war.
Was replaced as we took away the two garage doors and put in a window and a new front door and all the new cladding which was all passed, so I assume there was actually a building consent for this work. Because the front was the entrance to the garage, it
had concrete ramp up to the two garage doors. The concrete was taken away, strip drain installed which was past the corner of the houses had the same concrete which was in a bad way, and we paved three meters to match the front with and no levels had changed, no cladding was replaced, nothing, but the inspector wants a strip drain installed for the three meters of new paving. The issue is there's power phone and earth spike in
that place going through the wall. Can they really add this now at the final inspection when no mention of it was made in any other inspection. They mentioned the name of the council, which i'll leave out at the stage. Have been a complete nightmare during this project. Sorry to hear that, David. Look at final inspection. Council have a right to pick up anything and while that might be frustrating, if they want you to do it be the path
of least resistance. I'm wondering if the strip train is around, whether or not the new bit of concrete that you've added in there is less than one hundred and fifty millimeters below finished floor level of the garage, and that's a requirement of the code, right, that's what they'll be looking for, particularly if the ground is relatively flat, or worst case scenario, if it actually slopes towards the floor, then they'll want that threshold. They'll want one hundred and
fifty mili. So that might be it. You could try and appeal to the team leader of the consents if you feel that the individual inspectors maybe not being a little bit unhelpful, but it's not that easy. Someone's made a couple of suggestions about the gas bottle situation, which Andy, thanks for the text, but I'm not going to even suggest that. Heather, A very good morning to you.
Good morning hello there.
I have a house which has been subdivided off the farm. Farm's been sold and they have a family member moving into the house which was built a few years ago by jennyin and everything is in compliance, but it's never had a deck or finishing around the outside of the house. A deckerman who has been working for me has offered to put on a deck. They've told me secondhand, that it doesn't require a building consent. Does it require what does the deck require?
Oh good, my question.
Okay, in many instances the deck won't require a building consent. So typically they require a building consent if they are more than one point five meters high. Sometimes if it's in close proximity to alaboring property, which it sounds like it probably isn't. So it's really just that. So if it's particularly high, like over one point five meters, then it will No, it's not okay. The other thing, and I saw this yesterday.
Actually, I was out for a.
Walk and at the end of the day and noticed someone had built a new deck and they had used hundred by hundred posts, right, soundred by one hundred posts don't comply with the building code. So what's really important is that work that is not done that doesn't need a building consent still has to be built in accordance
with the building code. So if someone's going to come along and build a deck and they don't have a set of plans, which is okay because they don't need a consent, I think for you, as the client or the owner, you would say, can can you tell me
how this complies with a building code, you know. And that's not a rude question, right, It's just say, you know, for example, the span of the joists or the span of the bearers, or it's really just those things, the spacing of the joists, right, because those things, let's say they decide, oh, I'm going to save a bit of time and I'm going to use one less post, right, so the span of the bearer is more than what
the bearer is designed for. Now, it's relatively straightforward. Most of these things are in three six O four, which is the timber frame construction guide, right, So that's the standards that we work to. You know, a reasonably competent trades person should be able to just go to the code, look at the span tables, make some notes and go right, I'm going to have my posts, for example, at one point five centers. On top of that, I'm going to use two six to two's nailed together as my bearers.
And then because I'm only spanning one point nine meters or something like that, i can use a one fifty fifty joist at four hundred centers and that'll all be there in the code.
Right.
So all I'm suggesting to you is when you're having a discussion with the person building the deck, just get a little bit of evidence from them that they've looked at the building code and they're going to build to the building code.
Right.
That's it.
Okay.
Basically, so does that need to be overseen by a licensed building.
No, not necessarily, because it's work that doesn't require a building consent. Right, So only restricted building work, which is work that has a consent, needs to be done or supervised by an LBP. The only other thing I point out too is if the fall is greater than a meter, it will require a hand rail, which also needs to comply with the code. And if you've got more than three steps, it requires a handrail on the steps leading up to the deck.
Okay, that's great, Okay, I just yeah, because the assistant who's going to help build the deck as a bill well is supposedly a builder, but not a licensed building not an LBP, yep, non LBP. And the person who's the main person who's building the deck has got a design from him, but I haven't seen the design. They've ordered the timber, right, and I haven't had a quote or a design given to me. As the owner of the building.
Yeah, and in the end you're paying for it, right, So I think you get to ask as many questions as you like. And I guess this is where you know, it's little things like depending on the soil conditions, you know, do they need to dig down four hundred or in fact, once you've dug down four hundred, does it still look like a bit of top soil in there, in which case that would be better to dig down to six hundred and make sure that the bottom of the footing
is sitting hard on the clay. And that's where you are reliant on, well, ultimately the integrity and the knowledge of the builder to go Actually, you know what, it still looks a bit soft. I'm just going to dig an extra hundred mil or something like that, and yes it's going to take a bit more time, and yes it'll take a bit more concrete, but we know that it's going to be okay. So you know that hopefully that's where experience comes in. Thank you, nice to talk to you all the very best.
To you think all the best.
Bob Oh, eight hundred and eighty ten eighty is the number to call.
Let's talk to Nick. Good day, Nick, hid Pete.
We're looking at buying a house.
And we at the internal room is a cinema room and.
There's no windows, right, yes.
Which sounds a bit crazy, but we want to make it into a proper lounge, dining room, kitchen. Yeah. So our thoughts. It's got two sliding doors, right, and we want to take outmost sliding doors and open it up and remove two walls. Yeah, do we The first thing is resource consent, so unlikely. We obviously don't want the roof to fall in. Yeah, and we've got two brothers that can do the very confident LVB dudes to do it.
And we've were what is the process?
We have a draft person that can draft it up for us. Do we send that into the council to get.
Sure yeah, approval.
The main thing is is if like technically under again, schedule one of the acts, right, which is it sets out work that can be done without necessarily requiring a consent, potentially if the wall was non load bearing.
We think it is.
Thinking and knowing are slightly different things, right, So you've you've got to be you know what I mean, You've already identified.
The fact plans we have. We've seen plans and stuff, and it looks like they're not, and we'd tap the walls and the builders sat the walls and with think.
They're an load bearing.
Yeah, I'd take I'd take my I'd take the inspection just slightly beyond tapping the wall to be fair, Look, if what's what's above that wall? Is it another floor or is it the roof?
It's the roof, it's the roof.
Okay, look, it should be relatively straightforward to figure out whether or not that wall's load bearing. If it isn't load bearing, and you know, i'd get a draft person, architect engineer to to just cast an eye over it and go, actually, you know what, it's low risk. If you took the wall out, nothing's going to move right then then theoretically you can do that work without requiring
a consent. However, if it is load bearing, or perhaps if you've looked at the plans and realize that there's some bracing elements in that wall.
Yeah, well we think that is it called pearlins or bracing up above to hold the roof up?
Would that be right?
There might be triangles, yeah, if it's an older roof, you might have some understanding no, the.
House is only three years old. Ah, it's a pretty.
Browd new house.
Oh okay, in fact, it might be less than that.
Oh well, I mean, look, that's an advantage in the sense that you could go and get the plans right and have again an engineer or an architect to a desktop review of the plans. You'll quickly determine whether or not there's any bracing elements in there, whether there's a lintel that's holding something up, what the span of the trusses are.
Think we think the lintel, there is a mental.
Above the sliding doors.
Yes, the sliding doors, but we're taking it below the left, so we're just knocking out the wall below the lintil.
Right, yeah, but then hopefully.
Well no except the lintel. Let's say the are they pocket sliders or are they sort of barn sliders? Where do the sliding doors go from the opening?
So they go back into the wall.
Okay, So let's say you've got to eight hundred doors, so that's one point six meters. Then chances are your opening is actually already three point two meters, right because of the pockets that they go into. So you want to take more than the three point two meters out.
Not on one side, possibly on the other side.
Okay, that goes up the hallway, So if you did want to take the other side out, then that lintel, there's an understud at the end of that opening that's holding up the lintel. You're going to remove that, and there's nothing holding the lintel up, right.
So there is a bit we don't want.
No, No, look, I think the best bedders requit. You may even have a copy of.
The plane just to reap. Do I need an LV Do I need a resource consent for this project? No?
Well, this we might be at cross purposes. A resource consent is unlikely because you're not using any resource, right. A building consent, and they are two different things might be might be required because the wall might be load bearing, there might be bracing elements in it. Right, So if either of those two yeah, if either of those two things are there, then you're going to need to do a design. You're going to need to submit that design
to counsel for a building consent. Once the building consent comes out, then.
How long does that take?
Well, theoretically, a theoretically area twenty days right from the date.
That today sorry.
Today, things we're off surprise today for four months.
Well, it could be done by the time you get back. I mean it's all digital.
And all the work can be done by the time we get back. So but okay, that's great.
So do we do we.
Like and using lvps? Yeah, they're quite capable of handling the work while we're away.
Look, that's completely up to the relationship that you have with the LBP if you if you know them, I mean I've done plenty of work. Well yeah, you know they could do it. Look to be fair, it is a little bit challenging I think as a client if you're not there to answer questions, right, but then again today with email text and oh absolutely no, no, you
know it all set. But I suppose what happens with these jobs as they grow a little bit, right, because suddenly when you pull the wall out there's a patch of flooring.
Do you replace all the flooring?
Do you try and patch it? Do you want the ceiling to go through in one height? What about any electrical cables? You know, there's just constant Christians and if you're not there, it might drag the process out a little bit. Yeah, so fine, I am slightly envious of you heading off to France. We're about to be.
Hitting yeah for months.
We've got a house in the Sharons to our south of.
Bordeaux, nice on the on the River v Enna.
I will be catching trout in three days time.
Good luck to you.
Enjoy that and maybe a glass of pastie in the cafe at the end of the days.
Enjoy take care all of this.
So long story short. I think it's likely that it needs a building consent. Oh eight hundred and eighty ten eighties. Having glass of psis at a at the cafe at the end of the day in the little town square is twenty years ago. That was me about this time. Actually, happy days right, Oh, twelve minutes away from seven, back with Sandy.
After the break doing our house, storting the guard and asked Pete for ahead, the resident builder with Peter Wolfcap call eighty eight newstalgs Vy.
You're a news talks.
They've been coming up eight minutes away from seven. Of course, we've got news top of the air at seven before then Sandy, Hello there, oh, hello there, I've.
Got a gas bottle query as well. I'm been in my house two years and I'm on gas hot water yep, And I pay the company over two hundred dollars a year in gas bottle rentals, and I'm just and I I've got two bottles and i haven't even used one in three years, and I'm wondering if I can just have connected a barbecue bottle and seeing the big gas bottles back and say myself, the reate hole.
Look, I think the best person to give you advice on that would be a gas fitter, right, so registered gas fitter. In theory, I don't see a problem with it. And the only reason I say that is again, at a property some time ago, they had the only use they had for gas was to power some gas hobs, right, and that was off a standard sort of well are they ate or nine kg? Basically off a bottle, right, looked like a barbecue gas bottle. And I was a
little bit unsure about it. And I actually send a photograph to the gas fitter that I have known for many, many years and said, is this compliant? I mean, yeah, it's fine as long as you know it's on a stable platform that sort of thing. So yeah, theoretically, but I think i'd feel better saying to you, hey, what I would do is talk to a professional gas fitter,
get their advice. You might find that the hose that you've got is designed to go to the top of a taller tank, in which case it won't reach to the ground for example. And I think too, there's a requirement that they're secured so that they don't fall over, which is important. Well it's outside, yes, I know, but it's more that it has if it's if it's knocked over for example, and pulls on the hose or you know,
pulls the hose out or something like that. Those are issues, right, those genuine safety concerns around ensuring that you don't end up with an explosion.
Basically, well, I.
Suppose I could ask the people.
That SAG I guess.
The other thing, too, is to that consideration around you know, the fact that you've got the two bottles, and yes, they've lasted you an extraordinary long time. But the beauty of those systems is that one when one runs out, it automatically swaps over to the other one, as opposed to hopping in the shower, turning on hot water and discovering that the bottles run empty and then suddenly you've got to go and you know, go and get a new bottle and those sorts of things.
It looks it's completely up to you.
But m okay, well thanks, but.
I would get advice from a professional guess for around the regulations of having your own bottle like that.
Okay, I'm sure the gas company could give me that information, couldn't they as well?
But remember they're in the business of selling you gas, right, They're not going to necessarily advise you to ditch what they offer and go down the road and get something cheaper. Yeah, alright, you take care all the best, boy. Then, Actually i'll tell you what here we go from Chris. Text came in almost immediately, Pete, technically you can't use a barbecue gas bottle as the pressure is Plumber advised.
It's not.
Oh yeah, it's too low for the hot water. The Califont won't like it. That's a fair point, obviously. You know, big bottle more pressure. Smaller bottle not designed for high pressure because it's just typically just feeding the barbecue, isn't it.
Or a hob for example.
But that's quite a different amount of gas than is required for the Califont. So it might just be sandy a technical issue there that it simply just won't work off another type of bottle. Again, that's why you get professional advice back after the.
Break, whether you're painting with ceiling, fixing with fans, or wondering how to fix that hole in the wall. Give Peter wolf Gaffer call on eighty, the resident builder on youth dogs.
Indeed indeed resident builder here on a Sunday morning, Sunday morning of a long weekend Tomorrow. Of course, King's Birthday day takes a little bit of getting used to the King's birthday as opposed to the Queen's Birthday, which we got used to saying for what seventy odd years. Anyway, tomorrow's public it's a day off. Like I didn't get around to doing the lawns today, sorry yesterday. I loathe them to test doing them on a Sunday, so I'm
not going to do them on a Sunday. But I figured that a Monday of a public holiday this kind of feels like a Saturday, so that's all right to do it. I'm thinking tomorrow's Tomorrow's the day, oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty is that I've got to get all the other stuff out of their way first, before I can get back to the lawnmar Right. Yeah, I've got space issues, I've got storage issues. I might even
have poarding issues, but that's another matter. Oh eight, one hundred and eighty ten eighty is the number to call if you've got a question of a building nature. We've talked a bit about especially work that requires building consent, like what type of work requires a building consent? What
type of work doesn't necessarily require a building consent? But the bit that seemingly lots of people forget about is that building work that doesn't necessarily require a building consent still needs to be done in accordance to the building code. So it was a great conversation with Heather about someone coming to build a deck on a property that obviously the house was built and then we'll do the deck
later on. So the deck there, from what I can tell, doesn't necessarily require a building consent, but you do want some evidence that it is built to the code. And how do you find that?
Well, the simplest way would.
Be go to three six O four NZS three six four, which is the guide to light timber construction and work out there span tables. How far apart do I need the post to be so that gives you an idea of how many posts you might need. So working backwards from the overall size, you'd go, Okay, I'm going to have my joy spanning this amount, which means my bearers need to span this which means my posts need to
be there. But I think it's not unreasonable to ask whoever's building it if they don't need a building consent. Beautiful building consent is immediately you've got a set of plans for that to then go, this is how I can prove compliance with the building code because you are reliant then completely on the contractor doing the work to be competent and to know what the code requirements are. Even in terms of fixing, you know, how are you going to fasten the bearer to the pile? You know
what type of fixings are you going to use? Does it require a handrail? In which case, depending on the type of handrail, there are hot restraints that you need to ensure that the handrail itself is going to resist the impact of someone tripping against it or falling against it, that it's not going to get bendy and wobbly and fall over. Eight hundred eighty ten eighty. If you'd like to talk all things building construction, we can do that.
Someone a text through and went, hey, just about that, they are obviously thinking about doing it a.
Building a deck.
I mentioned the fact that, as far as I know, using one hundred by hundred posts, so literally like a fence post that you can buy because they're a lot cheaper than tanner piles or sentence piles, which are one hundred and twenty five by one hundred and twenty five. Decks need to be supported on tanna piles.
If you do your deck with one.
Hundred bye hundred fence posts, it's not code compliant, and I've seen it often. So even a deck that's you know, three hundred milimeters off the ground or something like that, still needs to be built in accordance with the building code. We can talk about that. Eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the number to call. Maybe you've would have seen
that article during the course of the week. Was in the Herald during the week research out of brands talking about which trades get the most callbacks, and interestingly enough, top of the list was painters. I think it deserves a bit more sort of explanation and analysis than just going, oh, that means painters are not very good at their jobs.
I think that it's in that case, it's probably a lot about the fact that, you know, paintwork gets damaged by all sorts of trades and people being in the house. You know, someone carrying a bath scratches the wall. Someone putting in an overhead cabinet in the kitchen scratches the wall. All of these sorts of things, Right, so it's not surprising that painters come back. Builders were next. I was actually quite surprised at how many roofers were being called
back for jobs. Anyway, we're going to do some research on that.
Well.
Actually I'm going to talk to the researcher during the week and we'll have that interview next week. I wait, hundred eighty ten eighty lines are open. I wait hundred eighty ten nine two ninety two on the text, and if you would like to email me, you're more than welcome to do that as well. It's Pete at NEWSTALKSIDB dot co dot NZ. PETE deck up to one point five does need a building consent, but the barrier does.
If it's over a meter, you're absolutely right. Ah, hang on, I think what Steve is trying to say is the deck doesn't need a building consent if it's one point five but the barrier. But it does need a barrier, I think is what you're saying there. It's not like the barrier then needs a building consent. So let's say
the decks one point two meters above the ground. So to prevent injury from falling, it requires a handrail, or it requires a barrier because it's you can fall more than a meter, but because it's less than one point five meters, it doesn't require a building consent. But yes, you're right, Steve, it does require a handrail in the same way that more than three rises are on a set of stairs. It's an unusual number, isn't it. More than three rises requires a handra eight hundred eighty ten eighty.
We can talk rigs and rules, and we've been talking quite a bit about gas bottles as well, So just to be really clear on that, if you've got a gas califont so an on demand water heater that's run off the large commercial bottles, they are at higher pressure, and the idea of swapping that out for what we might call a barbecue bottle, will find that it's lower pressure and the califont won't work properly on the lower pressure,
So that's a good reason to not swap them over. Sandy, who we were talking to before the news, oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty is Ah has good text before the break Pete. We've got a five year old house with a standard double garage which the builder has kindly omitted to insulate the ceiling. We are wanting to bat the ceiling. How do we calculate the number of packs that we need? Is there a calculation to use? We're
in Katahadi and the bay plenty from Leslie. Now, just to point out Leslie, technically the garage is not a habitable space, so it doesn't need to be insulated. I think that's foolish, and I've typically always insulated garages if they're attached to the house. But technically it didn't need to be done, even if it is a five year old house. So normally, depending on which type of insulation you choose, each bail will have a coverage. So if it's a standard sized garage six by six, that's thirty
six square meters. If there's ten square meters in a bail, you'll need three and a half bales or four bales of insulation that sort of thing, So that's not too challenging to figure out. I'm sure, Oh, eight hundred eighty ten eighty give us a call. We've got some more texts coming through, but if you would like to call, that'd be great. Eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the number.
Squeaky door or squeaky floor. Give the right advice from Peter Wolfcare, the resident filled out on News Talk SB.
Really, I'm going to do an interview with the researchers at Brands this week around this survey. This is about sort of basically which trades have to come back how often?
So the summary of.
It is is that around I think it's eighty nine percent of people who move into a new house need to call back one of the trades people involved in, whether that's the painter, the tyler, the roof of, the electrician, the plumber, the carpenter, et cetera, et cetera. And then I'm reading through the article. It was on the Herald during this week. New home owner satisfaction is also going
in the wrong direction. In twenty seventeen, eighty nine percent rated their builder on the overall quality of the home as good. Right, So twenty seventeen, eighty nine percent of people said that they thought their builder was good. In twenty twenty three, the most recently surveyed year, this had dropped a eighty one percent people recommending. In twenty seventeen, seventy percent of new homeowners were likely to recommend their builder.
By twenty twenty three, this had dropped to sixty one percent, and the proportion unlikely to recommend their builder had risen to thirty two percent. Oh, there's going to be some great detail in this. We'll We'll be chatting with brands during the week and I'll have that interview for you next week as well. Oh, eight hundred and eighty ten eighty is the number to call Robbie. Greetings.
Yes, goodn't winning Pete. Hey, Robbie, I just thought I might put the records straight on the gas buddle situation.
All the gas bottles, Sorry, Robbie, just to I know in the in the note that I've got, you're a certified gas fitter.
Yes, yeah, cool, go for it.
Yeah. I have been in the business for four ideas the thing is incluse with the gas bottles the cooked top, and he takes a small quantity of gas yep. So to put it on a nine kg is quite code. So the bottles are all felt the same pressure, so they don't vary at all.
But with.
The forty fives are better on a water heater because a water heater consumes far more gas than a cook top. Yes, so it's it's the ability for the gas can the liquid to convert to gas. So the volume of the in the forty five, it's got a greater opportunity of the heat from the outside to convert the liquid into gas. All right, yep.
So if you if you were to swap from a forty five the big steep bottles right to the smaller of barbecue bottle the nine kg on a califon. Is the issue just about the volume. It's not about the pressure.
Nothing to do with pressure, right. Pressure will take its insideration from the amount that's in there. And because the heat, the latent heat goes into the gas and converts it sorry into the liquid and converts it to gas. That's where the factor is. So the supply of gas water here is considerably larger than a cook top, so it's
got to be otherwise. It's the situations. Say, if you go into a restaurant situation where you've got four or five gas bottles and they're already pouring on the gas in the morning, you'll get that situation to freeze up. It'll work like a refrigerator because there's too much liquid coming through the line.
Earlier on, we we also had a conversation with a gentlemen who obviously the company that are delivering the bottles that they use for gas hot water. We're doing a bit of an audit and identified that there was an ignition source being an outdoor power point and a pump too close to the gas bottle.
But it was around a corner.
You know.
So if you've got let's say, to a corner to the gas bottle is eight hundred milimeters and then from that corner, go round the corner to where the pumpers and with an outdoor power point that was another three hundred milimeters, So it's not the one point five required, But would you look at that and go Actually, the fact is it's around the corner. The ignition sources sort of sheltered.
It's relatively low risk or should be stretching the situation will eave it.
So what what would be the solution?
So I don't know whether they're sort of you know, beyond that, maybe because I.
Think too sometimes we have a bit of a short memory around these things. And I know there was an incident, there's quite a well known incident where it was actually the fault of the gas fitter who had left a mains connection uncapped during servicing and that caused the house to explode. But there was another case where remember a family were living in sort of like a tiny house. They were running some of their gas their cooking off
a gas bottle. The gas bottle hadn't been checked. There was a slow leak, and when they came in and turned the light switch on, the tiny little spark from the light switch was enough to ignite the gas that had accumulated in that building and blew up the building. Basically, So I wonder whether sometimes we get a bit complacent around you know, the potential for harm from gas. If it's if we've become a bit placement.
Well, couldn't have the rigs, of course, you shouldn't have the gas bottle inside, right, put in a proper cover with ventilation and so on. So but what I got back from the board on the house blowing up was the fact that the gas that went away, he did not cap it all. Homeowner came home, wanted to shower, quickly went out to the street. What I can understand, and turned the gas on.
Did they go to the street or did they just go to where the met was outside and turn the meta back on?
Well, whatever was the owner created the situation from that point.
Of view by turning it on. Yes, that's right.
And the I don't know if it's miscommunication or whatever, but I mean, gee, the impact was enormous, wasn't it.
I mean, the house was gone tremendous. It's not one of the things. But we do have a very very good tafety record in New Zealand.
Yeah, and.
There was one down two to cart. There was a landlord of the home and and lady came home, lit it up and blew the side out of the house. I don't know what they're a killed writing. It may have done right, So you know, you really have to stick with the stick with the trade that knows surely all about it.
So yeah, and that's I think that's also part of the reason that you guess that it is a certified So it's that next level of qualification. Interesting to see though, is more and more discussion around plumbers being certified now as well, so having a similar sort of level of responsibility I guess as as guess that does traditionally have had.
Well, that's that's that's something that there the PROBS board and us as plumbers looking to get to do. But of course the gas has got a greater energy hard safety stuff to factor.
Appreciate you taking the time to call through Robie. Really
great insights from you. Thank you very very much for that your news talks, he'd be we are talking all things building, including the rigs and the rules, and I think too sometimes we kind of lose sight of why we have the rules and the regulations because typically there's potential for harm, right, and while they're unusual, you know, there have been situations we're building collapses or collapses are part of a building structure have caused either serious injury
or in some case death, So you know, I think sometimes we get I feel that sometimes the discussion is around, ah, there's too many rules and so on, and there might be a solid argument for that, But I think sometimes we lose sight of the fact that the rules are there to ensure that harm doesn't occur. Oh, you may care to comment on that. I might be getting a bit on the whole thing. Maybe I should loose enough of it. You tell me. Eight hundred eighty ten eighty.
We're talking building construction, and oh, decks. We've been talking a bit about decks, because you can build decks, some types of decks in terms of height, in location, and so on, without necessarily requiring a building consent. Hey, pete, how can a bear on a new deck be closer than one hundred and fifty to the ground by not being H four or not? Well, you'd want to make it H four with floors. Like floors for a house, for example, there's a minimum crawl space required underneath. That's
not the case for decks. So I was on one the other day that might have been thirty or forty milimeters above finished ground level to where the bearer was, and then the choice werenogged in between because they wanted it to be as low as possible. So you just do all of that in H four and you'll be fine. Eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the number to.
Calling you get those DIY projects done right. The resident builder with BEATABLESCAT call us TALKSB.
Just gone seven thirty Here a news TALKSB and the lines are open for you. Leslie as text back, just this is about the internal garage. So garage attached to the house but not insulated. The ceiling's not insulated and LESSI texs back. Hey forgot to mention the garage has internal access, so we would have assumed it would have
been insulated. And look again, what what is quite common, whether it's the builder that drives it or the developer that drives it, is that in terms of the code, you only have to insulate the habitable spaces, right, So you're creating a thermal envelope around the habitable spaces of the house, the garage which might be attached and in this case it is attached to the house and it
has internal access. What the builder or the developer would need to do is insulate the roof space of the house and insulate the wall between the garage and the rest of the house to ensure that that's the thermal envelope. And I guess what it means for the builder developer is oh, I get to save a bit on insulation and I don't need to do it and all the rest of it because it's not part of the habitable space.
But yeah, in the end you end up with a cold garage trapping cold air against the building.
Yeah.
I think it's a good idea to insulate garages if you can. Oh, eight hundred and eighty ten eighty is the number to call. Thanks very much for that text again, Leslie Peter Greetings, Hi, Hey, hey.
II, good good. I have a upstairs deck with which is supported by external poles, and I need to move one of the polls to create a space for put a car underneath. I have a building consent from the council, which I'm quite happy to.
Have got for the original wondering or for the change for the change, okay.
And.
What I'm wondering is I have a friend who's a young guy who's about five years pastors building apprenticeship. He's not an LBP, and wondering do I need an LBP to have the work carried out properly and legally.
In terms of the actual legislation. What's required is because you've got a building consent that makes it restricted building work. Restricted building work can be can only be done or supervised by an LBP. So let's say the young guy, to be fair, there's really no excuse for not being an LBP. If he's done his time, he should get registered, So I'd put that pressure on him to be blunt.
The other thing is if he's not an LBP for whatever reason, then you will need to contract an LBP to do it, to do the supervision.
And what is the involvement in terms of I had it the plans all drawn up by a structural engineer, yep. What is their involvement in terms of the process.
It'll depend a little bit on the consent conditions, but chances are if there was specific engineering involved, the engineer will probably want to come out, for example, and have a look at the bearing of the hole you dig for the new post. I presume what you're doing is putting in a new post. If you're extending the span of the beam or the lintel that's supporting the deck, they may want to come and have a look at
that to make sure that it's the right one. So typically they would have done a PS one for the design produce a statement, and then to close off the work from the engineer's point of view, they will offer up a PS four after they've inspected the work to
go actually you have done it correctly. So for example, if I don't know, let's say it's a double three hundred by fifty is the new lintel, but they were short on that down the road, and your builder picked up two two fifties and put them in instead, and when she'll be right, the engineer should pick that up,
and so should the council inspector. So I would say that your first inspection is likely to be when the whole is dug for the new post, and council will need to inspect that, and then your engineer most likely will want to have a look at that as well, which I know sounds like a lot of work, but yeah, I.
Want it done properly. Yeah yeah, so okay, no, that's great.
And then there's things like you know, like counsel will probably want to keep the receipt for the concrete because if again, if for example, its specified as twenty MPa, which is the strength of the concrete and a particular type of mix, they'll they'll want proof that that's the concrete that went in.
Right, okay, these sorts of things in terms of right. In terms of the LBP, he will actually sign that, he will supervise it and sign that work off.
The LBP would will need to give a record of work at the end of the job, so they'll and and they'll just say if for example, they only did the supervision, they'll just tick. There's a sort of a pro former type sheet that you can get and download it from the internet and go, you know, footings, tick and then supervised and then a brief description of what the work is. And you'll need that for the final inspection.
You'll certainly need that, So i'd encourage you as soon as the job's finished, get the final inspection, get get that passed, and then submit for your CCC straightaway, just just to close the contract.
The final inspection is done by the LBP.
No final inspection will be done by the council. So the council will come along and when the job's done, they'll check things like the post and the beam and the connections and all the rest of it in any other consent conditions, and then if it's a pass on the final inspection, they'll they'll send you an email that says yep, final inspection done and then you submit for a CCC and that's your responsibility as the homeowner.
Okay, all right, excellent, thank you very much.
All I can say, and I've changed my opinion on this quite a bit over the years, is do the CCC as quickly as you can and get it out of the way, and don't put it in the in the drawer and go. I'll get round to that later on. Just crack and get it done and get it so off. All right, mate, all the best of you, take care. And in that sense, I think some people last year on the show, people were talking about getting a letter from councils from the territorial authority after a final inspection
saying you've got six weeks to do the CCC. And I went through and had I tried to find something in law that says that you need to do it within that period of time. I couldn't find anything. I'm happy to be corrected if there is.
A requirement.
In terms of a timeline, because the other issue is that if you don't do it and then I think after is it a year? I think it might be a year after the final inspection. You can't submit without doing another final inspection, which opens you up to the possibility that something else will be found. I know complicated. A seven eight Here at US talk C B eight hundred eighty is the number to call. We'll talked to Charlotte. Hello Charlotte.
Oh Hi, good morning, Pete, thanks so much. Good morning. I'm in Auckland and I have a question please about whether a consent was required for a building was required for a garage conversion. So we bought the property that were in in Red March, and there have been a number of repairs, including a large deck that they get a building consent, and it was also a garage conversion.
Now they had taken out the garage door and replaced it with a wall and window, and on the side the wall that faces out into the garden, they'd taken that window out and put in double bifol doors and there's garage carpet in there. And it was advertised as possible teenage hangout or a place for an office, but in their photographs and also in the open home inspections, it was dressed as a bedroom with a very nice bed,
bedside table. Pictures on the wall, and so on three weeks after we moved in, it flooded, flooded quite badly. It was during the over easter. There was a lot of rain in Auckland, and when the remediators came and cut out the wall, they said, wow, that wall where the garage door would have been has no waterproofing in it at all. So the water, instead of going into the little drain and drain grill, just went straight through
into the property. So I'm just working on sorting things out at the moment, and I am hoping that I can get the vendor to a for the repairs, because I just got quite a hefty quote here that says that wall has to come out the completely changed before we can go ahead and get the insurance work done. And I just wondered you had any opinions on that.
Funnily enough, I do so.
I think.
So you purchased this house how long ago.
Moved in three weeks for the flooding in late.
March three.
This year, Okay, and did the was the vendor the person who did the change of use for the garage, like converted it from a garage to habitable space. Yes, And that wasn't declared on the sale and purchase agreement.
You mean as a as a consented change.
Well, was it consented?
No, there was no there. As I say, they did get a building consent. I've got all the property papers from council and obviously a live report, and there is a building consent for the for the deck that they built, but nothing for the garage. Now, the real estate agent told me that they had been told by the vendor that the consent.
Was not needed.
Uhhh no, absolutely not. I've actually got that in a in a text from the real Well, I'd hold on to that flooding and said, look this has happened, and he said, because well, yeah, that's basically what he said.
Okay, I guess where I'm slightly flabbergasted is that, you know, I don't know any I don't know any professional who would say you don't need a consent for a change of use.
Right, we all know, right.
I would have expected more from the real estate agent in terms of they should know that. It's pretty basic building knowledge. So I would hang on to that text because you might need that in evidence. And yeah, look if the work was if it was a garage and it was converted and it's now a habitable space, and it was sold as a habitable space. Can I also very delicately asked, did you get a pre purchase inspection before settling on the property.
Interestingly enough that there were no comments made on that space, But he in his report he thought it was a bedroom. He reported the property as a four bedroom rather than a three bedroom space, so he actually.
This was on the pre purchase report. So the person undertaking the pre purchase report on your behalf, which you've paid for, didn't raise a question about has this got a building consent? No, he didn't to be Look, I'll
be really honest. That's really poor, right, So I think that again, you know, a reasonable level of diligence or knowledge would say that someone undertaking pre purchase reports as a business should have highlighted to you, Hey, you know because on the original building plans it might be still at council, it'll show the house and a garage, right, and what you've got now is a house without that garage and with an extra bedroom.
So that with respace. And the argument was, yes, it was advertised with a bet edit, but that it wasn't necessarily because it had garage. It now has garage carpet on it, that maybe it's just like a man cave or something like that, and therefore didn't need a building consent.
It absolutely needs a building consent.
Right, all right, that's really interesting.
In my opinion.
I mean, I'm happy to be challenged on it, but in my opinion it would have done. If I was acting for you, I would probably say to you, we need to do more research on that. Go and get the property file, find out and find out whether there was a building consent for this. Otherwise, Yeah, have you had any discussions with your lawyers about who you might take action against?
I am about to.
Do that actually over this weekend. And now that I've got this body of knowledge and just listening to you this morning, I thought I would, yeah, get you call, because I was starting to feel very strongly that I needed one.
But of course, you can start to.
Get quite subjective about these things, so I thought it could be useful just to hear your point of view.
I tell you what, just as a as a sort of an interesting exercise on your and I might do the same. There's a if you go to the MBI website, there's can I build it?
Right?
And it's like a flow chart thing. Yes, no, yes, snow, ye, snow. So you could you could go find that online type in converting a garage to a bedroom and see whether it tells you to have a building consent. That's that's how straightforward it is. I'm going to do that during the break as well. But in my opinion, I think that it needed a building consent. And part of the reason is that the building consent would have picked up
things like how easy is it for this building to flood? Right, so what is the floor level, what's the drainage, what's the waterproofing around it, like etcetera, etcetera, And those sorts of things would have been picked up in the building consent, and it's less likely that would have flooded. Lots of places that had building consents still flooded during those floods, so you know, it's not a guarantee that it won't flood,
but it will certainly help you. So look in my opinion, and to be fair, and someone just text this as well. A little bit surprised that your lawyer didn't pick it up as well, yes, which is a bit challenging. So right now you've got the vendor who possibly has been deceptive, the agent who's been not particularly well informed, a pre purchased inspection person who has let you down, I think, and and potentially a lawyer who should have picked that up as well in doing the due diligence.
All right, I really appreciate your Sorry, it's.
Not great news, but help me make this one hundred percent. Please let us know how you get on. Take care all the very best you, Charlotte, take care byeey right. We'll be back after the break with Winston. If you have got a question of a building nature, Oh eight hundred and eighty ten eighty is the number to call.
Measure twice God was, but maybe call Pete first your WorkCare the resident builder news talks they'd be today.
I'm talking with Murray Knight, managing director of Polymer's International, and we're talking about in Juris. Good morning, Murray, tell us what is in Juris?
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Well.
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And Marie, thanks for dropping a bucket out to me.
I've put it on.
It's a small roof. I need to extend its life for a bit and so far no leaks.
Really appreciate it. Thanks for your time, Murray.
Jeers, Thanks Bick news Dogs that'd be.
I had a look on the Can I Build a website and it doesn't actually have any specific information there about conversions. But interestingly enough, I'm reading an extract from the Auckland Council website converting non habitable spaces to habitable Spaces. The purpose of this practice note is to describe how residential building can sent applications involving the conversion of non habitable spaces to a habitable space should be assessed for compliance.
This is for single household residential dwellings where people live as a single household or family. Does not apply to the creation of new separate residential places within an existing building. And it goes on to actually say there is not actually a change of use requirement here, but it does go on to talk about building code requirements, and I hope more of a look on that. That's going to be particularly relevant to Charlotte As to whether or not
the work needed a building consent. My sense is that it really should have got a building consent.
Do we have time for.
Winston like a minute, Let's see how we go Winston.
Very quick question from you, sir.
Okay, hi pety. I'm so I've got a walk in hospital shower and I want to put a kryl uh pod your place to go liner, Yes, on top of.
It, yep, on top of it or sort of in the same place. So I'm in the same place.
Yep.
I'm like, uh, you know, liveling self living concrete one plumber, Yeah, extend the waist, can sell. It's a system drop. It's like a wishing well.
Yeah.
Sure, that sort of work because it's a pre formed shower tray, right, and I presume you're also going to have an acryltic liner, and then the doors are all part of the kit. Typically that work doesn't require a building consent, right, because the waterproofing is integral in the system. Where people often get tripped up is going the other way.
Let's say, having a conventional shower and then wanting to take that out and having a level entry tiled shower with waterproofing and so on, and that typically triggers a requirement for a building consent. So I think the fact that you're going the other way means that you don't have to worry too much about getting a consent.
For that, okay, And do you think the self leveling conquer will bridge that it goes from nothing to system milk the wasters can handle it, or does.
It You might have to do a couple of layers. Just have a look at the actual speifications as to how much depth you can do there. If it's on a concrete floor, I'd probably feel quite confident about it. If you're doing floor leveling compound on top of timber, I'd say just frame it up and timber back.
After the news doing.
On the house storting the garden, asked Pete for a hand the resident builder with Peter wolfcab call oh eight eight news talks'bye news talks.
They'd be just gone seven minutes after eight. We are taking your calls on all things building right up till eight thirty this morning. Then we're going to jump into the garden with the climb past and talk all things gardening and the wonderful world of bugs as well the other sort of there's all sorts of topics out there. There's so much discussion in the public sphere, let's say, around building and construction and energy efficiency and regulations and so on.
At the moment that.
From time to time I just want to kind of focus in on one or two of those issues that's out there, and this was It's been a bit of a pardoner the pun. It's been a bit of a hot topic over the summer about homeowners in fairly new townhouses reporting that you know, it's thirty odd degrees. There's a photograph on the article that I'm looking at at nine four minutes after nine in January in Auckland and it's thirty degrees inside somebody's bedroom. Now that's intolerable. Rights
you can like warm, but that's crazy. And these new houses, so are they new houses that have got lots of insulation in them? Are they new houses that there's been sort of inadequate thought around heating and ventilation and overheating. So what's going on here? And to get a bit of an insight into this thought, I'd reach out to Storm, who has been on the show before, and we kind of bump into each other at different conferences around the place. Storm Harpen A very good morning.
To you morning, Pet.
How are you very well?
Now the term expert is bandied around a little bit too much, but I am quite happy to refer to you as a ventilation expert because I've seen the stuff that you write about and it's fantastic and it's well informed and well researched. So over the summer and it's been great. We've had a glorious, nice, hot summer in Auckland anyway. But if you're sitting in a townhouse that's relatively new and it's thirty degrees in your bedroom at nine o'clock at night, what do you think is happening?
Well, there's probably a few things happening there, and you've called out a couple of them already. Obviously we're concerned in these buls in particular. But what it really is is throughout the course of the day, we've put heat into the space, right, and that heat can come from multiple things. So the biggest one that we typically care heat coming into a home from is some coming in
from outside. And so the guys who are suffering the most typically have north and west spacing, big window, big glazing areas, and as that sun's coming in, it heats up the air. We also do things inside our house living cooking, because that actually we have temperature too. We're always letting off temperature so we're doing all of these different things as well as that sun Now, what there was a big concern about, in particular with newtownhouses is
that we're now trapping some of that heat. And we have to be really careful when we talk about trapping heat because trapping heat is something we actually want to intentionally do when we get to winter, right, we want to keep that warmth in, and so we have well insulated spaces that keep heat in, but we want to do that essentially, but interestingly they also keep heat out. Now that's when you're bringing heat through the walls the windows.
On the other hand, that's sold the game that's coming straight through the window, So you've got that sunlight coming and that's when you get that heat. So some of the things we need to do. The biggest one, first off is actually get some extra air coming in from outside because when outside is cooler than inside, that's when
you can get something called free cooling. So that is the one that I think has been one of the biggest challenges is that we can no longer open our windows enough to provide submission ventilation to balance our house with outside.
Can we just have a look at that, because I think This is one of the well unintended consequences of two parts of legislation. So typically, if you've got a habitable space like a bedroom, there's a requirement that five percent you calculate five percent of the floor space has to be an opening window. Right, So you take that space,
you create a window. For argument's sake, that's a meter biometer, the assumption being that you can open it, yes, and have a met biometer of ventilation coming into that space, until you realize that actually you can fall further than a meter or it's a certain distance off the ground, and then you have to put a restricted stay on it, which means it can only open a maximum of one hundred millimeters. So how these two parts of legislation are fighting each other, aren't they?
Yeah, they are.
You've got you've got two parts of code there, you've got that, you've almost got three. The openable element and the sizing of your window is influenced by the ventilation and the daylighting code. So the daylighting code says you need this much light and a habitable space.
Yes.
The ventilation code says you need to open the windows, So you need to have a net openable area. That's the phrase. So it's the overall dimension, as you explained, one meter by one meter net openable area of five percent. But then you think about the types of windows we're using. We've got these awning windows that just open up at the bottom and so that themselves creates blockage of air
coming in. You think of winds hitting that face of the building, the awning windows, one that you know swings out from the bottom and so that opens up the winds hitting that. And then as you said, you put those security stays on, and that's over in safety from fall length. It's technically in code part IF four, and that is looking at looking after our children. Really basically they want to make sure no kids can climb on anything inside, climb up to a window and essentially fall out.
So that's where that one hundred milimeter comes from. And as you think about a townhouse and about our windows, obviously sliding glass doors on the loft floor, fine, anything on the upper story two point five meters up already, right, So that's all everything in your top story pretty much has to have a stay. There's an ability to climb up to that window inside anywhere that internal law area or if you have fair toilet below window right, then you also have to be with it in over seven
hundred miles above that climbing element inside. Yes, So basically, what we've done, and it's an adjustment that the window manufacturers have done really sensibly, is most of the windows now come with security stays right, and the other layer of that is security itself on the left ground floor. We don't like leaving windows unlocked or unlatched, so we've got security staves downstairs too. So you've now got these windows that meant to be opening the full area theoretically
by what we're calculating. Then we're gone, okay, the warning windows are opening left, and then we've restricted them down to one hundred miles. It's probably coming down to ten percent of the total area that you could have had opened. You just can't find its.
Way in right right. The other yeah, I was gonna say, the.
Other challenge is that we're also limiting the number of faces those windows are on, so townhouses and apartments in particular only have those windows on one face. And I've got this phrase that I've been using recently that I think is quite apt, and that's the air is lazy and shy, So as soon as air ends a space, it wants to find the quickest, easiest way back out of the house. And so if it does manage to get into the house, it wants to turn around and
head straight back out. Now it needs a pathway through the house to get out. As you think about a townhouse with windows on the front and the back. Yeah, and you've shut your internal doors. We're asking air to come in, do a little dance in the room, and turn around and go back out the crowded entrance.
That it just came in.
Yea, yeah, yeah, that's a great paturechally.
So we need that pathway for it to come in one side where the wind's setting it on that side. It comes in that side, that realizes a whole lot of people in behind it, and it wants to get out, and it wants to rush through to the other side of the building. So we actually need windows open on both sides of our houses for any chance of their air to pass through.
In terms of design, I think I think it's reasonable to be critical of some designers who pay no attention to shading and sunlight angles and those sorts of things, and effectively buy their design create a situation where the temperature is going to be intolerable in that room so big northwest facing glazing with no overhang, so in the
middle of summer, it's going to cook in there. And I think people need to start thinking critically about you know, if I'm going to buy this building, how is it going to perform in terms of shading and so on? But is there also part of it where as the occupants of the building, we don't know how to operate
the building properly. So your example, for example, of a window open in a bedroom, but you close the door right, so there is no opportunity for ventilation, for cross ventilation in that building, even if it was designed to do that. We as the inhabitants, the operators of the machine, aren't aren't doing it properly.
No, no, And actually operating a building is becoming more and more complex, and ventilation is probably one of those ones where we are most challenged. So windows are one thing, and that's all our code requires us to put in for fresh airs. We've got a few extra elements where if you can't open a window then it triggers a whole bunch of other rules. But if you have got openable windows the times you need to be opening them
in the morning. It's overheating anyway, in the morning, when it's still nice and cool outside, give your house a pre burst. Open as many windows up throughout the house as you can. I'd even in some instances run you extractor fan. And what I'm doing there when I run my extractor fan, because I'm actually creating a pressured difference, so I'm creating a pull on the house. We now actively put in fans to help with that, and I'll
talk to that in a moment. So you open all the windows up, and then as it gets hotter and hotter outside, you want to shut your windows. So as you get to the warmer part of the day and the temperature outside becomes higher than your house, you want to shut your windows because this is when your insulation is actually going to be helping you. So you shut your windows. You possibly even shut your curtains on the
windows that are facing the sun. And if you've got external loovers that you can rotate, if the designer has put them in for you, you can block out their outside sun. So it's better to block the sun before it gets in through what we call your thermal enveloping, any lining that's scentulated, so anything you can rotate block do that then. And then as you get later in the day and that temperature outside falls again. Now I'm not worried about the sun. You keep blocking that as
long as you can if you're worried about overheating. But there's a tempature outside falls, that's when you go back and you open all your things back up, maybe six pm five six pm in Auckland some parts to the south. I know that, say Dunedin stays bright and warm quite a lot later over the summer, longer days over summer, shorter days over winter, so they might leave it a little bit later in the day. But you're looking for when outside is now more comfortable than inside. If you've
got shading right, you shouldn't actually need to worry. But if you haven't, that's when you open your windows back up again. And it would be running around making sure you've got it on opposite sides of the home to get that cross flow. And then then there is this pressure difference we can actually implement inside our home. Basically, it's a little bit like gravity.
You know.
It's that lazy ear. It's wants to roll downhill. So when if you've got a low pressure space, negative pressure basically like a vacuum cleaner, right, you create a low pressure using a vacuum sucks out of the space. So whever you've got a low pressure space, he is going to roll down hell towards that space. So we get high pressure spaces where wind hits one side of the building, it's pushing on the building, and we get low pressure
zones on the opposite. Or if we have a bathroom fan as an example that's running and pulling air out of that bathroom, that can actually create that pressure difference, that low pressure zone to pull air through to it.
And so we've got a lot of homes now you're starting to see something called continuous extract fans go in and those are really good because they create a continuous pressure difference to help pull the air through your house and in a direction we want it to, because we want to take anything out of our dirty spaces, our bathroom, our laundry, our kitchen, that's where we create most of our MUCKs. And then we want air to come back
into our bedroom. So you've got a window open in the bedroom and a fan pulling air out of the room. That's where we create this wonderful goes in. Let's go over and behind it. It wants to get out of this space as fast as possible. It's lazy and shy, and it's saying, hey, come out here. This is the exit sign. The continuous extract fan is pulling her out of the bathroom.
And those continuous extract fans, you know, like if I go into my bathroom and I turn the fan on, I can hear it right and it's, you know, it's it's doing its job. It's sucking all of that moisty are out of the bathroom because I've had a shower. But it's, you know, to be fair, it's it's a little bit noisy. I can hear it running and that.
Sort of thing.
So it's working, but it's not the sort of thing that i'd want on all of the time. I think what you're talking about, the continuous extract ones, they're running at a lower rate and they're much quieter and so that they're not intrusive. Is that how I how I see far far less and true.
To them and well designed ones you won't you won't notice at all when they're running in their continuous mode. Yes, so you're right, they are at a loss. I mean that's actually something hod lets us do. Right, So we've got and the numbers, and the numbers do matter to me, but probably matter a little bit less for our audience.
It's twenty five liters a second with an intimate, and intimated is one where you can choose when, and that's something that what we wish all of our occupants remember to turn their fans on for long enough, including when we shower. We we just we're human. Maybe we're leaving
the house straight after our shower. Maybe we're about to go to bed and as a noisy fan, so we turn the fan off, or we don't turn it on at all because baby sleeping in the other room, or some got night shift, so we leave it off, and then we create that moisture in that space. And if we haven't got a negative pressure or removing air from that space, then that moisture can leak out into our house. So we've now got these continuous fans, and so that's there.
Intimate one twenty five liters a second. The continuous one are ten liters a second, so well under half of what you have was the twenty five, the intimateate one, and that means you're actually able to run a quieter, smaller fan for those bathrooms and so that then runs all the time. There's little negative pressure. And as I said, the well designed ones, it doesn't always happen that way.
You do get unfortunately for design, even in ventilation. But the well designed ones, you should barely hear is not not here at all, and definitely when you're not in that room, it shouldn't bleed out from that space. So it runs continuously and it actually takes away that that challenge where we don't know how to operate our houses as well. So it will keep moving air and we can we can almost forget and it's great for rentals and any builds.
Yeah, look, it's I find it a fascinating space. And I think it's you know your comment about the shutters
and the shading, and I'm thinking about walking through. In fact, one of our earlier callers was talking about heading off to France shortly and you go somewhere like that where they do have you know, warm, hot, long dry summers, and you can see the shutters on the outside of the building and you go well, how isn't that such a sensible solution to a really obvious problem That you've got a shutter that during the day you could leave
the window open for ventilation but close the old wooden shutter, which you know will still allow aaron but keeps the sun out. It's it's fantastically well start.
To see that.
Yeah, well, I hope so, I hope so, because we do need to adjust our windows for that because the shutter, but I hope we will with yes, it doesn't work so well. Yeah, But the other one is, yeah, even you go to Australia, right and you see these little details coming down from the eaves of the building where they've got like they're like vertical lines or like decoration,
and they actually create some shading lower down. And that's wonderful because in some of the sun sits higher than in winter, so it stops that angle pitting your windows through the middle of the day. When the sun's lower in winter, it actually bypasses those shades, which means you get all the sun hitting your window. The other really really cool thing you see over in Europe and in parts of Australia and New Zealand is you can actually use natural planting to help the deciduous plants.
Okay, because summer.
Spring all the leaves come out, they grow, they become bushy, and that blocks the sun. I think a wonderful grape vine on a purglar yeah, or a.
Nice bogan villi or something like that.
Yeah, you sat under them, and they're shady, and they've blot the you know, they rattle of them in the breeze. It's just that wonderful environment of the summer. You know, the winter the leaves will fall off and they have this still have their elegance, but the sun's coming through. So you can do a lot with the natural environment as well, but obviously not in all our spaces.
I think what's helpful, hopefully with the discussions that's sort of in the public sphere at the moment, and I know you've been kind of driving some of that as well, is around I suppose a more nuanced understanding of how our buildings actually perform and what we need to do to operate them. I think the idea of sort of operator era or an operator guide for our houses is
something that we've kind of almost forgotten about. So thank you very much for being part of that discussion, and for I love that insight around areas lazy and shy is a great image to hold in mind when you think about how why is my room getting so hot? And what can I do to mitigate that or control that in some way? Storm thank you very much for joining us this morning. Enjoy you long weekend. Sorry to interrupt it right smack bang in the middle, and we'll talk again soon, undoubtedly.
Thank all of this.
Take care.
Storm Half from actually works at Simmis who make fans, but does a lot of research and a lot of writing. If you want to know about ventilation or you want to read some art, just search for Storm Half. It's haarp Ham, number of articles on LinkedIn and various sort of building blogs around the place, and it's good information. Twenty six minutes after eight crikey, we've raced along. It's almost time for rud. If you've got a question for Redd,
you can call us now. Eight hundred and eighty ten eighty back in a mote.
Whether you're paidy with ceiling, fixing the fens, or wondering how to fix that hole in the wall, give Peter Wolf capcoll On eight hundred eighty ten eighty the resident builder on news Talk sed B news Talk said.
B extra just basically lose with half the people, right. But I do not have the same opinion when it comes to the Pope. I think it is the job of the Pope and every other Christian leader out there to actually advocate on behalf of people, like migrants, the poorest and the most downtrodden. And I might not agree with everything the Pope says or his general stance on this, but I think it is absolutely his job to share his opinion on the suffering of others as he perceives it.
In fact, I'm happy to see him do it because for too long, Christian leaders, and especially the Catholic Church, have got way too distracted by opulence and personal wealth, when actually the true roots of the religion are a complete opposite. It's about living with and looking after the
people who need you most. Now, I bet this is going to burst Donald Trump's balloon owner because, as you can imagine, he was pretty stoked this morning to have America's first pope so early in his term, and obviously a reflection on him. I don't think it's going to be as much fun when America's first Pope is not such a huge fan.
Of America's president.
That was a news Talk said be extra squeaky door or squeaky floor. Get the right advice from Peter Wolfcamp, the Resident builder on news Talk Sedb. For more from the Resident Builder with Peter Wolfcamp, listen live to news Talk said B on Sunday Mornings from Sex, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.