The Resident Builder podcast: June 23, 2024

This week on the show, ZB's Resident Builder Pete Wolfkamp discusses the latest issues impacting the world of construction- and answers questions!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Resident Builder podcast with Peter Wolfcamp
from News Talk SEDB.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
So anyway, we're going to have a look at that
a little bit later on in the program. Happy to
take your calls on it now, but I thought we'd
reach out to an expert in Hamish Firth who is
a planner of some experience and note is going to
join me on the program at around eight point fifteen
this morning, and we're just going to run through a
couple of options about what does that actually look like,

(00:34):
is it likely to actually be introduced into legislation, and
what are some of the pitfalls? And I've read a
lot of articles and comment from building and building science
related speakers and opinion makers around is this actually a
wise idea? Are people actually going to embrace it? Would

(00:55):
you give up I guess the security of having a
building consent for the work that you do for maybe
the savings of not having one, and people perhaps looking
at it as gosh, is it up to standard? And
how do I know that it's up to standard if
no one's checking it? Well, there are checks and balances.
So anyway, we're going to have a bit of a
look at that a little later on in the program.

(01:15):
But it has been an interesting thing to discuss sort
within building circles. But more than happy to take your
calls on that as well, your thoughts around this proposed legislation.
Could we build up to sixty square meters without necessarily
requiring a building consent? There are then, after this a
whole bunch of ifs, butts, and maybe as well, just

(01:38):
as there are for the expansion and scope of work
that you could do under Schedule one of the Building Act.
That's the current legislation in place, and if you were
a call back. In twenty nineteen, the government made some
changes to that legislation that allowed buildings, for example, up
to thirty square meters that were essentially not habitable in

(01:59):
the sense that they didn't have toilet, showers, plumbing fittings
in them, they could be built without necessarily requiring a
building consent. But then once you got past the you
can build it but and you started to go through
all the butts, you realized that there was actually not
that many opportunities for you to build that if you
were actually going to stay compliant with all of the

(02:22):
rest of the regulations that relate to building, it does
get a little bit technical. It is kind of you know,
I mean, it's are they are they actually chasing the
right target here? Would it make a difference to you
to be able to build sixty square meters without necessarily
requiring a building consent? Give us a call. Oh, eight
hundred and eighty ten eighty is the number to call

(02:44):
if you've got building questions, whether you're underway with a project.
Maybe you've discovered something as a place that I look after,
and we were there during the course of the week
and suddenly it's like, oh, have you noticed that the
floorboard here is starting to I don't know what's really
going on. I just noticed that that. I just put
it down on my list as fixed floorboard. I haven't
even had the investigation yet as to why that floorboard

(03:08):
is suddenly squeaky. Maybe it was put in incorrectly and
doesn't have any support underneath it. Maybe it's a piece
of timber that got wet and has started to decay.
But it's on my list to fix. Actually I think
it's on tomorrow's list to fix. So if you've got
a list and you've got things to fix, and who doesn't,
then eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the number to call.

(03:28):
You can text as well, that's nine two nine two
or ZBZB from your mobile phone if you'd like to
send me an email, You're more than welcome. It's Pete
at Newstalk ZB dot co dot nz. So welcome along
to the show. Looking forward to you call your conversations.
Got a couple of experts who are going to be
part of the show a little bit later on. And then,
of course, as always, we're into the garden with redclined

(03:50):
passed from around eight point thirty this morning, but right
now on a kind of wet and slightly miserable old
morning here in Auckland, it's eight hundred eighty ten eighty.
Is that number to call? Eight hundred eighty ten eighty.
Plenty of lines right now. We're going to run out
later on, so now's your chance call us now. Oh
eight hundred eighty ten eighty. Oh criaky, sorry, I'm looking

(04:20):
at the text. I'm thinking, oh great, there's a text. Right,
we can rip into the topics of the morning. What
are we going to be you know, construction inspection failures?
What do we need to do? Oh goodie, there's one
about building consents.

Speaker 3 (04:33):
Up.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
Crikey, Pete, the new song is terrible. Can't even understand
what she's singing. I like it. I like it anyway.
Enough on the song right re an upstairs deck? Do
I need consent to extend a current deck? And the
cost for that consent? Please from Chris? Yeah, I think

(04:53):
that you do need a consent. And the main thing
that triggers that is the height of the work that
you're proposed to do. So, if it's an upstairs deck,
that will be obviously above one point five meters from
the ground level, and anything above that height would need
a building consent. And think about the logic of it.

(05:15):
The building consent there is ultimately there to protect safety,
right or to keep people safe. So if you fell
from something more than one and a half meters high,
it's going to hurt. If you fell from let's say
three meters high, it's very much going to hurt, in
which case that would trigger the requirement for a building consent.
The cost for that consent, I really don't know. It

(05:38):
depends a great deal on where you are in the country.
I was absolutely shocked the other like, genuinely shocked. The
other day. I was having a discussion with someone who
it might have been down at Field Days. So we
were talking with someone. Oh, that's right. He was a
builder who'd been working in lives in Toron in the
Bay of Plenty and had been working there for a while.

(05:59):
Wasn't on the tools anymore. We were chatting about a
whole lot of stuff, talking about, you know, the massive
amount of development that's happening, and Tylrong are talking about
the controversy about the high rise buildings that they're proposing
for sort of the CBD inside Tyrong, And then we
got talking about building consents and he said, look, we
did a house about five years ago and the building

(06:20):
consent fees were about twenty two thousand dollars, which is,
you know, it's still a fair chunk of cash, but
it's not unreasonable for the time and if it takes
to give out a building consent, So we'll give counsel that.
He said, Now, similar house building consent fees charged by

(06:41):
Tyrong a city council sixty six thousand dollars for a
building consent. I mean, hard to justify. I'd love to
see the breakdown of that. Sixty six thousand dollars for
a building consent to build. That's our house. That's going
to cost about eight hundred thousand dollars to build, So

(07:01):
you know that's high end or higher end, but six
thousand dollars for a building consent in Tronga for that one.
And this is you know, from a reliable source. This
isn't sort of secondhand knowledge and speculation and that sort
of thing. That strikes me as an extraordinary high amount
to charge for a building consent. So maybe the government's

(07:23):
focus on, hey, we'll let you build up to sixty
square meters without a building consent. Maybe their focus should
be how do we get counsels to be more efficient
so that building consents don't cost as much. Maybe that
should be the focus. You can consult. So if you
go online, if you go to MBI, dot gov dot
NZ have your say granny flats, you'll find it there.

(07:46):
You can put in a submission. Oh, eight hundred eighty
ten eighty is the number to call. Sorry, the text
about the song is getting better and better. One last
text before we take another short break. Love your calls.
Eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the number to call. Pete.
I have a steep bank surrounding my property which drops
onto the road with a footpath. My border is that

(08:06):
top of the bank, let's say about twelve meters at
its tallest. The council mows the bank, but it may
need stabilizing at some stage, which would cost thousands. Is
the council responsible for this remedial work or am I
I would have thought, thank you for your texts as well.
I would have thought that if the bank is public

(08:28):
property is council land, the bank is their responsibility, and
that if your border, your boundary of your property is
at the top of it, and that's impacted by the
land below falling away, the responsibility to keep that stable,

(08:48):
to provide stability to your property would lie with counsel
saying that, and it relates back a little bit to
a call we had two weeks ago from a gentleman
who's retaining wall was starting to collapse because it was
being undermined by movement on the adjacent property and the
adjacent proper he was owned by the council. That's he's

(09:11):
now in a battle with council about that. So I
don't underestimate how difficult it might actually be. Now interesting,
I made the comment about Tarrong a city council and
the cost for the building consent being about sixty six
thousand dollars, does the granny flat rule apply in Oh,
hang on No, this is another one. That's another text

(09:32):
that's coming in here we go Pete tarrong. A council
collect their development contributions differently. The developer doesn't pay them
on the land. They're collected in the build It's an
odd way of dealing with them. That's why the council's
building consent costs are so high. So if you're a
little unfamiliar with this, there is often if you're doing

(09:52):
a development, let's say you've got and I'm familiar with
this a little bit norkland. Let's say where you might
have a section that's eight hundred square meters and you're
able to build two houses on that. These days you
probably build six on there. But let's say can do too,
So you subdivide a portion of that. You end up
with a four hundred square meter tight section on its

(10:13):
own title and council is part of that process of
creating this new piece of land. Effectively, we'll charge you
a reserve contribution fee, and that's a fee that goes
towards theoretically money for public development, so looking at public
spaces like reserves, etc.

Speaker 4 (10:34):
Etc.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
And it's over and above the building consent fee, so
it's on the land. So what this texture is suggesting
is that rather than having a building consent fee, maybe
a resource consent fee and a reserve contribution fee. In Tolronger,
they lump it all in together. If someone's got a

(10:56):
thought on that, you're more than welcome to join us. Oh,
eight hundred and eighty ten eighty is the number to call,
and we'll get to that a little bit. The other
text around the granny flat rule does it apply to
rural areas as well as residential zone? If so, I
plan to use it as soon as I can. We'll
get into that text in just a moment. Oh wait,
one hundred and eighty ten eighty people of camp with
you this morning the resident Builder on Sunday. That's the show,

(11:19):
and this morning we're talking to Craig. Good morning to you,
Craig the morning.

Speaker 5 (11:23):
Hey Craig, just on the line, am I.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
You are no macking around this morning? Buddy, no prize, steady.

Speaker 5 (11:32):
On, I've got an antia minor to finish building a
home and I'm a local buildings in the area and
she didn't she didn't want need to builders yeap, but
she seven problems the buildings. So you've got a group

(11:56):
home to do the home and they are contractor m
hm and so once the now after code of compliance
and won not through his home. They need record of
works from them, yep. They need all the paperworking on

(12:20):
what it is. And yeah, the group home company doesn't
want anything to do with it. I suggested to her
to go to the UH the l b P complaints
to do that and Council Owe to suggested to pay

(12:44):
some money in and get an extension until it's resolved.
But the builder there was no animosity with the builder.
The buildings complete, there's nothing wrong with it. Yeah, absolutely fine,
but they just won't do the paperwork. What what what
can she do?

Speaker 2 (13:00):
Yeah? Okay, So, just to be absolutely clear, your auntie
had signed a contract with a group home builder to
build the house. And it's not unusual. In fact, it's
more typical that group home builders will typically use contractors
to do the work, right, they don't often employ their
own builders.

Speaker 5 (13:19):
So this is names on the contract.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
Right, Okay, So his name's on the contract and he
is a licensed building practitioner yep, and he is now
refusing to issue a record of works for his work.

Speaker 5 (13:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
I mean, ultimately, I think you know, your auntie shouldn't
be chasing him as the LBP. She should just be
chasing the group home builder and the group home builder
who has signed a contract with your auntie, they are
responsible in terms of the contract to deliver the house
with a CCC I presume or was that not part

(13:59):
of the contract.

Speaker 5 (14:01):
No, it wasn't. So they went through a group home
and they got the contractor but his names are on
the contract, are not theirs?

Speaker 2 (14:16):
Right? So why would you go to a group home builder?
Then what's the advantage?

Speaker 5 (14:20):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (14:23):
I would still be highly critical of the group home
builder for sort of leaving her in the lurch like that,
and i'd push pretty hard on the group homebuilder. But
I would also remind the LBP that they must issue one.
It's law, right, they don't, they don't get a choice.
They must do it, and they must do it as

(14:43):
soon as the work is completed.

Speaker 5 (14:46):
Yes, this is exactly what I was under it this minute.

Speaker 6 (14:49):
One.

Speaker 5 (14:50):
You've said over the years with your program that sometimes
a little bit slack. It's like reviewing your license in
the last minute, and I'm exactly the same. But when
it comes to this type of thing notes probably every
week I've had I've got my record of work, diary
papers and everything there, which I fill out when jobs

(15:12):
are complete and ye good rush at the end.

Speaker 4 (15:15):
Of the job.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
Yeah, look, I think you know obviously the LBP is
still on the register as in the licenses current. I
would check that. You can check that in about one
and a half minutes right now, and then i'd be
on the phone tomorrow. Or there must be an email

(15:37):
address or something like that. So does he have a
record somewhere where he's actually working, like an office or
a warehouse or something like that.

Speaker 5 (15:46):
I'm not too sure about that, but I have tried.
I've looked up on there. You know, he's all current complaints.
I've had a look at it all for I've tried ringing.
But also she doesn't want me to be the meeting
the sandwich.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
Yeah, yeah, look, I think that I would probably try
again tomorrow phoning out of courtesy and emailing, and then
I would be on the phone to the Licensed Building
Practitioner Board immediately to say hey, and then I would
probably go to council and say, look, this is where
I'm at, right, I just happened to be dealing with

(16:23):
a rogue LBP who won't supply me with a document.
While I'm sorting that out, can we please allow for
an extension of the building consent. Probably doesn't need to
apply for an extension to the building consent right now,
does she? When was the final inspection done?

Speaker 5 (16:41):
The final was done about four months ago.

Speaker 7 (16:44):
I suppose.

Speaker 5 (16:45):
Okay, well, been going on for about three years.

Speaker 2 (16:49):
Yeah, but the fact that the final inspection was done,
that's your last inspection, right. So you would typically have
a year to submit your CCC. So I would call
counsel as a courtesy or and follow it up with
an email so you got something on record. But go
to the LBP and then go straight to the disciplinary board.

(17:09):
And the other thing that I think is really important,
it's going to be quite a game changer, is the
disciplinary board now can take complaints about ethics right and
professional behavior. So I think a lot of lbps have
forgotten the fact that there is now a code of ethics.
And part of that is that you have to communicate

(17:29):
that you have to act responsibly, that you have to
be prompt right. So, and because his work isn't being
called into question in terms of the actual physical work
that he's done. I think I've always felt that probably
seventy five percent of people's complaints about licensed building practitioners
are probably about the way that they behaved rather than

(17:52):
what they actually built. And in this case, it's going
to open up a lot more grounds for people to
challenge the behavior and the professionalism and the ethics of lbps.
And I actually think that's not a bad thing at all.
So I suspect this guy's going to end up in
front of the disciplinary committee and they're probably going to

(18:15):
find that he has breached his terms and conditions I
suppose of his being an LBP, and he'll get fined.

Speaker 5 (18:26):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, No. I read about it in the
build magazines and Code and when it came up and
I thought, oh, what a lot of pilarva. But actually,
when I started reading into it properly, you agree with it.

Speaker 2 (18:39):
Yeah, yeah, Look, I've done a number of sort of
presentations on it and had a look through at the
four main points nineteen sub sections in it. They're pretty good.
There's a couple of things that could be quite challenging
in terms of health and safety that I've wondered how
they would work practically in terms of being an LBP
and complying with the code of ethics. But look, in

(19:01):
general it's good. But look to get back to the
to the focus, I think, you know, I would give
the person one chance. If he happens to be listening
to the show and he kind of understands where the
place is, then I'd suggest be wise and sit down
and write out that record of works, because you have
to do it. And there is nothing there is nothing
that I've seen or read that says, oh, you don't

(19:23):
have to do it because you didn't feel like it
or you didn't get paid. And I know I know
of an LBP who knew that he wasn't going to
get paid and decided that he wouldn't issue a record
of works and it went to the disciplinary body and
he got fine two thousand dollars for doing that, and
the amount that he was waiting for was two thousand dollars,
so he ended up I think being four thousand dollars

(19:45):
in the whole. He didn't get paid and he got fine.
So you know, word to the wise. Oh hey, nice
to chat and good on you for looking after your auntie. Thanks,
take care, Craig. See then take care by by oh eight,
one hundred and eighty ten eighty is the number to call.
A couple of months ago, part of the conversation i'll

(20:06):
this program was someone who said, look, I got a
letter from council that after the final inspection, I had
sixty days to submit my application for a CCC for
a Code Compliance Certificate, and I wanted to see evidence
of that. I haven't actually ever seen evidence of that.

(20:28):
And I went home and I did a bit of reading,
and from what I can see, you as as a homeowner,
after the final inspection, you must submit your CCC within
twelve months. And what happens then is if you don't
submit for a CCC within twelve months, the final inspection
is kind of declared and valid, and in order for

(20:49):
you to submit a CCC after twelve months, you have
to get a new final inspection done, which opens up
a whole other can of worms potentially. So, but I
haven't found anything in any of the legislation that I've
reads that I've read that says you have to do
it within sixty days, and yet this was sort of

(21:09):
an official document from a council saying you have to
do it within sixty days. So if you've seen one
of those, or if you've had that email, if you could,
I would love it if you forwarded it on to me.
I'd like to see that. Pete ATNEWSTALKZB dot co dot
nz is the email address. Oh eight one hundred eighty
ten eighty is the telephone number you can call us

(21:30):
right now. Lines are open. We're going to have a
busy show a little bit later on. We've got a
couple of experts joining us to talk about compliance in
terms of H one and the building code and changes
to thermal efficiency. That's what H one is all about.
We'll be talking with Nick Cardy Jones from Metro Performance
Glass around double glazing and its role in that compliance,

(21:53):
which if you've submitted a building consent after the first
of November last year, you will need to comply with
these new regulations around H one. And then we're going
to get Hamish Firth regular planning expert to join us
on the program at around eight to fifteen as well
to talk about this granny flat rule and what it

(22:14):
might actually mean and what you might actually be able
to build. So we'll talk about that at around eight fifteen.
But we're talking to you and the number to call
is eight hundred and eighty ten eighty pack in a mo.
We're getting a couple of texts in around the whole
granny flat thing. I'm happy to take some calls on it.
So cast your mind back to the beginning of the week,

(22:35):
and the government made some announcements around the beginning of
a consultation period. So I'm reading this from the website.
So this from the MBI website. The government is focused
on increasing the supply of affordable homes for New Zelanders.
As part of this, the government is proposing to make
it easier to build small, self contained and detached houses

(22:58):
commonly known as granny flats, on property with an existing
home on it. We are seeking feedback on options to
enable granny flats of up to sixty square meters in
size to be built without needing a building or resource consent,
so long as they meet certain criteria. The criteria granity
flats must meet under the proposed exemption will form the

(23:20):
checks and balances required to ensure that they meet building
performance and quality requirements and appropriately manage environmental impacts. Finding
the balance between speed, safety and risk to ensure that
New Zealanders have safe, healthy and durable homes built as
quickly as possible is important. This is why we want
to understand all the perspectives on potential costs, benefits and

(23:43):
risks for the criteria we are proposing that granny flats
and small homes will need to meet. So that's what
the consultation is, and it's going to be pretty quick.
I think like within the next you've got a little
bit of time to submit your discussion or your thoughts

(24:04):
on that. Then it goes on to talk about the
Building Act. So one of the things here a text
that came through was, hey, I heard this week that
allowing these granny flats will help fix the rental crisis.
Does that mean that these granny flats can have separate power,
water meter connections and a mail box and rubbish collection,
even a proper oven. If so, then yes, many investors

(24:24):
were treated as a game changer to help provide another
rental property on the one title. Thanks from Tim, I
suspect that most of the things that you're talking about
there would not actually apply to these types of dwellings,
as in would it have separate power, Probably not, as
in its own meter. Probably not. Separate water meter. Well,

(24:47):
you'd have to go to council and or council owned
businesses like Watercare in Auckland and apply for one. In
A new water meter in Auckland costs about seventeen thousand
dollars I think at the moment, and a mailbox will
know because it won't have its own title and its
own rubbish collect That's a very good point. Could you

(25:08):
ask for an additional bin, Yeah, you probably could, but
I would imagine you've got to pay for that as well.
And a proper oven. Yes. It seems that these are
designed to be completely self contained. So, for example, the
change in legislation from ten square meters to thirty square
meters for a sleepout, one of the ifs and butts

(25:31):
in that legislation is that whoever was in that unit
had to have access to the house because you weren't
legally allowed to include a toilet or a shower i e.
Sanitary fittings into those up to thirty square meter buildings.
So the person who was inhabiting that space you could
sleep in it. You could be in it during the day,

(25:53):
but you had to have access to the main house,
whereas this would be something that would be self contained
in the sense that you could cook and wash in
that building. Would it have its own water meter, No,
I don't think so. I think you'd be running a
line from the existing feed out to that dwelling, so
all of the rates would still be paid, or the
water fee would still be paid by the occupants of

(26:16):
the main house. It does get complicated, and this is
where the consultation will be really interesting to watch because
I think there's a lot more fishooks in this than
it would seem when you look at it at first glance.
Oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the number to
call someone just text through as well, and I'd love
more detail on this. To be fair, Craig, morning Peak

(26:38):
Council can't not issue CCC if a record of works
is not supplied, and that runs counter to everything that
I understand about CCC. To be fair, Craig, if you're
missing documentation, if you don't have let's say a record
of works from the LBP who did the structure of

(27:01):
the building, then I would have thought Counsel in no
way would issue a CCC. They just say, I need
we need the record of works for that work in
order for us to issue a CCC. And it's your
problem if you can't get that from the LBP that
did the work. So if you've got more detail on that,
I'd love to hear from you. Oh, eight hundred eighty
ten eighty is the number. And I'm not here to

(27:22):
slang off at Toyrong a city council, by the way,
and I understand that perhaps the way that they gather
their revenue around reserve contribution fee and so on might
be different to other councils, and that's why it might
be the figures are higher. But I love this text
as well. A building permit and Toyrong the City Council
was forty seven thousand dollars a while back across the
city boundary to the Western Bay District Council and the

(27:45):
cost was seven thousand dollars. We'll take your calls on that.
Eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the number to call
if you've got a project that's underweight and you're needing
a little bit of help, for a bit of advice
or wondering about particular products to buy. Then it's eight
hundred eighty ten eighty will come back after the break

(28:06):
US TALKSB. It is six forty six here at News
Talks D probably six forty six all around the country
as it happens. Can I also, just before I talk
to Pete, praise we're praise as due in my street
and some adjoining streets. We had to notice a couple
of weeks ago saying that Victor are going to be

(28:26):
doing some work on the overhead power lines and the
poles that support those, and that there was going to
be some disruption to power supply. Ie your powers going
off at eight thirty in the morning, it's likely to
be off until six o'clock at night. It's going to
happen on a Saturday, which was kind of a little

(28:47):
bit odd really, but anyway, it was going to be
a Saturday. It happened to be yesterday. So bang on
eight thirty house was plunged into darkness. I've just got
out of the shower and the trucks turned up. They
all down our street, around the corner, around the other street.
Multiple crewis climbing up or being elevated up into the

(29:10):
power poles down the street, taking off the old timber
crossbars and replacing those, and replacing the isolators and tidying
up all the overhead lines and so on. A lot
of people, I mean, like multiple trucks, multiple crews, obviously,
lots and lots of traffic control, which meant the street
was down to one lane, etc. We went out for

(29:31):
most of the day, came back to find a couple
of guys just testing or the meterboard at the front
of the house and the powers back on. That was
five o'clock in the afternoon when we got home. But
I actually thought looking at them working, it was poetry
in motion. It was beautiful to watch. And yes, there's disruption,
and that's a bit of a pain in the backside

(29:54):
and all the rest of it, but it's work that
needs to be done in order for the system to
operate and to be more resilient and reliable. And I
thought they did an excellent job. So again, I know
it's disruptive and it's a bit of a pain, but
I thought that in this instant infected an outstanding job
with their coordination for that little project in Devenport yesterday,

(30:16):
Pete good A Hello, Petey, Oh, why is this not
there's something wrong with my fingers. I've decided hang on,
hang on, hang on out. Let's get this sorted out. Pete,
go for it.

Speaker 5 (30:29):
You got me?

Speaker 2 (30:30):
Now I do I do? Your finger doesn't work a
lot of screen.

Speaker 8 (30:34):
Now.

Speaker 9 (30:34):
Look, I'm down in the west western Bay of Plenty
where it's bucketing down at the moment. But just over
twenty years ago I got a new house built and
I incorporated a grannie flat into that house. And now
a couple of things at that start that we were
limited to fifty square meters, yes, but my grannie flat

(30:58):
that I had to fireproof into tenancy walls and it
has its own power. It we share the rubbish. It
doesn't include the water, and it's we put a letter
box out and it works. I don't know the legality

(31:21):
that gave it a letter. And now the interesting thing
with the water is that the council at the time,
well I used to get it in the rates for
the water and they called it a pan tax to
do with the toilet. And interesting thing is that we
never had meters over twenty years ago, but when they

(31:42):
brought in water meters because because you see the council claimed, oh,
you'll be using more water to flush the toilets, you see. Anyway,
when they brought in the water meters, it was then
challenged and the council had to back down because they
had they agreed that now they would be able to
see if there was more water used. So we actually

(32:03):
got a refund on that, and I think that doesn't
happen now. But I note that the new granny flats
can go up to sixty square meters, which I actually
fifty square meters seem to work fine, but sixty is
a little bit better. But it's all legal, it's all consented,

(32:27):
co compliance certificate and everything, and it's been quite an
asset for me.

Speaker 2 (32:32):
Look, I think that you've got some tremendous foresight to
have done that while you were building. And interesting, I
heard an ad the other day for like a large
group home builder talking about one of their new style
of houses which actually included effectively two houses in one
plus a granny flat, so you know, right from the

(32:55):
get go they're going, actually, what we're going to do
is this, you know, maybe a three story development with
two attached townhouses and then an other develop all part
of it. So you ended up with you could buy
effectively two houses in a granny flat. Now, whether that's
extended family, which is awesome, because there's this thing now

(33:15):
with sometimes with apartments, where you can buy an apartment
which is actually two apartments. It has one front door
and then you go into a lobby and then there's
two doors, and you can either have the whole thing together,
or you could buy it and then have one as
a potential rental income or as housing for maybe you know,
older family members, independent children, that sort of thing. So

(33:38):
I think what I like about all of these discussions
around what we build sort of is about recognizing that
houses are not one dimensional, there's not always just one purpose.
In terms of our focus has very much been on
we're going to build a house for a family, and
as if a family mum, dad, and a couple of

(33:59):
kids is the only way we live. But the reality
t is we don't live like that, and the number
of groups that are actually that traditional sort of model
is diminishing arguably, And so I think this kind of
widening the scope of what we're building and for whom
we might be building. So it might be you might

(34:21):
have a family group, but they might have older parents.
They might be a family group with an independent teenager
or a person in their twenties who wants to stay
at home, or they might like you thinking ahead, thinking well, actually,
if I build something I put in a granny flat
and I get it compliant from the day one, then
I've got an income stream. Fantastic. It's awesome, it's awesome.

(34:43):
You're obviously well ahead of your time, Peter, Ah.

Speaker 9 (34:46):
Well, the other I mean, I can say of twenty years,
I've hardly gone without a tenant, someone in there. And
maybe in my retire I've always had long term tenants
and if I'm away coming and going to the property.
And the other thing it does open it off up too,

(35:07):
is that when I retire from my job, I could
actually have short term tenants as in like Airbnb type
stuff and a little bit extra work and probably a
little bit better return. But no, it's it's worked. But
I mean, I think the new thing here is, and
I haven't looked into this is around the consenting. Mine

(35:31):
was just included in my prisful building consent. But it
seems to me that people with maybe I think some
properties would lend themselves very well to doing something like this,
and some could create some complications. If you think you
put something out in your backyard and then someone's got
to walk all the way down the side of the
house to get to it, that could seem quite problematic.

(35:55):
But anyway, that's it's it's worked for me, and they
have sort of been around in one form or another.
I don't know about other councils. So I'm in the
western plenty here and that was the way it was
twenty years ago here.

Speaker 2 (36:10):
Yeah, really appreciate the insight, and I think and the
other thing that I want to sort of emphasize from
our conversation is the fact that you got it consented
from the get go. And the number of conversations I've
had on this show where people will go, hey, look
i've got a downstairs area and it's already got a shower,

(36:30):
I want to pop in a kitchen and then I
can let it out, and I'm going, yeah, but then
that's non consented, right, And the things that you the
hoops that you had to jump through, and to be fair,
the safety that you've built into what you've built in
terms of the fire protection and the isolation is really
really important. And that's why I think it's right that

(36:52):
we still have to comply with the building code in
terms of separation if you're going to end up creating
a truly independent sublet within your existing property, and I
wholeheartedly agree it shouldn't be something that you can just
go ahead and do without getting a building consent for it,
essentially to ensure that everybody is safe, particularly in the
event of a fire. So good on you. I think

(37:16):
it's awesome, really appreciate you call Pete. We're going to
talk to Robert after News, Sport and Weather, which is
coming up top of the hour at seven o'clock. There's
a couple of good ones too about building consent fees
and reserve contributions. Will come back to those after the
break as well. In a quick one forty year old

(37:37):
house insult fluff insulation in the attic. Can we use
some form of barrier stapled down to contain the insulation?
I guess you could, but you'd have to be a
little bit careful around creating condensation. Back after the break
news top of the r at seven.

Speaker 10 (38:02):
In the whole stret we tookaha love, We're all yeah
sure Caser love Dollie Bird, this right is so upan

(38:26):
Zaberganal that win the bars are.

Speaker 5 (38:28):
Good, right.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
Welcome back to the program. Pete wolf Camp, the Resident Builder,
with you this morning here at News Talk ZB the
Resident Builder on Sunday, taking your calls on all things building, construction, materials,
maintenance projects, compliance, legislation. Talking about legislation. In the next hour,
we're going to have a bit of a chat to
Hamish Firth, who is a planner, a senior planner, very

(38:52):
experienced planner from Mount Hobson Group. And when I saw
this announcement at the beginning of the week from the
government saying, hey, the government has focused on increasing the
supply of affordable homes. We're looking at options around enabling
granny flats of up to sixty square meters to be
built without necessarily requiring a building or resource consents as

(39:14):
long as they meet certain criteria. Being quite a lot
of discussion in the media about it, quite a lot
of discussion online, some of it good, some of it
not so good. To be fair, Hamish very experience, So
we're going to have a bit of a chat about
that at around eight point fifteen this morning, we're going
to be talking h one compliance at the end of
this hour with Nikarti Jones. So busy old morning, eight

(39:37):
hundred eighty ten eighty. Though, for your calls right now,
if you've got a question about a project that you
are underway with, you can call us eight hundred eighty
ten eighty Hello Robert, Yeah.

Speaker 11 (39:47):
Good morning, Pet. I'm a regular listener, but I don't
contribute to I don't ask any questions, but this morning
I wish to ask one. Last Sunday you introduced the
subject of maintenance. Yes, and for my memory, you said
that maintenance was two things too small, things was ongoing

(40:08):
and something else, And I can't remember the something else.
Do you recall what.

Speaker 2 (40:12):
I would probably have said, That it's ongoing and that
it can be planned, you know, because we know that
most elements of a building have a life cycle, right,
so some things will be able to survive for a
certain amount of time, other things for less. So but certainly,
you know, like in terms of painting, the one thing

(40:34):
that I would always say about exterior painting is that
it will last considerably longer if it's regularly washed.

Speaker 12 (40:42):
Right.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
So again, you could say, well, look, if I paint
the house, I can expect it to last seven to
ten years in reasonable condition. Now, I think that if
and that would be true if you just left it alone.
I think that if you regularly washed a house and
washed it correctly, you might get ten to twelve to
fifteen years out of the paint coating, in which case

(41:06):
there's a massive advantage to regular and planned maintenance.

Speaker 11 (41:12):
Yeah. I've got a tenant who is a bit reluctant
to do any maintenance. And boundary fence yep. And I
agree with your summary that should be ongoing and planned
and regular. I just wondered how I can persuade my

(41:35):
my my neighbor.

Speaker 2 (41:37):
Right, yes, Yeah, that's a whole other thing, though, isn't it,
Because now we're talking about human nature and and sometimes
it's people's either awareness or their ability, or whether they've
got deep pockets and short arms. You know, there's all
of those elements that come into it as well. And

(42:00):
thank you for adding, Yeah, thank you for adding to
my list, because I've forgotten about the fence that I
have to replace posts on. So I was looking at
a place the other day that I look after, and
the fence is more and more on a lean and
I kind of gave the fence post a bit of
a wobble, and I can't figure out whether it was
it never had concrete around it, in which case it
started to move, or whether it does have concrete around

(42:23):
it and the post is actually rotten at the base.
And either way, I'm going to have to disassemble a
section of the fence, dig out the old fence posts
concrete and some new ones, put the fence panels back in,
because I don't want to have the cost of replacing
the entire fence. So again, you know, is that maintenance,
Like if I could I have done anything to maintain

(42:46):
that fence to stop it falling over into disrepair. Probably not,
it's just the nature of that fence in the way
that it was constructed in the first place. But saying
that I spent I spent a happy Saturday. I spent
a happy Friday water blasting patios and treating the ground.
Now that will then eliminate the moss, which will mean

(43:07):
that it's safer, I e. You won't slip on the pathway.
And also yeah, that that's part of maintenance as well.
It's also part of safety.

Speaker 11 (43:20):
Oh that's that's fine. Thank you for that.

Speaker 2 (43:23):
Nice to talk with you.

Speaker 11 (43:24):
I'll enjoy the rest of your progress.

Speaker 2 (43:26):
All the best. Take care, Robert, see that, yes I did. Actually,
I've kind of forgotten about Friday's endeavors. And water blasting
is a I'm always conflicted with water blasting because what
I often see is people who water blast, particularly timber,

(43:48):
and ruin the timber too much pressure, too close, rips
through the fibers. Yes, it might clean off the mold
and mildew and whatever sitting on the top of it,
but chances are you're actually going to damage the fibers
of the timber by water blasting timber too close without
a chemical pre wash. You know, powerwashing is good. Water
blasting in that instance is bad. But at the same time,

(44:10):
after a couple of hours literally of water blasting edge
of the house, in the concrete base, and all of
the patio which had been overgrown which we dealt with
earlier in the week by doing a massive prune in
this garden, it's also enormously satisfying. The other thing that

(44:32):
was enormously satisfying about the water blasting that I did
on Friday, apart from testing out a new pair of
gum boots, which were amazing, is that it's on a
property where we had installed a rainwater tank, so rainwater
harvesting now, given all the weather at the moment and
there's not a lot happening in the garden, there was
plenty of water in the tank, and so I would

(44:53):
have worked for about I would say two hours, possibly
even a little bit more with the water blaster going constantly.
And I had it simply connected to the water tank,
which was one of the Bailey slim Line tanks, one
of their Sustainability series tanks that I put in, So
two thousand letter tank hooked up to the downpip. It's

(45:16):
got an overflow, it's got an outlet at the bottom
with a hose tap on it, and that Bailey water
tank I would have like, I would have water blasted
for two hours just using water out of the tank.
I don't think I even got anywhere near emptying the tank.
But it is literally hundreds of liters of water that
I wasn't drawing from the mains. Therefore, in that instance,

(45:36):
nobody's paying for it. Free water out of that Bailey
water tank.

Speaker 12 (45:40):
It was.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
That was very satisfying in its own way. Speaking of
people with deep pockets and short arms, Oh, eight hundred
eighty ten eighty is the number to call. We've got
some spear lines available in for you right now, lots
of text about the Granny Flats. Happy to take your
calls on it as well. And if you are really
engaged with this process, you're interested in it, the government
actually wants to hear from you, so they're inviting submissions.

(46:02):
You can have a look online and then make your submission.
You might I think it's a great idea. You might
think that it is a disastrous idea that will lead
to shabby, poorly built housing popping up in the worst
possible places, and it's just going to create chantytowns. And
to be fair, either of those options is probably quite possible. Oh,

(46:25):
eight hundred eighty ten eighty call us now. It is
fifteen minutes after seven. Another question we're going to add
to the list of things that we'll talk about with
Hamish Firth from Mount Hobson Group. After eight o'clock is around.
Who can then occupy the granny flat? So Texas has
come through. Granny Flat can only be occupied by close family.
If you want to rent it out, you need to

(46:46):
get it consented as a minor unit. So different rules
that will be really interesting to talk about. Marty, talk
to me about Granni flats.

Speaker 4 (46:57):
He look, I think.

Speaker 2 (47:04):
We may try and get you back on a better line.
Mary just stayed with us and Sarah in the meantime.
Good morning to you.

Speaker 13 (47:12):
Good morning Peters.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
I'm very well, thank you.

Speaker 13 (47:16):
I have a question regarding drainage. So I have a
rental property that was affected by six cyclone Gabrielle, Yes,
and wanting to know whether there's any rules about what's
adequate drainage.

Speaker 2 (47:36):
Oh, very good question. Yeah, because I mean what we
saw if you were in the Auckland area, and I'll
stick with what I know about Auckland with the floods
in January and then again in February, is that over
a twenty four hour period in Auckland, especially in January,
we had somewhere approaching two hundred and forty millimeters of
rain right over that period. And by and large a

(48:01):
one and one hundred year flood event might include rainfall
of up to about eighty millimeters, right, so we're three
times more than what we would expect to have once
every hundred years. So in that sense, you know, if
your drainage overflowed or your downpipes overflowed or the spouting
overflowed during that rain event. That's not surprising, right. What

(48:27):
will be challenging is will we see standards or performance
expectations for drainage increase because of these events which might happen.
But currently the legislation, you know, there's rules already in
the Building Act and in the Building or in the
Building Code rather around let's say, how many square meters
of roof per downpipe, what the size of the downpipe is,

(48:51):
what the size of the pipe in the ground has
to be, all of these sorts of things. So if
what you've got at the moment complies with that, then
that would be considered adequate. Whether it's going to be
adequate in the future is a question for others.

Speaker 13 (49:08):
And who determines whether it's adequate or not.

Speaker 2 (49:12):
Okay, So even in terms of like because there is
a requirement under the Healthy Homes Standard right as part
of the residential tendency, which says that you have to
have adequate drainage, and that's probably what you're focusing on.
So I think there if you were to, if let's say,
somebody challenges it and says the drainage on this property

(49:33):
is inadequate, and I'm going to go to the tenancy
tribunal and tell on you. You would probably need to
find a drain layer or a building survey who could
have a look and say, in fact, what we've got
is one two five spouting, we've got this number of downpipes,
we've got this catchment area. It's directed into council or
it's directed into private storm water which connects to public

(49:56):
storm water. All of these things are compliant with current legislation.
The fact it was overwhelmed is because it was an
extreme event rather than and every day. Now, if you
get ten millimeters of rain at your property and there's
flooding and somebody actually finds that, well, actually it might
go into the ground, but it goes into a soakage

(50:18):
pit that was done forty years ago and now has
no containment at all, then it's probably fair to say
it's inadequate and not fit for purpose, in which case
you'd need to do some upgrades.

Speaker 13 (50:30):
Okay, So what about if the property is so slightly
below the street level?

Speaker 6 (50:41):
Is that.

Speaker 2 (50:44):
Again there's very little that you as a landlord could
do about that if it's being inundated, because it's in
a floodplain and this might be quite interesting to do.
Councils have just or Auckland Councils specifically, has just issued
a new has just created a new website called flood Viewer.

(51:06):
And if you've ever gone onto a council website, there's
a thing called a gis right, you can look at
all sorts of information about where drainage is, where overland
flow paths are, where natural hazards are, et cetera, et cetera.
But flood Viewer is newly developed and it has information
that's obviously been gathered via lider from the recent flood

(51:29):
events and so it's updated and it's very very specific.
And I know this because I've looked at a number
of properties that I'm engaged with to see where the
new flooding zones are likely to be. So go online,
go on to flood Viewer and then type in the
address and you might find that suddenly you are actually

(51:52):
in a flood zone.

Speaker 13 (51:55):
Right, Okay, which is interesting.

Speaker 2 (51:57):
Yeah, have a look at that. But in terms of
compliance with the Healthy Homes Act, you know, if there
are like if there's poor drainage, then you would need
to get it done, but deciding what poor drainage is.
You might get a drain layer, you might get a
building surveyor to have a look at it.

Speaker 14 (52:14):
That's what I'm.

Speaker 2 (52:17):
Yeah, yeah, what's considered adequate. That's good point. Good luck
with that. Alrighty, all of this is Hereah, you take care,
thank you, and Shirley are very good morning to you.

Speaker 15 (52:26):
Oh, good morning. Just a quick question about you know,
you're talking about housewashing, the best best thing to use
for housewashing. We've used some of these products you can buy.

Speaker 3 (52:41):
I don't know if I can.

Speaker 15 (52:41):
Say the brand or not, like thirty Seconds house Clean
and it's sort of got like a bleach and I
think is a good thing to you.

Speaker 2 (52:50):
Yeah, I mean there's a bunch of proprietary ones. Like
to be fair, I would typically like when I've done
some house washing, let's say, in for paint preparation, because
I buy my paints from Razine, I tend to go
and buy a house washed product that they've got in
the stores as well. I guess broadly speaking, most of
them all operate out of the same thing, you know,

(53:13):
in terms of what chemicals they might have in them,
But certainly having a pre wash makes a significant difference,
and so I mentioned I had our own house family
home wash. The other day, I talked to the young
fellow who was coming to do it, and he had
a pre wash solution, which is sort of a commercial

(53:33):
grade one. He applied an application allowed that to sort of,
you know, get into all of that moss and mold
that grows on the outside of a house, and then
he did a powerwash. So not not he it was
a water blaster, but he used it in such a
way where he wasn't directing a massive amount of water
onto the building, which is really important. So I think
a pre wash or a treatment before you wash the

(53:56):
house is essential.

Speaker 15 (53:59):
Okay, Well so yeah, I mean, or the our house
doesn't really have any stuff throwing, would you still need
a pre washer that hasn't got much.

Speaker 2 (54:08):
Yeah, I would still do that because I think what
it's doing then is it's it's treating the paint surface, right,
And even if you can't see it, I would suggest
that that's great because obviously you look after it, right,
But if you don't, what you'll see is just more
mold and mold growth, particularly on southern sides of the

(54:29):
house areas where it might be a bit damp that
sort of thing. So yeah, I think a pre wash
and then a gentle soft wash using a powerwasher is
the way to go. But the treatment is really important.

Speaker 15 (54:42):
So the pre wash is that what it's called.

Speaker 2 (54:44):
Yeah, I would call it like a pre wash treatment.
So in some some water blasters, even the one that
I was using the other day, actually has a facility
where you can put in a wash element into it
and then spray that out. So when I was doing
some of the cleaning the pathways, I put in some
cleaner into that, sprayed it, let it settle on the
pathway for half an hour or so. Well, I did

(55:06):
another job and then I came back and washed it
all off. So let the chemicals do some of the
work for you.

Speaker 15 (55:14):
Okay, all right, thanks so much, right.

Speaker 2 (55:16):
Take care. It was good fun. I was filthy and wet.
My feet weren't because I was wearing my new gun boots.
But it's hard. I was hoping that the gunboats would
look worn in. They are these new Noramax gum boats.
I was hoping. I was really really hoping that they

(55:38):
would look worn in. But they look brand new, even
after I've been doing all this work. So I've got
to go and do another job now to make them
look a bit old, because we all know there is
no credibility in wearing brand new gun boots out in public.
Twenty seven minutes after seven, let's talk to Tom. Hello there, Tom,
Good morning, sir, good ones.

Speaker 7 (55:58):
I hear you all the time, like the pose and
the time.

Speaker 2 (56:02):
I like that phrase. I'm going to pokemon nose and
I might do that as an introduction to the show.
Welcome folks, if you'd like to poke your nose and
you can call eight hun. How can I help.

Speaker 3 (56:13):
Tim well.

Speaker 7 (56:16):
Your detergent spray? That's I recommend that too, because before,
in the early days, we really wrecked the surface of things,
including blocks. By the way, you probably know, it rips
hell out of the surface and it can then creation
worse there. But that prev wast detergent or during was
Detergent's good move as long as you don't get the

(56:38):
thing too close to the work. Why I'm ringing now
is because I think it'd be a very good move
if we're allowed to do these sixty square meter buildings
or similar to make sure they go wooden floors that
can be picked up and taken away if anything goes wrong,
or if your bigger developed are happening not conquered floors,

(57:00):
so you can't take the building away.

Speaker 2 (57:02):
See I suspect that that's in fact, I think even
in the current legislation around being able to build up
to thirty square meters without necessarily having a consent, as
soon as you do a concrete slab, I think it
probably triggers the requirement for a building consent. So yeah,
like you say, if you did, and this is where
things like screw piles might come into their own as well,

(57:22):
that you could do these screw piles, pop down the
minor dwelling on top of it, and then if you
did want to move it later on. Although picking up
a sixty square meter building is not a small job, right.

Speaker 7 (57:37):
But it can be done now you do crane and
taken away, but you can cut it in half you
want it not. But the point is I make and
you can take a good building and put it somewhere else.
We'll move it slightly and put another extension in. I've
been building so long that a lot of my commercial
buildings have been taken away and replaced on roads. Well.

(58:01):
All the rest started off in nineteen sixty I think.

Speaker 2 (58:06):
Is I know the Great South throw reasonably well because
I used to live in Papa Toy and we you know,
you'd cycle on that most days actually, as it happens,
a great South road. Yeah, hey, look, I appreciate it,
I think, And this is I guess this is where
the consultation will be interesting and where we might land

(58:27):
in terms of an actual piece of legislation that says
you can do X, Y and Z. And I agree
with you. I think that anything that is going to
be allowed to be built up to sixty square meters
without necessarily requiring a building consent probably needs to be
built with a timber floor rather than a concrete slab
on the ground.

Speaker 16 (58:48):
Right, you tell them all right, I'll put it in
your name. Tom much appreciated, lovely to chat with you.
Take care then you and Newstalks Heed be I think
we should take a break. Let's do that right now,
and then we'll come back and talk flooding with Greg
seven thirty five at Newstalk's head be Greg, good morning
to you.

Speaker 14 (59:05):
Yeah, hey, Pete, great to talk to you. Thank you
for your show. So yeah, two two aspects want to
just discussed on the flooding.

Speaker 17 (59:14):
Now.

Speaker 14 (59:15):
I'm an Auckland of course, I've lived in Westleton all
my life, and I've probably lived in places that were
built in swamps old swamps in the past that were
underwater last year. I currently own a place on very
elevated land in Wessels and so not a price for now.
But I was looking at those flood view of maps
from working councils. Yes, now, the old map and the
new ones. But I know one hundred those maps are

(59:38):
out of date now because the high tide of the
floods in the you know, a lot of house, of
lot of streets, and we're talking run along the creeks
the course. I'm very flat land, and the actual high
tide of where those flood warders came through exceeds the
current map, even the new ones. Really, those maps are
already out of date. They're already out of date. I

(59:58):
know they've gone past by many meters. We've got friends
in these areas.

Speaker 2 (01:00:01):
And well that's look and I'm I'm intrigued by that
in the sense that I looked at some property a
specific area that I know well, and i'd been involved
in remediation of the flood damage last year to properties

(01:00:23):
that were like two or three hundred meters away from
this other one. And so when I looked on the
flood viewer, I was impressed at how accurate and up
to date it was and how extensive it showed areas
that would be prone to flooding in the future based
on evidence from what happened back in January and then
again in February. So my experience of it has been

(01:00:44):
I looked at it and there was a particular property
that I was looking at, and it was like the
flood zone came right up to the boundary basically, and
interestingly enough, looking at those properties, and I've known this
area for twenty five years, thirty years. There would have
been one or two occasions in thirty years where some
of the properties in the most low lying part of

(01:01:04):
it had had some flooding of like basements and that
sort of thing. But then based on last year's rainfall,
it was way more extensive and that was reflected in floodviewer.
So it's interesting to hear you say, look, you know
properties that were flooded last year that haven't been included
in flood flowed flood viewer.

Speaker 14 (01:01:25):
It could be that these properties had just you know,
massive rainfall locals in the area and caused those creeks
to come up more than what the flood viewer map showed.

Speaker 2 (01:01:34):
Yeah, but what again when I was looking at it
the other day, like you know, last year during the floods,
the Northern Motorway between Esmond Road and Northcote Road was
a meter underwater. Now, I've lived in Kland my whole life.
I've never ever seen that, and yet it happened last
year and if you look on flood viewer, it's evidenced there.

Speaker 18 (01:01:58):
Okay, oh, maybe it is they have updated they haven't
it everywhere, or maybe some catchment area's got more rain
than the floods viewer anticipated they would get.

Speaker 12 (01:02:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
Possibly, Look, it's a dynamic thing, isn't it.

Speaker 14 (01:02:13):
Yah, But it was at one one point eight meters
around the year, yep, and averages one point two. West
often gets the southwesterly windsors We're the first generally, and
you get a lot of rainfall and ateagories that then
flow into those creeks and the West Sorcelands.

Speaker 18 (01:02:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:02:28):
And of course you know the challenge for parts of
Westalkland and sort of northwest Aalkland is that for it
to get to the sea, it's got to go into
the Kuiper Harbor and out. That's a long way to go. Yeah,
you know, it doesn't.

Speaker 14 (01:02:44):
Come yep, Riverhead, and I see they're still trying to
build new places at Riverhead and the flood zones were
next to the flood zone and Riverhead, you know, very
flat areas. But the push for housing, there's always a compromise,
isn't it. You know, you're built the build it like
the Gulf Coast of the America. They build it twenty
feet in the air.

Speaker 2 (01:03:03):
Yeah, that's right, it's it's going to be really and
look again, you know, because we all know stories, right
And I know someone who built in an area where
they knew there was flooding, and so when they submitted
their building consent, they raised the level of their floor,
so concrete floor on grade, two story house on it.
They decided that they would build six hundred millimeters above

(01:03:26):
the required minimum, and they still got one hundred millimeters
of rain through the house of flood water through the house,
and they went six hundred mile above the flood zone.

Speaker 14 (01:03:36):
That's where the new you know, everything's done on concrete.
Concrete is on ground level, isn't it and the water
backs up behind that. Whereas the old days and with
often everything it was good and we thought most things
were on past because they knew they had flooding, but
they probably weren't. They should be at two meters off
the ground as a bit of the one meter off
the ground.

Speaker 2 (01:03:52):
Yeah, but I've been out to sat West Aokland houses
as well that were alongside the creek and they got flooded,
not in the January floods, but in floods from two
three years ago. So it's going to be a real challenge.

Speaker 14 (01:04:06):
And also, Pete, you've got a lot of these I know,
a lot of streets and we're thought we're used to
living in their blind and like the whole side of
the streets was underwater the other side of it because
they build these. Of course, the build the street alongside
the creek because it's nice flat land and it's the
geology to build a straight road on. Of course it's
on flat land, and that whole side of the street

(01:04:27):
basically is a council buying them out, but some people
are going to hold out, so you're getting the houses
being removed, but people living in the house next to it,
because they've bought it cheap and they've renovated it. I
just think, why would you buy it cheap and renovated
it because it's going to get, you know, something to
blood recently at two hundred bills. Yet to say it's
going to happen again, isn't it It's going to happen again.

Speaker 12 (01:04:48):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:04:49):
Undoubtedly we're going to have more and more flooding, without
a doubt. I appreciate the call and the insights much appreciated.
And again, if you're wondering what I'm talking about, and
I don't know that, it's all councils around the country,
so please forgive me for being a bit Auckland centric.
But flood view is a new tool, a new website

(01:05:10):
that's been developed that shows updated and I've found it
to be eerily accurate in terms of you know, what
I remember from the floods from last year to what
is now on flood Viewer. So it is you can
whittle away a happy couple of hours googling your friend's
addresses to see whether they're in the new flood signs.
Oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the number to
call Bob. Greetings to you, sir.

Speaker 12 (01:05:32):
Yes, situation we got up in TOWERU was my daughter's
sewer pipe blocked up, So I thought, right here, we'll
dig up ourselves. We've got the plumber and to come
and check it out for us. I understood that when
you got to your boundary, anything over the boundary was
the councils problem. However, the sewer pipe ran down the road,

(01:05:52):
across another section and then finally tapped into the main
sewer pipe in TOWERU. We are responsible for that if
we had to dig up the road get to the
pipe between my boundary and the connecting pipe. Well, I thought,
once you got to your boundary, that regional problem and
the rest of them blind to countils. But under the

(01:06:15):
by law and the tarooas, no, they don't. It's irresponsible
to taps into their main pipe, which was you know,
a good klimitter down the road. So it would it
mean we were to get roading people in signs et
cet etector sector. Is that a common thing?

Speaker 2 (01:06:32):
I think the key to what you're talking about is
that it's your private drainage. So even if your private
drainage goes through somebody else's property until it connects to
the public line. It is still your responsibility despite the
fact that it's not on your property per se.

Speaker 12 (01:06:53):
Okay, because it's still the understanding. Right, So if you
were if you've unfortunately got one that runs a mile
and a half down the road where it taps into
the main system. God only knows why it would do that,
but then you are responsible for if that what's up
digging up the roadway, et cetera, et cetera. Yep, Yeah,

(01:07:14):
because I did ring the mayor at CAW and she
shaid up with a law put into their by laws,
you know, one hundred years ago that that was the
rules and they couldn't change it.

Speaker 2 (01:07:25):
Uh yeah, yeah. I think it really all defend comes
down to is it private? And in this instance, I
think it is private and therefore it's your responsibility.

Speaker 12 (01:07:40):
Is how we did mention it a few of the
locals up there, and they didn't They didn't have the
foggiest they know that it wouldn't be that way what
it is.

Speaker 2 (01:07:49):
And in some cases I know of situations where people
have been they've wanted to do some extensions and part
of you know, the drainage has been that they are
then asked to upgrade some of the public lines as well,
or contribute to the upgrading of public lines, and like
that gets expensive very very quickly.

Speaker 12 (01:08:09):
That's what I mean, that we've got out of the
cost for us to do anything. I mean, luckily we
did manage to unlock it to the boundary and solved
the problem. But when we made inquiries, if this goes on,
who pays for it?

Speaker 4 (01:08:21):
You? You do?

Speaker 2 (01:08:22):
Yeah, until it's a public line. Yeah, all right, nice
to talk to you all the best, take care of it.
Your news talks, he'd be. It's seven forty three. And
if you've got a question of a building nature, the
lines are open. The number is eight hundred and eighty
ten eighty. Your news Talks, he'd be. And this is

(01:08:42):
the resident builder on Sunday. And we like to take
a deep dive into sometimes some very specific parts of
building compliance. And I know sometimes when we talk about
these things, it's it's easy for the eyes to glaze
over and all the rest of it. So we're trying
to have a look at it. In particular H one
of the Building Code, but there's other parts of the
Building Code that relate directly to glazing, and one of

(01:09:05):
the challenges that I've found, and I've done a couple
of many years of work alongside Metro Performance Glass talking
about glazing, particularly around double glazing retro fitting, because of
all of the benefits that it brings in terms of warm, dry, comfortable.
But we also one of the challenges when you talk
about glasses because you look through it, right, so we
don't often appreciate how it fits into some very very

(01:09:28):
important parts of the building code. So to discuss this
a little bit further, it's a pleasure to welcome back
to the program. Mc carty Jones from Metro Performance Glass.
Very good morning, Nick, Good morning Peters.

Speaker 8 (01:09:40):
Thanks having us.

Speaker 2 (01:09:41):
And that is one of the challenges when we're talking
about glass is often because we look through it, we
kind of can tend to ignore it. But in terms
of our building envelope and what we build, glasses and
glazing is really really important in it, and it's embedded
into the building code. And so within the building code

(01:10:02):
we've got all of these different sections A through to
about eof or something that and we've got B one,
B two, F two and H one. So H one,
let's start with that energy efficiency. There's been significant changes
to the requirements as of November last year. How are
you starting to see the impact of that.

Speaker 8 (01:10:25):
Yeah, that's some questions.

Speaker 7 (01:10:26):
So you're right.

Speaker 8 (01:10:27):
So all clauses in the Building Code, the one probably
had the most work and most appeached in the last
couple of years is certainly H one. So what H
one does. It essentially specifies what the thermal performance requirements
are of individual building materials. And so when you're talking
about insulation, it really came down to windows, wall, roof

(01:10:47):
and some slab insulation components. So hey, windows, Undoubtedly we're
a big ticket in that about fifty percent of the
heat loss in homes NBA discovered can come from windows
that might be through the glass that mon't be through
the joinery. So look with that change come through. Essentially,
what it means is as you're building a new home,

(01:11:09):
to build to the current H one standard, it will
largely mean in New Zealand you must be using lowy
double glazing, will need to be arg and filled, and
the frame itself will now need to be thermally broken
rather than a solid piece of aluminium will need to
have a thermal break to prevent that heat loss or

(01:11:29):
transfer to the outside of the building. So, yeah, what
we're seeing a strong uptake in that. You know, a
few years ago, maybe only twenty to thirty percent of
homes we're having low e double glazing with argam installed
in them. And now you know, with that uptake it
will be well over seventy percent nationwide.

Speaker 2 (01:11:50):
And one of the challenges, know is with some of
your team at field Days a couple of weeks ago,
and you know, you've got that classic little display with
four heat lamps and four different types of double glazing,
and that unless you really know what you're looking at,
you can't really hell, just looking at the glass what
the difference is, but the way in which it's put together,

(01:12:10):
when you put your hand over it and you feel
the difference in the heat, you can see it working
or you can feel it working, because of course it's
really hard to see it working. It's got to be
quite you know. And this is where as we're talking
about those those really specific elements of how the double
glazed unit is assembled out of what type of glass,

(01:12:31):
with what types of coatings, with what type of gas
inside it, it actually makes quite a big.

Speaker 7 (01:12:36):
Difference, Yeah, it does.

Speaker 8 (01:12:38):
It makes a substantial difference. So I guess that's where
technology has really played a big part in in the
window industry. So, going back ten years ago, probably when
you were building, people didn't see if you were using
lowe you could really see the coatings. They looked almost
a little bit cloudy, a little bit hazy over the glass, right,
Whereas as you say, with technology that lowy coating is

(01:13:00):
virtually invisible to the naked eye, and yet the performance
is substantially stronger. So you know, as we say, we're
getting lifted and performance of sort of anywhere in the
range of four to five times what clear doubglazing had
been through these almost visible coatings on the surface of
a glass.

Speaker 2 (01:13:20):
Now you mentioned too around safety, and this is another
element I think that's changed well dramatically with glazing is
the requirement for it to have some provision for safety
in terms of impact resistance, right. And I can very
clearly remember being at school quite a few years ago

(01:13:41):
now and a door swung back and a guy put
his arm up to stop it, and he went straight
through the glass, right, and the wounds were horrific. So
these days glazing also needs to ensure safety in if
you did fall against it, and how does that impact
the glazing as well and what's being installed in houses.

Speaker 8 (01:14:03):
It's a good question. So obviously, you know with retrofitting,
where we're taking out a a pain of single blazing
typically just annealed glass, and we're putting in a brand
new double glazed unit. You know, we commonly get asked,
you know, doesn't require a building consent.

Speaker 6 (01:14:18):
To do that.

Speaker 8 (01:14:19):
Now, typically it doesn't. See, you can go and replace
that element. But in saying that, when you do replace it,
you still do need to meet these clauses of the
Building Code. And as you say, one of those talks
about Clause F two talks about hazardous materials and buildings.
So how do you manage to make sure you're not
putting hazardous materials into the building? Well, the Building Code

(01:14:42):
talks about glazing that needs to meet human impact requirements.
So if you've got glazing that's you know, full white glazing,
might be a door panel or something like that, or
you might have glazing within sort of eight hundred millimeters
of the floor. The Building Codes really really specifically tells
you what that glass must be in order to be

(01:15:02):
safe for human occupancy. So as we go around and
we do retrofitting, will typically removed these panes of glass
and where it does is required to be a safety glass.
Come from safety glass. We put that glass in place,
so you're actually lifting the total safety leaders of the
home and you're actually bringing in terms of the glass
compliance up to modern standards just by the process of retrofitting.

Speaker 2 (01:15:25):
Your home, right, And that's I mean again, you know,
for any of us that have seen the impact of
what happens when somebody goes through a glass pain or
something like that, you know, you go, man, I'm so
pleased that those rules have tightened up so considerably.

Speaker 8 (01:15:43):
Absolutely, and it is so important. You know, the critical
difference between safety glass and that steendar glass, as you say,
is exactly it's how the glass breaks. With safety glass,
it breaks into very very fine peebles of glass as
opposed to big, long shards and so hey, some of
the really progressive work that's been done around the building

(01:16:05):
code has been clear on where those tough and panes
of safety glass must be. For example, in a bathroom,
any any wet area within two meters of the floor,
all of that glass from the inside must be tough
and safety glass. So if you did have a slip
and you'd have a fall of your arm did reach
out and had a window, You're going to be hitting
a safety pane of glass as opposed to a pain

(01:16:29):
that would shatter and form some big long shards. And
schools are really similar as well, So all of the
glazing going into schools these days is required to be
that safety glass as well.

Speaker 2 (01:16:40):
Yeah, and that's where this particular event happened actually, But
I mean we're talking forty odd years ago, so no
wonder things have changed. And the last thing I just
wanted to touch on as well is that, you know,
I've been inside some houses during a storm where these
big bits of glazing looking out at the wind basically,
and I'm seeing them deflect. So obviously when you're doing

(01:17:03):
large section glazing, there's also then a whole lot of
things there around the structure, their ability to withstand wind
in particular.

Speaker 7 (01:17:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:17:14):
Absolutely, So again in the in in one of those
structural clause of the building Code, it will nominate how
much deflection and things of building material including glass can
have and still be deemed to be compliant and working
well and safely for that building. And so you know,
we spend a lot of time looking at the different
wind zones and positioning of glass and homes and coming

(01:17:37):
up with the absolute right specification of that glass and
how thick does that glass need to be for its size,
its location in the wind zone, to ensure that we're
not getting that big draft of wind comes through and
can essentially damage or break a window, and specify the
unit to meet those requires.

Speaker 2 (01:17:55):
To meet those requirements, it's a lot more technical than
it seems at first glance, and that's why we're talking
to an expert like yourself.

Speaker 19 (01:18:01):
Nick.

Speaker 2 (01:18:02):
Thanks very much for joining us this morning on the program.
Much appreciated. Thanks you all of this. McCarty jones from
Metro Performance Glass check him out online. There's a lot
of good information there. Back after the break.

Speaker 10 (01:18:36):
In the whole street of the high we took a
hard left, but we're all.

Speaker 2 (01:18:48):
Oh, very good morning, welcome back to the program. Oh
eight hundred and eighty ten eighty. If you've got a
quick comment to make. We're talking quite a bit about
granny flats for good reason, because the government put out
some information at the beginning of the week calling for
submissions about proposed changes. So we've talked about that to
be fair, and I love your opinion because it's opinion.

(01:19:11):
What I find a bit frustrating is when you hear
commentary in the media from people that are supposed to
know what they're talking about but don't. And so I'm
going to get around that by going to someone who
does know what they're talking about. So before we jump
into the garden with rud Klein passed at eight thirty
this morning, we're going to be talking with Hamish Firth,
planner at Mount Hobson Group. He's been on the show

(01:19:32):
a couple of times planning issues, very good grasp of
the legislation, understands what all the implications are of making
changes like this. So we're going to have a chat
with him in about ten minutes as well. We'll take
your calls right now. And I mean a lot of texts.
I mean, this is interesting, and this is kind of
where this is an exemplar of the sort of complexity

(01:19:57):
that's going to emerge once we start to try and
pin down legislation on this. Hey, Pete, if these granny
flats don't need a building consent, will they need the
five odd building inspections during construction? If so, what's the
point of employing an LBP, as they still cannot apply
the code without costly inspections. Is this going to end
up as a bit of a scam, Well, no, Chris.

(01:20:18):
The whole point of not having a building consent theoretically
is that there won't be any council inspections. And I
notice that in the brief discussion pieces that have come
out from the government, they're talking about a trusted builder.
They're not using the word LBP because lbp's licensed building
practitioners have to do restricted building work. Restricted building work

(01:20:42):
is basically work that requires a building consent. This is
going to be work that may not necessarily require a
building consent, in which case there won't be any council inspections,
in which case, if you're buying one down the track,
how do you know it's any good? Those are the
issues we're going to be dealing with. So we'll be
talking about that with Hamish Firth very soon. Donald, greetings

(01:21:05):
to you, sir.

Speaker 19 (01:21:07):
Good morning. I'm splitting to that man with a double glazing?

Speaker 2 (01:21:11):
Yes?

Speaker 19 (01:21:11):
Can I Can I get double glazing put in my windows?
Existing windows?

Speaker 2 (01:21:16):
Most likely?

Speaker 19 (01:21:19):
Yes, like the frame almenium and everything.

Speaker 13 (01:21:22):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:21:23):
So I know from because I do quite a bit
of work with Metro performance Glass, right so, and they
do retro fit double glazing retro DG. And from what
my discussions with their technical team has been that about
ninety five percent of aluminium joinery they've got the right
extrusions to be able to take out your existing single

(01:21:45):
glazing and put in double glazing. Now if in some
situations the sash won't accept a piece of double glazing,
because you've got to remember, if you've got four more
glass in there at the moment, or even three mil
and then you're going to put double glazing in, it's
going to be at least sixteen millimeters thick, possibly even
a bit more depending on how it's put together. So

(01:22:06):
not all sashes will be able to be adapted, in
which case they'll just make a new sash and install
that into an existing window frame.

Speaker 19 (01:22:15):
My house is fifty three years old.

Speaker 2 (01:22:19):
See, the challenge will be is that overall the condition
of your in its aluminium joinery. Yes, yes, see it's funny,
isn't it. I mean, I still think of aluminium jowinery
as kind of modern, but then I realize that a
lot of it's as old as I am, and I'm
not modern anymore. And so in some cases you may

(01:22:40):
find that the actual joinery itself is getting to the
end of its expected lifespan, you know. But and in
that case, you know you've got to make a decision.
Do you just say, actually, what I'm going to do
is remove the entire windows suite, Because when we're talking
about windows, I think sometimes we forget that there's two
components to it. There's the frame and the glazing, and

(01:23:02):
the combination of the joinery and the glazing make up
a window, for example. And what you might find is that,
in fact, the overall condition of the aluminum joinery as
such that you could put the investment into the double glazing,
but you've still got poorly performing frames, in which case
may be replacing the whole lot, which is doable. That

(01:23:24):
would probably trigger requirement for a building consent, by the way,
But look, there's there's heaps of information online and some
of the stuff that Nick was talking about. Have a
look at the Metro Glass Metro Performance Glass website, and
then for specific information on double glazing, you can check
out retrodg dot co dot nz as well. It is

(01:23:47):
let me see twelve minutes after eight here at newstalk ZB.

Speaker 1 (01:23:52):
News Talk ZB.

Speaker 2 (01:23:55):
Great opportunity this morning to catch up with Mike Olds
from Razine Construction Systems, a regular contributor to the show.
There's always new things happening, Mike, what's up?

Speaker 4 (01:24:04):
There's plenty happening at the moment. Pete, thanks, and today
I just want to touch based on some of the
features and benefits of the plaster clouding systems we have
available in.

Speaker 5 (01:24:13):
The market now.

Speaker 4 (01:24:15):
There's a variety of solutions available from our lightweight concrete system,
which is one of the most popular in the market
due to its durability, strength and acoustic properties. But there's
also our insulator facade systems, our masonry RNDOUS system, So
if you have an existing brick house and you're looking
do some renovation work, there's our full masonry RNDOW systems.

(01:24:37):
One of the key things with the plastic clouding systems
is there flat surface, so they're very low maintenance in
terms of that easy to clean, and they're easy to
repaint when you need and you can also easily change
the color going forward if view if the property sells
to new owners and they don't like the color that
you had on the house, so you can easily change
and update those things. Part of being a Rasine Construction

(01:24:58):
business or Razine Group business is that we're genuine razine
colored plaster finishes as well. We also include a fifteen
year performance guarantee with all systems for external plastic clannings.
They've been brands tested and really important is the LBP
or Licensed Building Practitioner installed, so that you have the
quality and the professionalism of contractors that know their trade

(01:25:19):
and they do it very very well.

Speaker 2 (01:25:22):
There's some real certainty in that, and I think to
find out more check it out online. It is Razineconstruction
dot co dot NZ. Mike, good to talk to you.

Speaker 4 (01:25:31):
Thanks date.

Speaker 2 (01:25:36):
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Speaker 12 (01:26:42):
So.

Speaker 3 (01:26:42):
There was much.

Speaker 2 (01:26:43):
Fanfare at the beginning of the week around a government
initiative to provide affordable housing, right and so one of
the ideas is, hey, what about we let people build
up to sixty square meters in your back garden on
an existing house without necessarily having a building consent And
everyone went, oh gosh, that sounds like a good idea.

(01:27:05):
Now at this stage it's all about consultation. So I
flicked a quick email to Hamish Firth, who's been on
this show a number of times, and I put to
him a number of questions. And the reason that I'm
consulting with Hamish is you're a planner. You've probably seen
these sorts of proposals, and I guess you've got an
insight into what are the likely outcomes of how complex

(01:27:27):
is this going to be to administer in whatever way
it ends up becoming law hamous, Good morning and welcome
to the show.

Speaker 3 (01:27:36):
Good morning, morning, morning morning. Two words for you, game changer.
Let's take one step back. Game changer at three levels.
The first level is a hat tip to our politicians.
So we've spent six years dancing around the issue of
housing affordability and zone changes and not a lot happened,

(01:27:57):
and within six months we've got a discussion document that
points in the right direction. Second, this is the beginning
and this goes to your question about beginning of a
process of getting counsel away from the last man standing
in terms of liability and getting them to be the
keeper of the record. And then thirdly for the homeowner,

(01:28:20):
so whether it's granny literally, whether it's the teenager, whether
it's the uncle coming home, whether it's extended family or
far now, or whether you just want to rent this
out and make some money. This provides at that high
level a simple opportunity across the country from the top
to the bottom. That we have a regulation and standard.

(01:28:40):
The second part of it, which is to your question,
is the devil will be in the detail. And I
think it's really really important that we get it right.
We get it right in terms of where these can
be located. We don't want these in flood zones, exacerbating flooding.
We want to make sure that we've got the connections.
We also don't want to create a swetto where you

(01:29:00):
walk into a yard and there's tenery. So is it
one sixty square meter two thirty? How are they connected
to the pipework. I think I think we can still
get that right. I think this discussion document which is
calling for submissions, you know, we need the insurance Council
to be involved here to say, okay, how are we
going to deal with these? We need, you know, the

(01:29:23):
legal teams to come in and say how would we
deal with these? In terms of limbs and I'm coming
to buy one, has it been built properly? And then thirdly,
we want to make sure that there is light regulation
around them so that we don't end up having people
living in car crates because the quality goes to zero.

Speaker 2 (01:29:42):
So let's let's take a couple of things straight off
the bat site coverage rules, we would expect expect still
to comply. So let's say I think you know, I'm
on five hundred square meters, my house is two hundred.
I've got enough space, and I wouldn't be at fifty percent.
But let's say you're already at fifty percent site coverage.
Could you squeeze another unit on? Would that be a

(01:30:04):
good idea?

Speaker 4 (01:30:05):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:30:05):
I think again, we've got to use the existing rules
as a guide. If you read that discussion document, plans
proper plans still have to be drawn. I think we
should use the yard boundaries, the hate to boundaries of
the typical controls. In other words, make the unit a
permitted activity, but make it fit within that sort of
regulatory framework that we have now so that people's experts.

(01:30:28):
You're not going to have buildings built right on the
boundary without fire rating. You're not going to have stormwater
overflow exacerbated by over coverage. So I think we use
those as a really good guide and you can ply
with those. I also think that, and you probably hearing
my voice, Pete, I'm excited about this. This is a
game changer. I think that we should be collecting development

(01:30:50):
contributions on this there is still going to be pressure
on the services. There's still going to be pressure on
the parks and the stormwater and the sewer. So a
tick box says you go to counsel and say here's
what I've done. I heard you say it's trusted builder.
I think it should be a licensed building practitioner. I
think that the plumber who signs in the same way
US Sparky does. Yes, Sparkis aren't regulated by council. They

(01:31:11):
provide their CCC to the homeowner or to the license
building practitioner. But this is where I talk about counsel
being the keeper of the record rather than the last
man's standing. So we make the licensed plumber present his
certificate to confirm he's done it to code. We make
the LVB do the same, so that we know the
unit meets healthy home standards. Ye, so that we know

(01:31:31):
it's been built properly and put on properly. But it's
not that you need to consent for it. All you
need to do is show council you've done it. That
you have to have that tick box that will go
on the limb and the liability moves from council back
to those licensed building practitioners.

Speaker 2 (01:31:46):
So typically things like connecting, you know, changing connections to
a sewer line, for example, triggers a requirement for building consent.
So if you're going to add a minor dwelling that's
got a toilet in the kitchen and a shower and
those sorts of things, and you're adding to the sewer system,
do you think council will want to jump in then
and demand a building consent?

Speaker 3 (01:32:05):
Yeah, and again I don't think we need too. We
trust electricians with our lives, you know, I don't the
lights a shop and die, So why can't we trust
the plumber to connect the pipework to the public system correctly?

Speaker 2 (01:32:18):
And maybe.

Speaker 3 (01:32:20):
A record of works photographs? So, in other words, we
have a regulatory system that says you must submit eight
photos of the pipework going in and it being batfilled correctly.
So if you've done that and it's been done correctly,
why do we need someone to come and inspect it.

Speaker 2 (01:32:34):
We've talked about this a little bit on the program today,
and one of the suggestions would be that any of
these types of dwellings, none of them should have a
concrete slab is that kind of where you would think
that it would be so that anything was above ground
rather than on the ground.

Speaker 3 (01:32:48):
I think that we keep it as simple as possible.
At this stage. We can let's send two or three
years time this has bettered down. Well, then we can
look at concrete slabs going and let's look at it.
It has to be on sex foundations in the way
we go the other thing. I think this is a
game changer for and I think we need to incorporate
this into the regulation. Ye puplicyeing. Suddenly it makes it

(01:33:09):
easier from a ride to put eight or nine of
these on there. You might be an orchard needing seasonal workers,
so suddenly you can holorify a farm.

Speaker 12 (01:33:16):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:33:17):
So in the words, you've got a problem down in
Queenstown with hospitality, Well, let's allow minor dwelling units to
go on people's backyard so that people who work in
hospitality can have somewhere to live that's affordable. It might
be golf courses, schools, and this is why I think
that this is a great discussion document. So now we've
got cheaper accommodation for teachers who might be early in

(01:33:39):
their careers can't afford a house. This is the game changer.

Speaker 2 (01:33:43):
The other just about one of the thoughts I had
around that phrase trusted builder, do we just go? It
can be off site manufacture, owner only, and that's a
way of insurance quality control.

Speaker 3 (01:33:56):
It makes sense you think you think about you know,
your kith a home or your hell's me. They have
been pumping these sort of prefab small units out for
years in a quality, quality controlled environment. It would make
sense to be able to do that. But there may
also be occasions where they can't be trained in or.

Speaker 5 (01:34:14):
They shan't be brought.

Speaker 3 (01:34:15):
Yes, but if we've got them built to a plan
that a license architect or draft person is drawn that
a licensed builder is building, we've all built it to
a standard it has. It has to have a healthy
Home certificate. We keep it simple. I don't think it
has to be pre manufactured, but it makes sense to
be done that way.

Speaker 2 (01:34:33):
Just you mentioned also insurance, and I'm thinking that you know,
typically an insurer will have some surety around if a
building's got a building consent, if it's got a CCC,
that's great. Now if we've got buildings that are going
to be built and they don't have that what surety?
How would you give surety to the insurer that it's
not going to cause problems for them long term?

Speaker 3 (01:34:53):
Again, I think it's that certification. How's these units come
with the c c C yep, so maybe these if
these can and maybe and it's the same with banks.
Banks will not lend on a unit that doesn't have
a c c C generally, So we need to come
up with a system. And that's why I said, we
need to get the insurance Council, We need to get
the banks involved and say, okay, what system do we
need in place to confirm that we can lend against

(01:35:15):
these things and that they're ensurable. And I think it
may be as simple as a healthy home certificate, so
it gets right, it's been built to a code or
it's been built to code and the licensed building practitioner
confirms that, so that liability comes back on THEMS.

Speaker 2 (01:35:30):
Just a final question. One of the things that was
talked about is that you know there would need there
still needs to be designed right. There has to be
a set of plans for this, and that could be done.
They often they talk more about engineers than they do
about architects. But let's say you're an engineer and you've done,
You've calculated the span of the rafters and the bracing
units required and so on. I would then expect that

(01:35:52):
they would be undertaking on site inspections.

Speaker 3 (01:35:55):
I agree, But what we don't And again then they
put their name to it. They sign a document like
engineers now do for building consents, sign on. They are
all registered. So let's keep it proper. What we're doing
here is we're eliminating the glue of uncertainty that council
bureaucracy often gives us, and the irregular patchwork of sort

(01:36:17):
of regulations. This is going to be across the country uniform.
Make it simple to understand. That can be done in
ketty ketty, It can be done in Goa, It can
be done anywhere, and we all have the same regulations
we're working too. We want counsel out of this process,
but we want there to be a regulatory framework and
pathway that give surancies to home runers' banks. And also

(01:36:40):
think about it as yourself as the neighbor. The last
thing you want is the neighbor is that properly be
built on the boundary. You're okay, there's a minor dwelling
but let's make it comply. So I think that this
time I'm going to make a submission. You know, I
may even wander all the way down to Wellington and appear,
because I think we've got to do this in a
well thought out manner. And this sets the scene for

(01:37:01):
further changes in the Building Act to make it simpler.
I heard you were talking about the cost of building
getting higher and higher. If we can reduce it and
simplify it and make it least costly, you're probably going
to get a greater amount of compliance.

Speaker 2 (01:37:15):
And I think too that you know a little bit
like when they introduce the changes to Schedule one of
the Building Act back in twenty nineteen, you know, small
dwellings could go from ten square meters to thirty. The
one thing that I think where most of them breaches
they're too close to the boundary. Right, so in terms
of imposing controls, like if suddenly you notice that your
neighbor is building a meter from the boundary and at

(01:37:38):
sixty square meters, that would probably breach the outline of
what this discussion document is about, because the broad outline
is that it should be the height of the building
away from the boundary and that would stay. That would
be a sensible sort of limit on where you could build.

Speaker 3 (01:37:56):
Yeah. Absolutely. So again, you're not crowding things on the properties,
you're not shoehorning them in, and you're concerned about You've
got some concern about amenity, but for me, the more importantly,
you've got concern about fire rating and fire control. The
last thing we want is building's being built right on
the boundary with no fire control. They burned down, then
they catch the next album fire and before you know it,

(01:38:17):
it's fire of London.

Speaker 4 (01:38:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:38:18):
Absolutely, I look forward to seeing your submission. Maybe you
chair of this. I think it's great and really appreciate
your insights, and you know you've been in this game
for a long long time. And again I mean I'm
in some ways I'm a little bit surprised that your
enthusiasm for it. I thought that maybe you would have
more concerns. But now listening to what you're saying, I

(01:38:40):
can see where you're coming from. This is potentially going
to make a significant difference to housing affordability and housing
availability as long as we keep those controls around it,
because we don't want As someone text through to me earlier,
he's looking at his neighbor who's put two car crates
down the bit of Corrigo, dying in between and has
got a family living there. We don't want that.

Speaker 8 (01:39:00):
Not at all.

Speaker 3 (01:39:01):
As I said at the start, this is game changer,
devil's in the detail. Always get it right. This is
good stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:39:07):
Much appreciated. Hamish Firth from Mount Hobson Groups, thank you
very much for your time this morning, all of ust
you Hamish take care righty oh fascinating insight. Right. You
can make a submission too, by the way, you just
go to mby dot gov dot n Z forward slash
have your say, forward slash granny flats. They want to
hear from you, so if you've got an opinion, make

(01:39:27):
sure they get to hear about it.

Speaker 12 (01:39:29):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:39:29):
A man who's never shy of an opinion is our
next wonderful person. Red climb past with us after.

Speaker 1 (01:39:36):
The break, gardening with stell Shop Free accessories this winter
at steal Shop.

Speaker 2 (01:39:42):
Red client past, never shot of an opinion. Good morning
to you, sir. You'll you'll never die knowing thinking. I
wonder what Rud thinks about that?

Speaker 20 (01:39:52):
You will hear that's right.

Speaker 2 (01:39:54):
I'm very well not so happy with the Dutch yesterday.
I would have liked to have seen a win over
France zero zero.

Speaker 20 (01:40:00):
Yeah, my sister's birthday and she was ringing, No, it's
not that good.

Speaker 2 (01:40:06):
Oh it's not terrible either, to be fair.

Speaker 20 (01:40:10):
All right, but left totally lost the whole soccer thing
at the moment. I really should take some time. Funny, Dad, you.

Speaker 2 (01:40:16):
Should take some time. It's bloody good fun Right, we're
into the garden. If you've got a question for it,
and we've got calls backed up already, let's rip into it. Chris,
good morning to you.

Speaker 6 (01:40:27):
Yeah, I have specific question for a rope. I heard
you mentioned BlackBerry a few weeks ago, and how to
get rid of it was to get down to the
base root of it and try to get as much
out of it as possible. I unfortunately, living in Wellington,

(01:40:50):
live off a house that is hanging off the side
of a basic cliff. Yeah, without heavily frank at my
age if I tried to be hanging down from a
road trying to right. Guy, is there any sort of

(01:41:13):
spray that you can get that wouldn't kill every animal
in the neighborhood?

Speaker 20 (01:41:18):
No, well, yeah, there is. There is a spray that
is really good for BlackBerry, and it's it's called. For instance,
New Farm have a material called Associate, and Ravens Down
have got associate Associate it's so and and Ravens Down
have got to thing called eradicate six hundred and the

(01:41:40):
active ingredient is known as metsol furon may feel it's it.
It works really well on things like gorse and broom
and BlackBerry and broad leaved weeds and things like that.
And it's safe for grass.

Speaker 6 (01:41:58):
Is it okay with? Because I also have a many
cuteria is safe that if that goes near it?

Speaker 20 (01:42:05):
Well keep keep the fox dairy are inside until it's dry.
Don't even worry about it. Just you know, once it's dried,
it's unless the fox dairy is going to eat the
whole bank in Wellington.

Speaker 6 (01:42:17):
I have to actually consume it too, Yeah of.

Speaker 20 (01:42:21):
Course, yeah, yeah, I wouldn't be too worried about that.
Now let it dry then then the.

Speaker 6 (01:42:25):
Fox's probably bad and let it dry and.

Speaker 20 (01:42:29):
Yeah yeah yeah, and do it on a dry day.

Speaker 6 (01:42:32):
It's just turned into like a you know what, well
econs like like one. I don't want to spury every
animal the no.

Speaker 2 (01:42:40):
I only do the spraying when it's good conditions and
wear a mask. You kind of I kind of learned
that this week, but I won't go into that. Kath,
Good morning to you.

Speaker 17 (01:42:53):
Good morning guys.

Speaker 7 (01:42:55):
Rude.

Speaker 17 (01:42:55):
I wonder if you can help me through unexpected circumstances
we have to move. I would like to take some
gardenias with me and a lemon tray, and I just
need to know the process. They were all only planted
in April.

Speaker 20 (01:43:13):
I think there should be no problem when you're going very.

Speaker 17 (01:43:15):
Soonish, yeah, very soonish, within the next four weeks, I
would think.

Speaker 20 (01:43:20):
I think this is the best time of the year
to actually move gardenias and citrus, lemon trees and things
like that. Right the reason the reason is their dormant.
So you dig them up with as many roots as
you can and it goes for both of them, if
you like. And then if you like, you you, if

(01:43:42):
you like, you packed them in an old plastic bag
or something so that they stay keep moist while you're shifting.

Speaker 17 (01:43:48):
Right, okay, anyway you go, Thank you very much for that.

Speaker 20 (01:43:53):
More than welcome. It's really you're really at the best
time for moving.

Speaker 3 (01:43:58):
Keith.

Speaker 20 (01:43:58):
This is great. This is by the way, for anybody
else listening, this is a good time to change the
position of plants that you don't like where it is
it now, So you doing great, all.

Speaker 17 (01:44:07):
Right, thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (01:44:10):
Thank you all the best. Actually that's good news for
me because I had this little camellia that struggled for
the last couple of years. Just I think I did
everything right. And we're working in the garden at a
place that I look after the other day and I said, right,
let's get it out because it obviously doesn't like where
it is, and we've moved it a little bit more shade,
not as much direct sun. Hopefully it'll kickoff. So now's

(01:44:32):
the right time to do that sort of work in
the garden.

Speaker 20 (01:44:34):
Absolutely, But for a camellia, it would be good to
depending on where it is. It does need a little
bit of light, I suppose. I don't know if.

Speaker 2 (01:44:43):
It'll still get some sunlight. It'll just get a little
bit more shade in the early morning. Okay, maybe it'll
just turn up its toast. Maybe it's just a.

Speaker 20 (01:44:52):
Yeah, maybe it's just well, it didn't even.

Speaker 2 (01:44:55):
Get a start. It was how he got to about
bloody not even a meter high. It's just salt. It's
entire life.

Speaker 20 (01:45:03):
Yeah, it's what it's It could be a Dutch football
football sulky.

Speaker 2 (01:45:07):
Sulky complaining about the referee. Right, oh, Marg, good morning
to you.

Speaker 19 (01:45:15):
It's mag.

Speaker 20 (01:45:17):
It's Mag from Grismond. This is going to be my mag.
How are you darling?

Speaker 21 (01:45:22):
It's sword Hill as well.

Speaker 20 (01:45:25):
I know, I know, but you I think you've been
one of my most regular callers since.

Speaker 2 (01:45:32):
Nineteen slower sit.

Speaker 8 (01:45:35):
Out of the well.

Speaker 17 (01:45:40):
Used.

Speaker 22 (01:45:40):
I used to do a tray of eggs and take
them to everything, and you cannot now get at the
you can't have get the whole tray or the any

(01:46:01):
you can't even get any eggs hole.

Speaker 21 (01:46:04):
You get the what or the or the everything.

Speaker 20 (01:46:15):
So well, so tell me what you want to buy
a tray of eggs and you can't get those engagement
are you telling me?

Speaker 17 (01:46:22):
No?

Speaker 21 (01:46:22):
No, it's nothing to do with where they are, but
they will not will not stay.

Speaker 22 (01:46:31):
Whole, and they.

Speaker 21 (01:46:35):
Just how can I say it to get it right?

Speaker 8 (01:46:39):
Yeah?

Speaker 21 (01:46:40):
Yeah, it used they used to be.

Speaker 22 (01:46:45):
No, all the white is not in one place, wrong, dad, Everything.

Speaker 20 (01:46:54):
I don't know make I have no. I am not
somebody who is really good at eggs. Having said that,
I did band some birds and birds are known to
lay eggs, but you know, I don't know about those
sort of things. To be quite honest, I can't help
you with that, Mark this time.

Speaker 21 (01:47:11):
Well, I thought you'd have the answer.

Speaker 20 (01:47:14):
Well, I sometimes do, but not always. If you know
what the funny thing is, Pezza is right, you know,
I'll tell it like it is. If I don't know
the answer, I'm not, you know, shy to say I
don't know the answer, simple as that, you know what
I mean?

Speaker 21 (01:47:29):
No, no, no, no, it was. It's just that you
cannot get the whole eggs in all one place, no
one place, and no it won't do it. So I'm
not telling you properly.

Speaker 20 (01:47:49):
But no, no, it's all right. Have you tried having
a you have you tried having chickens yourself?

Speaker 8 (01:47:55):
No?

Speaker 5 (01:47:55):
We didn't do.

Speaker 13 (01:47:58):
It's good.

Speaker 21 (01:48:00):
Yeah, but they just will not have the eggs and
the white and the yoke.

Speaker 20 (01:48:07):
Yeah, I see what you mean. Okay, No, sorry, you
need to go to an egg egologist.

Speaker 2 (01:48:15):
How is it?

Speaker 8 (01:48:17):
Hey?

Speaker 20 (01:48:17):
Text for you call? Thanks for your call.

Speaker 2 (01:48:19):
Mark, I'll get my nephew to give you a call.
He's got he loves them, righty oh uh let's take
a short break. Let's do that right now, and then
we'll be back. We're through it after the break.

Speaker 1 (01:48:31):
For more from the Resident Builder with Peter Wolfcamp, listen
live to News Talk sai'd be on Sunday mornings from six,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio