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January 3, 2026 101 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to The Resident Builder podcast with Peter Wolfcamp
from News Talks, ed B, suns Out, Tools Out. Your
summer DIY starts here The Resident Builder with Peter Wolfcamp.
Call eight hundred eighty News Talk zed B.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Don't worry, folks, we'll get it all sorted later on. Greetings,
welcome along to The Resident Builder on Sunday. My name
is Peter wolf Camp, the Resident Builder, and this is
the opportunity to talk all things building and construction you
and News Talk SeeDB on a Sunday morning. The number
to call is eight hundred eighty ten eighty. You can
text nine to nine two. You can email me as well.

(01:07):
It's Pete at Newstalk SIB dot co dot NZ radio.
Happy New Year to you, first and foremost, my first
opportunity to do my own show. I guess I was
here yesterday with Francesca for a bit of a chat
yesterday afternoon. Got back into the country on New Year's
Eve and didn't make it to nighttime. I I was

(01:30):
tucked up and gone by about eight thirty, I think,
after a long flight home from the United States, which
I learned was actually in the Northern Hemisphere rather than
the Southern anyway, We're not going to repeat that particular
fault from last week's show. This is an opportunity to
talk projects, to talk ideas, to talk practicality, to talk
all things building and construction. So, because it's early in

(01:52):
the brand new year twenty twenty six, then I've got
no guests organized, I've got no interviews organized. It's just
you guys right through till eight thirty this morning, when
we jump into the garden with root parts for the
first time in twenty twenty six. Really looking forward to
I'll tell you what it's going to be. I was

(02:13):
listening to but as ZB the other day and it
had a comment from Hosking saying, I really like election years,
and you know, it's exciting. There's the activity, the exchange
of ideas, the contest of ideas, hopefully these sorts of things.
It's going to be a really exciting year. And I
have to say, from a building slash political point of view,

(02:35):
it's going to be really interesting to see the fruition
of some of what has been talked about by the
current government and put in place, and what discussions and argument,
let's say there is around intensification around the changes to
legislation around gosh, the you know, we'll start to see

(02:55):
a lot more detail around the compulsory building warranties for
new builds and for renovations over one hundred thousand dollars.
So there'll be a couple of experts that I want
to get in and talk to about that. I would
imagine that I'll probably get a chance to talk to
the Minister behind all of this, Chris Pink, at some
stage fairly early in the new year, and I have

(03:18):
to look up who the opposition people on that particular
topic might be, so we'll have a chat with them.
But right now it's your show, folks. Welcome along. Oh
eight one hundred eighty ten eighty is the number to call.
Nice to be back in the studio. Nice to be
able to look through the glass and see Lock my producer,
to have a chat with the other people in the newsroom.

(03:38):
Now that I'm back here, I've handed in the laptop
and the microphone that I traped around the Northern Hemisphere
with we're back in the studio. Glorious morning sun was
coming up just after our pass five huge moon out
there as well. It was very very spectacular moon. This morning.

(03:58):
So we're into it and I'll tell you about this
bit later on. But you know, in terms of coming
back from traveling for a month or so in reality
hitting me in the face, there's nothing like a leak
in the roof to sharpen your attention and go, hey,
welcome home back to work. Oh eight hundred eighty, there's
the number to call Allison A very good morning to you.

Speaker 3 (04:22):
Well, welcome back there. Most important questions are going to
ask did you really meet Dame Judy Dench? That's I
want to know.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Well, that's interesting that that's out there already. I didn't,
but I was there. So my son got to meet
cit Ian McCallum, which was awesome. My wife had a
brief chat with Jane Dame Judy Dench, and the two
of them were able to go to an event at

(04:49):
the National Theater to listen to both of them reflect
on their lives in theater. So yeah, it's perform.

Speaker 3 (04:57):
Because I thought losing a hearing. So I'm glad that
she's still out and about.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
You know, she was out and about and by all
accounts just fantastic and delightful and yeah, so thank you
very much for asking.

Speaker 4 (05:10):
Yeah, well, I'll look forward.

Speaker 3 (05:11):
We're really all about it in the next edited in
the edition of The Woman to Day is what I'll.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
Say that it's not going to do me right. How
could I help Ellison?

Speaker 3 (05:20):
How can I help you more for a club up?
Just a general question just with concerning shawer heads on
your shower You can't get the little you know, twist
on share heads, now, can you. That's old fashion, isn't it.
You know, when your share head starts bruffering and all
this carry on, you go down to try and get
just a screw on shair head. You don't seem to
be able to get those that they might attend now.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
No things like if you're talking about the good old
fashioned you know, Felton mix, right, which was we had
the lever that was at the base of the shower
head and then the nozzle pokes out from there. You
can certainly still get those and have to be replaced,
and certainly the heads are available as well. You just
might need to go to a specialist, you know, to
a larger plumbing store rather than a.

Speaker 3 (06:04):
General the shower head, whether it's the actual the water,
I don't really know where the problem really is because
I actually got took the share head off and cleaned
it and dada da and it works okay, and then
it comes on I say, waters, what you'd say. But
at the end of the day, I really think it
might be some something to do with the pressure and
the water as well, because yesterday, well I was thinking

(06:26):
about wringing you. I thought, well, I'll give it a go,
and yes to that work perfectly, you see, just thinking
about it came right you positive thinking is what you'd
say there, and saying that now after get off the phone,
I'll do it on today and I'll go back to
what it was before. You don't know, it's what I'm
sort of saying, yeah, look, you can replacing the whole thing.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
The other general quick comment is that these days, you know,
shower heads are also sort of designed to be let's say,
water efficient. So if you have mains pressure and you
had an old fashioned shower like my one at home,
it's got tremendous volume. These days they're all kind of
restricted a little bit, so that might be something to

(07:07):
look at as well. Good luck with all of that, Allison,
and thank you very much for asking. I realized that
that particular bit of information was out there in the public,
certainly first time I've talked about it. So, yes, we
have been traveling and while I can't stop looking at
old buildings and going into hardware stores and that sort
of thing, there's a little bit of culture in my life.

(07:30):
And so my wife and son went along to it
was advertised as a I guess as a fundraiser for
the National Theater, that's that stunning brutalist building that's on
the south bank of the River Thames, not far away
from the London I actually not far away from the

(07:52):
recreation of Shakespeare's Globe Theater. And they went along to
listen to Ian McAllen and Dame Judy Jench talking about
their life in theater and so on. And then, as
it happens, we hung around a little bit afterwards and
they both got chance to say hello to either of
those two people, which is pretty cool. But yes, it
was very cold on that particular evening. Rdio six fourteen

(08:14):
News Talk said, be all things building and construction, give
us a call Stephen. Good morning.

Speaker 5 (08:21):
Oh yes, good morning. Yes, I've got two mobility ramps,
one at the front of the house which is on
the southern side, and one on the back of the house. Yes,
it's on the western side of the hares. All right,
I very twelve months. I have to strip them right back,
which I've just done and repainted the handrails just the top.

(08:45):
It seemed only the paint seems to sixty for twelve months.
Now I've done this for twelve years, cheaper h four treated.
It's done well, I think for twelve years. Maybe next
year I may have to replace them. What's happened and

(09:06):
as they've started to move, there's going to bend the
hand rails, great pieces of timber, the bending sideways to
face the sun. They move, They're moving like bananas. Next
year it looks like I have to replace them.

Speaker 6 (09:26):
What is the best.

Speaker 5 (09:27):
Way of doing that? Just to do exactly what's there
or go for a better treatment bait for it's lasted
twelve years, yeah, out in the weather. Whether I go
for something like a marine treated like I ain't sick, no.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
That it probably won't be available in the profiles that
you require. My first thought is, obviously this is something
that you use on a regular basis. It's it's important
that it's there and it functions well. Would you consider
replacing it, let's say, with some stainless steel tube or
something like that, never have to maintain.

Speaker 5 (10:08):
I've thought about that long, long term, but then I've
seen stainus still being used and it doesn't perform very well.
People have sort of got I must either got a
cheaper grade of stainous. But now I just I like
the wood.

Speaker 2 (10:27):
It looks okay, yep, that's fair enough. And is the
handrail attached to a balustrade? So your handrail is it
attached to a balustrade or is it simply a handrail
attached to a number of posts? And there's not like
a number, just a number of posts, okay. And the

(10:49):
is it a square or round profile?

Speaker 5 (10:52):
Just what's a good of a three for two?

Speaker 2 (10:56):
I'll tell you what if you have a look. So
for example South Pacific Timber so that I did a
renovation to actually into an old church that has become
a museum in our little town, and to do the
handrail and to have something that was firm and compliant.

(11:18):
There's a special profile which looks like a bit of
basically eight B two, but then the top is profiled
into a round or an almost round profile, and that's
that would be an H three point two. It gives
you a great deal of stability over a long length
because it's it's often laminated, and it's a special handrail profile.

Speaker 5 (11:42):
I can try and look it up for that would
actually shed the water a bit better than a flat.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
Surface, absolutely, and it's probably the flat surface that is
causing that to deteriorate. So if you've got water sitting
on timber, even if it does dry off over time,
that's not as good as if it shed So either
go for a fifty mili dow or go for the
special handrail profile, which is in sort of it's it's
about one sixty x forty five something like that. Oh yeah, yeah,

(12:13):
you find it as specialist machining shops.

Speaker 5 (12:16):
I've stripped it right back and repainted it atfe We've
had a couple of nice, fine days, and I've made
sure when it was weird that I've gone over it
with a with a crough, you know, order to keep it.

Speaker 2 (12:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (12:29):
Sure, Because the paint, although it drives in what in
a sort of a very short time, it really takes
a week to cure fully cure oft isn't it? Is
it water based paint?

Speaker 7 (12:45):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (12:45):
Now, water paste paint will basically be ready for recoating
in about four to five hours, so it will have curred.
But Stephen, I think that having a round profile it'll
be easier to grip as well. Like if it's a
bit of three to two, that'll be about seventy millimeters across.
It's almost I think handrails actually are supposed to be

(13:07):
something like fifty eight millimeters or something like that. I'll
check the rigs so you might find that this other
profile is going to work better for you. I hope
it all goes well. Good luck with that, Stephen. Oh
eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the number to call.
It's nineteen minutes after six. We'll talk to Ann straight
after the break.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
From stumber backyard Jobs to Big Rennolds. Let's talk it through.
Call Oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty the resident Builder
with peterwilcab News Talk ZEB.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
Your News, Talks dB and we are talking all things
building and construction. That can be the legislation, the rules
and regulations that govern what we can and cannot do,
but it's also the practical stuff. And to be fair,
if under the Christmas Tree was a new tool that
you're a bit unfamiliar with, happy to talk tools and
their uses as well. Oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty

(13:56):
then number to call. Certainly after a bit of travel,
I don't know what people usually buy when they're away,
but I came home with a small collection of new
tools from different parts of the world, which will mean
that every time I use them, I remember where we've been.
That's how it works for me. Good I am, good
morning to you.

Speaker 8 (14:13):
Good morning people are there.

Speaker 9 (14:15):
I've got a plaster house that's about thirty or thirty
five years old with aluminum joinery, and the windows are
stiffening up, and I wonder what the best solution to
render that is. I don't know that CRC would be
the right thing to do.

Speaker 2 (14:34):
I mean, if it is like most of them would
be on friction stays, would be my guess. If the
house is about thirty five years old, so are most
of the windows that are opening top hung so you
unlatch them at the bottom push them out. Yes, yeah, okay,
So the friction stays look in some cases they might

(14:54):
actually just be worn out to the point where they'll
need replacement, but they are replaceable, right, So there. It's
one of those things I suppose I've got a slightly
longer memory on these sorts of things. So let's say
thirty five years ago and I was building, then it
was really hard to find people to come and fix
aluminium joinery, for example, today because there's a lot of

(15:16):
aluminium joinery around and a lot of it is now
in need of repair and maintenance. As you can expect
after thirty five years. There are a number of companies
out there that specialize in it. So if for example,
you went round and maybe get someone in Exceed, for example,
is a company that's nationwide. In Auckland, I use a
smaller team called CFA Maintenance, that sort of thing, who

(15:39):
will just come in. They know all of the various
brands and extrusion types and so on. They know which
hard ware goes with which. And I guess one of
the things is we've probably always looked at aluminium joinery
as no maintenance, right, and that was one of the
great benefits of it, right. You put it in and
then unlike an old timber sash, you're not repainting it

(16:02):
every couple of years and all the rest of it,
but everything it's maintenance. So if you've had thirty five
years of use out of them. Then chances are the
rubbers might need replacing. Maybe some of the actual frames
need a bit of tightening, so the screws might come
a bit loose in the miters. Maybe some new sealant,
maybe some new hardware, maybe some new hinges or friction

(16:26):
stays as required. But there's no reason that all of
those things can't be fixed and maintained. And then if
the color has started to fade, you could even look
at recoloring them if you wanted to, with companies like
Nanoclear and so on. So somewhere along the line, I
have this growing resentment to whoever came up with the

(16:47):
idea that buildings can be maintenance free. To the best
of my knowledge, there is no such thing in building right.
There is less maintenance potentially, but nothing requires no maintenance.
And aluminum jewelery can be maintained or you know, if
it's got to end of life, you could rip it out,
replace it with new PVC or something like that.

Speaker 9 (17:08):
Yeah, probably that's what it is. Five years old.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
Yeah, and look at thirty five years old. It was
most likely single glazed as opposed to double glazed. Thirty
five years ago, we were doing insulation into walls. Maybe
not particularly well, but it is so in that case.
You know, if you looked at at how your house
performs overall, you could say, well, look if I changed

(17:34):
the sashes or was able to retrofit double glazing into there,
then I'd get that benefit as well. But the good
thing is there are more and more companies around that
specialize in this type of work.

Speaker 9 (17:47):
Yeah, okay, I'll have a lot very much.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
All the very best. You take care and look, maybe
I see us these great things like penetrol for rusty
hinges and that sort of thing, probably a little bit better.
And you can get special silicon sprays that don't you know,
they don't have that residue on them if you want
to do hinges and those sorts of things as well.

(18:10):
Oh wait, one hundred eighty is the number to call Tony.
Good morning, yay morning, how are you think? Very well?

Speaker 10 (18:16):
Thank you, good to see.

Speaker 11 (18:18):
You come back from your holiday.

Speaker 12 (18:20):
I've got a house you that's right that twenty years
ago I've de sized, decreest sized after Garret, I should
put us more study room in it, right, do I
need to change the property file now the council that
the fall plan has been changed in order to sell

(18:40):
it later on.

Speaker 2 (18:43):
Is the if it's a unit, is it on a
cross lease coss lease? It is a cross lease, It
might pay to check with your lawyer in terms of
updating the flats plan in some cases just wondering whether
internal alterations.

Speaker 12 (19:00):
Require internal not an externs of you know, I haven't
added a room outside, but no side the garat.

Speaker 2 (19:07):
And typically a flats plan for a crossley site just
shows the footprint, right. So where people get into trouble
is they you know, maybe they add on to the
little back porch area, or they in some cases add
a deck on and those sorts of things, and they
don't update the flats plan and then an eagle eyed
lawyer during conveyancing will spot that and go, oh, it's

(19:32):
a defective They call it defective title or something like that.
And because in some cases the you know, it requires
a surveyor to do it, and those sorts of things,
it can I know people have spent up to twenty
thousand dollars updating their flats plan, right, so look, I

(19:56):
just to be absolutely sure if it's not outside the yeah,
that's right. And well funny the phrase that we used
to use or I used to use quite a bit
was change of use. And in terms of that triggering
a requirement for building consent, that's not actually the case.

(20:17):
It's not a change of use triggers a requirement for
a building consent. It's if it's a habitable space, does
it have ventilation? Did you put a window in those
sorts of things that might trigger a requirement for a
building consent.

Speaker 10 (20:33):
But it is a window.

Speaker 12 (20:34):
Going into the washhouse basically when the hallway sort of thing.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
Right, right, So I mean, look, you're not using it
as a bedroom, and as long as you don't, and
as long as you don't sell it as a bedroom,
let's say that your place doesn't go from a two
bedroom to a three bedroom. Yeah, I don't know that
you would need to do something. But look, if you

(20:59):
are considering selling, a quick conversation with your lawyer would
be worthwhile. Okay, all the veryous to take care at
someone's text and said, hey, look those stays are probably
not weren't worn out. Often they seize up from non use.
A silicon spray on the rivets will do it, or
on the pivots, we'll do it, and that'll free up

(21:20):
the window. So hopefully that that works as well. But yeah,
getting the right type of spray is really really important.
And I certainly know in the workshop, I've got this
lineup of all these different types of sprays that kind
of all do sort of the same job, but not

(21:40):
so there is some speciality there. That penetrol stuff is
quite good. Oh wait, one hundred eighty ten eighty is
the number to call, Matt A very good morning to
you morning. How are you good, very well in yourself?

Speaker 11 (21:51):
Yeah, good, thanks. I just had a question in regards
to We've just put a removable home on on our
property a couple of months ago, and we have a
stream running right through the property and it's close enough
and deep enough, has it plenty of volume that if

(22:12):
in the case of an emergency we would need to
use it for fire fighting water. So on the building
content and in conjunction with Foreign Emergency New Zealand, I
drop a sketch saying, you know, this is where a
pump could be set up and a fire truck, and
Foreign Emergency signed off and said, yes, that meets all
our requirements. The building consent was approved with that that

(22:38):
little fire fighting platform next to the stream on it
and then someone from monitoring a council said, oh, no,
if you're taking water from the stream, you need resource consent.
My argument was that in the case of an emergency, so.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
I'm not it's not a regular occurrence.

Speaker 11 (22:55):
Yes, I don't ever intend to take water from the stream,
but in the case of an emergency in my house
is on fire, whether I have resource consent or not,
fire fighters are not going to stop to check that
they're going to use the stream anyway if they deemed
that necessary resource A bit of water source. Sorry, than

(23:15):
you know, two plastic tanks that I have to pay
sort of fifteen dollars to have put on and never used. Yeah,
I just wondered what your thoughts are about that if
you ever come across something like this. So I no
swimming pools can mitigate.

Speaker 2 (23:29):
Yes, it's something that sort of has never really been
on my radar because I'm an urban dweller and most
of the building that I've done has been within urban areas. However,
I'm involved in a project at the moment that I
understand this might be a requirement as well, So just

(23:52):
to shed some light on it for people that are
not familiar with us, it seems to be. I don't
know how long it's been around for, but I've only
heard about it in the last couple of years, let's say,
or even twelve months for me, Which is, if you're
in a rural area and there's not provision for mains
water or a fire hydrant or something like that, who's

(24:15):
driving it? Is it fire an emergency or is it
local councils? Like under which part of the Building Act
do you suddenly have to start providing making provision for
fire fighting? So if there's not mains water, or if
you're a certain distance away from a fire station, I
guess then you have to end up providing. And I've

(24:38):
heard it's as much as forty five thousand litters right, yes, sorry,
And it can't be water that you're using for other purposes.
So imagine if you're in an area where you know
you're sort of semi rural, so you don't have town
supply water. You need to capture rain water for your

(25:00):
drinking obviously, but then you need to provide forty five
thousand letters of water that's not connected to your drinking water,
so it's there constantly in the event that firefighters need
to use it to put out a fire at your house.
I mean, that's it. It's a big ask, it is.

Speaker 11 (25:21):
It's yeah, it's in some cases, you know, if you
didn't have a nice flat spot to just pop two
cheap placetick tanks down, then yeah, you could potentially be
looking at you know, concrete water tanks which could be
you know, up toil about eight nine thousand dollars each
and then the fire fighting tension that they require.

Speaker 2 (25:40):
Yeah, and I've seen them because I do some work
with Bailey water tanks, right, and they have got adapters,
you know, so they'll they'll do the tank with an
outlet for firefighting for example, and it's it's quite an
impressive piece of kit because of course, what you don't
want is a you know, thirty mil or a twenty
mili spigot coming out of that and then trying to

(26:02):
draw water from there. So it has a fire fighting
fitting on it basically, and also provision for air to
enter the tank so that when they're running the pumps
it will it won't create a vacuum, right, so you
can actually draw that water out at pace. So actually
I've got a couple of texts on it. Someone said,

(26:26):
welcome back, which is nice. Cactus been here, who's a firefighter.
Fens has a right by law to emergency use of
water for fire fighting purposes. Councils should mind their own business.
I tend to agree with that. It's under the Building Act.
It's under the Building Act, but it's a fences so
far in emergency in New Zealand, fifty thousand liters is
the requirement where they are because forty five thousand leaders

(26:48):
is also a kind of awkward size for tanks because
you could buy two twenty thousand letter ones and you're short,
then you end up with a thirty and a fifteen
or a thirty and a twenty or you know.

Speaker 11 (26:59):
It's yeah, twenty five.

Speaker 2 (27:02):
I will, I'll make a bit of a note about it.
So where are you going to So if do you
now have to go back for a resource consent?

Speaker 11 (27:11):
Well, no, I'm I'm two weeks away from getting finale,
and I'm just thinking that the section thirty seven that
this young lady at Monitoring put on earlier and the
project is going to pop back up when they signed
the house off and say, yeah, the house is all good.
Go to put you know, go to apply for triple
C and then that section thirty seven pops back up.

(27:34):
Sure they no, you need resource consent. So I could
either spend you know, I've had a quote for about
eight grand for resource consent, and then they might turn
around and say.

Speaker 2 (27:45):
We're not going to ground it.

Speaker 11 (27:48):
Yeah, so then I didn't have to go and spend
the fifteen thousand dollars anyway and put the I'm also
a five fighter, so I know the regulation. Five footers
don't have to ask to use order anywhere from.

Speaker 2 (27:59):
Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 11 (28:00):
Yeah, So that's what I mean. Like if the five
fighters showed up and they said, well, this stream isn't
going to run out on us, We're going to need
plenty of will of let's just us, and you've got
these two tanks in there.

Speaker 2 (28:14):
Just holding water for an event that you really hope
is never going to happen.

Speaker 11 (28:19):
Yeah, it just seems like one of these blanket rules.
I don't know if it's with the RNA or that.
It just it doesn't seem to be you know any
any It's a common theme, but no common sense. We're
council where they can have a look and say you
do you've got that signed off by the fire fighters.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
I mean if you if the like obviously you know
because in the end you want this to work, right,
So if the stream is there and you're confident that
year round there's always going to be sufficient water that
fire service will be able to suck out forty five
thousand elters should they need it, then as a homeowner,
that's that's you've made a reasonable assessment and it's there,

(29:02):
and given that you know the the hope this is
something that you will never need to actually do. And
I tend to agree with you. I think it seems
absurd that because you're going to draw water from there
in the unlikely event that you're going to have a fire,
that you then have to get a resource consent to
draw water from there, knowing that it's not a regular occurrence.

(29:25):
You can imagine you know, politicians, particularly the current lot,
listening to this going that's why we want to change
the roma. Right. It's growing to such an extent that
it started to encapsulate all of these things, which yes,
theoretically these things require consent and its management of a
resource and all the rest of it. But has the

(29:47):
scope of it gone too far? And for something like
this that is practical, reasonable people you'd go, Okay, there's
a stream there. You're going to provide a little platform
which allows you to mount to pump there, and in
the event that you've got a fire, you can fight it.
You don't need a resource consent for that.

Speaker 13 (30:06):
It's ridiculous, it is.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
But if it's the rules at the moment, that's the rules, right,
and so you're going to have to find a way
around it. But it would be nice if someone was
practical and knowing that the Resource Management actors up for
a very significant change. So you kind of you can't
wait because you want to get your CCC.

Speaker 11 (30:26):
Well, that's the other thing I was going to ask
you was if the reason I really want triple C
is for insurance purposes? Sure, if I was to just
hold off and just have a certificate of practical completion
from a builder for the house, I could then get
insurance and you know that is there another avenue with exploring.

Speaker 2 (30:52):
Again, you'd want to talk to your insurer obviously because
they're the one going to underwrite the policy. But I
mean obviously during the build, your your build's being ensured
as as a project, right, Yeah, so could you extend
that for a period of time.

Speaker 11 (31:14):
It's just the only thing is it's very expensive compared to.

Speaker 2 (31:17):
To regular house insurance.

Speaker 13 (31:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:19):
Absolutely, then yeah, maybe a certificate of practical completion means
that the house has moved from a construction site to
a habitable space, and whether or not you're in transition
to that time where you're getting a CCC the insurer
would cover you seems reasonable as well. But again it's
one of those things. It's a discussion with your insurer.

(31:44):
Interesting someone else's text through our rural house burnt down.
Local fire crew did provide a water tanker, But it's interesting.
Obviously there's a certain amount of volume in a tanker,
but I would imagine I don't know how much is
regularly carried on board a fire engine, but I wouldn't.

(32:04):
It's not forty five thousand lit. I'm guessing, no, I.

Speaker 11 (32:09):
Saw, I'm urban ones. It's about fifteen hundred leaders.

Speaker 2 (32:11):
Yeah, okay, so it's enough to get going. But then
that provides enough time, I guess for the firefighters to
source water and carry on putting out the fire. How
interesting i'd be interested to hear. I'm not sure that
we actually got anywhere, because these things involve so many
other conversations and different pieces of law. But look, I

(32:33):
would wholeheartedly agree with you, Matt. The fact that for
an unlikely event you require a resource consent, it's just ludicrous.
Good luck with all of that, Matt. Oh, eight hundred
eighty ten eighty is the number. To call it six
forty one. Let's call it six forty two. Actually here
at Newstalks, here be a couple of texts on that
you can get insurance without having a CCC, So that's
good to know. Fire appliance is about a two thousand

(32:57):
leader tank one I think might be up to ten
thousand letters. But look, if they're saying you need forty
five to fifty thousand letters of water available for fire fighting,
that's a lot to have permanent storage that's not connected
to your pottable water supply. So you can't say, look,

(33:18):
i've got water tanks you can draw from there because
you might have drained them down over a hot summer
having a shower. Oh, eight hundred eighty ten eighty. Happy
to take more calls on that, or if someone else
is familiar with it. The background to it would be fascinating.
It is six forty two at newstalk S ed b.

Speaker 1 (33:37):
Sawdust, Sunshine and solid Advice The Resident Builder with Peter
Wolfcab Call eight hundred eighty eight News Talk ZBR.

Speaker 2 (33:46):
News Talks B. We are talking all things building and construction.
And when I say all things, this is kind of tangential.
This is to building and construction. This is what happens
when things go wrong. So in that instance, were what
we've The topic that we've kind of headed towards is
this whole requirement, which I feel has been around for

(34:07):
a while. Certainly, it's not something that I was familiar
with because the type of building that I've been doing
for all these years is often urban, right, so there's
fire hydrants in the street, or there's main supply to
the houses and so on. But if you're in an
area where that is not available, then increasingly it seems
like you need to make provision for firefighting yourself. I'm

(34:31):
not sure how the rules are determined, or whether there's
a very detailed breakdown and guideline as to which parts
of the country, which streets, which towns, etc. Require this,
or how it's made, or what is it Because it's
a certain distance from a fire station, is it a
certain distance from a water source, etc. What types of

(34:52):
water sources are legitimate, and whether or not a swimming pool,
for example, would be a permanent type of storage for
forty five thousand liters of water. Someone has very drolly
text through morning. I put in a full pool for
firefighting purposes. The firefighter says, by the time that they

(35:13):
get to my property, they could use the water to
wash down the slab. Right, it's rather dark humor, but
I kind of appreciate it. And then someone's given me
quite a lot of detail which I appreciate actually around
firefighting and so on. So city type three career for

(35:35):
fire appliances carry between twelve hundred and fourteen hundred liters.
Type one and two volunteer trucks will carry about two thousand,
which is mostly your smaller towns and rural areas. Most
tankers are between five thousand, eight hundred and twelve thousand liters,
depending on the council and the local resource that'll dictate
how much needs to be stored on site as a
static water supply. Thank you very much. I'm a little

(35:58):
bit more reading on this. Oh, eight hundred and eighty
ten eighty is the number to call. Peter A. Very
good morning to you.

Speaker 7 (36:05):
Thank you very much.

Speaker 14 (36:06):
Please list.

Speaker 7 (36:08):
We just build a brand new fence, quite a long one,
and it's a matter of how we're going. We want
it painted, yes, so is it is it based by
brush or by them? And what paints? We'll need a primer,
won't we?

Speaker 2 (36:27):
Okay, a couple of things. I presume that it's a
timber fence, so it's a post rails battens on it,
that sort of thing. Is it rough saw or smooth?

Speaker 7 (36:38):
Well?

Speaker 2 (36:39):
Yes, yeah, okay. Interestingly enough, just before Christmas, we did
our last segment with Jay, painting expert from Razine, and
he happened to mention that Razine have just introduced a
new formulation of one of their paints that's specifically designed

(37:01):
for sort of outdoor painting projects like fences and so on.
So I think in this instance it might be a
sort of all in one. The primer is in it,
so it's just a one or two code application, so
rather than having to prime and then top coat. So
if you wanted to paint it, for example, I would
say you let it flash off a little bit, so

(37:23):
some of that timber preservative has released from the timber.
You'd give it a wash with some paint prep. So
give it a thorough wash, let that thoroughly dry, then
do a primer, then do two top coats. But it's
a lot of painting and it's a lot of brushwork
if it's a decent long fence, or possibly do the

(37:44):
preparation and then just a spray application of this new
paint from razine. So that's what I'd be looking at.

Speaker 7 (37:52):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (37:53):
And if you wanted to do spraying yourself, you know,
the big commercial sprayers can be quite complicated to use.
There are the small kind of diy ones, which is
just a little pottle that screws on the bottom of
a sprayer. Once you've had a bit of practice with that,
that's probably not a bad way of doing it. Because
certainly the thought of painting or we're using a little

(38:15):
roller that that sounds like a lot of time on
a lovely summer's day. Thank you, all right, mate, all
the very best to you. Certainly, next time one of
our painting is it's either Bryce or Jay come back
on the show. I'll get a lot more detail about
this new formulation or this new paint that's come out
as well. Oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the

(38:37):
number to call. We need to take a break. Then
we're going to talk to Ben about firefighting.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
Sorting those sum effectses before the barbecue crowd arrives. The
resident builder with Peter worlfcab call Oh, eight hundred eighty
ten eighty youth talk ZB you a news talk there'd be.

Speaker 2 (38:53):
It's eight hundred eighty ten eighty. We're talking a little
bit about firefighting and I've got actually a really good email.
I'll share that with you after the news as well.
But right now, Ben, a very good morning. Hey Peter,
welcome back, Ben, Thank you mate.

Speaker 15 (39:08):
Hey, so a couple of anecdotes or observations for you.
We live in rural North Canterbury. Our neighbors recently built
a new house on their property as a shared twenty
million liter dam, which is always full. They despite the
twenty million litter dam being there, they had to do

(39:29):
the whole tank and connection thing, which just seems ridiculous
from the firefighting perspective. As a firefighter, the reality is
that we will use whatever water is practical, and often
tanks are cited in a really difficult position. So it's
another example, without wanting to sound like a fascist where
common sense have gone out the window and legislation and

(39:52):
regulation is to the poor.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
I mean, it's one of those things that I can appreciate.
You know, it's sensible in the sense that in the
event that you know, there's not a hydrant sitting at
the on the corner of the section, right, So in
that event and there's a fire and the fire brigade
need to get water, they need to be able to
find it somewhere, and so if it's not nearby, then

(40:17):
it's fair enough that the onus is on the householder
to provide that water for that. But then it seems
like that's the practical part. But then, like you say,
if there's a two million or twenty million liter dam
that's quite close by, but for some reason you're allowed
to use that water, that doesn't make any sense. Then

(40:37):
was it a distance?

Speaker 15 (40:39):
No, No, it's not. It's not at all in a
rural area, there are no hydrants, no, of course not,
And so we do what is whatever practical. I mean,
the council's perspective was that the regulation says you need
fifty thousand liters of supply close to the house. This
was I mean that the dam is probably maybe one
hundred meters from the from the property, but that that

(41:02):
doesn't comply, which just seems insane relate.

Speaker 2 (41:05):
Although from a practical point of view, and I'm very aware,
we've only got ten fifteen seconds, you know, for you,
like as a firefighter, to run hoses one hundred meters
would take some time, wouldn't it. And we know how
fast fires go.

Speaker 15 (41:18):
Now we've got pump sweet pumps pumped into the trucks.

Speaker 2 (41:21):
So yeah, no, biggie, Okay, interesting, interesting, I'm going to
run for the news. Hey, appreciate the call. We we'll
continue to talk about this afternoon sport and weather top
of the hour at seven o'clock if you'd like to
join us talk all things building and construction, including how
to put out fires. I guess we'll provide water. We'll
do that straight after seven o'clock.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
If it creeks, leaks, cracks, or squeaks, some is the
time to get it sorted.

Speaker 12 (41:46):
Call.

Speaker 1 (41:47):
Oh, eight hundred and eighty to eighty. The resident builder
with Peter Worlfcare News Talks.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
Be your news talk, said, b we are into our
discussion this morning about all things building and construction, and
again my apologies if you've heard me say this before,
but it is every week. It's absolutely true. I don't
know where the show's going to go every week. I
might have something that I want to introduce, or a

(42:13):
topic or something that's topical or newsworthy that has come
along during the week, but I really never know. So
did I know that we'd be talking about firefighting and
the provision of water for firefighting in areas where there's
either not a hydrant or there's not main supply. No,
I didn't. Is an interesting Well, yeah, I think it

(42:34):
is because it does impact on a lot of people,
particularly the rules around how much and the fact that
it can't be part of your pottable water supply. So
if you're capturing rain water and putting it into tanks
and you're using that for drinking water and showering and
running the flushing the toilets, those sorts of things, that
water is separate to water that needs to be provided

(42:54):
for firefighting. So the email that I got some crazy
interpretation of the fire fighting regulations, this is obviously opinion.
In one instance, get a fence letter so far an
emergency New Zealand letter stating that they can take water
from any water source. Council wanted me to put in
four tanks for a duplex development on a rural section

(43:17):
that had limited space. A visit from Fens and a
subsequent letter was ultimately acceptable to council that two twenty
five thousand letter tanks were acceptable. Still required several emails
to convince the council from en So in the end
you still needed to put in tanks, but maybe you
didn't need to provide forty thousand liters of storage for

(43:38):
each individual unit, So you've ended up with fifty thousand letters. Still,
you know, two decent sized tanks and the special fittings,
and I've seen these at the Bailey Water Tanks. You
know they've obviously they're doing tanks have done for years,
but also tanks that come with a special fitting, so

(44:00):
a large outlet basically that allows the volume to be
sucked out of the tank and also to allow air
into the tank, because you imagine, if you know, most
tanks have got a lid on them at the top,
if you're trying to suck out water at several hundred
liters a minute, it's going to end up collapsing the
tank by creating a vacuum. So there's a special provision

(44:20):
like a snorkel I think it is that goes on
the top of the tank that allows air to be
drawn in as water is being sucked out of the tank. Oh,
eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the number to call.
Certainly the water tanks at home. I did quite a
lot of work in the garden before I went away,
including a whole lot of feeding and that sort of thing.
It seems that the things that responded most to the

(44:42):
to the feeding and fertilizing that I did with the weeds,
which were prolific when I got home. Anyway, sorted that out.
We'll talk about this and all things gardening with Rid Climb.
Pasted at ten eight point thirty this morning. Right the
lines are open. The number to call eight hundred eighty
ten eighty. All things building, construction, fences, regulations, change of use,

(45:06):
it's plans, everything's up for grabs. Eight hundred eighty eighty
the number. Dion. Good morning, Matt. How are you thinks
very well on yourself bearing.

Speaker 16 (45:16):
Up under the strain. Thanks for asking.

Speaker 2 (45:20):
We're only well three days into four days into the year.

Speaker 17 (45:26):
Yeah, I'm actually ex construction manager and I have done
a number of bills around the place, but I now
live on Waki Island and there you would be hard
pushed to find anybody with tanks set aside specifically for

(45:47):
firefighting here. I don't have any property that has it.
And if these guys this is once again, this is
the bloody counsel deciding they're just going to enforce something
because they can, and no one can fight them on
because everyone sort of thinks they're too they're too small,
which they are largely. So you know, you get a

(46:08):
planner saying stuff like that, you've got to have that
poor bagger up up north. He's got those who's got
about forty five downs. It is completely ridiculous. And I
don't know why these planners think they can just get
away with it.

Speaker 2 (46:21):
And yet at the same time, you know, if we're
logical about these things, it also isn't ridiculous because you know,
in a situation where you're in a rural area, there's
no provision for water other than what you've got in
your tanks, and those tanks could be quite low because
you're using it. Then, yeah, what happens when the fire

(46:41):
engine actually you've you've prompted me to think. The last
place that I did that was kind of rural was
north of Auckland on a ten acre block. It was
a large family home with a garage and with a
minor dwelling on it and so on for an extended family.
And we built that. We put in three large water tanks.

(47:02):
I can't they might have been thirty thousand liter ones
or something like that, but at that time there was
nothing on the building consent to the resource consent around
provision for firefighting. So it's obviously something that's happened in
the last I don't know, five, ten, twenty years or so,
but it's having a real impact. In this email from

(47:22):
a guy saying, look, I did a duplex development in
a rural section, still ended up needing to put in
two twenty five thousand letter tanks just for firefighting.

Speaker 18 (47:33):
Yeah, well, I mean I agree with you that, I
mean it's a necessary but those trucks carry a fair
amount of water as far as I understand, I don't
know the details.

Speaker 2 (47:44):
Of well, but no, most most regular, Like I've got
an email from a guy going, hey, look, Type one
and two volunteer trucks which are used in smaller towns
and rural area might carry about two thousand leaders. Now
I'm thinking that through a fire hose two thousand leaders,
you're going to get through that pretty damn quick. And
it's probably not enough order to put out a fire,

(48:05):
not a instantly involved house fire.

Speaker 18 (48:09):
You know, what I don't know.

Speaker 17 (48:10):
Is wh you get a situation sound of properly? Like
why do they just open the tank the water tanks
up and chuck the bumps in? Is that how they
do it?

Speaker 2 (48:17):
Because I don't I like, yeah, because most of them
wouldn't have the special fitting on them. Maybe they do,
but again, you know that then requires somebody on a
ladder to get up, open the lid, drop a hose,
and do the siphon, you know, all of which is
happening while your house is burning down.

Speaker 17 (48:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:37):
The hard thing is you can actually see that, you
can actually see the logic behind the legislation. Right in
an emergency situation and you don't have provision for water.
Your house is going to burn down. So what's the
answer to that? Make people have water storage? But then
we're off. We're now into that space where okay, here's
a practical solution, Like our first caller who said, I've

(48:58):
got a stream, stream never runs dry. You could suck
forty five thousand letters of water out. I'll make a
little platform that you can mount a pump on. That's
my solution. Oh hey, now you need a resource consent
to draw water from the stream and away we go.
But hey, look at the same time, and maybe now
that the announcements have been made, I know we've interviewed

(49:19):
Chris Pink a couple of times on the program, it
might be interesting to do to make a request to
have Chris Bishop on the show to talk about the
changes to the resource management and what that might do
in terms of construction. So I'll make a note do
some homework on that as well. Good talking with you, Dean,
and all the best for the year ahead, and hopefully
it's not as stressful as you feel right now. O

(49:40):
eight one hundred and eighty ten eighty is the number
to call. It's fourteen minutes after seven, Linda, Good morning,
Hi Pete.

Speaker 19 (49:48):
I've been hoping to get hold of you. I've got
a rashy problem.

Speaker 2 (49:52):
Oh and I feel your pain.

Speaker 19 (49:58):
This is a problem that is becoming more and more
prevalentically in the area that I live in and you know,
it's you know, I just residential in Auckland, and I've
got these rats have somehow got up into the ceiling.
But the funny thing is it's not funny, you know,
because anyway, they only seem to come in when it rains,

(50:19):
all right, limits of rain falling. But I've tried everything
to sort of try to get rid of them.

Speaker 20 (50:27):
I don't know.

Speaker 19 (50:27):
How they're getting in, and I don't know what to
do about it once they're there. And I also worry
an awful lot about what they're doing to the wiring
that up there, you know, and also you know, the
the insulation and all of that. Yeah, and so I'm
really desperate and I'm wanting to know, and I've tried

(50:48):
all sorts of stuff, and I just wanted, can you
get can some people ring up with solutions that have
worked for them?

Speaker 2 (50:55):
Look what I suggest to do is, you know, I
know this is a show that promotes the IY and
you can do traps and you can do baiting, but
I think if you've got effectively like an infestation, I
would get the professionals in. And again a property that
I look after, there was an issue a number of
years ago, I went reached out contacted a local pest

(51:18):
control firm. They're on the North Shore, Select Home Services,
and for I don't know how many years, I've had
them install traps around the perimeter of the property and
they regularly come back do the check the baits, give
me an assessment of how much bait has been removed.
In some cases it's like eighty ninety percent of the

(51:39):
bait has been removed. So you know that there are
rats around, but in terms of rats getting into the building,
it stopped that because they've trapped around the area and
put out bait stations. So I think this, given that
it's you know, obviously a fairly significant problem, I would
look at getting a professional firm and to establish some
baits and a trap line basically around your property.

Speaker 19 (52:03):
What about once they've got up in there. I mean,
I can't get up and have a lot and say,
you know what they've done, what the damage is. What
do you suggest to do you know, to sort of
clean that up or you know, or along those lines again, possibly, yeah, contact.

Speaker 2 (52:22):
Possibly, Well, there are pest control firms out there right
and lots of them, so you know, it's just a
matter of getting a recommendation for a trustworthy one in
your area and using them, and possibly they could go
up and have a look and see whether there's any evidence,
for example, of nests in the ceiling that they you know,
because I have heard stories where rats love to use

(52:43):
certain types of insulation to build themselves nests, in which
case it's a warm, dry environment, and they're probably thinking
that's that's awesome. The other thing to look at is,
you know, do you have any large attractive openings around
the perimeter of the roof. One instance, a place that
I look after, there's an overhead power line that runs
from the road obviously to the house. It runs close

(53:07):
to some trees, it's close to a reserve, and councils
stopped trapping for rats in that reserve, and so the
population grew expanded, and by all accounts, they used to track.
They used to climb or walk along the overhead power
line and then up and under the roofing and in there.
So you got to look at that. But look, I

(53:27):
would go professionals and get someone in to do some trapping,
and I'm sure that will make a big difference. I'd
probably have told the story before, and the reason why
I have some empathy for you is many, many, many
years ago. We were living in a small place and
we had rats in the ceiling as well, and so

(53:48):
I got up through the ceiling hatch, got a rat trap,
good old fashioned one, put that up there with some
bait in it, middle of the night. A couple of
days later, a night's later, I could hear the scratching
sound of the rat running around on the ceiling, and
then a couple of minutes later, off the trap goes,
and I thought, gotcha, you lasted thing. But then about

(54:12):
fifteen seconds later I could hear this scratching sound and
a dragging sound, so obviously I'd got them or her,
I don't know, but they were still alive and dragging
the trap with them. So imagine lying like two o'clock
in the morning listening to this, going, what am I
gonna do now? Anyway, I thought of it, but it

(54:33):
wasn't It wasn't a lot of fun, to be fair.

Speaker 19 (54:36):
I've tried everything my body. I was throwing them up,
and god, I really didn't want to do it, but
they didn't even touch them. I couldn't believe it. They
wouldn't touch them.

Speaker 2 (54:45):
Don't go for the baits trap up there yet, go
for the baits, get some professionals and get the baits
set up, and you know that'll sort it out. All
the very best to you, Elinder. And that does bring back,
wasn't it. I mean, it's funny now, but I can
tell you what lying in bed at two o'clock in
the morning hearing this sort of scraping sound. It is
this trapped rat trying to drag the trap across the

(55:08):
seven locks, not going to be going. This is not
a good story. It's a bit early in the morning
for this sort of story. Yeah, wrap it up, you're saying,
wrap it up. I don't need to know more. Seven
nineteen will take a break. We'll talk to Charles in
just a moment.

Speaker 1 (55:20):
Sun's Out Tools Out Your summer DIY starts here. The
resident builder with Peter Wolf can call the eight hundred
and eighty eight News Talk ZB.

Speaker 2 (55:32):
I'm not so sure about the Sun's Out Tools Out thing.
I mean, I agree, but I'm thinking I think I've
had more rain here in Auckland in the last four
days since we've been back for the month that I
spent in the Northern Hemisphere, where it's supposed to be
winter and cold, and well it was dark and it
was a bit chilly, but not a lot of rain.
I was out driving around yesterday in some of those thunderstorms.

(55:53):
It's quite exciting. Really. Oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty
is then I'm to call Charles. Good morning. Hello Charles
hell old Charles. Hello, Hello Charles. Yes, water tanks, Yes.

Speaker 6 (56:09):
I thought i'd ed and my two cents worth. I'm
a MOAL firefighter down in the south here. We're starting
to see a proliferation of these water tanks from the
local authority. And one of the issues is that half

(56:29):
the tanks are placed so close to the building that
there no practical use whatsoever, because they're right in the
what you might call the hot zone.

Speaker 2 (56:37):
Yes.

Speaker 6 (56:39):
The other thing is the authority doesn't tell us that
they have required these tanks to be put in. So
I actually do a drive around my area where I
see a new building going up and document the tank
and try and just so that if we're arriving on scene,
we know that it's there to start with.

Speaker 2 (57:01):
Okay, that's I mean, And that seems to be a
really some like there's a simple fix for that, right,
So if you're doing a new building, you've put in
provision for fire fighting that should be registered on the title.
And then I guess if you're if you get a
call out. I don't know whether you typically search for
any property information on your way to the to the

(57:25):
to the event, but if you did, it should come
up with an alert to fends going, Hey, by the way,
look for the forty five tank because it's there for
you guys to use.

Speaker 6 (57:35):
In theory, that would work, but you're gonna remember, we're.

Speaker 2 (57:39):
You've got other things to think about.

Speaker 6 (57:41):
Yeah, old trucks that don't have that sort of connectivity
means a quick look around the vehicle and say, right
where we were going, what do we know about it?
Where's the water?

Speaker 13 (57:51):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (57:51):
The ether thing is that mostly now when we're going
to a fire, that the communications people will be sending
a tanker, one or two tankers to follow us up.
So the idea is that they're maybe thirty forty minutes
out behind us.

Speaker 11 (58:09):
Right, do what we can't?

Speaker 6 (58:11):
We do what we can without two thousand liters, which
is water management.

Speaker 2 (58:17):
Yep.

Speaker 6 (58:18):
So it doesn't mean you go full noise on the
on the on the hose. The other thing is that
those tanks that don't have a coupling. We have developed
a drop in snorkel the top and we've practiced ripping
the top of tanks, dropping the snorkel and running a

(58:40):
feeder to a pump a truck and the idea is
to it's a race to get that set up for
the crew on the hoses on the empty the truck's tank.

Speaker 2 (58:53):
Yeah, okay, yep, yep, so.

Speaker 6 (58:56):
You can picture the scene. So yes, there's it's I've
only done over the last eighteen to twenty years a
lot of house fires in these areas and it works. Well,
that's all I can say.

Speaker 2 (59:13):
Yeah, And that's the sort of thing that you know,
like it's it's it's often easy to go look versus
biocity gone mad and da da da dada in any
state blah blah blah. But the reality is that if
you're if you're in an area where there's not a
hydrant or Mainz pressure, then well, if you're in Mainz pressure,
then you've got hydrants. That's as simple as that, isn't it.

Speaker 6 (59:36):
No, the community where a men has hydrants all around
the place every one hundred or so meters, most of them,
most of them the pressure behind them is and you
could be off, Frank, you could puddle.

Speaker 2 (59:51):
More right, Yeah, okay, ye.

Speaker 6 (59:55):
So they're not much used and they have to get
the local authority replaced wall lines and didn't really sort
of think about upgrading so that there was enough supply
for a hydrant.

Speaker 2 (01:00:08):
Right. Interesting, Yeah, because I think most of us who
have you know, are interested in this and maybe have
looked at some videos about what happens when a fire
takes off on a property. In the end, we're talking minutes, right,
We're not talking lots of time to leisurely wander along,

(01:00:29):
find some water, get it connected, and so on. Because
you know, a house of an older vintage perhaps where
there's lots of timber, maybe not much lining, those sorts
of things that would be gone in six seven minutes.

Speaker 7 (01:00:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:00:44):
Yeah, So somebody else suggested were there just to wash
down the sledge.

Speaker 2 (01:00:51):
I'm sure he wasn't in tending offense to you, but
that was a comment from a firefighter.

Speaker 7 (01:00:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:00:59):
I mean, if I think about us, you know, ten
minutes from the sign, we're out the door, and then
ten potentially other ten to fifteen minutes to get to
where we need to go to ten yes, the place
is fully involved, if we say, and all we can

(01:01:19):
do is try and prevent it from yes, spreading and
spread spreading. So so yes, there's there's not a lot
we can we can do, and those circumstances.

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
Interesting, interesting, Charles, I really appreciate the insight from someone
who's who's involved in this and obviously for a number
of years and a great deal of and put and advice.
Really appreciate that. It's seven twenty nine here at news
Talk said Be and Kevin, good morning to you, Good
morning Prince, and to you, sir.

Speaker 16 (01:01:55):
I have a solution with this water problem in the
rural area. Yep, we get about the tags were in
a swimming pool.

Speaker 2 (01:02:05):
Yeah, and I've I've certainly in areas that now that
I'm sort of familiar with these requirements, I think that's
a simple provision. You know, forty five thousand leaders is
a relatively small swimming pool. But if it's there, and
it's in the ground, and it's unlikely to melt and
those sorts of things, then that makes a lot of sense.
Because I think Charles talking before, in some cases, you know,

(01:02:27):
if it's a tank, plastic tank, which is how most
tanks have done these days, and it's relatively close to
the house. Once you've got a fully involved fire, chances
are the tank is going to start melting, right, So
you need to have that set far enough away to
ensure that it's not going to be impacted by the fire.
But obviously a swimming pool, well if it's a concrete

(01:02:47):
one that's in the ground, ain't going to burn.

Speaker 16 (01:02:50):
Yep, that's right, doing a bad thing into pleasure.

Speaker 2 (01:02:55):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah, I appreciate that. All the best
to you, Kevin. We can take a short break. We'll
talk to John and just the moment, we're talking all
things building and instruction. Basically we're talking about houses and all
of the things that go along with it. Oh wait,
which includes obviously protecting it in the event that there

(01:03:16):
is a fire. Mean that I was going to say
they're relatively un common, but I do know a couple
of people who have had fires, and I do know
people who have either lost their house or suffered significant
damage as a result. Several years ago, actually with the
first season of the block, so I was at twenty twelve,

(01:03:38):
we actually put sprinklers in, had a separate water supply
they've connected to the mains, but it had like a
volume of water that could be used initially to run
sprinklers throughout the house. But in all the years since then,

(01:03:59):
I don't think I've ever done a new build where
people have said, actually, I want to protect myself, I'm
going to put sprinklers inside a residential dwelling. One hundred
and eighty ten eighty back in just a moment.

Speaker 1 (01:04:09):
Sorting those summerfixes before the barbecue crowd arrives, the resident
builder with Peter wolfcab call oh eight hundred eighty ten
eighty news Talks that be.

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
You and new Talks Thered be. A couple of people
commenting just via the text on the pest control just saying, hey, look,
just go for your own traps, do the baits yourself. Yeap,
you could have a go, but I think you've got
to be really diligent around checking the baits, making sure
that you've got enough exterior traps out there. And yes,

(01:04:43):
you could do that yourself, but you're going to go
and invest in it. And then you've got to make
sure that you can, I suppose deal with any carcasses
that you might find as well. Oh eight hundred eighty
ten eighty is the number to call. Speaking of rats, John,
good morning. You want to talk about them as well.

Speaker 14 (01:04:59):
Yeah, there's some machines available. I know where you can
get them, but I don't want to mention the store
because you're I could be in trouble with your boss.
But I can give it to the gentleman. Yes, lady,
the lady can. I'll ring them back and tell him.
But what you do is you plug him in the
in the hot point nearest to your mer say in
journal switchboard or whatever you've got there, and then you

(01:05:22):
got to the furthest part of the house. You have
to buy it. They're not cheap, but they last forever.
And what it actually does is sent harmonics through your wiring,
through electric wiring, and those have very great the place
and they just knocked a place, start to knock a
place two doors away down from us. And next time
we've got micheur ratt up in our ceiling and I'll hear.

(01:05:45):
I got my red babe, and my friend said none,
and I will take you to this store. And so
he did, and I bought twenties. And you know, and
the first night that we're rocketing around like a losrace,
you know Indianapolis five hundred and the following night, the
following night that we're gone, that heard the same.

Speaker 2 (01:06:03):
So this is just the harmonic. So it's a sound
that I'm on travel.

Speaker 14 (01:06:07):
Through your copper wiring all over the place, and they're
not hurt, your care for your dog, and they don't
like it.

Speaker 2 (01:06:15):
They just stay away.

Speaker 14 (01:06:18):
Yeah, because I was a bit skeptical, but he sure
to his plate and he said, well, I used to
call it the castle. Make you see the place, But
then might I take to be around with a vcum cleaner?
And he put five for them, and he put one
in each corner of the house, and then six and
three he bought run on a switchboard. But he had horses,

(01:06:38):
and he took one even if the wire was fed
from the house, and put one where he had trouble
with the reds eating you know, the chaff and all
that rubbish. And I'll tell you once saying this, in
three days he didn't have a right rat on the property.
She was all gone.

Speaker 2 (01:06:54):
How interesting, How interesting. I'll tell you what I'll do
is I'll put you on hold if you could just
mention the store if you're reluctant to do it. On here.
Just mention it to lock my producer. He'll pick up
your call in just a second. With news talks, it'd
be at seven thirty six people wolf camp back in
the studio after a little bit of time away. It
nice to be back as well. John, greetings to you

(01:07:15):
second John the more.

Speaker 8 (01:07:16):
In fact, I understanding through this performance with fans at
the moment having to put water tanks in. I'm on
a semioral property within a city boundary and have to
put in fifty thousand liters of water storage because I'm
more than one hundred meters on the closest fire hydrant

(01:07:37):
right now. The requirements are that I have to have
been more than six meters from any of those technique
needs more than six meters from any fire sauce, and
I have to allow room for one fire hydrant to
park at the tank and another fire appliants to pass
at that point.

Speaker 2 (01:07:59):
Juers, what what's your section size?

Speaker 7 (01:08:06):
Twelve acres?

Speaker 2 (01:08:07):
Okay, So it's not like that's not impossible. I'm just
thinking about a situation, let's say, where you may need
to provide provision for firefighting water, but on a let's
say a thousand square lyter site, I mean obviously.

Speaker 8 (01:08:23):
That you're not going to have the issue any place
that will require to fire having a fire fortet has
to built for ninety meters of those tanks. Otherwise I've
got to run a four inch main two with the
ninety meters of those taks. Yeah, And I said, can
I use a swimming pool and they said no, swimming

(01:08:44):
pools will not count.

Speaker 2 (01:08:46):
How interesting because the reason.

Speaker 8 (01:08:49):
For that is because of fielding and shrubbery around the
swimming pool could restrict access speedily access to it.

Speaker 2 (01:08:58):
I mean, you know, a burly firefighter with an axe
is not going to be troubled by a little childlock?
Are they No?

Speaker 8 (01:09:05):
But it's still well that the argument.

Speaker 7 (01:09:08):
Is going to delay.

Speaker 2 (01:09:10):
Cheetus and I guess there's no challenge to this. It's
now you know what I found interesting as.

Speaker 8 (01:09:19):
Part of the building consent to build the building, right,
so obviously with the building where I get signed off
until that's that.

Speaker 2 (01:09:27):
That provision is made interesting enough.

Speaker 8 (01:09:30):
Also talking to a friendsman, he said the largest water
tank in the district is twelve thousand meters putting in
fifty thousand.

Speaker 2 (01:09:40):
Yeah, so it to know, you know roughly how much
water you need to put out a house fire. You know,
if your house is two hundred square meters, how much
water typically would you need? I suppose depends of the
house and.

Speaker 8 (01:09:54):
I'm sawing more than four water tank is full of water. Yeah,
and they have to be full all the time.

Speaker 2 (01:10:00):
Yes, that's right, so it can't be your regular possible water.

Speaker 16 (01:10:04):
I'm in town supply, you're.

Speaker 2 (01:10:05):
On town supply, correct, But because the hydrant is more
than one hundred meters away, correct, far out, you wonder
whether it would be cheaper for you to pay to
have a hydrant installed closer to your house, you know
what I mean?

Speaker 16 (01:10:22):
Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 8 (01:10:26):
But these are the channels challenge say.

Speaker 2 (01:10:29):
I'm going to Yeah, well look at that. Hey, appreciate that.
Thank you very much for that. John, all the very
best to you. Oh eight one hundred and eighty, ten eighty.
It's fascinating that thing, particularly which part of the Building Act.
It's it's you can't impose something like this on people
and not have some legislation to back it up. So

(01:10:52):
you know, that's that's homework for me this week your
News Talks. It's seven forty one Trina, Good morning, Karina, Sorry, Hello.

Speaker 10 (01:11:02):
It's fine, Good morning, Peyton.

Speaker 4 (01:11:04):
Having me each to you as.

Speaker 2 (01:11:05):
Well you're into you.

Speaker 10 (01:11:07):
So we are in a situation and I just thought,
you know, for a different perspective, we live rural, and
I think in this day and age, I think that
a lot of people who live five minutes out of
town think they're going rural. But the reality is that
that's not what rural people consider rural. And every time
I hop in my car, I drive half an hour

(01:11:28):
to get anywhere, which is nothing unusual for people that
live in the middle of town. They can still drive
half an hour to get anywhere as well. But we're
forty forty five minutes from a town that's got a
fire station and we are farming. We have just gone
through the process in the White Kiddow of putting a

(01:11:48):
relocatable house on four staff. We have had to go
through this process. We have had to put two forty
five thousand meters of water available within It had to
be more than six meters, but the ninety meters from
that new dwelling, it couldn't be our efflent ponds. We

(01:12:11):
obviously have huge effluent ponds that couldn't be effluent ponds
because of the water.

Speaker 4 (01:12:16):
It couldn't be.

Speaker 10 (01:12:19):
Water that we're using, and yet we have forty five
minutes from a town. So the reality is that slab comment,
you know, that is just obvious for most rural people
unless you lived five, ten, fifteen minutes out of town,
it's going to be just not a no brainer that

(01:12:40):
they're not going to get there to be able to
even do anything.

Speaker 4 (01:12:44):
And we still have to go through this process.

Speaker 10 (01:12:46):
And I was trying to find the radiations for you
to say under which prevision of the building.

Speaker 2 (01:12:54):
But yeah, and some.

Speaker 10 (01:12:57):
People are putting in swimming pools, and you know that
makes sense if it's for your own personal use, but
why would you put a swimming call in for workers
that may or may not be there, and you know
they may and a lot of these people don't want
a swimming pool, so that's not practical. And some people
are putting in an unimental pond just to cover the requirement.

(01:13:19):
But and to be fair, the council, you know, they
didn't hold this up and say you know you have
to do it, well you have to do it because
they won't give you code of compliance. But the reality
is it wasn't a huge issue, but it's still something
you have to pick off the box.

Speaker 2 (01:13:35):
And this is where you know, you're obviously realistic enough
to know that one of the risks associated with living
in a rural environment where like you say, you're what
twenty five thirty minutes from a fire station. So by
the time an alert goes to the brigade and they
if it's rural, chances are it's mainly volunteers by the

(01:13:57):
time they get there, and then they drive all the
way to your place. Even if you've got fifty thousand
liters of water, there's no one there to use it,
and the house has already gone, right, And so you're
right that comment about that they're there to wash down
the slab is absolutely right. But in the meantime, a
not insignificant amount of cost has been incurred by the

(01:14:19):
homeowner to make provision for something that no one's actually
practically ever going to use to protect your house.

Speaker 10 (01:14:27):
Correct, Yeah, And Like when I looked at it, because
I have a background in a law so I thought
this is ridiculous. Yeah, sure, but you know it should be.
There should be something to say if you live with it.
Like I can appreciate it when I'm driving home and
I go past properties that are five minutes out of town. Yeah,
sure that would be a good idea. But when you've

(01:14:48):
driven half an hour forty five minutes to get home
and you still have to do it, Like we've got
a three k driveway. So even when we have visitors
come on farm, you know, they tend to get lost,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 17 (01:15:03):
We live in rural.

Speaker 4 (01:15:04):
This is what rural is.

Speaker 10 (01:15:06):
And you know, to think that you still have to
have forty five thousand meds sitting there just in case
you have a fire, it's just.

Speaker 2 (01:15:13):
Not which no one's going to count, no one's going
to get to you in time to use it. That's
that's the harsh reality of it, isn't it.

Speaker 10 (01:15:20):
Yes, that is serious, And so that's a practical side. People,
you know, rural people say these aren't practical.

Speaker 4 (01:15:27):
This is the sort of practical thing. And you know
that poor guy that had to get a result wouldn't
need to get.

Speaker 2 (01:15:32):
A results to draw water stream.

Speaker 10 (01:15:35):
That's one step higher than what I even had to do,
because you know, he then had to worry about taking
water from the ground, which God forbid. You know, who
would be allowed to do something like that?

Speaker 2 (01:15:49):
Interesting? And this is where I do wonder whether these
reforms to the RMA might start to look at this
sort of thing where I guess what was well intentioned
and so on in the first place is grow into
an impractical point. You know that it's it's in that
case where someone's got a stream and they might use
that for provision for water for fire fighting, that's sensible.

(01:16:13):
We know that that will occur, hopefully not never, but
maybe once in a lifetime. Or you know, in that case,
making spending eight thousand dollars to get a resource consent
for something you might never actually do. That's the madness
of it, really.

Speaker 10 (01:16:30):
Really totality of it. You know, we could when I
put my building application and I said, we are this
distance from this fire station and so therefore practically this
is not going to be necessary. But there's nothing like that.
It's just not practical.

Speaker 2 (01:16:51):
I mean, you know, would it be the sort of
thing that if you obviously you're going to need to
put these tanks in that if there was let's say
a brush fire nearby, could you then just with a
domestic water pump be able to wet your house down on?
You know, the sort of thing that we see people
in Australia and in California and that doing where you
clear the brush around your house, and particularly if you're

(01:17:14):
Central Otago, that sort of thing where it does get
dry and where there have been I mean there's been
fires all across the country, but some areas are increasingly
I guess high risk in terms of fires that you know,
if you've if you've cut back brush and you were
there and you wanted to protect your house by being
able to damp down the area and you had provision,

(01:17:36):
then that that seems practical. But in terms of it
being there for a fire engine that's going to take
thirty minutes to arrive, that doesn't make any sense.

Speaker 13 (01:17:44):
Does it.

Speaker 5 (01:17:46):
No?

Speaker 10 (01:17:47):
Yeah, then getting into a whole different thing, because you know,
I can in New Zealand it can appreciate you know,
these people that are living close to large areas of
trees that could we have had and that's you know
a few in Fame. We live in the way Cottow,
you know, like it's been that. You know when the

(01:18:08):
lake Arapuni.

Speaker 4 (01:18:09):
We've got the work at a river at our doorsteps.

Speaker 10 (01:18:11):
You know what I mean, it's not like there's nowhere
else to draw water from. And the whitehadow, Yeah, that
could be quite Yeah, this could be quite practical and
down in Otago or somewhere like that where you know
or areas that they do have fires like that, or
there is a likelihood of that. But the reality is
the chances of that happening are just probably the same

(01:18:33):
percentage as a chance of one of our houses on
farm burning down, which you know is not nice but
does happen to some people. But it's not that high. Yeah,
the percentage is not that high. And yet the whole
country has, the whole rural population has to put forty
five thousand liters in case it happens to them.

Speaker 2 (01:18:56):
Yeah, really appreciate the conversation, and thanks for the and
put and the nuanced parts of that discussion as well.
Really appreciate it. It is it's coming up ten minutes
away from eight o'clock. Remember we got news at eight.
We've still got time for a couple more calls before
the news. After the news will take your calls on
building construction regulations, firefighting, water storage, these sorts of things

(01:19:19):
right up to eight thirty. And then of course it's
red climb passed from eight thirty this morning, it is
ten to eight.

Speaker 1 (01:19:25):
If it creaks leaks, cracks or squeeks. Some is the
time to get it sort of call oh, eight hundred
eighty eight the resident builder with Peter Worldcare News talks.

Speaker 2 (01:19:34):
Be just looking at a text that's come through. I'm
going to save you some time. The fire Fighting Rural
Requirements is not in the Building Act. It's in each
Council's Resource Management Act requirements as fens have consulted with it.
Varies on what each planning department may have taken on board.

(01:19:56):
CCC cannot be withheld on completion without it, but after
that the Planning department will infringe if it's not done
as an even fringed on your planning regulation info within council.
Here cheers, Now, I'm not sure what. I don't think
I got the link, but I will. It gives me
somewhere to lock which would be really interesting. Oh, eight

(01:20:16):
hundred eighty ten eighty. We've got a little bit of
time before the news top of the hour. It's been
a busy old morning. Actually, it's been great. Nice to
be back in the studio. It was great, I think,
to be able to bring you the show as we
were traveling, so it was kind of like five o'clock
in the evening and Europe or six o'clock in the evening.

(01:20:38):
It was about nine o'clock in the morning in Los
Angeles doing the show, so quite sort of pleasant hours
to be working. I guess it's not an early start
when you're in the Northern Hemisphere. It's more staying up
a bit late. And I think, actually, I don't think
I shared the photograph, but I'm not even going to
go there, right, that's a story that I'll keep to myself. Oh,

(01:20:58):
eight hundred eighty ten eight is that I realized where
I was going with that and thought time to just
shut up off camp. Right, If you've got a question
of building nature, you should give us a call. Couple
of other texts that have come through. Thanks Jen for
your text saying this has actually been a really interesting discussion.
I found it really interesting and in terms of like,

(01:21:21):
we all know that it's the right thing to do
to some degree, but then there's also that pragmatic element,
which is what Karina highlighted. They live rurally, They've got
a three kilometer long driveway, they're the better part of
thirty minutes out of town. By the time the Friar
Brigade gets there. There won't be and this is a
horrible thing to say, there just won't be anything left

(01:21:42):
to the house. If it's a fully involved fire, the
house will be gone. There's no adjoining property, so the
prevention of fire spread is not an issue. And I think,
you know, firefighters, I think in urban environments probably focus
on protection of life, but then protection of property, as
in neighboring properties, that would be the bigger concern. If

(01:22:04):
the house is fully involved, there's no saving it, so
what you want to do is prevent the adjoining houses
from igniting as a result of that, so I guess
most of the effort goes into protecting other property rather
than actually looking after the house that's burning down. It's
a been an interesting discussion, oh, eight hundred eight ten eighty,

(01:22:24):
but it will be also really really interesting to see
where the reforms for the RIMA go, and of course
reforms to regional councils and what that might mean for
planning regulations like this as well in a rural area.
I think we're going to be doing a few interviews
this year on these sorts of things, coming up to
news time Top of the Hour at eight Give us
a call now, we'll get things sorted out and have

(01:22:44):
you on air straight after the news at eight o'clock.

Speaker 5 (01:22:50):
I think.

Speaker 1 (01:22:53):
Suns out tools out. If your summer DIY starts here
the resident builder with Peter Wolf Care, call eight hundred
eighty eight News talk Z b Oh, very.

Speaker 2 (01:23:04):
Good morning and welcome back. Oh eight hundred eight eighty
is the number to call. Texts up and running as well,
nine two nine two, and a couple of people have
emailed as well. That's Pete at newstalksb dot co dot
m Z. Earlier on, very very early on we talked
about aluminium jowinery and a couple of people have said, oh,
what were the companies that you mentioned that do the repairs?

(01:23:27):
So I guess nationwide you'd be talking about Exceed window
jowinery repairs. I think I've recommended them or used them before.
And then in Auckland is a smaller company that I
use for sort of installation and repairs called CFA Maintenance,
so c f A as well, so hopefully that helps.

(01:23:50):
We've talked a lot about water tanks and it's obviously topical,
so paul A very good morning to you. There you go, gotcha, Hello, Paul, Yeah,
good morning Peter, how are you increasing very well?

Speaker 20 (01:24:04):
Yeah, look, this jet there's one of my favorite subjects
because I've probably done probably close to ten of these
systems and.

Speaker 2 (01:24:13):
The fire fighting storage.

Speaker 20 (01:24:16):
That's correct, Yes, because I live I'm a real funner
as such, and yeah, so I've done a lot of
them and I've had a love fight with the fire
authority over them as well. Because now the last one
I did I put in the system. I'm going to
tell you it as too, because it's a really good system.

(01:24:38):
It's called leap l e AP and the symbol is
like a frog, and what that is is you've seen
the plans of the house off to them, you know,
I think based somewhere around about VIM or might be
Paraperty I knew or something like that. And anyway, and
then they will design your sprinkle system for your house.

(01:25:00):
When you're doing the New World, you put the sprinkle
system in and it wasn't really that expensive, to be
honest with you. And the thing was is that the
thing that sold me on it was everyone carries on
about them saving the house is you're not saving the house.
What you're doing is they're putting a system in so
that because of all these products that say your couch

(01:25:21):
or your bed or everything else is made inside the house.
Once you get from the fire, it produces these topsic
gacids that people just cannot have any way of getting
out of the house, so they end up inhulating the
smoke and then they can't get out. That's what kills them.
So this gives them a chance to tell me put
the fire out themselves, you know, with the sprink system

(01:25:44):
and as well as the exit the property you know
or exit the house. And what's the system you don't
have to have. You can use your water tank supply
that you're using to supply your house water because you've
only got to say the last ten thousand leaders of
the system for the sprinkles. So what you do is

(01:26:07):
you put a connection part way up the tanks so
that your house water or when you're the list of
water you using comes off there.

Speaker 2 (01:26:15):
So it's like a retention tank.

Speaker 20 (01:26:17):
Yeah, get into the top three toilers of your water
supply and the last quarter is only hill or the
fire system. And you think, oh, how do I know
this fly system is going to be working when it
comes around to time when I want it in twenty
years time? Because they all run off of pump. So
what you do You hook all your toilets up to.

Speaker 2 (01:26:37):
That pump right right, Yes.

Speaker 20 (01:26:42):
Eleven liters of water every time, so you know that
that pump's not that it's working every day. So the
toilet stops going. You know, Oh, there's something wrong with
you pump. So you'll go and fix the pump or that,
you know whatever. So, because a lot of things are
when you have a disaster, it seems to be one

(01:27:03):
failure after another, failure after another failure, and a lot
of them they have not been checked all the way
through something, you know, and you go, oh, there was
a whole heap of maintenances were had a family in
the back of that pump motor. That's what never went.
And the only thing too, is that with a lot of.

Speaker 2 (01:27:23):
Can I just ask you a quick question, Paul, So
in the event that, let's say there's a regional resource
management requirement to provide water storage for firefighting, if you
can you in your experience, have you been able to
go back to them as part of the building consent
or resource consent process and say, look, as an alternative,

(01:27:45):
the homeowner wants to install the sprinkler system this is
how it works. This is and therefore we don't need
to provide the water storage for fire fighting because we've
made this provision to protect the house and that's been accepted.
Or do council simply say, nah, you can do that.
You've still got to have the water storage.

Speaker 20 (01:28:06):
What they do, what the council do is they send
it off to someone from the fire you know they anyway,
and then and then they then sign plans off.

Speaker 7 (01:28:17):
Right.

Speaker 20 (01:28:18):
And the thing is is that sends themselves do not
like these frint systems, right, because it's true. They don't
like them because it's so like half I do them
out of the job and the bloody true. Now, the
other thing too is that they like the tanks, the

(01:28:38):
fifty thousand leaders. This is a which is a good thing.
I can appreciate this. They like the fifty thousand leaders
to be within six meters of your front boundary where
the buy trucks or whatever's going to come in. For
the reason being is that they can come along and
hop onto it. If they have your neighbour's places on
four or one up road, they can hook onto that
and suck that water out as well. So it's not

(01:28:59):
just your house you're protecting, so I can appreciate all
that part of it, you know, because people do get
all what would you call it, They get all bitter
and twisted. They go, what should I have to pay
for the installation of all these tanks because my neighbors
are getting the advantage of it as well. They ever thought.

(01:29:20):
But at the time, you know, you don't. The people
were thinking, cockie, this is going to cost me twenty
thousand dollars to put this in as well. Got to
put in a fire stand which is one hundred million
point coming here was a valve on it. The valve
on it's a thousand dollars just to turn the water
off and on to hold a bat and that's without

(01:29:41):
coming up. And you've got to have on the extent
as well, you've got to have the special connection which
the host or conto yep. So you've got to have
all these little tag on bits, you know, and they
are very very expensive. And the other way around that
is you dig the tanks and so that they're a
meter out of the ground and so they can just

(01:30:01):
go along, lift the tops off and then.

Speaker 2 (01:30:03):
Drop them and drop a siphon straight in.

Speaker 20 (01:30:05):
It's correct so it gets your away from the fire
stand in the valve and all the rest of them,
save them left out of four thousand dollars.

Speaker 2 (01:30:13):
What man just doing that? Interesting look. I'm pleased that
we've had the discussion because it's obviously something that I guess,
if you know, for most of us who are urban,
we're not necessarily aware of this, and yet it's something
that's increasingly common for people in rural as semi rural
environments that they're having to comply with because certainly it

(01:30:36):
wasn't around. It was almost thirty years ago that I
built a place on a ten acre block that was
you know, would have had to have been thirty minutes
from the nearest fire station, So there was none of
these provisions at that time. So it's not exactly recent,
but it's also not been there forever. So it's worth
talking about and appreciate your input. And I'll have a

(01:30:57):
look at that sprinkler system because that seems I mean,
if you're in an environment where it's going to be
a while for the fire brick to get to you,
is that a sensible precaution to take. I'm going to
discree with you, Paul, in terms of FINS don't like
these systems. The one that we installed we did it
in cooperation with FINS at the time. As I recall,

(01:31:20):
oh weight one hundred eighty ten eighty is the number.

Speaker 21 (01:31:23):
Call John greetings, Yes, how are you this morning?

Speaker 2 (01:31:28):
I'm very well John, and yourself pretty good?

Speaker 11 (01:31:30):
Thanks good.

Speaker 21 (01:31:32):
I'm right in this road is now doing the two
tanks for the fire people, and it's going to cost
seven or eight thousand dollars FMG, the insurance company are
not interested in it, and I think that'd been better
off if that made it. It's the rule for place

(01:31:52):
made it compulsory to have fire extinguishers on your house.
Outside your house, you get more out of it. The
where I live is the wong Anui area, the Horror area.
Their council rules are different. They don't have to have
it there, but the wrong anu it. You've got to
have the two tanks. We've got two concrete tanks now

(01:32:15):
firfteen to twenty meters away from the house, forty thousand
liters concrete. They won't melt down and we cannot put
the feding into that because it's house water.

Speaker 2 (01:32:25):
Yeah, that's so. You're obviously doing a new build yes,
in a rural area, and it's trickered the requirement through
the planning legislation to have provision for firefighting or for
water storage for firefighting. So you've got water tanks which
for your postable supply, and then you're having to add

(01:32:46):
additional tanks to provide for fire fighting.

Speaker 21 (01:32:50):
That's right. So now we've got to spend another seven
or nine thousand dollars to put two more tanks in
and the appropriate fitting I think is two thousand dollars. Yeah,
and just sit there for nothing and now will never
ever be used again.

Speaker 2 (01:33:07):
Well you hope that it will never be used again.

Speaker 21 (01:33:09):
Yeah, Well that's right. But I mean, so we're we're
half an hour from from the from the fire station,
so by the time they got there, the house to
be half burned anyway.

Speaker 2 (01:33:19):
Probably more than half. That's that's the hard thing about it.
Interesting to hear just how many people this is impacting.
So again, John, appreciate the insight there, and good luck
with that process. It is seventeen minutes. If I slay
that slightly, it'll be exactly seventy minutes after eight if
you would like to call, oh, eight hundred eighty ten
eighty is then number will take a couple more calls

(01:33:40):
before we jump into the garden. The root climb passed
as always with us from eight point thirty this morning,
it is eight seventeen from.

Speaker 1 (01:33:47):
Summer backyard job to Big Rennolds. Let's talk it through call, Oh,
eight hundred eighty ten eighty the resident building with PETERWILFCAB
news talks.

Speaker 2 (01:33:56):
That'd be you a news talks. It'd be eight hundred
eighty ten eighty. We're taking a few more calls on building,
and then we're into the garden with Rud Murray. Greetings, Yeah,
yes Murray.

Speaker 12 (01:34:10):
Water storage on farms.

Speaker 7 (01:34:12):
Ye.

Speaker 2 (01:34:13):
Now I think your radio's on in the background, which
is going to be definitely distracting.

Speaker 11 (01:34:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 22 (01:34:22):
One idea that they used to do was when you're
building a patio out of concrete, was an idea of
making water storage underneath it.

Speaker 2 (01:34:33):
Yes, I've done one of those, interestingly enough.

Speaker 11 (01:34:39):
So you got two and one.

Speaker 16 (01:34:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 12 (01:34:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:34:41):
No.

Speaker 2 (01:34:41):
We did a house. It was on a slope, so
we had to sort of do some retaining anyway, and
ended up just blocking out It was probably about twenty
five or thirty thousand liters of a chamber that we
installed there or built as part of the overall built
and then poured a concrete lit on the top of it.
Quite interesting getting the boxing out of that afterwards, I

(01:35:03):
have to say. And then wa proofed at all with
an epoxy and I think there's still using it to
this day. So yeah, it's an option.

Speaker 16 (01:35:12):
Yep.

Speaker 7 (01:35:12):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (01:35:13):
It's like your own aquifer. There you go, getting very Roman,
very Roman. I have to say. One of the highlights
on my little trip was wandering into a place in London.
It was the oldest church in London, which I wasn't
even looking for, but I saw it as I was
wandering around, and at the base of that and the
crypt of the church was the remains of a Roman floor,
So when you're standing in there, you're looking back at well.

(01:35:36):
I was from the second century, so eighteen hundred years
of history in that one little spot. It was fantastic.
Oh wait, one hundred eighty ten eighty ray Hello there, sir.

Speaker 23 (01:35:50):
I've been here today painting project that say gurage floor,
but the previous owner didn't put down crop sheets for
painting the ceiling. With his big globs of paint all
over the garage floor and I was just wondering how
to remove it and prepare the safer the paint do.

Speaker 2 (01:36:07):
I think the quickest way is going to be with
a diamond disc diamond cup on a grinder. Ideally with
you can get special shrouds that go around them that
you can plug an extractor into and then just go
through and just scuff. That'll take care of the paint.

(01:36:28):
But also if you're going to paint the surface, it's
quite a good idea if you sort of just go
through the whole thing and just give it a really
light grind over the entire surface that tends to clean
up the surface. Then you can use the right primer
and the right top coat to do your your painting.
If you're going to paint the floor.

Speaker 23 (01:36:49):
Does that paint Does that help when mark aably it
can kind of wear a way the paint of the concrete.
Is it any protection against that? There was a prim
take care of that.

Speaker 2 (01:37:02):
I think in the end, you've got to be a
little bit realistic unless you go for you know, sort
of the high quality and probably quite expensive epoxies that
you might get if you were doing let's say, ceiling
the garage floor of a garage or a service area
which is the high build of poxies. If you're doing
painting yourself, then you recognize that tires turning will over

(01:37:25):
time deteriorate the paint system and then it's just a
maintenance issue to keep on top of it. But you
could certainly investigate. I mean, there are epoxy coatings that
you can apply to flaws that you can then drive on,
or you can take an approach that goes, I'm going
to do some painting and if I need to redo
it in a couple of years. But the preparation is
what's going to give you the best performance of your

(01:37:48):
paint system if you've prepared it well so that it
actually that paint actually keys into the surface. If you
leave it where it's got years and years of dust
and debris and a little bit of grime and all
the rest of it on it, or paint's not going
to stick to that. So that's where the diamond grind
gives you that opted for the paint to bond to
the surface.

Speaker 23 (01:38:09):
Okay, that's great, yeah, very much.

Speaker 2 (01:38:11):
But do I mean I've done it well. I've done
it once where I didn't have the right gear. It's
a lot of dust and it's it's not terribly healthy.
So you know, for sixty or seventy bucks, you can
buy a shroud. I actually brought one from my little
grinder the other day. It's got a port on the
side of it, and if you're grinding, then attach a
vacuum cleaner to it and make sure you're trying to

(01:38:33):
keep that dust down as much as possible. Right, all
of this take care see great Ray and last conversation
for the day. Quick comment from you Ross.

Speaker 13 (01:38:46):
Great show matey the morning on a farm or most
of what there's gold as much as you can get
either a couple of shed fires, I'll tell you what. Yeah,
they couldn't even get near the tanks for they taks
got that hot. A while I've gone onto that. Yeah,

(01:39:07):
you have to can't water with ten minutes for three
minutes from they may for me and there was they
couldn't couldn't out the sheep. But they say, what even
us around it the heat was so dim so they
and k Yeah, great wonders from you know age in
a way, so water was gold much water as you

(01:39:28):
can store the farm?

Speaker 2 (01:39:29):
Ye, yeah, absolutely, Look you're not going to get an
argument from me, I think absolutely. If you can get
water storage, but actually someone's tax it sounds easy.

Speaker 13 (01:39:43):
Engine the other way that the other wise you have.
They don't use it. One of those things. Just swap
them over and use it one the team keep the
other one.

Speaker 2 (01:39:53):
Yeah, but I think they're very clear if you if
there's a planning requirement to provide water storage for firefighting,
you can't connect that to anything else. So it can't
become part of your let's say overflow, or it can't
be you know, a back up to your pottable water supply.
It always has to have the you know, forty five

(01:40:17):
or fifty thousand provision that they want.

Speaker 13 (01:40:20):
Yeah, we got lifetile box around us, you know. Yeah,
some of the blocks that they get there, they've got
to like citivud that was the main one there to have,
and they said, oh no, I want forty five.

Speaker 2 (01:40:33):
V Oh that's right. And that's one of those things
that you go, okay, so you get two thirties and
then you're at sixteen, and then you you've got more
water than you need, or you end up with two
different sized tanks and so on and so forth. But
at this yeah, hey appreciate your conversation and your calls
that wraps up the building part of the show. We're
going to take a short break. We've got hood on

(01:40:54):
a standby. If you've got a gardening or entomological question,
you can call us now on eight hundred and eighty
ten eighty. You can text your questions as well. Nine
to nine two is ZBZB from your mobile phone. It
is coming up seven.

Speaker 1 (01:41:08):
Eight Sawdust, Sunshine and Solid Advice The Resident Builder with
Peter Wolfcamp. Call eight hundred eighty ten eighty News Talk
SeeDB for more from The Resident Builder with Peter Wolfcamp.
Listen live to News Talk SETB on Sunday mornings from six,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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