You're listening to the Resident Builder podcast with Peterwolfcamp from News Talks at b Squeaky Door or Squeaky Floor. Get the right advice from Peterwolfcamp the Resident Builder with Lightfoursolar dot Co dot insiad switched to solar in twenty twenty five and pay less for power us talks at b.
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A well, A very very good morning and a warm welcome to you on this the first show, the first Resident Builder on Sunday show here at news Talk. Se'd be for twenty twenty five, so it is a great pleasure to return. Well, we haven't really taken a break to be fair, But it's great to be back, and it's it is twenty twenty five, and that brings with it,
I suppose optimism, hope, opportunity, potential for a year ahead. Certainly, there's plenty of challenges out there for the construction sector, for the economy in general, to be fair, so we'll see how that pans out over the course of the year. But it is delightful to be back. I trust that you had a good New Year's celebration. Hopefully if it was festive, it was not festive with some sort of long lingering hangover or some yeah something you've got of
it later on. But anyway, if you've had a hopefully you've had a good New Year's and you are preparing yourself for the year ahead. If you've been out in the garden, or you've been working around the house, or you've been doing some jobs inside, I hope they've been going well or as well as they possibly can. I did actually notice in my neighborhood someone was out with power tools on New Year's Day. They were cracking into it. I don't know what it was. It might have been
a water blaster. I'm pretty sure I heard a grinder out there somewhere. Not sure that I heard a skill saw or a chains but certainly some people were out and about with power tools on New Year's Day, possibly having a sort of a very sober night and then wanting to rub in their vigor and their determination to greet the new year with activity. For those who maybe were lingering a little bit in bed a bit longer on New Year's Day radio, we're into it. So the
year ahead will be fascinating. I think from a political point of view, it's going to be interesting to see whether so much of what was talked about last year in terms of lessening bureaucracy, trying to speed up the construction or the consenting process, any of those sorts of things come to fruition, whether or not after a lot of consultation around standards, and whether or not the increased standards for H one, which is the insulation requirements, will
be wound back in order to try and find some savings for the cost of building houses. Whether that actually comes to something I personally hope not in this that I don't think that we need to wind back H one standards, but we do need to get rid of the schedule methods so well, we can talk about that. It's going to be a fascinating year ahead. So if you've got a project that is underway and maybe you'd like some help with it, or you've started something, perhaps
you've got some new tools. Like me, I don't actually get any tools for Christmas. Buying tools for me for Christmas could be a little bit tricky. However, I have been out shopping over the Christmas break and I picked up a couple of little things that I felt that I needed that were a gap in the arsenal, a gap in the repertoire of tools that I might have in the tool shed. So we can talk a little bit about those. But later on this morning, and I did actually spend a little bit of happy time in
the workshop, just kind of organizing, sort of puttering. Puttering, I think was my word for twenty twenty four. At some stage during twenty twenty five, I'll think of another word or find another word that I like. I'm not making them up, I just find them and I like them.
Puttering was a great word. Actually, I've got a delightful card from Dennis, who lives around where I did, and he swung by to drop off a card and a gift actually, which was very kind of a just to say, hey, look, have a good year and all the best for Christmas and so on. And he mentioned in his card that he had been out puttering during the day and found that enormously satisfying as well. If you don't know what puttering means, I'll explain a bit later on. But hey, look,
we're into it for a new year. So this is a show all about essentially building literacy. So what I want to talk about is stuff that I read about, all that I'm involved with and do. And you know, during the course of the year, I'm in a privileged position in a sense where I get to attend a lot of seminars. I have an opportunity of sort of getting an insight into the construction sector and into construction practice as well. We build better houses, and it's complex.
There's lots and lots of well, initially moving but in the end not many moving parts in a house. They tend to remain stable. So, you know, how do we how do we figure out how to do things better in order to get better houses? And there was a text at the end of last week's show. I obviously struck a nerve by talking a little bit about bureaucracy. I wasn't actually talking about bureaucracy, but people there are several texts actually quite critical of me in their eyes,
defending bureaucracy, defending regulations. I don't mind talking about that, but later on the show as well, right now in the show. Actually, let's not do it later. Let's do it right now, because the lines are open. Oh, eight hundred eighty ten eighty is that number to call? You can text which is nine two nine two or ZBZB from your mobile phone, and if you'd like to send me an email, you would be more than welcome it as Pete at newstoo zb dot co dot nz. So
let's get into it. The lines are open. The number to call eight hundred and eighty ten eighty any building related questions, and it might be legislation, it might be tools. I'm more than happy to talk about tools. Actually I might give you my tool of the year. I was thinking about this after the show last week, and I was sort of, you know, at the end of the year,
you kind of I don't know. My habit is to be a little bit reflective, let's say a little contemplative, thinking back on the year, and I was trying to think in amongst a whole lot of other thoughts that were rumbling around and my head around things like what was the most useful thing that I might have purchased or encountered in terms of tools over the course of the year. And so I've landed on something, possibly two, but certainly one. Anyway, So we can talk tools, we
can talk about projects. We can talk about projects that you might have ahead of you this year. If you've got something on the drawing board back in the old days that you'd like to bring to life, how are you going to do it? What choices do you make, where do you put your resources? And in fact I've just at the end of last year I was introduced to via a builder that I know, an outstanding builder to be fair, a project that he started right in the middle of December, so almost at the end of
the year. A renovation and addition to an existing nineteen fifties house, where the clients are particularly informed and they want to go high performance. They want to create a really energy efficient house out of what is an older house, so a deep retrofit with a view to making it incredibly energy efficient, a very sustainable home. So we'll keep you up to date with that project. If that's what you've got on your plate that you'd like to do, well, we can talk about that as well. Or if it's
just a more and a sense more modest thing. I just want to make my house a little bit warmer, drier and more comfortable, then let's talk about that too. Oh, eight hundred and eighty ten eighty is the number to call. Great to be with you really looking forward to the year ahead. It is six fifteen here on the fifth of January twenty twenty five. We're into it, paul A, very good morning to you. How are you this morning, Paul, Yeah, good morning, into you, into you.
I've got a little chip on my kitchen bench. I've got like an undermount think and it's right on the rim of that app. I've heard you in the past recommend a couple of companies that can come around, and already that up. So I'm on Central Auklands.
Depends what's the material good.
Question, not sure at some fall of lumine. I've asked some people that have come around. It's like a it's Scott Constantino's Spain brand underneath it. I'm not quite sure. It looks like some sort of resin sort of it's kind of stone sort of effect was in the house when we brought it, so we're just really tiding it up for the new owner really, So yeah, sure, I'm certain, but i'd say some sort of reason.
Yeah, Okay, now that Costantino was a fairly new brand that's out, So yeah.
I think just to this house for over fifteen years ago, you might. Yeah, I'm not sure. I don't think it's a better look online at that brand. I can't see any relevant to what I've got for you.
No, Okay, Look, composites have been around for a while and they are quite repairable, so well, in most cases they can be I would start with bench doctors online, so they effectively they're kind of like a franchise. I think they're around the country and certainly they'll be in Auckland, and if they don't know, they'll probably be able to put you onto someone like there's another guy that I used a little while ago, a crylic fix, but that
was specifically for a crylic bench top. So things like vanity tops and that sort of thing where we had the classic you know, finished the project and someone, possibly me, possibly another trade you know, dropped a hammer or a chisel onto the edge of the bench and we ended up with a chip in it. Right, Yeah, there was another one of those a little while ago. So yeah, look, they can be repaired. I'd start with bench doctors go
from there. Yeah, okay, yeah, And are you staying in the house or are you looking to sell?
No, we're looking to sell, So just tining it up for you. Aren't like it's the bench stoll. I say, it's fairly whold, but it's obviously quite good quality it seeing your life in it, and I'd say, yeah that that chips and sinks had won too many bands with under the Yeah, just that's a tiny chap. It's only about maybe eight meals via a couple of meals, but it's just right and the worst possible place. You see it every time you go to this.
Thing, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's one of those things that perhaps you know, someone coming in to look at the house prior to purchase, and then they see that and they think, oh, then I've got to find someone to fix it, you know what I mean, And then suddenly it becomes it kind of in their head. It goes on that side of the ledger that goes stuff that I have to do once I bought that house. And I've always thought, actually, you know, people have often said, oh,
what should I do prior to selling the house? And I've always thought, you try and tack off those things that leave that sort of oh impression in a prospective buyer. You don't want them to you know, like open. I went to one open home a little while ago, opened the door. The front door was open, and down the corner on the hinge side they done some really terrible painting. Right.
The painted bled around and you could see the outside was dark and the inside was light, and on that edge it was just really ragged, and it kind of just went, ah, it just feels like a lack of attention. And I would have thought, if that's the first thing that a buyer sees when they walk through the door, why wouldn't you deal with that? You know, it's that sort of thing. So wow, oh mate, Hey, good luck
with that. And yeah, the bench doctor people I've used and I'm sure they'll sort you out all the very best take care all of is Paul oh eight hundred and eighty ten eighty is that number to call? Quick text? Has come through my house has not been signed off yet? Does it have to have things like painting on inside walls in carpet or vinyl down? I probably need a little bit more detail on that. I presume that when
you say not signed off yet is I mean? Look, it's unlikely that it would even qualify for a final inspection without floor coverings, particularly if floor coverings are necessary in you know, wet areas, and that includes now kitchens. So you know, if it was let's say, explodes plywood, then I don't think you'd even get a final inspection. And certainly without a final inspection you won't get a certificate or code compliance Certificate a CCC. So I think
you probably need to get that done. Another quick text as well, Morning Peat. We're about to put in the secondhand kitchen. It has a gas hob. Can we put a nine kg bottle inside the cupboards instead of outside? I don't believe. So again, I'm not a gas fitter,
which is licensed trade. I know it's possible to have a nine kg bottle exterior, but I'm pretty sure that having them inside, which I know was common working on a kitchen probably twenty years ago where that was the case, but I don't think that that would be done that would be suitable anymore. And also any gasworks should be done by a registered gas fitter as well. That's really really important to say. Oh, eight hundred eighty ten eighty, the lines are open. The number to call eight hundred
eighty ten eighty. If you'd like to text like these other people have done, which would be great, It is nine two nine two is ZBZB from your mobile phone if you'd like ze me and email It's Pete ATNEWSTALKZB dot co dot Nz. Just gone twenty one minutes after six. The lines are open. We always get busy a little bit later in the show, and now is a great time to call eight hundred eighty ten.
Eighty doing other house sorting the guard and ask Pete for a hand the resident builder with Peter Wolfcamp and light Ford Solar do your solar journey in twenty twenty five, call oh, eight hundred eighty eight news talk.
They'd be right, yeh, let's get amongst that. Oh, eight hundred eighty ten eighty the number call Kate A very good morning to you.
Good morning, Pete, happy to you, to you, and to you into you.
Thank you.
I'm kind of coming to the end stage of my project, which you have given me okays of advice, thank you, since it started in July and even before. But now I'm at the point where I need to install a fence tank. It's a thin tank for stormwaterer retention, and it's going up against the sense. It's three thousand liters yep. And beneath the sense there is a hut that they made in the ground. So I've sort of exposed some concrete of the concrete post, and I'm worried about putting
some retaining in there. But i can't dig deeply into the ground because there's a storm public stormwater line nearby and I'm not allowed to do that. So I've been looking at options. I don't want to take up a lot of depth front to back because there isn't much room between this fence in the back of the house sure, So I've looked at keystone, which will be quite deep. I think it's about three hundred it's going to take
up with the scoria and overcoil. I've seen online concrete slabs that you can put in place, or Gabian, but they have to be quite deep as well. I need to take it five hundred in hype.
Oh, that was going to be my next question. That's actually quite a lot, isn't it. So it's a I mean three thousand tank. It's probably about two and a half meters long, three meters.
Long, twenty nine fifty.
Three meters long. That yeah, right, do you have it? You know, tanks that are designed to sit on the ground are not designed to sit in the ground, right, that's obvious, But they can take a little bit of bearing. I'm just wondering whether it would be helpful if depending on which the outletters and you could some tanks have outlets at both ends or one end, and they the sides are both the same, so it doesn't matter which way around you put them. I'm just one just obviously
it's a sloping site. And does it slope sort of along the length of the tank along that three meter length or does it slope back to front of the tank? No, along the length along the length?
Okay, build it. So the builder says he's going to put a concrete plint, right, and I've got some sort of framing that will hold it.
Yes, yes, some tanks require restraint, right, so you need to cast in like a timber post, which you can then secure. Particularly the tanks that have a quite narrow footprint will often require seismic restraint. Look, if you can do a concrete pad, that's good. You don't actually have to have concrete under them. You could. The last one that I installed, which was a Bailey slim gym tank, we again it was on a sloping site, probably a
similar slope to yours. I ended up excavating down at one end a little bit like one hundred mill below the ground, and I could just batter that away. I made up a hoop essentially out of some might have been two hundred or two fifty by fifty retaining timber set that on the ground, got some compacted base course, and so one end it was slightly in the ground and at the other end it was slightly out of the ground, and kind of we balanced that up and I just put in compacted hard film and that's been
absolutely fine. Saying that that was a slightly wider tank, and it also didn't require seismic restraint in that particular instance. Look, I mean, if I would be really tempted to bury one end slightly right to excavate down. So you know, if you lose two hundred mil there, then suddenly you're only three hundred mils out of the ground at the other end. If it's five hundred mili slope, you can kind of lose it at either end.
Oh, sorry, Pete, I didn't explain it very much. The retaining wall has to be five hundred it's not that much of a slope.
Oh okay, But then.
Why the drop down is five hundred and within that there are some massive.
Tree roots, right, okay, then.
Ground away we're looking at the side of a tree route.
Yes, okay, Well it's a little tricky without actually seeing it. But in terms of actually providing a stable base for a water tank like this, right, the ones that just sit on the ground, you can do concrete if you want, but it's not really necessary. Compacted hardfill is fine. A small retaining around it is fine, certainly if you're settling it on areas that you think is loose material. I try and remove as much of that as you possibly
can and replace it with compacted hardfill. And you know, even the compacting it's really just if you've got a temper. That's fine. You don't even have to go out and hire a plate compact or anything like that.
I'm more worried about the wall behind the five hundred retaining.
Wall right and is it sitting?
Is that going to collapse in?
Well? No, I don't think so. And that retaining wall behind it. Does that rise above the bottom of the tank or does the tank sit on it and then the retaining wall is supporting it.
No, it rises above the bottom of the tank. And I'm worried that it's going to cave in on the tank and push the tank towards the house. So it's five hundred in height at the left, stand at the right hand and it might be four hundred in height.
It's just dropping a little bit.
Yeah, okay.
Look.
The other thing that you could do just to offer up some support to the retaining wall is given that you if you do have to put in some posts, you could then dig those in in front of the retaining wall and just make sure you go down a little bit deeper and perhaps a slightly bigger hole that you can fill with concrete. Put that in. That will offer up some support to the retaining wall. It will also give you the support you need for that particular type of tank for the seismic restraint.
Well, I need to put an overcoil and scoria behind that.
Look for something that's five hundred high. No, I mean you know, generally, yes, you need an overcoil and some squory would be good. Putting in some drainage coil. Unless it's actually directed somewhere and connected to assessment and connected to the storm water, it's probably not a lot of point in doing it. I would just put in some free drainage material at five hundred high.
I think on the plans it shows connecting to a catch pet.
Great. Okay, Well again, if it's on the plans, then please do what's on the plan, because just in case someone wants to check it. And yeah, I mean, look, drainage coil behind a wall makes a massive difference to how that wall performs over time. And if there is the ability to drop it into a catch pit, which is the right thing to do to control the sediment, then that's great. And if it's on the plants.
Absolutely, But I'm not allowed to dig down because of the storm water. I'm close to a water care stormwater line.
Right, and that's obviously allow me to go public line it is.
They won't allow me to dig within a meter of bit, I think, so I just got to stay above the ground.
In I was thinking for.
Creative ideas of what products could be used that won't take up the whole depth of the space.
Have got Again, the picture I have in my mind is I'm coming back to what I did on a project about a year ago, probably a bit longer now, where I just made up like a hoop, excavated the ground a bit, removed the loose material, put that down. So that was my form work for my base for the water tank, like the slim Gin one, and then filled it with I probably used half a meter or so of base course and put the tank on top
of there, and that was absolutely fine. Then I'm not digging anything down and as long as the base is sound and in your case, you do have I keep emphasizing the seizemic restraint because again, if it's part of the manufacturer spaceification, then it pays to do it, you know, if you need to do it. But then if you need to dig in some posts and you're not allowed to dig because of the proximity to the water care line, I guess this is the only option in terms of location for the tank.
It is.
Yeah, okay, yes, you know what has become quite tricky about it is it's a longer fence line which was in the wrong place, right. The neighbor built it too far on my boundary. So I took a not ot and I took a notchot that was large enough for the tank to sit in so that it would be one straight line and on the existing fence.
Yeah, I'm with you, okay.
So it's going to be all right, But but it's just beneath the base of the fence where the posts go into the ground. They had to dig down five hundred Yes, that's the thing, so that the sense all offense sort of above the ground. It's not high level or anything.
It's I'm with you.
Yeah, So I've got this cut in the ground and I'm worried the fence is going to ca then something needs to be filling in some of the gaps that either not Yes, this fence there, Look, it has to.
Be at each end.
It's going to take up some of the length of the tank, and I'm going to have to make that much bigger. I didn't realize I didn't realize that to retain.
It a little bit, I would try and even out the retaining by excavating pushing down in one area, and then the height of the retaining in the other area is diminished. And also I think, you know, I mean, I know, in terms of protecting the public asset, what water care are concerned about when you build over is that you have nothing that bears on the pipe, right, But that typically is more of a focus in terms
of actual buildings. Right, So in the unlikely event that someone needs to come and repair that public line in the future, they could drain the tank and lift it off and do the excavation and get down to it. So, you know, it's not quite the same I'm thinking about the principle of it. It's not quite the same as if you had a house sitting over a public either wastewater or storm water line.
So I think, well that makes sense.
Yeah, yeah, you know, it's not quite the same duty of care. Let's say, given that it's a structure that could be in the event of it needing to be moved, could be moved. So again i'd sort of dial back the caution on that a.
Little bit, right, okay, but they still say in the plans as they specify keystone. So I'm just looking for products.
Yeah, and look, I've used keystones, and remember there's two. There's kind of two different types of keystones as well. There's the big heavy one for doing much higher wall, and then there's kind of a garden edging one which is much smaller, still effective, but a lot smaller. Take a look how big they are. I think they're probably about three hundred long and maybe one hundred and twenty.
De Okay, look I find those in high restores.
Absolutely. Ok you take care all this wrapping up the project. Take care. You're the new stalks. B and Michelle, A very good morning.
Oh did you pink? Happy New Year?
And to you, my dear, how are you no complaint? Box of fluffies in my corner.
Of the world. But I've got plenty to say about the Regional.
Council in the walk space, go right ahead.
I am visually impaired ten years living lockdown, all these problems that came kept propector uh, COVID, you name it, Gabriel. I've survived a lot, but I can't do the Regional Council. I live in headlock. We're a village. We have a district council who looks after footplants, stormwater. This is this lovely lady, the last corner, and it just brought it all back. My beautiful home wreck and ruined. No stormwater runoff.
My whole place is sinking. It's the blitter. I'm not covered by insurance because it's neglect and it's the whole wil thing. It just breaks my heart. It's legislation. There's my issue. I'm old, I'm blind, I live alone, independent, with gorgeous help for mate concern, but adding flex there's no vehicle crossing. There is no way for this water from maybe road to go to a storm water there is none. I live in a sinkhole. Now the house is splitting. It's all coming apart, and I have nothing
to pict. My dad passed away. It was my everythink, my brains in the world. And it gives me sanity. And there do you go? Where do you go with the vesicle crossing content to stop? I have a shared driveway with three others. I'm the only occupy owner and it only affects my fletre.
Any answers, they're probably well to be fair. Sometimes there are answers, but you won't like them, right.
Give it to me.
Well, no, no, no, because because I can't you know, I don't know all of the details, and and these things do get incredibly complex. But you know, I think one of the things that as a country we're probably going to have to face is that some areas that we thought we could live in, we can't write that that was the.
Change the subdivision, you're right, you know, and.
Possibly areas that we've lived in for a you know, a longer period of time now a subject of flooding and inundation in ways that the only answer is pretty much retreat.
Listen to me completely, because there's no runs, no still, no drainage at that point.
You would hope that the state, whether that's regional or national, would would be able to say to people, hey, look, you know, we gave you a consent to build there thirty forty fifty years ago.
But it's it's not nineteen sixty, it's.
No good anymore, and we're going to help you to move on.
You know that it's just a repair job that should have been.
Yeah, but I think some councils are facing the fact that they what they're trying to repair. The repair is not going to work right that you know, I'm aware of. I went to a house that was flooded a while ago, and I'm now aware that that area they've simply bought all of the owners out and they've said it's in practice, nothing we can do is going to stop the flooding in the future, So we're just going to have to
buy you out now. Obviously counsels don't really want to be in that position because that's a really expensive activity and so on, but it is going to be a reality that we're going to have to accept, I think, and maybe you fall into that category.
I just wonder if not really neglect any right.
This is why there's no insurance because when I actually got a lawyer onto the case because she said this is wrong, they've just not finished the job because they're not on the same page. Why are they a regional look after the roading and the district look after the footpaths. They did a new footpath used half of my property as except to the vehicle crossing on the main road, but they didn't put a storm water. So I am the one who wears all the runoff from Napier Road.
It's poisoned my land, It's poisoned.
That sort of thing there. You know, there is provision within I think it's the Property Act in particular that talks about right about Okay, So I'm just wondering whether for you, Michelle, given your circumstances, is that maybe maybe through age concern, or through great power or through advice at all.
Okay, you're the next step, darling.
I'm not giving up, Squeaky. Where will get the results?
And sometimes I had this conversation with him with your knowledge, who had an idea and he's like, tell me if it's a good idea or not. Look, I My sense is for in your circumstances, you kind of want an advocate, right which might be a retired lawyer. It might be someone who's involved in community work who can sort of assess all of the documentation, all of the.
From the district council. He tried to advocate on my behalf.
He didn't get any want to see the exit.
He did as much as he was in his power. It's legislation on the regional council and a lot of.
It either local councilor or member of parliament.
Oh, then there they're beautiful, so.
But still don't get anywhere.
Feeling for the situation, but can't fix it themselves. It's up to legislation. And I couldn't get a constant to get another person to do a vehicle exit because it's encagious on regional and they wouldn't pay. And then we had Cabrielle and now and then my son died and he was my advocate, and now.
I'm just lost.
Yeah, with we age concern. They are my best friends, the beautiful people and what they do, so they provide that I don't have to leave home. There's no transport, there's no buzzes in my side of the road to accommodate transport. I won't use the free taxi. It's a burden on some tax player, but I don't need it because it's all Are.
You in a position where you could sell and move on.
I'm still paying a mortgage. It's not because it's just losing value and I'm on a bench and only night and day all my life to get my home. That's the same thing she said, get ready, a village is more understanding because in township you just come the next door neighbor. The village is amazing. I live independent alone, and I I'm so blessed with the kindness of others. But it doesn't fix legislation and can't fix it.
No, And that's where I wonder whether, in some sense, Michelle, that the problem is. I mean, we like to think of all problems are being solvable, but possibly they're not. And I don't mean that in a dismissive sense. I just know sometimes it feels I do feel that an advocate. You mentioned you lost your son. My condolences for that. I'm just I tell you, could you just s down the line, keep you and Mark will get your number and I'll put my thinking cap on and we'll see
what we can do. Maybe the one with the runoff needs to go to the Minister of Building. Probably not really their thing. I think it's that local advocate thing, you know, maybe a retired lawyer looking for a bit of a push. We'll be back in a moment.
Whether you're painting the ceiling, fixing the fens, or wondering how to fix that hole in the wall. Give Peter Wolf Cabin call on Oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty. The resident builder with light Force Solar where your twenty twenty five solar purchase earns you airports dollars used talk SIB.
Some texts coming in with regard to the conversation with Michelle. We'll see what we can do there. A couple of useful ones, couple of to be fair not so useful ones. We'll we'll talk about that a little bit later on the show. If you've got a question of a building nature, call us now oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty.
Squeaky door or squeaky floor, Get the right advice from Peter Wolfcare the resident builder with Lightforcesolar dot co dot NZE make twenty twenty five the year you switch to solar US talks b.
Your news talk said, b Oh, eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the number.
Hello Janet, Yes hi, My question is rather trivial compared to the last rule. I have a shore enclosure which I want to revamp. It's very old. It's been in the in the downstairs here of our property, so it's got a concrete floor and the shower there has and I don't know what you call it, but it's an old fashioned trap. It's not an easy waste one so you have to step step up into it. Yes, I want to do a complete revamp of a whole lot.
I was wondering, can I lower that down and do an easy trap installation, but it would have to drain from it has got about one point five meters to the outside wall to where the trap is, So I don't know what sort of height I'm going to get in the advantage of changing to an easy trap or better to stay with the old one.
So when you say the old one, so what you think is underneath the shower tray is a sort of conventional P or an S trap, right, so it.
Comes down like you have under a hand basin.
Yeah, okay, So I mean typically that's what I was looking at one the other day. Maybe a two hundred mil turn twenty and thirty mil from let's say the outlet to the bottom of the bend and then back up again, and an easy waste are often about eighty to ninety. So I think there's an easy one hundred, one hundred and fifty mil that you might get out of it by changing that. Obviously, it will require removing the lining, pulling out the shower tray, reframing that area,
dropping it down lower. But yeah, I mean, yes, there are obvious savings by using an easy trap, which is a lot sharper.
Yeah.
Yeah, no, Now, so that brings me to my next question. All of the sort of custom built shower trays now, because this has got an old stone stare, Yeah, all of the custom built ones now there's sort of for sort of more level thraw a level plumbing underneath. Of course, it's a concrete saw, so we can't do that. It's got to go out the wall. Do you know how do you need to build a frame for those?
Yeah, I know what you're saying. Yes you would, So it's essentially, you know, you know where your pipe work's got to go, so you can't frame up there, but you can frame around it, lay in, you know, use tannelized timber and put some tannalized ply down, create a platform for your now lower shower tray to sit on. And as long as the shower tray is fully supported just as if it was sitting on the ground, then that'll be fine.
Right, fine, Okay, then how do you finish off sort of the front face of it, because you're still going to have to step up there.
Yes, that's right, you will look. The most simple way would probably be tiles or something similar. If you were using a vinyl on the floor, you could bring the vinyl up. But what's what's on the concrete floor of the bathroom anyway?
It's one four in which is all getting ripped up. So we're to be doing a complete revamp of that downstairs.
Would you put vinyl as in sheet vinyl down again?
Yes?
Okay? Then I would just form an upstand and have the vinyl come up. And ideally, if when you're framing the platform for the shower tray, you set it back a couple of millimeters so that the vinyl can actually tuck up underneath the lip of the shower tray.
Right okay.
Or you could have a little step flashing in there as another option. But you just want to make sure that if you're going to bring the vinyl up that upstand, that you don't provide access for water to penetrate, you know, from the top right, so just condensation and overflow.
From the shower.
So as long as it tucks either tucks underneath the shower tray or you have a little step flashing there, that will make it waterproof.
Well, okay, yep, no, no, that's fine. And you don't like what the old fashion trips you needed to have access to these.
You can clean from the top, you can clean from the trot a bitter word to go. Yep, it'll make a big difference to that that step up, because that's always a bit nervous, isn't it nerve wracking? I think it's more nerve wracking stepping out of the shower and when you're slightly unbalanced. Yeah, we'll be back straight after News Sport helping.
You get those DIY projects done right. The Resident Builder with Peter Wolfcamp and Light four Solar pay less for Power in twenty twenty five News.
Talks It b your news talks it be if you've got a question of a building nature, this is the show for you. Good morning, Welcome along to the Resident Builder on Sunday with me people wolf Camp, the Resident Builder, taking your questions today and given that this is the first show for twenty twenty five looking forward to the year ahead. So if you've joined us now, welcome and I trust that you'll stay with us as we go through the year. Oh eight hundred and eighty ten eighty
the number to call. You can text as well, which is nine two nine two or ZBZB from your mobile phone and if you'd like zemn email, you're more than welcome. It is Pete atnewstalk zb dot co dot NZ. I was struck by the passing this week of Jimmy Carter, former President of the United States of America. I have to say, in my head or my heart, basically, he's
always been one of my heroes. I've huge admiration for him, and you can criticize the politics and for those of us have a certain vintage we remember, you know, the attempt to free the hostages and those sorts of things way back in the day. But his commitment to public life and service I think has been outstanding, and images of him as a sort of ninety year old still going out and working building houses with habitat for humanity is just an image that I think is exceptional and
exemplary for those people in public life. So sad to I mean, look at a hunt. There's not really a lot of sadness at the passing, but there is a certain fondness and for me, a gratitude of a life well lived. So yeah, I just thought i'd mentioned that oh, eight hundred eighty ten eighty the number to call. Karen. Very good morning to you. How are you this morning, Karen.
Good morning, Peter, Well, thank you. I'm wondering if you could tell me anything about main Mark.
Main Mark as in the injected like it's an Essentially, it's an expanding polyurethane that they inject underneath buildings to level them up. Yes, yes, yeah, they've been around for a while. There was a slightly different name a few years ago. I have never personally contracted them to do work for me on behalf of a client, but I do have first hand reports, so two people that I know who have had them come in for very particular circumstances right, and in both cases it's been quite successful.
So one was a corner of a building that was actually two storied. It was a block basement, brack above and in one corner of the garage. It had dropped away to the extent where the garage door was jamming, that sort of thing, and they were able to go underground there inject this expanding foam and it's way more technical than that, but essentially that's what it is, and then lift the building up in a similar circumstance. So, look,
it is effective. I also know that it's not cheap, but then again, your alternatives are often as expensive or more expensive. So you know, if you've got a building that's sunk, I was looking at a place probably a year ago exactly the same thing, built onto a bit of an edge where they hadn't done a great job with the retaining and the building had subsided in one corner, and they looked at getting that product in to do the work. Yeah, it is effective.
In a word.
I've got a twenty meter concrete path and it's about a meter wide and it's come away from the dwelling about two centimeters right along, and to replace it and get in bobcats and goodness knows what would just be horrific. So I thought that this might be a good thing.
Yeah, I mean most look I can't speak for them, but I you know where it's What it's designed to do is to lift vertically. So if there's a sideways displacement, so the let's say the ground is moving and your path is moved away from the wall, is essentially a horizontal separation. I don't know that it would be that useful to try and sort that out. I mean, is the path still reasonably even or has it become a trip hazard for you?
No? No, it's in great condition and it's all in one big piece, so it's obviously got reinforcing in it.
Yeah, look up from what you're describing. If your only issue is the fact that it's come away from the edge of the foundations of the building and left a gap, why not just deal with the gap?
Right? What would just itest?
I mean at twenty milt's a little bit challenging to fill, you'd probably use a semenititious material. Again, so rather than try and use a seilant, which is we'll look a little bit odd. I mean, we do it until panel walls and that sort of thing, beads of up to twenty mil, but a bead at twenty mili on the ground, I'd be inclined just to use a sementitious repair. So there's powders that you can buy that you can mix up. They've got an additive in them that helps them to adhere,
and simply trowl that into that area there. It'll stop water getting in, which is a good thing, and it will just take your eye away from the fact that the gap running along between the path and the house.
Okay, yeah, I'm just tying it'll keep moving.
Yeah, but how long has it taken to move twenty mil.
Oh quite some time. But the spouting holding it and the gas line's holding it in place.
Right, I really hope that that's not the case, but yeah, I take your word for it.
I think it is.
Yeah, I really hope that that's not the case. But look, I think in that situation, I know that the cost of replacing the pathway would be fairly expensive. I would say that the cost of trying to do something to remediate it, in terms of push it back, would probably be a similar cost, to be fair.
Okay, Yeah.
One of the challenges to it is where the pricing gets a little bit difficult. Is they don't know how much material they'll need to use to lift the building, right, so you know, depending on the firmness of the ground, whether there are any unexpected voids, those sorts of things. Funnily enough, and I say this not out of any disrespect to the company or anything like that, but the nature of it is that it seeks out any fissures and openings and soft spots, right, So the foam is indiscriminate.
It will go wherever there's a gap. That's the whole point of it. And in one instance, I know that there was a I think it might have been a stormwater pipe thankfully that was nearby that was not in good condition, so there was some gaps and cracks in an old storm water line, and of course the foam found its way into that as well. But you can do a video survey and have that cleaned out later on. But that's how it works. It fills up all of the voids and then once they're full, then the pressure
of it starts to then lift the building. It's quite remarkable. But look in your situation, I'd do a beat of I'd do some filler alongside there, and it'll be enough to take your eye off it. Okay, thank you, nice to talk to you all the very best. Yeah, good bye. Then, oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty is that number to call? Suggestions on how to apply reason or similar products to coat an existing polished concrete bench shop? Is it possible for the DIY or should I seek professionals to carry
that out? There was a product around a while ago dash I think it was dac H or something similar to that which was designed specifically for that or for like old laminate bench tops that needed a refresh. Perhaps you had a beautiful lime green benchtop that was all the rage back in the day and you wanted to just recoat it, so have looked for that or similar there would be There would be options there. Oh w
eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the number to call. Hello, Brian, your family, thank you, into you and yours.
And your team. Okay, Tom, the stain on concrete. You covered that issue just for crystals last.
Year, as in like kiler and those sorts of things, or from firewood, you know, gum and mason from fire Do you know what what caused the stain?
It was just timber splitting the timber on the and then leaving it stacked with I mess, A poor rain, A normal.
Right, Yes, as happens, lots of I got a bunch of texts afterwards, a lot of them saying don't use acid now. The only the reason I mentioned the acid is we often use acid or spirit assaults or hydrochloric acid to wash down cement, like brick layers use it to clean down brickwork. Afterwards. But it is specifically there too, because it eats away at the cement and we use it on exposed aggregates to clean off the surface. The text that came through a lot of people advocating for
baking soda. So whether you make the surface slightly damp, apply the baking soda and then leave it for a while, and it agitates in the same way that to be fair at home, if I've been a little bit negligent with my cooking, and I often am, and I've burnt the bottom of the pan, then I will often just let it soak with baking soda overnight and then you know, the next day it's way easier to clean. So the baking soda seems to be the.
Go good solution, thank you.
And I think we've all been there. When you've finished cooking, you look at the bottom of the pan and go ohh as I should have stirred it a bit more, But anyway, it happens, but the baking soda seems to sort it okay.
No. The other thing, I really applaud your efforts to educate people on house mooddling and also the energy.
Thank you.
Also you mentioned for Christmas there is a person that has got a program out that will model energy input over a house over a year over that it's lifestyle.
Yep. This is so to provide some context. Right. So at the moment in terms of complying with H one of the Building Code, which is all around energy energy efficiency, and so it often focuses on insulation. There is three methods for compliance. One is the schedule method, which is you go to the building code and the building code says you need to put R six point six in the ceiling and you need I think it's two point seven or two point eight in the walls, et cetera,
et cetera, et cetera. Now that's I don't want to go into it, but it's nonsense right as far as I'm concerned. So then then we have calculation method, and then we have a modeling method. And the calculation method seemed like a dark art only practiced by, you know, the those who'd been some secret training camp deep in the areas or something like that for a long time.
But now as it's become more common, there are lots and lots of practices, whether the architectural practices or specialists who are doing this sort of modeling and calculation who are able to do it? And I was at the New Zealand Institute of Building survey As conference late last year and one of the people who was there is a building server. His practice, for example, was doing it, and at a rough estimate for an average house, it was about a six hundred to seven hundred dollar fee
to do calculation method for a building consent. Now, I thought that was quite reasonable, and by being a little bit more finessed around how we approach the assembly of our houses and how we do our insulation. You know, in fact, you don't need our six point six in the ceiling. You could achieve the required number by using better insulation somewhere, maybe some slightly smaller windows, better quality double glazing, lowy, more energy efficient glazing. Da da da
da da da da da da. And then suddenly you find that actually the requirement the ceiling might be four point two or you know, I'm just picking some numbers out. But what it does do is say that we need to be a bit more nuanced about how we do the assessment of our buildings, and that something as blunt as the schedule method is probably not that useful anymore, and now that more and more people are working in the space, the cost has come down, which is great.
Well, theoretically a house could be modeled on the scheduling type method and then also done the other way is what you've mentioned here, the modeling. So over the lifetime of a house or building, you could actually work out how much energy has saved.
Yes, you could do some extrapolation from the figures and go okay, So if we know, for example, that there is this much heat in a building because we've constructed in this manner, and then we constructed in a slightly different manner, which means that we have lower heat loss, and then we can calculate I couldn't, but other people could,
I'm sure calculate that. Well, if that heat loss equates to this many kilowatts of energy used to achieve the desired temperature, and then we can calculate the cost of that, and then we can, like I say, extrapolate that over time. Yeah, you could make some estimates about what amount you might save over time, but certainly now and you know, if you start, if you do a bit of a search around sort of energy efficient homes or people who are doing passive home or low energy homes and that sort
of thing. You know, there's plenty of evidence now where people are saying, look, my power bills are less than half of what they used to be in a more
conventional home. And a project that I went and visited just at the end of last year where a family have committed themselves to a sort of a deep retrofit of an existing house where they're going to take a nineteen fifties house which is probably you know, has no building rap, has no insulation in exterior walls, has single glazing, there's lots of gaps around the joinery and all that sort of thing, and they're going to do a deep retrofit to that in order to bring it up to
beyond the building code. So that's going to be a fascinating one to watch.
It will be.
So it is possible.
All of the quiry is to the fact that if we can have energy products along that line that are certified to save the country's energy over the sext period of time of the building, if why can't that be GST three.
Ye, And look, that would be a great thing in the same way as reading some and I mean look that broadly speaking fits into the category of you know, if there is a public good, should there be essentially a government discount on it? Right? And what you're saying is that if you're buying products in order to make a building better, and that's a good for the community, should you then receive a discount or some sort of rebate.
And I agree, But imagine the bureaucracy involved in trying to figure out that if I buy a roll of tape and I'm using it in my house and it's not energy efficient. You buy a roll of tape and you're building an energy efficient house that somehow you don't pay the GST and I do. And you know, in the same way, I think that savings for our superannuation should be tax free, but they're not in New Zealand.
Very well, you know what I mean.
You know, that's the argument, that's the big political financial argument that you're talking about there. Let's just do it because it's the right thing to do, and let's encourage other people to build better in the hope that we end up with buildings that are warm, dry, comfortable, in which case the first thing they should do is look after the inhabitants of it, and then we don't have generations of kids with bloody glue air and getting sick and taking time off school and all the rest of it.
So if we increase the quality of our housing, will achieve that. And then also looking forward to a sort of using less energy in the future. If our houses
are more efficient energy wise, then we will use less energy. Great, and then maybe if we can work on the waste we've got at sust radio nice look to be fair, I'm going to have a rant because I saw this story before it was online about Rhythm and Vines, right, this music festival that's been on, and then they've got this enormous crowd of volunteers and they think it'll take two weeks to clean up two weeks of waste that people have to go and clean up. Now they're doing
it for charity and all the rest. That's great, But that twenty thousand people leave behind so much rubbish that it takes other people two weeks, that's appalling.
I totally agree on that one too.
Probably the same young people walking down the streets wanting to get us all driving electric cars or something. Anyway, Yeah, right, someone was criticizing me the other day for having too many political rants, but it all ties together. Lovely to talk to you, Brian, You have a fantastic day, all the best mate to take care. Oh eight hundred and eighty ten eighty is that number to call? How do I? How do I glue tiles on top of tiles with
tile adhesive? Basically you may need to sort of deglaze the surface of the tile, so with an embrace of disk or something like it, just so you can get some king in. But it's not uncommon to tile over tiles. As long as the ones that are on are in really good condition and they're well bonded, then yes, you can tile over the top of tiles. Would I do it in a shower, I'm not sure that I would. Would I do it in a splashback, for example, in a kitchen where it's a bit less critical, Yeah? Probably.
You just have to be really confident in a wet area like a shower that the waterproofing's in really good condition as well. Oh wait, one hundred and eighty ten eighty the number back in a moment to talk to Tony.
Measure twice, cut once, but maybe call peat first Feeder Wolfcap the resident builder with light four solar save power in twenty twenty five and earn airpoints dollars us talks. It be.
Just a quick text on stormwater that came through a moment ago Hollo pete talking stormwater. Can I put my own roof runoff pipe down onto a driveway to put it into the council street footpath channel that's going to be put in. Can it be partially run above ground to affect the appropriate fall? It must or must it be buried which would require a bubble sump somewhere from David, thanks for your text. Look, I think that you need to control the stormwater on your property, within your property.
So allowing the storm water to drop down onto the driveway and then flood out into the council storm water the curb, whether that's on the pavement and there's sort of a channel grate running along the pavement, or whether it's into the curb, I don't think would be acceptable.
So yeah, if you don't have storm water on your own property, then obviously that's quite a big undertaking to put that in and to make a connection to the public storm water line if there is one nearby, and in some cases there aren't, but in general, the idea of just having your downpipe flooding onto the ground and then running outside of the property. I mean, if you've
got a decent long driveway. In some cases we've had to do it where we're actually installing a channel grate inside the boundary so on the private property to catch any runoff from the driveway, so that's not allowed to
go out onto the curb discharge as well. So if we're doing that just for groundwater or for surface water, effectively that forms falls on an impermeable surface because of the volume, then you're having the volume that collects on your roof going out onto the road in an uncontrolled way like that. No, I don't think that's per missile. And talk there in the text as well of a bubble sump. This is kind of a new thing. If
anyone's got any questions, feel free to call through. It's quite an interesting little idea that's starting to come around. This is all about sort of dealing with sudden overflows of where the stormwater system, your own private one is inundated. What happens to the excess, and that's where this bubble sumps are becoming quite quite common. I've never put one in yet, but undoubtedly it will come along in some state. Oh eight one hundred and eighty ten eighty the number
to call. Join us if you wish. The lines are open. Tony, good morning, Good morning, Pete morning.
An installation one?
Were you.
Nineteen sixties?
Yep?
No building rap, single blazing. I've got the glazing who has just been finished? Of insulated ceilings and under floor yep. Now I would like to put a building wrap plus wall insulation. I've removed the lining jib yep. What would be a good or I'm not fasted on putting jib back. Oh, it would be a good alternative to jib with a good A rating.
Right, Well, I don't know that I want to rely on my lining to give me my insulation or my R value. Right And I can see the text coming in in a second. But I've got to say this. Have you got a building consent for the retrofitting of insulation into existing exterior walls?
No?
Right, Currently it is a requirement to have a building consent for retrofiting insulation into exterior walls. I'm just telling you that what you do with that information is completely up to you. So, and what's the cladding on the exterior of the building with.
The balls split block, oh, split block.
Okay, so when if you as you have done, you've taken the interior lining off, so what you see is some timber framing, no building rap on the outside, and then you've got a cavity and then you've got your brick work right. So, yeah, you do want to do something, You've got a couple of options. One is to use a product similar like Autex green stuff, right, which is self supporting. So if you were to do use that insulation, you wouldn't really have to worry too much about putting
a building rap at the back of it. So I mean, look, the building wrap would help a little bit in terms of stopping drafts. So if you were to be really fastidious about cutting pieces of building paper and stapling it to the inside of each of the little cavities that created by studs and nogs, right, so all of those rectangles, and that will help with reducing draft and then you could push the insulation against that. It's worth doing, but
it is quite time consuming. If you didn't want to do that, but you did want to put insulation in, then I would use something like autech screen stuff possibly mammoth as well. Both of those are quite dense and self supporting. And then redo the lining and look, you could use plasterboard if you want, you could use plywood, you could use triboard. There's any number of products that
you could use. But I wouldn't rely on the lining unless you were using something like kingspan, which is polystyrene bonded to plasterboard. But the benefit of that product is that you could apply it straight over your existing lining. Therefore you're not removing the lining. Therefore you don't require a building consent for that. But that's that ship has sailed.
Right, I get you.
Yeah, so yep, and look what you know the benefit of So you've done? Have you done retrofit double glazing for your joinery?
Yes?
Okay, So if you are taking the lining off, it's also a great opportunity to do an air seal around your existing joinery. So typically, you know, older houses, we've got timber framing and framing for an opening. Then we've got our joinery sitting there and is often you know, ten fifteen twenty milimeter gap and that's that's where a lot of air leakage occurs as well. So if you've taken the lining off as we do in a modern house, go around and do an air seal around there as well.
Oh here, yeah, yeah, good one, all.
Right, all the very best your tony. Yep, good luck, thank you very take care about it.
He hollo.
Oh eight eighty the number to call.
Hello Katie, Oh hello there morning, good morning.
Now, I just.
Wondered, we've we've got a little bit of a problem with the property that we own, and we've got a neighbor who four years has been draining his stormwater into our property. Right, so we've asked him a couple of times to fix it three or four years past, nothing had done about it. Then we rung the council to do something about it. They told us it was a neighbor's bitch.
They shouldn't that's that they shouldn't. True.
Yeah wow.
And then so the council went out to have a look. Then the council people changed and there was a whole lot of change in the in the hierarchies. So those people who told us that were no longer there. And then this truth and who's a local in the area has you know, continue to just like ignore us, and
so then he goes. We arrive at the property and he's connected up a big wide white pipe which is like leading to a black hose that comes out from his property into this big white pipe and then he drains it into the council's river race.
And he got consent for that work. I presume, no, no, no, no, nothing, He's got nothing.
He just turns a blind eye. And then we found after all the rain that the pipe had popped out, and so it was just pouring straight into our yard behind our garage. And so now there's about five inches
of wet cray right next to our garage. And he just continues to ignore us, and we just feel that the council was ignoring us as well, you know, and we just think we go to our insurance company because our garage, even though it's been there for absolute years before we bought the property, the whole roof of the garage is rusted. It doesn't mean that won't be with stormwater, right, I just thought maybe the condensation, the wetness or no, I don't think anythink may have had some of linking.
Even if it did contribute, it would be very difficult to prove look, I get the frustration. I think that, you know, councils probably should be a little bit stronger in their enforcement of the sort of thing, particularly in urban areas.
Right.
And it's it's quite clear in the legislation that it is a requirement of a homeowner to control storm water from their own property and that in yeah, so, and when you get an intransient neighbor like this who just refuses to cooperate or refuses to comply as much as you know, on betwixt and between in terms of you know, legislation and bureaucracy and council and enforcement and all the rest of it, but you do wish that they would take us strong because you know, it has a real
impact on you, right, you know, every time you get a lot of rain, you end up copying something that should be controlled by your neighbor. It's not that hard, and it's a pity that these things aren't enforced. But of course enforcement is really difficult as well, because.
How enforcement you know, how far can we go? And we don't want to well say that, you.
Know, there have been situations. Again, I'm aware of a situation where council did a survey of drainage on a property, found that it was defective and issued a notice to fix, right, and then they said in that notice to fix, you have fourteen days to prove that you have done something about this, after which we will send a contractor to do the work and you will have to pay it and will charge you an extra ten percent on top
of that bill. We don't know what the bill's going to be, but whatever it costs, we're going to get it fixed and you're going to pay for it. Now that sounds quite stern again, Council being council. Some years later, no one had turned up to do the repair, and the repair hadn't been done. So that's really frustrating saying that. There does seem to be certainly an Auckland a bit of a change, and I'm aware of so with an
Auckland Council. Now there is Healthy Waters, which is kind of a division within council that deals specifically with stormwater right, and one of the things one of the initiatives they've had is to actually send people out to do like a walking survey of a neighborhood and look at a property and go, oh, hey, look, I've noticed that those downpipes actually just drop onto the ground, knock on the door. Hey, are you aware that your downpipes don't connect to the
stormwater system at all? And maybe you'd like some help to fix that, or maybe you'd like some ideas and that sort of thing. So they're actually being proactive. Now. I don't know if you're in Auckland, but are you.
No on the South Island?
All right?
South Island? Yeah. Look, I find it incredibly frustrating because you know, it is a real issue for you. It's not just you being grumpy or being pedantic or anything like that. This is real, right. Every time you have heavy rain, you're copying it and it.
Actually looks ugly. And I did think that if we had a problem with them, and we went to the council and we started engaging with the council for our neighbors to do something, would that be something that would appear on our limb report or anything like that if we were to sell the property.
I would like to think that any correspondence that you send regarding your neighbor's property would stay on the neighbor's property file, but it shouldn't be on yours, but it would be on the neighbor's property file. So if you request like a property bag or a property file from council, it will have all correspondence relating to that property. Okay, that's quite.
Useful, right, Okay, yeah, I might look into that, have a look at it next week.
Good luck.
I know it's frustrated, brilliant. Yeah, alrighty all this Bob I eight hundred eighty ten eighty the number to call if you've got a building question, and you know, I mean we do kind of that's stray. Actually, I think it's really important that we understand the legislation sometimes and we we get into these discussions around I guess policy and legislation and regulations and requirements because they do impact on us. We'll talk to Doug and just a moment if you'd like to join us. We do have a
loan spare. Eight hundred eighty ten eighty the number to call.
Squeaky door or squeaky floored get the right advice from Peter Wolfcare the resident builder with light four solar dot Co dot nzet switch to solar in twenty twenty five and pay less for power news talks.
It'd be you and just talk. It'd be critiques Pete. I'm thinking about building a sleepout. I want to use a cavity batten on the exterior, which will have a vermin strip at the bottom of the wall. If I line the walls, the exterior walls with corrugated iron, how do I block off the corrugation so that bugs can't crawl up into the wall? Is there a product that blocks off the bottom of the iron, Yes, there is, so it's called basically, it's a foam infill strip. There'll
be a number of different supplies. You can get them at all sorts of different hardware stores. That come in strips of about a meter long, and so they are a foam strip which is compressible. So you can either leave the bottom of the sheet loose for a moment, poke the strip up and then fix your fastener through, or you can try and staple it on and get the angles right. But I've done it myself, not hard to do, not terribly expensive, and that will stop bugs
and not getting in at the bottom as well. So good luck with that corrugate a din as a cladding. I do kind of like it, I have to say. In the right situation. Oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty the number to call Doug. Good morning to you morning feet here you go, want good things about yourself?
Good good good.
Yeah, you're just just another question on it's not actually stormwater, but it's a neighbour's driveway yep. So when a neighbor's driveways put down, it's not supposed to create blowpath onto your onto the neighbor's property, right, So do they they have to control that with a cesspit or or whatever.
Yeah. So typically, you know, because we're driveway's big flat area, right, water's got to go somewhere, So it should either have a curb or like a little dish, like a swale that's cast into the driveway. And then yes, that water typically should be contained before it exits the property. So either you shape the driveway and go into a catch pit or in some cases you put in channel great which also drops into a catch pit that's near the boundary.
So yes, but certainly you know, a big flat driveway that just pitches towards your property and discharges all of that storm order onto your property, that shouldn't be acceptable.
Yeah, and then that's what's diverted into the storm water out the front on the road.
Yeah, and you know, there are probably requirements in terms of you know what area, what surface area that potentially a small surface area may not require that catchment, but a larger area because I mean it's you know, if you think about rainfall, right, and you know, ten millimeters per hour of rain and you've got one hundred square meters of concrete driveway, let's say it ends up being a significant amount of catchment. So yeah, it is a requirement as far as I'm aware.
Yeah, because we've got we've just dealing with this one hundred year suppose of the flood. Yeah, so our property has they're looking at it as a flow path, yes, so yeah, and that and that equation is like neighbors properties the rainwater flowing from their driver onto ours which they need to control.
Also, is this based on the older modeling or some of the more up to date modeling.
Well, the flow path is up to the newer modeling, so that's within also not at this stage, but when they do a seventy percent coverage on all the properties with buildings, yep, then this is how the flow path is going to happen. So yeah, a little bit pie in the sky. But why do they want to create seventy percent coverage on all the properties when it's going to create float pass through a lot of properties in that area.
Yeah, And therein is the dilemma, isn't it that you know we all well maybe we don't, but you know, I do think that in terms of urban development, we need to have intensification. So broadly speaking, I'm a supporter of it. But at the same time, we can't ignore the consequences of that. So you know, a large you know, and we've all seen it, right, You've got an eight hundred square meter section with one hundred and twenty square meter nineteen fifties house in the middle of it, lots
of grass, da da, da, da da. And then that goes and suddenly there's four townhouses there and there's sixty seventy percent site coverage. Now, the impact of that is we're collecting a lot more stormwater that's got to go somewhere in the event that the storm water that's been provided doesn't cope with the downfall. And that's why we're talking one in one hundred year flood events, which is just a statistical thing, right, Because while I'm getting a
bit older and I've got a few gray hairs. I'm not that old that I have been through I think at least four or five one in one hundred year flood events, right, So there is lots of modeling around what happens when we do get these more common intense downpause and the stormwater system doesn't cope. Where does that water go? Well, it becomes an overland flow path. So as part of the development, we need to think about
the impact of those events. And the reason I asked about the whether or not it's the recent modeling, there's quite an extraordinary thing. Again, I'm sorry for referencing Auckland, but it's the council that I happen to live in and it's the tools that I get to use. So there's now i think it's called flood Viewer or something similar, which is using some of the data from the January
twenty three flooding to see where flooding occurred. And so when you look at this flood viewer, I'm pretty sure it's called shows you the extent of where flooding occurred in a couple of areas that I'm quite familiar with. It's quite interesting to see that the real experience of that flood is showing on this flood view and you can see the extent of these overland flow path areas and that's probably what we're picking up on as well.
Yeah.
Funny enough, funny enough. No, we've never seen any any signs of flooding happening at all.
Right, yeah, and I've got to move on. But you know, I mean it's interesting. I saw one the other day which was a house that was reasonably on top of a hill and they were worried about an overland flood path and I'm going, yeah, mate, I think that needs revising so exactly.
Yeah, I can't understand why ours is and then the neighbors isn't. It's pretty much on the same level.
Yeah, yeah, good luck with the process, all the best, nice talking with your fascinating area. Oh eight hundred eighty seven fifty two at news Talk ZB.
Doing of the house sorting the garden, asked Pete for a hand the resident builder with Peter Wolfcam and light Force Solar done your solar journey In twenty twenty five.
Call oh eight hundred eighty eight News Talk s'b coming up to New Sport and where the top of the are at eight o'clock in just a moment. We'll talked to Heather after the news as well. If you'd like to join us while the lines are open, then the number is eight hundred eighty ten eighty. Also at around eight thirty this morning, we'll jump into the garden with a red kline past as always and for the first time this year, So looking forward to catching up with rut.
If you've got any gardening or entomological questions, you can fire them through on the text or give us a call after eight point thirty here at Newstalk se B Can I also just quickly say I there's my own foolish mistake with a trailer. I bought a trailer a couple of years ago and one of the handles was a bit loose, and I was like, oh, I must repair that, must do that, da da da. Anyway, I didn't, and it fell off stupid right of me. So anyway, I emailed the company and said, can you see me
out of handle? This was Luca trailer. Within a couple of days they'd sent out a handle. In fact, they'd sent out some spare handles, they sent out some bolts, they sent out She said wheel pairings and a little clamp and a whole lot of stuff. I was just super impressed that just before Christmas they got onto it and got it on the courier and got it to me. And I've got that fact, so again, my thanks to them. That was outstanding on the heart of Luca Trailer's it
was a great job. Right, we're back straight after news.
Whether you're painting the ceiling, fixing the fence, or wondering how to fix that hole in the wall, you give Peter wolf Cabin call on, Oh, eight hundred eighty ten eighty, the resident builder with light four solar, where your twenty twenty five solid purchase burns you airpoints, dollars used talks at.
Me must be my turn O. Eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the number to call. We'll talk building through to about eight thirty this morning. Excuse me if you've got a question of a gardening nature though. Oh, eight
hundred eighty ten eighty is the number to call. But after eight point thirty my mind, we talked a bit about storm water and tanks and so on, and in my mind, I'm sort of playing this game where I'm going when do I need to start, like, I've got tanks and I want to irrigate the garden, and not a lot of need at this stage in Auckland to irrigate the garden. But I'm sort of trying to predict when it is that I could that I should start using the water and the tanks, but in the hope
that there will still be rain to come. So I started using water out of the slim gym tank that sits behind my shed the other day to irrigate the hedge because it looked a little bit dry, and then of course we had rain overnight. Such chances are that's topped up again. But it's that sort of mind game of going when can I start using it? And if I do use it up, will I get some more rain? There's been plenty of that around at the moment. I wait,
one hundred and eighty ten eighty. We're talking all things building construction, and you know the sort of the legislation, the big stuff that surrounds it as well, including that discussion just prior to the news about storm water and overland flow paths, and sometimes you know what happens when a neighbor doesn't comply. How do you deal with that. If you'd like to chat about that, we can talk about that as well. Oh eight hundred and eighty ten
eighty the number to call. Hello Heather, Thanks waiting, How are you?
Oh, good morning, Peter. My question relates to double blazing and flashing. Yes, So, at the end of December twenty two I made a final payment for a whole apartment in Wellington to be double glazed, and it is about sixteen meters across the front floor to ceiling windows. Well, it's quite a lot, yeah, quite a lot. So in April twenty four I noticed that the flashings on the balcony deck, on the ground, on the sitting on the
debt level had little bubbles in them. So I sent a picture to the installer and he did come and have a lock and he said they'd never seen anything like that before. So he got in touch with the powder Cota and he said he couldn't say exactly why that had happened. Possibly your solvent had come into contact with the paint right and they think they might have to scrape the affected area's back time and then the spray an appropriate product. My question is is this going
to work? He hasn't done it yet contact.
Rhythm, just just for clarity. The fleshing that you're talking about was installed as part of the double glazing installation.
Oh yes, absolutely, okay. So the first fleshing that goes on at the bottom of the window, then the windows go in, and then the fleshing at the top locked it all together, doesn't it.
And again just for the purposes of clarity, that flashing went into the opening. And then was it new jewinery that was installed as well as new glazing. So new window frame, all.
New window frames, a whole lot eighty dollars.
Okay. No, it's just sometimes when we typically when we talk about retrofit double glazing, we're talking about adding double glazing where there was single glazing, but leaving the frames the original frame reusing. So in this instance, they took the whole they took a whole lot out and they've replaced it. Okay, So it's lord, yeah, redoing the joinery okay.
And then yeah, typically we install a sill flashing and then the jowinery gets installed over the top of that, and then it's the sill flashing that is now bubbling.
Yep, yeap, the one on the outside.
I have to say it is not cross.
The front that I can see is about seven to eight meters long. The other parts of the windows, like I can't inspect because I'm up upper level. Yeah sure, and I can't get there to have a look. Yeah, but that's seven or eight meters long. And the fleshing are not in one big long strup their infections yeap, but they've all got bubbling in them.
It looks like.
Blisters and the fleshings. I mean most likely they were powder coated, right, Yes.
They are powder coterd definitely, because he said I've been in touch with the powder coat yep. And he can't say exactly why it's happened. Possibly as solvent has come into contact with the pain.
And that's caused it to bubble.
So it definitely happened.
I think they doing a repair as they've indicated, which is to scrape back the affected area, do a primer in each primer and then overcoat. But then how are they going to apply the top coat? Are they going to brush it on? Are they going to mask it and spray?
Don't know, and I'm a bit concerned if they what he said at one stage, they would grind it back. So if they do that, stars will then go on to the water proof membrane which is on the contract.
No, I think if they're talking about grinding it back, I think they're more likely to use like an abrasive flat disc in a grinder, and so there'll be a lot of dust, but there won't be that much heat, So I wouldn't I don't know that I'd be too concerned.
I think what I would ask them is how they intend to apply the top coat, because you know, if what they're going to do is brush it well, brushing, even if you're really good, it's not going to look as good as the spray painting, right, So exactly, I don't think brushing is a good solution. There are you know, they can mask and spray it. And I wonder whether it's a job that perhaps the contractor should you know. I mean, in the end, it would seem like it's
the contractor's fault, right. It's a defect either with the product or with the installation of it. And it's got nothing to do with you. It's not something you have course now.
It's got nothing to do with me. And I think that the defect has happened at the powder coated, yeah, and that so.
In that case, like I'm just thinking, we had a situation where we had some new joinery installed and it was a front door that was a solid panel door, so it was a powder coated sheet and there was a scratching it and so a specialist team came out to repair the scratch and then respray the door in situ. And I think it's that sort of application that would be most suitable for your repair. So that yep. Ye, Again, arguably it's not you know, painting is not the same
as powder coating. Powder coting happens in the factory. There's an electrical reaction that bonds the particles to the material and so you can't replicate that outside of the factory. But at the same time, this here will be suitable and durable, I think.
But again I want to come with a warranty.
You'd have to ask the person doing the repair. So I mean the powder coder will have contacts the joiner. I mean it's scratches to joinery is not uncommon, right, So there are lots of people out there doing really good jobs of repairing it because we make lots of mistakes on site. But you'd need to talk to them about the repair. Interesting text that's just come through, Pete. Sounds like it's an already coated flashing that have been
recoated to save money. Now, that would be an interesting Okay.
No, I would doubt that very much, because this guy has done nine apartments in this building and he's not going to be doing it well.
I'll be surprised.
No.
Yeah, and the old stuff was definitely well beyond No.
I think what this texture is saying is that is it possible that in the lead up to getting the job done, the joinery supplier had supply of a particular color of flashing, but it wasn't the right one, and in the factory or perhaps beforehand, they've done a quick spray in order to change the color to the color that matches the joinery, and that has delaminated, and again
you would be able to see that. So if you scraped very delicately the surface off and found there was another color underneath it, then you'd say, actually, you tried to paint this in the factory to match the joinery because you didn't have the right product. And therefore, again that emphasizes the fact that it's not your problem, it's their problem, so appreciate that text that's coming through.
Yeah, okay, I can see what it means there.
Yeah, but I would emphasize the fact that the contractor needs to bring in a specialist to do this work. You know, it shouldn't be the boy from the factory with a paintbrush.
Well that's concern.
Yeah, No, it's just a cautious approach on your part. Will be worthwhile.
Because the guy who put the windows on was the one who you said that he will come and fix up.
Okay. Then the quick answer, the quick question is are you going to warranty your work? And if you're not, then can you provide me with a contractor who will warranty their work?
Thank you?
Yeah, good luck with that, Heather, thank you very much, all the very best, take care, my pleasure, all the best, Bob. By then your news talk c B will take a short break. We'll talk to Lorraine in the moment. Remember we've got rd climb pass for the first time in twenty twenty five at around eight thirty this morning.
Squeaky door or squeaky floor get the right advice from Peter Wolfcare, the resident builder with light foursolar dot co dot zead and make twenty twenty five the you switch to Solar News Talks.
It b coming up bang on twenty minutes after eight here at NEWSTALKSB at eight thirty. I mentioned at the beginning of the show sort of you know how we get a bit reflective at the end of the year, and that sort of thing. And I was thinking, what have been my most useful tools all most.
I don't know.
Something I didn't think I needed, but now I do realize that I did. And I mentioned that at the beginning of the show, and then I'm thinking, I must tell you what that is. So I think two things for me. One is and I've mentioned this couple of weeks ago on the program. I have been dismissive for a long time about track saws, and it's just an old fashioned thing where you go, well, you just take a straight edge, clamp it down, run skill saw along it.
That's easy. Why would you bother with these fandangle track saws? Until I got one? So the good people at Ryobi dropped one off for me to use, and I've used it and I made a whole bunch of ourl boxes using the track saw, which is actually in that situation, it's fantastic different angles, raking bits and that sort of thing. You just make the mark run the track saw along it. So for me, I think the tsaw has been the transformational tool. And I'm probably five years late to the party,
but hey, I'm there now and I'm loving it. So that Ryobi tracksaw turned out to be incredibly useful, I have to say. And the other thing is a new set of ear muffs, proper air muffs from a company that designs them here in New Zealand, so muff Tech air muffs with really good sound, really good hearing protection,
but really good sound. Because my typical habit is while I'm like I was the other day using a hedge trimmer or using the mower and using the blower and using the line trimmer and that sort of thing working in the garden, I will have I always wear hearing protection, but typically I wander along quite happily listening to podcasts or listening to the radio, and it's great to do that with a proper, decent pair of ear muffs with good sound in them. So there you go. That's my
two top transformational tools for twenty twenty four. Can't wait to see what twenty twenty five brings. I can tell you, oh, eight hundred and eighty ten eighty the number to call Lorraine. A very good morning to you.
Hello road.
No, not yet, but close. Because I was talking about gardening. I understand why you you leaped to that conclusion. How can I help Lorraine?
The council have dug up our driveway and taken out our leader box to do Draine work. Yes, and since July last year and it hasn't been They still haven't come and fixed it up.
Really have they done the driveway?
No, they haven't done anything. They've done the drainage, but they haven't have got stones on the driveway and the leader boxes up against the saints.
Right did they say they were going to reinstate the driveway.
We presume they were, and we run. I've been ringing the council and they're putting in reviews that it's all we've heard. I've rung the council several times.
About it, because chances are council will issue the work order and then a contractor will do the job right. So I wonder whether the approach to take is to ring counsel and go. Can you give me the work order for that job? Can you tell me whether it's been paid for?
I e.
Have you paid the contractor for the work and did that work conclude the reinstatement of the driveway, Because if it did and they haven't done it, then I've got news for you, counsel. You've paid for work that hasn't been done. That will have a completely different impact on council than you ring and just complaining about work that hasn't been done, because it's it's their money that they've spent. So I would I would take that approach.
Okay, we'll try that.
Try that.
Let me know how you get on. Yes, thank you, alrighty, take care well by then. I'm sure that it would come as no shock to anyone that I'm sure that counsel end up paying for work that never actually gets done by contractors. I'm absolutely convinced that that happens. Oh eight hundred and eighty ten eighty. The number called Jeff, good morning.
Good morning, How do you.
I'm pretty good? Actually, thank you?
Yeah. I sent you an email about a stead.
Tower that I have, sorry about a witch a stair tower that I have.
That was built in heart Greamor many years ago as thrived.
Thank you, my crazy. That's quite impressive for those years who don't have access to my email, which is most of you external to mystera for it. That's a very funky design.
Yes, yes they're try and but it's not looking too well at the.
Moment I was going to say, does it look like.
No, not really, but it's just there's there's the odd Japan and we want to replace it.
Now.
The original was heart GM. It was built on site, so it was a structural es and this time around I'm thinking of getting it done in a joinery factory, so the talents and that would be a lot better. But the suggestion is to use PARTN and you know, knowing the sort of personality of Pine, it tends to be a little bit unstable or move around and just wondering what you thought. The other suggestion I had been given was Cedar, but that tends to be a little bit too soft.
Yeah, I was going to say, for sort of structural stuff, I mean, you know, if you like, I've done a couple of pergolas and those sorts of things in Cedar, but in terms of actually walking on it, I would agree, I'm not sure that it's that great. It would be quite interesting to go to someone like Rosenfalt and Kitson, for example, who are in Auckland, who import timbers from around the world, and they may well have some hardwoods of suitable dimension that you could then provide to the
joiner to use. So it might be killer. It might be I'd have to put my thinking cap on for a bit and think about suitable timbers for outside. But I'd be inclined to take that photograph, which is fantastic, and go along to, you know, some of these specialist timber and porters and say, look, do you have something.
It might be an African hardwood that's come in, It might be something out of the South Pacific that they could they'd have sufficient stock of suitably sized timber that you could machine down and do the posts, the rails and the decking and everything. The other option and I'm thinking about a choir, but it's I don't know that
it's structural as such. Which is a modified pine. This is heat treated pine that ends up going essentially from a soft wood to a hardwood and again and we you like a bodo cladding is another one whether or not they might have something suitable. But I think for what you've shown me there, I'd be tempted to go after Rosenvelt kits and see what they've got. Yeah, Rosenfelt and kitsen k I d Son. I think, yeah, you'll find them a mate. Enjoy it's a fabulous looking house.
Thank you very much for the photo. Yes, sure, yeah, all of this and I realized for people listening to the photograph means no. I mean it's it's a very interesting architectural design with a lot of it's a sort of glazing you just wouldn't be able to build today. I think it's exceptional, very beautiful. Thank you very much for that. Jeff, that's great. Oh eight hundred and eighty
ten eighty. If you have a gardening question or a question about the wonderful world of bugs and now and oh so get it now, give us a call, Give us a call before we get rouded up on the line. Pete, you say you've got a brand of sound equipped ear muffs, and there's there's a bunch of them around right that have either Bluetooth or I've got an older set that have a little tuna in it. So I can listen
to the radio. The ones that I picked up, I bought them actually at the home shown Wellington last year. The brand is muff Tech so m u FFT c H developed by a bunch of a couple of young blokes down in Wellington. So good on them. I think they've I've really enjoyed wearing them and they work particularly well just bluetooth. They're great. It is twenty nine minutes
after eight. We're going to take a break. Then we're going to jump into the garden for the first time in twenty twenty five with red Climb passed after the break, helping you.
Get those DIY projects done right. The Resident Builder with Peter Wolfgap and Light four solar less for in twenty twenty five news.
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