The Resident Builder podcast: September 1, 2024

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Resident build Up podcast with Peter
Wolfcamp from News Talks at Bay.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
The house is a whole even when it stars, even
when the grass is overgrown in the yard, even when
the dog is too old to borrow, And.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
When you're sitting at the table trying.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Not to start house scissor hole, even when we.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Are band ball, even when you're.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
There alone, A house is a hole, even when those goes, even.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
When you go around from the ones you.

Speaker 4 (01:08):
Love, your more.

Speaker 5 (01:10):
Screams, building plains, being in frond the world locals lisball
when they're gone, leaving them house, even when we'll be
ben lone, even when you're neverlone.

Speaker 6 (01:35):
Well, very good morning, and welcome along to the Resident
Builder on Sunday. You're with me Pete wolf Camp, the
Resident Builder, and this is a show all about no
surprise surprise, building, building, construction, renovating, altering, maintaining, planning, purchasing,
choosing contractors. Whatever you would like to discuss with regards

(01:56):
to building construction regulations. We can do all of that
on the show this morning. So I trust you've had
a good week. Weather's not far from the mind. I
was out in my workshop yesterday and I'll explain why. Well,
I don't need to explain why I'm often in the workshop,
but with a particular purpose. Yesterday, when an extremely heavy

(02:20):
band of rain sort of swept across where I am
and where Aucklanders live inundating curbs and pathways, and probably
not to the extent of having a flooding inside house
and that, but it was one of those remarkably heavy
downpours that sort of swept across the city for about
ten minutes or so and then disappeared. Kind of made

(02:44):
me add a couple of other jobs to my to
do list of things around the house. Sought out some
decent spouting on the workshop would probably be top of
that list, seeing the water pouring over the top of
what I've already got there at the moment. So, and
these are the sorts of things that happens. We walk
around and we go, oh cracky, that's right, I should
do that job, and maybe I should get onto that,

(03:05):
and maybe there's a bit more maintenance that I need
to do here there and everywhere. So if you've got
a task that you would like some help with, eight
hundred eighty ten eighty is the number to call, Or
if you'd like to send a text, you are more
than welcome to do that. Thank you Steve for your text.
I'll explain the moment the If you've got a question

(03:28):
you'd like to text through, you're more than welcome to
do that. Of course. It is nine two nine two
or zbzib from your mobile phone. If you'd like to
email me, you're more than welcome to do that as well.
It's Pete at newstaloksb dot co dot nz. So I
trust you've had a good week and if you've been
involved with a project, I trust that it's been successful
and progressive. And if it's not going as well as

(03:52):
you would have hoped, then maybe we can talk about
that on the show as well. Eight hundred eighty ten
eighty is that number to call. A little bit later on,
we're going to catch up with Mike Colds. We are
going to definitely talk to Redcline past at about eighth dirt.
He might even bring Rud on a little bit early.
We have much to discuss. So one of the tasks

(04:12):
I said last week on the show that I would
rodd and I have talked about barn Ow's for a while.
I know this is not necessarily building related, but it
is now because I built something. I built some barn
ol boxes. It turns out the RUD sent me two
different designs and they are quite distinct from each other.

(04:33):
So I've ended up making two different barn owl boxes,
which I've sent photographs to RUD. I put a quick
post up yesterday with a bit of a time lapse,
and I made a little video about sort of how
I've set them out and what I think the thinking
is behind them. That'll be up on my Facebook page
a little bit later on today. So it's all there,

(04:53):
it's all happening, and I point this out just as
a sort of public service announcement. Rushing when you're doing
tasks tend to lead to mistakes, and I was either
ushing not kind of, not really, but I sort of
was yesterday to try and get something finished, and just
a moment's in attention while using a fairly sharp knife

(05:17):
trying to clean off a sticker from a hasp off
a latch right ended up with me going inside clutching
my finger, going I think we need some bandages. So anyway,
I'm not sure what the damage is, but it's a
decental chunk that came out of the finger and a
couple of bandages and that sort of thing. It's just

(05:39):
a moment's in attention. And as soon as I did it,
I was like, ah, you muppet, why would you have
held your hand like that? And then when the blade
did slip, it went straight into the finger. One of
those ones where you go, yeah, that's going to hurt
a little bit more than what I was hoping for. Anyway,
It's all fine, but yes, just thinking it's that classic.

(06:03):
Just take a moment to think about what you're doing
before you rush to do it. And another transformational event
for me. But I'll talk about this a bit later on.
I've started using a track saw. I'll explain that a
bit later on. We'll get stuck into it. Eight hundred
and eighty ten eighty is the number to call Steve.
Thank you for your text back to Dancing in the
Cowshed with the opening song back on Steve in the

(06:26):
Cowshed this morning. I hope the cows enjoy the music
as well. I know apparently it's very popular to play
classical music to them, but I figure a bit of
Ben Harper probably doesn't go astray either. And Matt says, hey,
Happy Father's Day. Indeed, indeed, if you happen to be
a dad, Happy Father's Day to you, and thank you
very much for your wishes. Matt. How do we note

(06:48):
on my desk when I left this morning saying Happy
Father's Day to me as well, which is awesome. I
eight hundred eighty ten eighty all things building construction, regulations, rules, dilemmas,
you know, discussions that you might get into. Actually, I
just quickly I had a good converse with a guy
who's very experienced in the building sector, regulations, involved in

(07:11):
innovation and so on, and I quickly said to him,
look where are you at with the rollback in terms
of H one, this kind of idea that's been flagged
by the current minister, going well, maybe it's added too
much cost, Maybe we should look at rolling back H one,
which is all about energy efficiency, and he goes, yeah,
but look at the news. At the moment we're in
an energy crisis where we can't generate sufficient energy to

(07:34):
keep the lights on, and now we want to roll
back a practical set of solutions that would allow our
houses to be more energy efficient, i e. Requiring less energy.
One hand's not talking to the other. Oh, eight hundred
eighty ten eighty is the number to call Neville. Good
morning to you, thank good morning.

Speaker 7 (07:55):
How are you doing very well?

Speaker 6 (07:56):
Thank you?

Speaker 7 (07:57):
That's sweet. Now I called early because I'll followed you device.

Speaker 6 (08:00):
So a wise man, you're a wise man.

Speaker 7 (08:06):
You're a friend of mine. She lives in a house
that's at the end of quite a long drive, and
there's three houses that ended quite long drive, and those
three houses own the quite long drive. Now, one of
the houses on one side of the driveway has a
right of way because it's a cup hold of sense
quite a long time ago and has a right of
way to the garage. But in the interim, some new

(08:30):
people have brought that property and they're now develop it,
and so they're going to push three driveways into their property,
so the garage, the original house, new house on the back.

Speaker 8 (08:44):
And I'm gone, you're going to be crazy.

Speaker 7 (08:46):
And she said to me, no, Well, I'll check with
the council, and they said, no, no, we've granted a permission.
And I'm going, but you guys owned that the driveway.
They don't own anything, and yet they're going to push
at another two drives. I would have assumed that the
right of way would have stood. I wouldn't have imagined
you could have created two new accesses off of a driveway.

(09:09):
You don't know.

Speaker 6 (09:11):
That's an interesting one, and I'm just thinking about it.
I'm just trying to work my way through that. So
there's a driveway that services three properties, and typically when
you look on a title or something like that, you'll
find that each of the individual titles has like a
strip of that driveway as part of their title, and
they all have either an easement or an agreement that

(09:32):
says we're all going to share. So I own one
meter of a three meter wide driveway, you own another meter,
you own the last one, and that becomes the use
and the property for those three individual houses. And I'm
getting the impression that this long driveway there happens to
be a neighboring house right which adjoins it, but doesn't

(09:52):
necessarily have legal title to the driveway.

Speaker 7 (09:55):
And then they bring houses on the driveway right.

Speaker 6 (09:58):
And they've informally years ago taken out a section offense
which has allowed them to use the driveway and drive
into their property. But now now that's being formalized as
being the entrance to a new development over the land
that they don't own. That's the bit that I don't get.

Speaker 7 (10:16):
Well, the thing that's really concerning a lot for me.
I can understand that they have a right away because
I assume that the garrets, but that particular terrance way
goes has mean if it's twenty years, let's assume. But
what concerns me is because they're granted a right away
to that particular entrance, now that they want to develop
the property that they actually have rights to create.

Speaker 8 (10:38):
Two more.

Speaker 7 (10:41):
Access is onto their property off the driveway they don't own,
and there seems to be no recourse.

Speaker 6 (10:49):
I would have thought that your friend who owns the
property probably needs to go to it'll end up becoming
a legal thing. A lawyer would need to go survey
the title and send a note to counsel going, hey, look,
by the way, you've granted access to a property that
is not actually owned by that person, and we withdraw
our right for access to that property. And the other

(11:12):
thing alongside that is that and I don't necessarily want
to stand in the way of development just for the
sake of standing in the way of development. But at
the same time, like I know from sort of either
subdivision or intensification work that I've been involved with. There
is often quite specific rules around what they often call

(11:33):
a jole like a joint access area, in terms of
the width of it. I know, for one development we
were involved with, we had to add like a passing
bay so that there was sufficient width. You have to
allow things like can you get a fire truck down there,
depending on the length of hose that you need to
get to a property, those sorts of things, so you know,

(11:55):
what might have been a sufficiently wide driveway for three
properties may not be a sufficiently wide driveway for six
property or six developments. So there's a few issues there. Ultimately,
if you're going to go into battle with counsel, it's
going to involve lawyers.

Speaker 7 (12:11):
So that's always the problem, isn't it. Everyone's a little
bit scared to run up a bill of a lawyer
because you never actually really know what you're going to
end up until you gets anyway.

Speaker 6 (12:21):
Yeah, actually, that's good question. I'm not sure if lawyers
do that. You know, like, if I wanted someone to
come and do some work at my place, could I
I'd ask for a fixed price quote, But I'm not
sure that you get that much when you go and
see your I'll ask our lawyers. I think he comes
in a fascinating one. Hey, look good on you for
helping you mate out.

Speaker 7 (12:41):
Thank you much.

Speaker 6 (12:42):
You'll take care pleasure actually on that and it was
a story. So I'm in the habit these days of
as I'm reading articles that I find online, often on
the Herald website and those sorts of things. If it's
interesting or I feel that it's got some information that
I might need later on, I just send it to
myself and it sits in a file on my inbox

(13:02):
sort of thing. And there was a fascinating one this
It was on the Herald website. I'm sure it's still
findable now, where the headline was basically homeowner amazed that
counsel could install manhole to sewer line by front door

(13:24):
with no permission or no discussion and consultation. And I thought, gee,
that's an intriguing one, because I know I've been involved
with situations where someone a developer, for example, has approached
a neighboring property to say, hey, look, I need access
to your property in order to upgrade the stormwater line

(13:45):
or the wastewater line in order for me to pull
down this old house and whack up six townhouses, and
typically the neighbor could go, actually, I'm not that happy
about it, and then maybe some money changes hands and
suddenly they're more happy about it, or they go, no,
I'm not really that interested in it. But the developer

(14:05):
pushes it through council, and council end up making an
order saying, hey, look you can. You've got to give
access to that. It's our asset that happens to be
in your property, and this person has a right to
use it. But that typically takes a long time, eighteen months,
two years, something like that. And so I was intrigued
by the story where the homeowner is essentially saying, look

(14:26):
right outside my front door, which actually just happens to
be on a driveway. They're going to install a new
wastewater connection from across the road from a development of
a corner site where there was one house which is
now going to have eight townhouse development on it. And
so the developer instead all of this information is in
the article. The developer, instead of taking that and pumping

(14:49):
it up to a chamber and then having a gravity
fed on that side of the road, has opted I
think with a little bit of insistence from council that
in fact gravity fed I e. It's better if it
all just flows downhill, across the road, down a section
of the driveway and into a new manhole which sits,
which will sit above the existing council owned or asset,

(15:13):
being the wastewater line there. And so this homeowner has said, look,
no consultation, which is really really unusual. I have to say. Anyway,
you may have a comment on that, or you may
go and dig out the article and have a bit
of a read. But it's worth taking the time to
read the article. I eight hundred eighty ten eighty is
the number to call all things building, construction and as

(15:33):
it happens right now, but offencing so we'll talk to
Dobby in just a moment. We'll take a short break
if you'd like to join us. I eight hundred eighty
ten eighty is the number to call. I found the
article that I mentioned. It was up on the twenty
ninth of August. If you're looking for it, I have
to say, yeah, have a look at the article. It's

(15:54):
it's quite good. If you want to chat about it,
that'd be great. I eight hundred eighty ten eighty is
the number to call Dobby. Good morning to.

Speaker 9 (16:00):
You moning money. Interesting as you're talking about that driver,
it is exactly the same, right, all you do get
the boundary pegs down by the road and put a
fence on each side.

Speaker 6 (16:16):
I think I know what you say. I think in
this instance here, it seems like an informal arrangement where
a neighbor, who it would appear to me anyway, doesn't
have legal access to the driveway, by agreement with the neighbors,
has cut a hole in the fence and can drive
along the driveway and nip into their property. Right, So.

Speaker 9 (16:40):
That I appreciate it, really really that place that's got
three owners, three of them own that driveway, so the
three of them go against one, Well who wins?

Speaker 6 (16:50):
Well that's right. But yeah, it's a bit of a kid.

Speaker 9 (16:54):
It sounds like you're just an agreement from the last
in and the last owner. Now that when you buy
a property, it tells you exactly what hasn't got a
permit and what's required on their property and your boundary.

Speaker 6 (17:10):
I suppose this one's just going to come down to
what whether or not the person actually had legal right
to use that access way. Now maybe while it might
not be on their title, they might have registered an
easement for example. So because you know, it's that sort
of thing. If you look at plans that are often
drawn where a subdivision takes place, and while each house

(17:35):
has its own individual title, they'll share a portion of
the driveway. And as I was saying tat Neville, you know,
you'll see it kind of divided into thirds or quarters
or something like that to show which part of the
driveway you own, but then you have an easement over
the rest of it to use.

Speaker 9 (17:51):
It goes back to the thing is like, whether it's
a driveway, a house, section of whatever you pay rates
on today, Well he comes driveway, it belongs to you.
You decide.

Speaker 6 (18:04):
Yeah, and I'm a little bit curious. And then the
other thing, as I mentioned to Neville, is that whole
thing around you know that like there are obviously planning
regulations around the width and style of access ways depending
on the number of properties. So you know, a driveway
that serves only one unit could potentially be two point

(18:25):
four meters wide. A driveway that serves more than one
unit might need to be But yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 9 (18:34):
Now if you look at that on. If it's got
three things, it'll be a three point six.

Speaker 6 (18:38):
Yeah, that's right. And in some cases, depending on the
length of it, sometimes you.

Speaker 9 (18:42):
And there'll be addresses on thirty one. Yeah, thirty one
c h. So there's three have got the right a
wage of that, That's.

Speaker 6 (18:51):
What I'm thinking. But ultimately, if you're going to go
and do battle with counselor, you're probably going to have
to lawyer up. So I suspect it's going about you.

Speaker 9 (19:00):
Don't need a lawyer. You do is show them what
you're paying rates on. See the lawyer you've got.

Speaker 6 (19:07):
If you did a title search on the adjoining property
to see what their title actually show shows they have
access to our rights to.

Speaker 9 (19:17):
Yeah, a counter's got that. All you do is go
and apply for it, and they've given you a photo
copy of your titles.

Speaker 6 (19:26):
Awesome, all right, some good advice there, Dobby appreciate that
all of us to take care of. Then, oh wait,
I was so tempted to ask him whether or not
Dobby being I presume a nickname was a nickname that
was given to him after the Harry Potter movies came out,
or whether that's a nickname that he had before then
I didn't feel I should ask, Oh, eight hundred and

(19:47):
eighty ten eighty is the number to call put morning
peak text. We've put a roof on us. We want
to put a roof on slider over a small storage
erro with thinking wooden trusts clad with roofing, iron on galvanised.
Now is that possible without a consent?

Speaker 7 (20:06):
TI?

Speaker 6 (20:06):
As soon as you end up with a roof on
anything that requires a consent, particularly if it's attached to
your existing building, So things like car ports, for example,
up to forty square meters can underschedule one of the
act be built without necessarily requiring a consent, as long

(20:27):
as it then fits a number of other criteria in
terms of distance from boundary, not being attached to an
existing structure, etc.

Speaker 8 (20:34):
Etc.

Speaker 6 (20:35):
Most often, as soon as you put a roof on,
for example, the difference between having a loggier type thing,
which is just rafters posts and a beam to give
some definition to an outdoor space, you can do that
without a consent. As soon as you add a roofing
to that, then typically it triggers a requirement for consent,

(20:58):
and I would imagine that in this instance, your question
is if you're going to do storage area. Unless it's
not attached the house and it's not its own height
away from the boundary, or it is its own height
away from the boundary, it probably triggered a requirement for
a building consent. Eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the
number to call if you've got a question of a
building nature. The lines are open for you right now.

(21:21):
Call us now eight hundred eighty ten eighty News Talks
there B. It is six point thirty four here at
Talks HEB. Probably in the rest of the country as well.
Eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the number to call
if you've got a question of a building nature, whether
it's you know, we've talked a little bit about fencings
and driveways, and it's that whole. I guess it's an

(21:44):
increasingly common issue in most metropolitan areas or most urban
areas where intensification is obviously underway and suddenly it does
put pressure on either existing infrastructure, whether that's assets that
are in the ground I pipework and services, or above
ground as well in terms of parking, driveways, access, rubbish

(22:05):
collection and all of those sorts of things. And I've
just had another read through This article about it was
in the Herald on the twenty ninth of August about
a gentleman who lives in Green Bay. Green Bay's a
little sort of beachside suburb alongside the Monaco Harbor out
of central West Auckland, and a development that's happening on it.

(22:32):
This is the I suppose the crux of the issue
an eight hundred and twelve square meter site that is
now going to have eight new townhouses put onto it.
And I have to say I personally don't in most
instances have too much of an issue with intensification. I

(22:54):
think we need to do it. I think it's a
really good way of creating more supply, of hopefully addressing
issues around affordability, and of preventing urban sprawl, which I
don't think is a good at all. This kind of
constant let's just find more land, old farms and put
more townhouses on them, is not a I don't think
it's a great method of growing your city. So intensification

(23:18):
is good. But I thought that things like the Auckland
Unitary Plan and other planning initiatives by councils around the
country was to promote these sorts of developments within walking
distance of public transport and so on and so forth.
That you know, if you're five hundred meters from a
train station or a transport hub or then you're allowed

(23:42):
to intensify to a certain height and number. And then
as that distance reduces, then the scale of the intensification
reduces as well. With an idea to saying, well, look,
if we're going to promote intensification, then we also need
to promote mode shift in terms of transport. And if
we put these types of developments near transport hubs, then
people can use public transport to get around a little

(24:04):
bit ideologically driven. Oh, but it does actually kind of
make sense. So then I was fascinated by the story
around the connection of eight new townhouses to a sewer
connection that is in the adjoining property, not adjoining, but
across the road and down a right of way to

(24:27):
a new manhole there. And then yes, I had a
look on maps, and then I had a look on
the gis to see what was what the infrastructure is like,
and then thought, actually, this is not the sort of
development that I think we should be having. It's an
eight hundred and twelve square meter site in a suburban
street that is predominantly single house dwelling and quite a

(24:53):
distance from any major transport hub. There's buses at the
end of the road, but then they connect to another
transport hub before you go in. So I wonder where
the issue with this story is. Really this is the
sort of development that intense probably shouldn't have happened. Anyway,
your thoughts, Oh, eight hundred and eighty, Then I'm to
call hello, Gabriel.

Speaker 10 (25:12):
Yeah, good morning, Peter. Sorry, I speak some of it in.

Speaker 6 (25:17):
Imperial, quite familiar with I've got Yes.

Speaker 10 (25:21):
I've got a width between the house and the neighbor's
fence of seventeen feet. But I want to erect a
what's called a portable garage. It's made of it's made
of canvas, heavy duty. That tent basically is it's thirteen

(25:42):
feet wide, which means that I've got about two feet
on either side when it's up. Are there? And the
other thing I want to do, it's may change it
is that on each corner I want to add poles
of two meters in length and drop them and concrete

(26:03):
them around them around this tenth so that it stabilizes
it further. So I'm wondering are there any rules or
any rules that I should be aware of? And yeah,
I mean, look to do I need consent?

Speaker 6 (26:21):
The typically you would, and the main reason for that
is proximity to the boundary. So the sort of rule
of thumb is that if you're within a meter of
the boundary, and a met is just over three feet,
then that triggers the requirement for a building consent. And

(26:41):
so two foot is obviously less than three foot, and
so that would requirement. Also, the building should, ideally, if
it gets done without consent, be the height of the
structure away from your existing structure, and you won't have
that space. The challenge would be getting a building consent
for something that's not really a building, i e. It's

(27:05):
you can a sort of temporary structure.

Speaker 10 (27:08):
Temporary structure.

Speaker 6 (27:09):
Yeah, and the what are you going to do? Just
park a car in there? It's just cover for a car.

Speaker 10 (27:15):
Yeah, yeah, that's what I hope to do. But yeah, okay,
so I need to consent, But that's fine. That's really
what I'll wanted to know before I get right into
it yet.

Speaker 6 (27:27):
But I think so, and you know, part of that
will also be that like if let's say you don't
go for consent, and suddenly you start building and the
neighbor goes craiky, I'm not really that happy about this
thing being so close to the boundary, And then they
go to council. Council will turn up and go, well,
actually you do need a consent for that. It's unauthorized

(27:47):
works and you'll get a notice effects or a you know,
a letter, potentially a fine. I mean typically counsel don't
go out looking for these sorts of things, but when
it's drawn to their attention, eventually they'll get round to
looking at it.

Speaker 10 (28:04):
Yeah, so good advice as usual.

Speaker 6 (28:06):
Pleasure somebody boundaries where it's all that already all the best,
take care bother them and Eric a very good morning
to you.

Speaker 11 (28:14):
Good morning, Peter. I have a problem I'm hoping you
won't be ever help me with. I've just done a
twelve meter by eight meter edition on my son's house.
So now we're into doing the old part of the house.
So when we put the new roof on, we stripped
the roof off the old part of the house. It's
a fifteen degree pitch, so because the pearlins didn't line up,

(28:35):
so we removed the eye and the building paper of
the netting replaced the pearlins, put the new white paper
on and reroofed it. Since then, we've ripped all the
wooden windows out of the old part of the house
and replaced them with double blows with the planted seal,
and anyway, we now have a mold problem growing on

(28:56):
the bottoms of the pearlins and about the meter up
the rafters in where we've reroofed just one side of
the house, on the eastern side of the house, so
we kicked in the front entrance, the bathroom in one
bedroom when we started last weekend ripping the ceilings and
that down in the old part of the house. In
the bathroom, we could see this mold growing and it's

(29:17):
quite bad growing on the on the It's only on
the top side of the purlins and for about a
meter up from the top plate up the rafters. A.
What's caused that? I know, I listened a while ago
you were talking about roof ventilation. A what caused it?
And B how do we solve it? Because it wasn't
there previously. I have I have a feeling that because

(29:41):
while we had all the wine eating and everything off,
we took the opportunity to put new bats completely over
top of the old bats that had shrunken down. I
have a feeling that they had one of those test
that sucking motor things in the bathroom with the heat
lamps in it and an extractor fan. I have a
feeling the fact that the hose may have had a

(30:03):
hole in it, or you know, the one hundred and
fifty little point to the outside of the house. So
have you any ideas what caused this or it wasn't
there in the previously and we get rid of it.

Speaker 6 (30:18):
Yeah, I think it's probably just happenstance that it wasn't
there before, because there was probably a lot more airflow, right,
and a lot more ventilation in an old drafty construction,
And so then you've ended up going part way towards
reducing that airflow, which then creates still air, which then

(30:41):
creates the potential for mold growth. And it's it's a
it could potentially be a thing called interstitular moisture control.

Speaker 11 (30:52):
Right, it's a big word.

Speaker 6 (30:54):
Yeah, I know, and to be fair, it does get
enormously complex. Well yeah, it does quite quickly. But there's
a lot of articles about it and it kind of
relates to a couple of things. One is that we
have to start understanding that moisture, as in water molecules

(31:18):
attached to air, migrates through solid surfaces. So and that
I'm still trying to get my head around it, to
be fair, right, this is an area that I'm trying
to do a lot more reading on. So, for example,
an a skillion roof a little bit like what you've constructed,
there will always be moisture inside the room below that. Now,

(31:42):
if for example, we've got just plasterboard lining and then
we've got our ceiling strapping, then we've got some insulation,
then hopefully there's a gap at the top of that
insulation to the underside of the roofing underlay, and then
you've got your roofing iron on top. So moisture will
migrate from inside that habitable space through the plaster board

(32:05):
and then trapped inside that surface, which if that's got
less airflow than before because you've put new building paper
on it, because maybe you've tidied up some gaps and
bits and pieces, or you've ended up closing up the
gap between the roofing underlay and the insulation. So Ideally
you must have at least fifty millimeters of gap between

(32:28):
your insulation and the underside of your roofing underlay to
allow for some airflow in there, because without it, that's
where the moisture ends up. And then when the moisture
adheres to a surface, it creates a damp environment and
promotes mold growth, and that's what you might be seeing.
I've seen similar pictures for example of actually some classrooms

(32:51):
that were built about fifteen years ago where agains you know,
rafter perlin building paper, iron, insulation, plasterboard on the underside,
and when they pulled them down because they'd seen mold
on the ceilings, what they found is that the moisture
had got into that space and the insulation was starting

(33:14):
to blacken with mold, and there was mold growth on
the timber as well, and potentially from their timber decay.
So that's kind of if you do want to do
some reading, start in that area. And again it's pretty
flash sounding terminology, but interstitular moisture control is where you
want to be looking at on.

Speaker 11 (33:34):
The new part of the house, or sorry, on the
new part of the house. Because we had to put
the extra thick vats and before we put the pearlins
on above the top plate we used. It came in
a box and you sort of folded it out like
a constantina. It was like a corrugated plastic. It was
about eight hundred high and we put it right around

(33:55):
the right around the house and so that meant that
the bats could not possibly touch the building paper, et cetera.
But this is like a white mold, it's not a
black mold. There was absolutely no sign of it on
the ceilings on the inside of the house, but we
could just smell it when we started pulling down the
ceilings in the bathroom. And the soun's an asthmatic, and

(34:17):
the soun's an asthmetic, and it's the last thing we want.

Speaker 12 (34:20):
So the other.

Speaker 6 (34:21):
Issue, the other issue to look at is what's the
ventilation like inside the house. And you know, I know
that often when we talk ventilation, people just go just
open a door or open a window and that sort
of thing, and that's part of the solution. But you know,
in modern living, we don't always leave windows and doors open.

(34:42):
So having an active form of ventilation, whether that's a
positive pressure system or a balanced pressure system in the
house actively, you know, controlling airflow, controlling moisture within the
house might also be part of the solution. Interestingly enough,
I've had I had a long discussion with actually someone

(35:04):
who's going to join us on the PROGRAMM a couple
of weeks time, Storm Harpham, who's an engineer who now
works specifically in ventilation for residential houses. So she's going
to join me on the show in a couple of
weeks time. And again I met her at an event.
We got talking about insulation, about ventilation, and then a

(35:27):
property that I look after had a similar issue where
I thought I had dealt with mold issues in a bathroom,
including adding a new fan, putting in bed of repainting
the ceiling, cleaning all the moisture off, checking for leaks, etc.
And then after about eight months later, had the reoccurrence
of this mold issue. And one of the things that

(35:49):
in discussion with Storm we talked about is that it's
very much about changing the type of ventilation that we've
got in that building. And so I'm going to swap
out the fan that I've got in there for one
that has a humidity and temperature sensor on it. So
it's reading the room and turning itself on when required,
rather than relying on the people who are in the

(36:11):
house to go, oh, that's right, I need to turn
the fan on. And then we discussed other sort of
you know, home ventilation systems that will be active all
of the time to increase air flow, to control humidity,
et cetera, et cetera. So there might be a couple
of things happening there.

Speaker 11 (36:28):
What I thought about doing was around this, A feat
was putting in a series of like underhouse vents, you know,
but you know, the galvanized vents, and like, yes, I'm
a bit reluctant because the old five blow it will
have his best orso yeah, because it's an old house.
It's pretty old house with that, with that, you know,
but without having something at the top ll very well

(36:49):
having a hole at the bottom. But I heard you
talking about ventilated ridge.

Speaker 6 (36:54):
And interestingly enough, I did a I built for myself
on another project, a ten scua meter cabin right home
office type thing, and it had had a monopitch roof,
so six inch rails, four to two rafters, jframe sorry
six two rafters and jframe. And then what I ended

(37:16):
up doing is I had actually a vapor control barrier
underneath the rafters, then I had my insulation, Then I
had a different type of vapor control barrier on top
of the rafters. Then I put battens on and then
my perlans to allow airflow. And so I've got airflow
that comes in from underneath the iron and then at
the top don't really have a ridge cap. You've just

(37:37):
got a barge flashing at the top. But at the
top there I've installed one hundred mil vent because it's
a dark roof and it's going to heat up, so
trying to control the amount of heat and condensation that
I get in there by actually having some ventilation. So
similar to what you're talking about, having potentially airflow in
and out in a roof space to help control the

(38:00):
environment there would possibly be a good thing. What I
do is I've got to take a break, but I
would have a look I tell you what, I have
a look at some of the brand's articles recently have
been really good around They're often really good, but the
ones around ventilation and moisture control are digestible but really
really good information. So have a look at the brand's

(38:23):
articles online. They're worth reading. Nice talking, take care, take
short break back in a mow your news talks, they'd
be we can talk to Doug, but I think I
might get them to hold just for a moment because
we don't have much time before the news. Top of
the hour. After the news, we are going to touch
base with Mike Olds from Razine Construction Systems. And in

(38:44):
the next hour, of course the climb past will be along,
and to be fair, we might have to start a
bit early because we are going to be talking about
our boxes. A mild obsession of mine or our household
has been this migration of German barn ow's, which have
become native to Northland and are moving their way down,

(39:04):
including a very exciting post the other day, one of
them sitting in a tree on Ponsonby Road of all places. Yes,
indeed Ponsonby Road anyway. So I went to the expert
being rid and said, hey, look, do you have any
designs for these owl boxes, because there's quite specific requirements

(39:24):
to make it an enticing habitat for said barn owl.
So he sent me some plans, and then he sent
me some other plans. So I made the first one
on Thursday, and then I went back out into the
shed yesterday because it was a pretty average kind of
day weatherwise, and made another one. So I've now got
these two different designs and layouts for barn owl boxes. Anyway,

(39:47):
I'll put up some photographs on my Facebook page a
little bit later on so you can see what is
that I'm actually rambling on about. But a very entertaining
couple of hours in the shed to make both of
these various designs, or a variety of designs that I've
now got so two different layouts for the same owl house.
And I'll try and put up my plans for how

(40:09):
I made them as well, So we'll do that anyway,
we will talk more after the news sport and whether
here at News Talks. He'd be if you'd like to
join us. The lines are open than The number to
call is eight hundred eighty ten eighty, and of course
you are more than welcome to text as well. It's
nine to nine two or zib from your mobile phone.
We're back after the break. You a News Talks, he'd
be welcome back to the show. Eight hundred eighty ten

(40:31):
eighty is the number to call if you've got any
questions around building construction renovating, like Eric our caller just
before the news talking about an existing house, then some alterations,
and then after the alterations having an issue with moisture
and mold growth in what has been the new addition.

(40:53):
So something changed which has then created the environment for
mold growth. It does get I don't keep keep realizing that.
I keep saying these things are complex, and they are
because it's a It's an interconnection of a whole lot
of different elements around ventilation, around moisture, about construction, around
what happens as moisture migrates through a solid surface, the

(41:16):
position of the jew point, and those sorts of things.
But there is a tremendous amount of research that's been
done on this, partly driven by failure. So when we
see things that don't work well, then we suddenly realize, actually,
we've got a bit of an issue with how you know,
we've assembled the assembly of our construction either leaves the

(41:38):
moisture sitting on the outside, which is where we want it,
or inadvertently we end up with it sitting on the inside.
So we move the jew point to the inside of
our building structures, which then provides an environment for mold growth,
so we need to understand how that moisture migrates through
solid surfaces and the impact of variation of temperature inside

(42:01):
and outside. The impact of adequate ventilation into our houses
is our houses come. We're a long way from being
air tight, but we're getting closer and closer. If you
look at how we do building wraps and we do
window ceiling, we look at the quality of the window
and the lack of gaps and cracks and drafts. These
sorts of things make our buildings more air tight without

(42:22):
being air tight. And then highlighting the fact that we
need to do adequate ventilation as well. And the other
thing that it struck me the other day and it's
a part of what I do. I guess that is
the least pleasurable is every now and then being asked
to go and have a look at some work that's
being done, and then from time to time looking at

(42:44):
it going it's just really poor work, you know. And
while I think in general we've got reasonable standards in
terms of how we put our houses together and the
quality of the people doing the work, every now and
then you still end up running into a job and
into a site where you just go, look, the person

(43:05):
just of viously didn't know what they were doing. And
how did you end up contracting this person? How was
it that you allowed this person to come and do
this work? Was it they were recommended and they've done
a really bad job? Did they end up? Did you
get how? I heard of a story years ago someone
got eleven quotes for a renovation project, took the lowest quote,

(43:26):
the cheapest one, and the job was a disaster, and
you kind of go, well, no surprises there. So getting
quality and ensuring quality is always a bit tricky, and
funnily enough, it was something that I got chatting to
Mike Olds from Razine Construction about the other day. Mike,
a very good morning and happy Father's Day. Likewise, please
cheers mate. It's a real issue, isn't it in terms

(43:47):
of you know, if you're slightly unfamiliar to building and
construction and you're out there looking for contractors, how do
you know you're going to get someone who's reliable and
is going to do what they need to do in
order to achieve a good outcome? And I guess you know,
for you guys with Razine Struction, it's all about exterior

(44:08):
construction and clanning and so on. So if we're going
down the exterior construction with razine, how would you how
do you guys monitor it?

Speaker 8 (44:19):
Well, since day one of our business, we've taken their
approach that we just don't sell our products out the
door for a start. We only supply qualified professional contractors
who we can then support through the entire process. And
it's interesting over the years, it hasn't really changed in
terms of what people need to look for. Price is

(44:44):
always a dominant factor, and that seems to be even
stronger these days to the current economic environment. But still
with that said, people need to do their due diligence
and part of the process on our side of things,
outside of the LBP process restricting supply into professional contractors
that know what they're doing and how to do the

(45:07):
variety of systems that we offer. As another mechanism that
we applied back in two thousand and five to generate
great as surety for the installations of the products and
systems was an on site review process or technical review
process by one of our technical sales staff. Now that

(45:28):
involves a review at substrate. So once all the battens
and the flash and the clouding, the substrate's been installed,
we do a review at that stage, checking roof connections
and all sorts of things, and then at the final
review we go and doo a qa check on the
finished article of the project. And then following on from

(45:50):
that another seven years later we send reminders to the
clients to start considering general maintenance and repaints and checking
that they've been looking after and maintaining the property over
that sort of that period of time. So there's a
lot of fact that's involved in it that I think
one of the key things in terms of what you
started a conversation with is around checking the quality of

(46:12):
the quoting stage. At the moment, everyone's going for a
lot of quotes and checking things in terms of price
of the first dominant factor, but they should need to
check previous project history with clients or with contractors just
to say a look. And particularly with us, it's pretty visual.
You can see what's going on on the outside, so
you can do some drive buys and have a look
at the see if you've got some reference projects excuse

(46:34):
me to look at, and that gives that additional surety
because the expectation of visual you know, in terms of
what you expect to see, you know, not from I
mean we put up loads of projects on our social
media and through Instagram, Facebook to show the work across
the country and irrespective of whether you're in the Deep
South or in the far North, those types of that's

(46:59):
quality of work, in caliber of work you see should
be an expectation, you know, and I think that's what
people need to just have it. Just do some do
some additional little checks before they actually engage the contracts,
you know, because the old average peep there what you
pay for and it doesn't take much sometimes to make
an extra couple of phone calls or to do a

(47:20):
bit of a drive buy and have a look at
some project works and make your decisions from there as well.

Speaker 6 (47:25):
Yeah, brilliant advice and I mean impressive that you guys
have set out a lot, well quite some time ago
to go this is the pathway for us. And like
you say, we're not selling our product out the door.
It's got to go to a license applicators. We're going
to work with those people to ensure that our clients
get the very best outcome from their engagement with us.
Which is great to find out more folks check it

(47:47):
out online. Razineconstruction dot co dot NZ Mike, Happy Father's
Day to you and enjoy the golf day today year
with news talks, he'd be at a sixteen minutes after it's
fourteen minutes after seven. The lines are open. The number
to call eight hundred and eighty ten eighty is that
number to call. Number of texts about sort of planning
regulations and new builds and infrastructure and so on. I

(48:13):
made the comment about this development that I've been reading
about in the Herald online, about the Green Bay development
where eight new townhouses were being built in essentially a
residential suburb, single dwelling or single houses per section type
of subdivision, not terribly close to transport. And I made

(48:36):
the point that I think that if we're going to
do infrastructure increasing intensification, then we need to do it
where there is the potential to then use public transport.
And it's got to be easy, right, It's got to
be a couple of minutes walk. Not No one's going
to walk for fifteen minutes in the rain to catch
a bus that then has to take you to another
transport node in order to get to where you might

(48:56):
want to go. But a couple of texts new build
up the back. Don't joke. People don't use buses, they
go and park on the yellow line, speed up and
down the right of ways. Yeah, I think it's changing.
I think it is a mind shift thing. And we're
talking about ventilation as well. Ventilations critical in New Zealand's
cheap and simple. Not so sure about that. In Europe

(49:20):
they have for many years solved this issue due to
their environment, and as usual n zeters behind the world
and very slow to understand what is common sense. Thank
you very much for that text. If you've got an opinion,
eight hundred eighty eighty is the number to call. Doug.
Thanks for waiting. Good morning to you.

Speaker 7 (49:36):
Thanks.

Speaker 13 (49:36):
Yeah, yeah, I listen to this a lot. It's very
very interesting.

Speaker 6 (49:41):
Great of you to say, thank you.

Speaker 7 (49:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 13 (49:44):
So yeah, I do have the same issue about pungentation
and moisture and things. We've got an older home, so
heading towards the healthy homes, which we've done the policy
on the ground and underneath the floor and well to
carry on. And now we've stealed all the window. Obviously

(50:08):
it's a wooden joinery window, so it was bottle of
draft strips around windows, but it seems to be more
we're more we're selling the envelope, the more moisture we're
getting inside the property. Mm hmmm. So we've looked at
like we've got a heat pump, dehumidifier, that sort of
thing in the air. Now we're looking at maybe an

(50:30):
hr V, but to to keep the property warm the HRV,
now we've got concrete tolls on the roof with no
paper underneath for the envelope and the ceiling which will
be pumping and cold here. Yes, you know, like during

(50:53):
the night.

Speaker 6 (50:55):
I have to say I've never really relied on if
you look at it thermodynamics basically, and you go, what
does it take to transfer heat from one area to another?
And often doing so through almost zero thermal efficiency in

(51:19):
deducting that we use in many cases and so on.
It's never really stacked up for me. Right. So, while
there is a huge benefit to having a ventilation system
in the house the whole, unless there's it's a proper,
properly installed heat recovery system, which is different to you know,

(51:42):
drawing warm air from your roof space and distributing it around.
I think you've got to be You've got to do
quite a lot of reading about the claims and about
the effectiveness of the systems, saying that I think you're
onto something when you say, look, we've done some work
to ensure that we don't get gaps and drafts around

(52:02):
our windows. We've done as much installation as we possibly
can so as we make our living environment more and
more air tight. And I'm even hesitant to use that
word because you know, like within passive house design and
high performance buildings, that's something that you're aiming for and
you're measuring it right. You're getting an actual, specific number

(52:26):
that you can attach to your house that proves that
it's actually air tight. And unless you're doing like a
blower door test and those sorts of things, I don't
think you should, really any of us should make claims
around this building's airtight or moving towards air tightness without
actually being able to prove it. So but in general,
when you compare and I was talking about this with

(52:48):
someone the other day, actually Storm, who's going to join
us on the show in a couple of weeks time.
So nineteen sixties construction timber framing, elevated timber subfloor with
a concrete basement or concrete block wall as the foundation
with very little ventilation right, couple of small grills. Then
you've got timber framing, no insulation in the timber walls

(53:10):
because of the age, no building paper on the outside,
and then a cavity and then brickwork, so there's a
lot of air flowing through that environment right through those.
And then you've got a concrete tile roof which is
probably sixty odd years old. So it means that all
of the glaze has gone off there, and I suspect

(53:30):
that every time it rains that roof is going to
absorb moisture because it's not just sheeting off, right, So
you go, that's my environment. Now what can I do
without completely rebuilding the building? What can I do to
change the indoor environment so that I've got less issue
with mold? In that instance, you're kind of fighting a

(53:51):
bit of a losing battle because there's so many other
things that are wrong with the building that it's hard.
You know, we're seeing the end result being the mold
inside the house, but the reason for the mold is
probably just the type of building that it is. But
in your situation, if you've added insulation, if you've sorted
out draft proofing. You've obviously got a fixed form of

(54:13):
heating inside the house with the heat pump. You've added
the dehumidifier, which will help to extract moisture from the air,
but it does nothing about why that moisture is in
the air. So you're you're you're responding to a problem
without solving the problem because the dehumidifier, I guess solves

(54:34):
the symptom, but it doesn't solve the problem.

Speaker 14 (54:37):
So that's part of the heat pump, you know, it's
a three and one. Oh yeah, But then but then
if yeah, people don't use the dehumidifier, and if they
don't open windows to have circulation to dry the inside out, Yeah,
that's where the issue is, isn't it.

Speaker 13 (54:57):
But then you know, with things like low during the
day to dry out.

Speaker 6 (55:00):
Yeah, and look, I'm a huge fan and of you know,
those really simple things like if it's a good day,
like even yesterday, right, the weather got up to despite
the rain that we had in Auckland, the temperature got
up to a reasonable amount in the afternoon, so we
open up the doors and just let the house breathe.

(55:20):
But then you also, at a certain point you need
to be aware and you go, actually, it's cooling down outside.
So my house is warmed up a little bit during
the day. I've ventilated it a little bit. I've got
some fresh air into it, which is great. But now
as I noticed that, I was walking past the window
that was open, and suddenly it's a bit cooler. Okay,
now's the time to close the window. Trap some of

(55:43):
that heat that we've gained, because that's a benefit to
me because then I don't have to put the heating
on till later in the day or later at night.
But if you're not actively engaged with controlling your environment
by opening doors and windows, closing blinds and all those
sorts of things, then it's not unreasonable to go, let's
have a system that helps us control that environce and

(56:06):
that's where ventilation systems, whether it's positive pressure, balance pressure,
heat recovery ones. You know, we're starting to talk more
and more about them, which I think is really really good,
and there are some examples of like really good systems
that are out there that will change the quality of
the indoor environment considerably. But let's not delude ourselves. These

(56:31):
systems at this stage are also quite expensive.

Speaker 13 (56:35):
Yeah, that's that's the thing. You know, it's everything you're doing,
it's it's all cost it is. But then if people
don't use that system, then you know, it's like a
heat pump for instance, you know, like running the heat
pump because of the cost of it. That's a thing.
But it's just the basic things of opening a window

(56:56):
or like you say, drapes and things when the sun
does go down to keep that warming.

Speaker 6 (57:04):
That's right, yep. But these these things require they require
a certain level of awareness right on the part of
the occupant of the property, whether that's the owner of
a property or a tenant living in a rented property.
So it requires us to be informed right to know
how to operate, you know, in the same way that

(57:25):
I was going to say, we you know, you might
read the ownership manual of a car. I don't think
any of us ever do. But you know, houses do
have a manual. Ideally this this is these are the
things that you should be doing inside your house to
create a really good environment. But I don't know that
we're teaching that that much.

Speaker 13 (57:45):
So do we need to look at a different system?

Speaker 6 (57:47):
Do we look I think take the time again, I
pointed out to Eric before the news, you know, like
I've been reading well, because I'm an LVP, I get
the brand's magazine, the build magazine, and you know, typically
they arrive in the little box and you kind of
it to one side, but I make the effort now

(58:09):
to go when it arrives that I actually flick through
and read some of the articles, and they're really topical
and current. You can find articles from brands online as well,
so just do a search one day when you've got
an hour to spend and go through and read some
of the brand's articles. There's other groups like the Healthy
Home Movement. They're starting to write a lot about ventilation.

(58:32):
My understanding is there's actually going to be like an
industry lead lobby group that's being formed as well to
talk about ventilation and just kind of wrap your head
around the different concepts in terms of, you know, what's
a negative PreCure system, what's a balanced pressure system, what's
a positive pressure system, how do they all work, and
what's going to work best for me? Because I think

(58:54):
our housing stock is quite variable. You know, I'm in
an old villa, so I've got lots of drafts in
my house because that's just the nature of them. My
solution is probably going to be a little bit different
to perhaps a solution if I was in a relatively
new build where I've got timber framing, I've got building wrap,

(59:15):
i might have aluminium jewinery which is well sealed. I've
got air seals around the windows. I've sealed all the
penetrations for the different services. I might have roofing underlay,
et cetera, et cetera. It's well insulated. I'm going to
need a slightly different system than it for what I
need for an older house.

Speaker 13 (59:33):
Mm hmm. You know this particular property exit that's got
both that's got wooden jewinry and wooden sashism and plus
the aluminium jewinery and they both, Yeah, the performance is
exactly the same because it's not double glazed to see.
So it's the other issue.

Speaker 3 (59:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 13 (59:55):
And then also the ceiling. We've got the ceiling with
the overlay, you know it's got that's been topped up. Yes,
But then we had a contractor in the you know,
trying to find stuff underneath that.

Speaker 7 (01:00:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 13 (01:00:10):
I like, yeah, yeah, so Sack, you can't find anything.
You know.

Speaker 6 (01:00:17):
The other thing to look at, Doug, is that some
councils around the country. Hopefully all of the territorial authorities
offer a Eco Design Advisor service, and I think the
initial consultation is free, so have a look for that.

(01:00:37):
In fact, I'm aware that their conference is coming up
soon for the Eco Design Advisors. So you know, it's
about trying to get impartial, informed advice about these issues.
So you know, you've you've obviously decided that you want
to try and figure out what's going to work best
for your house, which is awesome, and now it's a
question of okay, well where can I go to find

(01:00:59):
ideally independent advice, So check it out online, have a
look at whether your local council offers this Eco Design
Advisors advice. All that's good, all of this, enjoyed the reading,
Take care, Thanks horrible all this your news talks, they'd
be we'd take a short break. We'll be back with
Terry in a moment. If you'd like to join us.

(01:01:19):
Eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the number to call
your news talks. He'd be talking all things building and construction.
Eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the number. Hello, Terry,
how are you?

Speaker 12 (01:01:35):
Terry?

Speaker 9 (01:01:35):
Love you here?

Speaker 6 (01:01:37):
Can you hear me now I can indeed, Yeah.

Speaker 15 (01:01:40):
I love you, Shan, try and catch you in a
rude every morning every Sunday we just call earliest. I've
had a HIV put in my roof recently on the
same situation as him sixties here spriptile roof and I'm
surprised in no installation and no building paper in the roof,

(01:02:02):
But I was surprised to find out how much heapy
was in the which comes through and pushed down, as
it was quite good just for that for him to
give them the feedback that helps his decision or whatever.

Speaker 6 (01:02:17):
Again, you know, I mean I know that, you know,
like I've got thermostats inside the house, so I can
measure temperature inside the house and the hallway and temperature
inside the roof space. And you know, during summer there
can be a considerable variation between that, right as in
my roof space it's a corrigodrone roof, it's you know,

(01:02:41):
it would probably get close to forty degrees up there,
and so you know the idea of capturing that and
pushing it down, it's that what that variation in temperature
is and what expectation you might have of how much
that would raise the temperature inside the house, whereas I
think the greater benefit is not really around heat gain,

(01:03:05):
it's all about warming the house. It's probably, in my mind,
more about the actual ventilation. And then there's there's systems
now which will draw air from outside, pass it through
a heat exchanger and then push that into dry areas
of the house and extract from damp areas or wet

(01:03:27):
areas of the house. They're also quite good systems, so
that's a sort of balanced pressure type system. But look,
I think the fact that we're starting to talk about them,
I think that it should be something that should probably
be included in updates to the New Zealand Building Code.
That again, if we look at how we're building today,

(01:03:50):
while we're not we're aiming for houses that are less drafty,
we're still a long way from being air tight. You know.
It is having an impact, all of the changes to
the building code and how we build today versus how
we even built thirty years ago, having a massive difference
in terms of the indoor environment that we're able to create.

(01:04:11):
But I think we need to focus a bit more
on ventilation now.

Speaker 15 (01:04:16):
Yeah, you get to see something like that, I've been
hanging around for quite a while before I made this decision,
and I just couldn't find anything really that would do
what I wanted.

Speaker 6 (01:04:26):
So how long have you installed the system?

Speaker 15 (01:04:31):
A couple of months so we hadn't seen the coldest
all the winter, but even in the bedrooms sometimes at
night the grandson would say, it's cold, and your grandad,
but it just gets that condensation down. But you can, yep,
it's like that. You can screw those vents closed a
bit more of it was like that or something that's
just on the see how west corner and that you

(01:04:54):
get the condensation on the windows and running downd the
walls where we're not getting that as much now. So
we're not getting that now. So that was a positive.

Speaker 6 (01:05:01):
Yeah, absolutely, And I mean that's that's where it's kind
of exciting when you make a change like this, right,
and then you see a positive outcome. So if you're
in a house where you know, persistently during winter you're
either you know, drying the windows off because of the condensation,
or you're constantly battling mold growth on walls and that

(01:05:23):
sort of thing, or you put your shoes away and
then you take them out in summertime and they're covered
in sort of a furry green moss, you know, and
I've seen that in wardrobes and so on. You know,
if suddenly your house isn't doing that, it's those are
it's it's the classic canary and a coal mine, right.
They those are signs that there's something within your lived

(01:05:44):
environment that's not working, and if you can solve those problems,
that's a huge win. Yeah, so good on you.

Speaker 12 (01:05:53):
It sounds exciting just some of the people just when
you get a good day, but I leave your wardrope
war open because they leave them closed and love and
they get snow and through there.

Speaker 6 (01:06:06):
That's right. It's that fascinating combination, combination and intersection between
what's really simple and what's really complex. And often, you know,
what seems like really complex issues can be dealt with
quite simply. And so you know, it sounds so incredibly

(01:06:28):
it's kind of the classic teaching grandmother that to suck
eggs sort of comment. But yeah, if it's a good day,
open your doors and windows, leat your house, breathe. There's
nothing wrong with that.

Speaker 16 (01:06:39):
Yeah, yeah, that's great.

Speaker 6 (01:06:40):
Talking about your terry all the very best take mate, Then,
now I'd better take a break. I think eight hundred
eighty ten eighty is the number to call if you've
got a question of a building nature call us right now,
eight hundred eighty ten eighty you and new Talks. There'd
be Pete wolf Camp with you talking all things building construction.

(01:07:01):
Quick text before we talk to Kate. Pete, you've just
made my mind up. We were debating whether to rec
condition a nineteen fifties concrete tile roof. Will replace it
after your comment's about the glazing coming off the tiles.
Ours look like the surface of a cinder block and
we do battle mold in the house when reroofing with
color steel. Should the roof replace the valleys as well

(01:07:22):
as they would be about seventy years old, and also
ze point five to five thickness the heavy or a
lighter gauge. Thanks very much, Nick, couple of things on that,
Please don't mistrew my comment. My comment about the concrete
tile roof was the fact that this particular one, it's
the original roof from I think nineteen sixty seven something
like that. So yeah, the glaze that's often on concrete

(01:07:45):
tiles has i would say, almost completely worn off. So
I'm thinking that, you know, if the concrete, if it's
a sunny day, the concrete will dry out as soon
as it rains, A certain amount of that moisture will
not shed off the concrete tiles will be absorbed into
the concrete. That's obviously going to have an impact on
the overall internal environment of that that structure, because there's

(01:08:07):
all that moisture being trapped there. So reglazing or repainting
that roof would also solve that problem. If, however, you
do want to go ahead and replace your existing concrete
tile roof with a color steel roof for a long
run iron roof, then go right ahead. I'd have to
point out too that that typically requires a building consent,

(01:08:31):
so you know, in terms of schedule one of the
act it's about like forul like and a concrete tile
roof is not the same as a lightweight roof, like
an iron roof. And again initially when you think about that,
you go, yeah, but it's lighter, so it's going to
be less impact and it has less impact on the
weight of the building, the bracing elements and that sort

(01:08:52):
of thing, which is true, except that what you do
need to account for with installing an iron roof as
opposed to a concrete roof is uplift. So typically you
want to make sure that your perlins will need to
be replaced because the batons that you've got for the
concrete tile won't work for fixing roofing iron two, so

(01:09:12):
you'll need to repurl in it. They need to be
fixed to the rafters in such a way as to
prevent uplift, and ideally it's an opportunity to go through
and refix all of the rafters or trusses down to
the top plate also to prevent uplift. And those sorts
of things are structural, so they'll trigger a requirement for
a building consent should be a relatively straightforward process, but

(01:09:35):
it does, in my opinion, trigger the requirement. And point
five to five is the heavier gauge. So there's point
four to five and point five to five, and I look,
point four to five is absolutely fine. Typically I've gone
for point five five because if somebody has to go
on the roof later on and they're a bit of
a muppet and they don't know where to stand, then

(01:09:57):
there's a little less likelihood of them damaging the roofing.
If they don't know what they're doing. Oh eight hundred
and eighty. They shouldn't be u there if they don't
know what they're doing. But hey, I've been on plenty
of roofs where there's a lot of damage from contractors
who have stomped around installing TV aeriels and vents and
sky dishes and all the rest of it. So yeah,

(01:10:19):
there are ways of moving around the roof without damaging it,
but not everybody seems to know that. Oh eight one
hundred and eighty, ten eighty is the number to call.
Kate A very good morning.

Speaker 17 (01:10:28):
Morning, Pete, good morning, great be able to seek your
advice yet again, your s You've been helping me countless times.
I'm building a seventy three square meter dwelling in Browns Bay.
It's north facing and west facing, and I think this
is on topic because my electrician, we've just got the
joists and bearers in frames are going up when the

(01:10:50):
sub floor goes down next week, so we're on the way. Awesome,
But electrician, yes it is. Electrician has advised considering heat
transfer system. Now this has the front of the house
with raged ceilings. It's to about sixteen degrees. I think
the rear of the hoe has flat ceilings. I've got
a gas fire in the front, and I might add
a heat pump, and it's one big living area. And

(01:11:12):
then I've got these two little bedrooms that I'm thinking,
how am I going to heat them? And am I
better just to put a panel heater in there? Or
someone is this electrician suggests a heat transfer a system,
but it doesn't have a big cavity in the ceiling
because it's rap so I'd have to I assume pipe
this and then and then put it through the wall

(01:11:37):
into the room or does it go down loads is
a wall cavity and I've got I've got noise bats
through the wall, so it's well insulated.

Speaker 7 (01:11:46):
I think.

Speaker 17 (01:11:48):
ABC join.

Speaker 6 (01:11:49):
That's It's a fascinating question. I some of the heat
transfer systems I'm I'm dubious about in the sense that,
you know, one of the things that I've started come
to real and the reading that I've been doing recently
is air is a really good insulator, right, so air

(01:12:12):
is a great way of stopping heat transfer, and yet
we're talking about using air to transfer heat, which it
doesn't want to do because it's really bad at doing it,
and I'm being quite blunt here, so I think with
a building like what you're building, you now have the

(01:12:35):
perfect opportunity to do a really good job with the
timber framing, a wrap around the outside, installing quality joinery,
effective double glazing, air ceiling around the window, putting good
insulation in the underfloor, putting good insulation into the ceiling.
I don't know that heating is going to be a

(01:12:58):
big issue in your dwelling. If you've got a fixed
form of heating with a gas fire, as long as
it's properly ventilated and doesn't cause moisture to build up
inside there as a result of burning gas, then I
think that you're your bigger concern for that type of
building built to modern standard is probably going to be

(01:13:20):
around overheating, depending on whether you've got eaves that shade
some of the summer heat or whether you've got I
would be focusing on ventilation, and I think for a
small bedroom that might be on the south side of
the house, double glazed, well insulated, well constructed a small
panel heater just to raise the temperature there in the

(01:13:42):
winter months for a relatively short period of time, give
it and being this is very specific advice to your property, because,
as you said, you're in Auckland, it's a new build,
it's relatively compact. I think that ventilation, having a some
form of ventilation that draws fresh air into or pushes

(01:14:05):
fresh air into your living spaces and extracts moist air
from where your kitchen, laundry and bathroom might be and
ducts that to the outside. That's what I'd be focusing on.

Speaker 17 (01:14:17):
So you're speaking of basic extractor fans for.

Speaker 6 (01:14:20):
Year or possibly having a linked system, so a system
that that So ideally what we're trying to do is
create an airflow inside the house that pushes fresh, dry
air or air from outside that might be filtered or
cleansed in some way into your habitable spaces, right what

(01:14:41):
we might call our dry areas. And then as that
comes into the building, it then puts pressure on the
wet areas. So imagine air flowing into your living room,
possibly into your main bedroom and so on. And then
at the same time you've got active extraction happening all
of the time in those areas that typically we have

(01:15:02):
more moisture in, so bathrooms, laundryes, kitchens, so as air
is being drawn into the house into the dry areas,
it's being extracted out of those wet areas, and so
you've got this obviously invisible, constant movement of air that
is drawing in fresh air and extracting moist air out

(01:15:24):
of the building all of the time.

Speaker 17 (01:15:26):
That's the sort of system. Is that an HRV or
DVS type system.

Speaker 15 (01:15:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:15:32):
Look, you know, with the growst respect to them, they've
they've kind of come to dominate the market. There are
other systems by other manufacturers that are out there as well,
and there is some subtlety around how all of these
systems work. Not all of them have that combination of
air in and air out. Air into a dry space,

(01:15:55):
air out of a damp space. So you do do
some reading around it. And you know, again I think
your electricians onto something in terms of saying put some
ventilation in. Again, I don't know that you're going to
get massive benefit out of heat recovery or heat transfer.
This notion that we're going to take warm air from
one part of a house and duct it to another

(01:16:18):
part of a house. You'll get airflow, which is a benefit.
Whether you get actual heating out of that, I don't know.
So the benefit for me would be the airflow. And
you can deal in Auckland with a well inserted building
with the heating quite simply by other means.

Speaker 17 (01:16:34):
Yeah, thank you. So if I decide later on I
want to put a heat pump in, that can just
be retrospectively installed. It doesn't have to go in.

Speaker 6 (01:16:41):
You could. But at the same time, I mean, if
you're thinking about a heat pump and you know there's
some real advantages to having one. For example, I think
in particular again with Auckland's climate, a heat pump will
be a benefit and asset to you in terms of
cooling right over the summer months when we do get

(01:17:02):
those days where the humidity gets up and it becomes
kind of uncomfortable. So and again, because you've got to
do penetrations and services, if you're thinking about doing one
in the future, it's going to be far cheaper to
do one now, okay if you can. I know budget
is always important, but you know, given that you've got

(01:17:24):
to run electrical cable, you've got to run ducting, you've
got to run services to the outside condensate pipes and
so on, it's far easier to do it as you're constructing.

Speaker 7 (01:17:33):
So oh that's good.

Speaker 6 (01:17:35):
Yeah, it's a false to be blunt. It's a false
economy to think I'll do it later on. It will
never be cheaper than doing it right now while you're building.

Speaker 17 (01:17:45):
Yeah, good, good advice. Can I add in one more
question point about noise? So next door there's another dwelling
and I've got people living next door who're very noisy
with a car, and it's single blazing where that dwelling is.
Is there anything I can do besides retrofits some double
glazing to stop this noisy car coming into a bedroom

(01:18:05):
at night. I just don't know what to do about it.

Speaker 6 (01:18:08):
This is obviously not in the new seventy three square.

Speaker 17 (01:18:11):
At a new build the same section.

Speaker 6 (01:18:13):
Just you know, you can get more acoustically effective glazing,
so whether that's double glazing or simply going for a laminate,
So you'll get acoustic performance out of a laminate as well,
so glass then a laminated layer and then another layer
of glass. Certainly you can get acoustic performance out of

(01:18:34):
double glazing as well, So there's two options there really.
But then you know, as soon as you stop the
sound traveling through the glazing, it'll find somewhere else to go,
so it'll migrate through the walls, it'll go and gaps
and cracks around the window, joinery, et cetera, et cetera.
The other mitigating factor is sometimes actually planting can be
reasonably well, can do something to sort of baffle noise

(01:18:58):
from a neighbor, but ideally you'd want to. Ideally you'd
be pulling wall lining off, putting in a houstic insulation
into the walls, sealing all the gaps and cracks around
the joinery, and uplade, upgrading the glazing and that will
help as well. But planting is surprisingly effective as well.

Speaker 17 (01:19:19):
It's a parking area, so it can't but thank.

Speaker 6 (01:19:23):
You, right, yeah, but even if you've got like half
a meter or so and you were to do you know,
some planting in there, that would Okay, it's not unattractive either.
Enjoy the process and thank you. I know that building
can be stressful and all the rest of it, but
at the same time, enjoy it. I'm sure it will

(01:19:43):
be a great process.

Speaker 17 (01:19:45):
I have a great team and that's the key.

Speaker 3 (01:19:48):
That's the key.

Speaker 6 (01:19:49):
Fabulous, I'm sure.

Speaker 17 (01:19:52):
Pleasure your father's day.

Speaker 6 (01:19:55):
Thank you very much, Kate, and thank you all the
this bye by thing. We'll take short break back in
a moment quick text before the news, Pete, can you
advise do I need a council consent to remove garage
store and fit a ranch slider from D I suspect so,
because I suspect that what you're doing is change of use.
I that's going to become instead of a garage, a

(01:20:16):
habitable space. And if that is the case, then yes,
that triggers a requirement for a change of use. So
check that out with your local council. A couple more
texts will come to those straight after the break. Lots
of discussion around heat pumps and ventilation, so we'll carry
on with that and remember rid cliin past in with
us at eight thirty your news talk CB, Welcome back

(01:20:42):
to the program. Oh eight hundred and eighty ten eighty
is the number to call pet Wolf camp here right
through till nine o'clock. We can jump into the garden
with arid Cline pass at around eight point thirty. We
may even bring that forward because we got a bit
to talk about today. So last week on the program,

(01:21:03):
over the last little while, we've talked about this population
of barn owls right, which has become native to Northland
and migrating their way south, which is caused a great
deal of excitement and our household for some reason, and
ages ago, I said to look, do you have a
plan for an owl box, as in somewhere for them
to call home? And he did. He sent me through

(01:21:25):
some plans. I've mentioned it a couple of times, never
got round to actually making one, and I promised on
the show last week that I would make one this week,
which I've done, and in fact I ended up making
two because he sent me two different drawings, one for
a Dutch design which is elongated and rather spacious, and
another one for an English design which is slightly more compact,

(01:21:47):
but interestingly enough two storied. So I've got a single
level dwelling and a multi story dwelling, and I have
one with a door and one with a detachable roof,
one with a tunnel, and one with offset entries, because
it's all about apparently making sure that the environment is
dark and cozy for them. Two ways to achieve that.

(01:22:07):
One way is having these two entries that are offset
so that the light can't shine through. The other is
to create a tunnel. Anyway, I've built both of them
and spilt some blood in the process, but that's another
story anyway. So we're going to talk about those, and
if you're interested to see one of them, it's up
on my Facebook page. I will put up a slightly
more detailed post about that a little bit later on

(01:22:29):
today as well, So we will be talking about that
with it. But if you'd like to build something that
humans can live in and you'd like to talk about that,
then the lines are open right now. Oh, eight hundred
and eighty ten eighty. A lot of talk this morning
about ventilation, about heat pumps, about heat recovery system about
heat transfer systems, and trying to suppose upgrade the code

(01:22:53):
to allow for this. It's not required in the code
bar the requirement to ventilate, which is having a window
that opens, a window that can open or the opening
size must be five percent of the floor space. But
there's a problem with that as well. So typically if
you've got a room and it's let's say it's a

(01:23:15):
ten square meter room, then you have to have a
window that opens once that half a met half a
square meter opening. But then you find that that opening
size is calculated on the window opening completely, but if
you can fall further than a meter in the threshold
is less than seven sixty you have to have a
restrict stay. So you have a window that technically complies

(01:23:37):
with the ventilation standards, but because you can't open the
window completely, in fact your ventilation area is considerably less,
so it doesn't It then doesn't comply, but it does
comply with other parts of the building Code. There is
some overlap there which is not helpful. But apart from
extraction from laundries, kitchens, bathrooms, no, you don't even need

(01:24:01):
extraction from a laundry necessarily, but you do need ventilation.
There's no other record for ventilation. We're talking about houses
that are increasingly as we build better moving towards air tightness,
and so the requirement to bring in fresh air and
control moisture inside the building. I think it's more and

(01:24:21):
more critical. Hence ventilation systems, active ventilation systems that can
be installed. We've had lots of discussion about that, and
a bit about planning as well. It's always a bit
of a contentious issue. A couple of people of text
and we were talking about a story that was in
The Herald earlier this week. Written by Bernard Oorsman about
a homeowner in Green Bay who was shocked, surprised, and

(01:24:45):
upset that council had allowed for a development occurring across
the road to then drill underneath the road down their driveway,
install a new manhole to provide access to the wastebaterlone
which happened to be pretty much right outside their front door.

(01:25:06):
No contact and certainly no permission requested or given by
the homeowner for this to happen, And all of this
requirement for additional stormwater connection came from the fact that
a single dwelling across the road on a corner site
had been removed and councilord granted permission for eight townhouses
to go on an eight hundred and twelve square meter

(01:25:29):
site in a effectively a suburban street. You may have
a comment on that as well. Oh eight hundred eighty
ten eighty is the number to call a couple of
quick texts on this morning peak question for you, as
we want to do both. If you had to decide
which to do first, between a heat pump and a
home ventilation system, which one would you do first? From

(01:25:52):
grant grant, I would not answer that without asking a
whole bunch of other questions, things like you know, what's
your house constructed of and whereabouts are you So if
it's an older house that's got, like my old house,
very little in the way of draft proofing, and I've

(01:26:14):
tried to insulate and so on, but it's still a
drafty kind of house, then I would be looking at
a different type of ventilation system and maybe a different
type of heating system. So I think it's really about
having someone do an assessment of your house. It's construction,
it's methodology, it's standards in terms of either air tightness

(01:26:37):
or insulation or location is another big thing. If you're
in the South Island and it's really cold, versus if
you're in the far North where perhaps like Auckland, for example,
So much of our focus has been on making our
houses warmer, which is good. Our houses need to be
at a temperature that allows us to be healthy. But

(01:26:58):
for example, in Auckland, we have more cooling days than
we do have heating days. In general, if what we're
looking for is an optimum of let's say twenty degrees,
that's an optimum temperature for our houses to be. Typically
in Auckland, we have more days where we need to
cool our houses to achieve twenty degrees than we do

(01:27:20):
have days where we need to heat our houses in
order to achieve twenty degrees. So if you're in Auckland,
the focus is probably going to be on heat control
and potentially cooling for comfort rather than necessarily heating. Now
that flips over, of course if you're in parts of
the South Island or Central North Island and so on.

(01:27:42):
That's why we've got these very specific climatic zones as
part of the building code now, so all of these
questions have got to be responsive to the actual environment.
I eight hundred eighty ten eighty gives called out. We're
talking to it at around eight thirty, but we've got
time for your building questions right now. I eight hundred

(01:28:03):
eighty ten eighty something use forgot to mention or I'm
late to the party in terms of this is a
tool issue. So for a number of years now, I've
watched tradees arrive and unpack their track saws to do
all sorts of work, whether it's cutting sheets or bench
tops or that sort of thing, and I've kind of

(01:28:25):
to be blunt, I've kind of poop pooed it a
little bit, you know, as in, look, i've got a
straight edge, I can clamp it down, i can run
the skill saw along, I've got a table saw. Or
basically you should just be better at what you do
and be able to cut a straight line. And then
a little while ago, the guys that dropped me off
their track saw, which is fairly new for them. And

(01:28:46):
so these little ol boxes that I've been building, which
you will not be surprised, I'm delighted to the fact
that I didn't have to spend a cent building them
because I had off cuts of plywood and stuff like
that made the whole thing using track saw. All of
the angles, all of the cuts, everything for these little
olboxes all done with a track and I kind of go,

(01:29:09):
why didn't I get onto this earlier? So if you're wondering, yes,
they are actually incredibly useful and I've really really enjoyed
using it, which has been a bit of an earth
shift moment for me. I have to say, right, oh,
eight hundred and eighty ten eighty is the number to
call Veronica.

Speaker 18 (01:29:25):
Greetings, good morning, Pete. How are you heaven by this day?

Speaker 6 (01:29:29):
Thank you very much God.

Speaker 18 (01:29:31):
I have a question because you're talking about our ventilation.
We've got an a frame house, yes, that has no
roof cavity, so it's right down to the ground as
an a frame, and we're giving condensation insight, and we
literally don't know what to do anymore because nobody seems
to be able to help us in terms of a
ventilation system or some ideas, and just wondering if you

(01:29:54):
can help.

Speaker 6 (01:29:55):
Yeah, I mean, look, I can see why it's slightly
more challenging because typically what we do is we you know,
and houses. We've got a trust roof. It gives us
a great big triangle of space and we put all
of our ventilation systems in there. And you don't have
that opportunity saying that, There are in wall ventilation systems
that you can get, and there are some systems which

(01:30:16):
are connected. So for example, at either end of the
building where you've got your walls, you could add an
integrated system there that talks to each other, so it
monitors airflow and humidity and changes air coming in and
going out, so air exchanges in a linked and controllable

(01:30:40):
manner through those walls at either end of the building.
Potentially you could in fact install ventilation through the roof effectively,
which is your walls as well of a system there.
The other thing is, so airflow is part of controlling condensation.
The other thing is I guess it'll also come down

(01:31:01):
to because I'm guessing with an a frame house, you
basically got windows at both ends, a lot on the
roof section.

Speaker 18 (01:31:09):
Yes, because the roof goes right down to the ground.

Speaker 6 (01:31:12):
So do you have any any penetration through that, dormers
or anything like that.

Speaker 18 (01:31:22):
We've got windows. We've got a window in the kitchen,
so the kitchen sort of in the middle. We have
windows at the two bedrooms on the side, in the
bathroom at the back, and then we've got a big
runch larder at the front, and that is where most
of the condensation lies. And we've got big windows up
above it that have got no curtains or anything like that,

(01:31:45):
and they're really hype. They can't reach them. I think
someone measured to the top of about eight and a half.
It's a huge space.

Speaker 6 (01:31:56):
Yeah, I mean, look, one of the things obviously would
be to look at double glazing. That if it's single glazed,
you're going to get more likelihood of having condensation because
the due point will end up on the inside of
the glass and that that's where you're getting a condensation.
Even if you put double glazing in, which would help,

(01:32:16):
then you'd also want to look at ventilation. You'd want
to look at temperature control inside the house. Again. You know,
I wonder whether in this instance here where you're trying,
you're looking at sort of an integrated system of fairly
complex issues, right and you're trying to find a pathway
through that is have a look at the eco design
service that counsels offer. And the other option is to

(01:32:39):
look at the New Zealand Green Building Council have home
Star technicians or home Star assesses as well, again who
are kind of experts in this field, and you could
invite one of them to come and do an assessment
of your property and give you some independent advice. Okay,
all right, so check out those when.

Speaker 18 (01:33:01):
You asked, when you're saying about the double glazing, is
double blazing triple glazing? Is there any advantage or I think.

Speaker 6 (01:33:10):
In the most instances you can achieve the performance with
double glazing like low eglass and argon filled glass and
that sort of thing that you would get in most
instances that you know, like triple glazing obviously sounds better,
but you can achieve almost all of it with double
glazing in most situations. So I presume you're not in

(01:33:31):
the south lower part of the South Island or the
central North Island.

Speaker 18 (01:33:34):
No, no bere on White Island.

Speaker 6 (01:33:36):
So yeah, but it's you know, relatively benign climate, right,
that's why you guys live on why Heck, because it's
it's always a degree and a half warmer than Auckland,
for example. So no, look, I think having a look
at double glazing. But you know, I know Auckland Council
do have an Eco Design advisor, and certainly there's plenty
of home Star rated assesses in Auckland as well that

(01:34:00):
you could call on. So much my pleasure, take care
and Michael, greetings to you. Hey Michael, Hello, Michael, Michael
Earth calling Michael. He wandered off me thinks hello, someone's
listening to the radio going come on, you rang this

(01:34:22):
guy up and now you've wandered off. We might come
back to that in just a moment. Oh eight hundred
and eighty ten eighty is that number to call? Someone's
asked me my opinion on solar systems. Look, I think
there's a huge benefit to going solar in terms of
resilience if the grid does go down, and I mean, look,
we're in an energy crisis right at the moment, so

(01:34:42):
if you can provide your own power, there's got to
be an advantage. And I think what's shifted for me
most dramatically with solar, because it's something I've kind of
been aware of obviously for a number of years, is
around the reliability. So I think it's not untrue to
say that, let's say fifteen twenty years ago, you'd install

(01:35:03):
a solar system, you'd have the upfront col with the
idea that there would be a payback, so after a
period of time, the savings on your power bill would
have paid for the install cost of the solar system.
And to be blunt, typically that was take seven or
eight years of savings to pay back for the system.
But by that time the system was at the end

(01:35:25):
of its lifespan. So there's no advantage really to doing that,
whereas now, and I know life for solar for example,
you know they're doing a twenty five year warranty on
the panels. That's remarkable, and I know from having been
involved with the installation of other systems, and that one
and also that one that you know, the effectiveness is
far greater as well. So yeah, I think it's something

(01:35:48):
to seriously seriously consider. Eight hundred and eighty ten eighty
the number to caour. We'll try Michael one more time. Hello, Michael, Hello,
Hello there gotcha.

Speaker 3 (01:35:58):
Hello.

Speaker 7 (01:35:59):
I want to say Happy Father's Day from your son, Joseph.

Speaker 6 (01:36:06):
Fantastic. All right, very clever, very clever. Thank you mate.
It's a pleasure. All right, I'll see soon. All right,
take care. Right, we're going to be talking to Rid
climb past and just a moment, if you've got a
question for Ridd. If we're going to jump into the garden,
we're going to talk all things gardening. He's been busy

(01:36:27):
in the garden. I've been busy in the workshop. We'll
talk to Rudd in just a moment. Oh, eight hundred
eighty ten eighty. If you'd like to join us, it
is eight twenty five your news talks, they'd be and
we're just standing by to jump into the garden with
the red climb pass to be with us in just
a moment. If you've got a question for Ridd eight

(01:36:49):
hundred eighty ten eighty is the number to call. One
of the things we will talk about is this whole
thing around the the L boxes. So there was a
request actually came from my own house to build one
of these in order to entice perhaps an OL to

(01:37:10):
come and live at our place for a while, which
would be awesome in any way, I went to the expert,
which was Rude, and said, hey, can you send me
some plans? Which he did. I think he'd forgotten, to
be fair, that he sent me two different plans. Of course,
I've built two different OL boxes and put up a
little video of one of them, and I'll put up
a little bit of an explanation about the two different

(01:37:31):
OL boxes a little bit later on. So we'll try
and get that sorted out. But if you've got a
question for Rud, the lines are open and the number
to call is eight hundred and eighty ten eighty. Just
going to check in with a team that we've got Rude.
Not yet, I can't hear.

Speaker 7 (01:37:51):
Right.

Speaker 6 (01:37:51):
We'll come back to that in just a moment. A
couple of other quick texts that have come in just
before the break. I've talked about the soul before this
from a sparky who was talking about installing, you know,
like heat transferred systems. Before installing a heat transfer system
asks a supply to show evidence of the temperature and
the roof because of the construction type, there was no

(01:38:15):
heat in my roof space, so they ended up declining.
That's not to say there's not a benefit to putting
ventilation in, which I think is really really important. And
other text comes through, Hey, look, I've got a late
nineteen eighties house with a concrete tile roof. There's no
building paper or no roofing underlay underneath the roof. Is
that normal? Is that okay? From Blair? Yep, that's still

(01:38:35):
the case today in terms of the building coat. So
if it's concrete tile roof with a pitch I think
of greater than fifteen degrees, there is no requirement to
put a roofing underlay underneath the concrete tile roof, mainly
because there's not the same issues with condensation as you
might have from a metal roof. If it's less than
fifteen degrees, I believe there is a requirement to have

(01:38:58):
a roofing underlay there. So hopefully that answers that one.
And this is the classic response every time, and this
has been the case for as long as I've been
doing the show. Soon as we talk about, you know,
making our houses warmer, more comfortable, dryer, et cetera, you know,
I get a text that runs along the lines of, oh,

(01:39:19):
come on, you know it was all right back in
the day. Yeah, Well, all of the evidence would point
that that's not the case. Actually, and some of the
longitudinal studies, particularly out of the University of Targo's medical
team who've done longitudinal studies on the health impact of
living in poor damp conditions is massive. So our houses

(01:39:43):
weren't great and they should be much better. Oh, eight
hundred and eighty ten eighty, If you've got a question
for it, I think we've got rid up on the line.

Speaker 3 (01:39:49):
Hey, get he, get he? Get making it? How's that?

Speaker 7 (01:39:54):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (01:39:54):
Hey, love, your love, your love. Your photos. I must
say they're great.

Speaker 6 (01:39:58):
So let's indulge ourselves for a minute, because I did
promise that i'd make one, and I have made it.
But in fact I didn't make too because you sent
me two different plans, right.

Speaker 3 (01:40:07):
So I think I sent you three.

Speaker 6 (01:40:08):
Oh okay, all right, well that means I'm going to
make another one, which is fine, fair, I've had a.

Speaker 3 (01:40:13):
Great especially if you want barn owls.

Speaker 6 (01:40:16):
Yes, I do want barn owls specifically. What have I
now built blood boxes that are not for barn ols?

Speaker 3 (01:40:22):
You built two boxes? Said no, no, the two boxes.
One one is for the one that has got the
offset instances is something that was designed for little owls,
which had the German owl. They're actually small owls, very
small owls.

Speaker 6 (01:40:39):
It's a very big box for a small.

Speaker 3 (01:40:40):
Owl I know, I know. And the other one is
actually also a box for little owls, but probably ruru
would go in there as well, which is of course
our native rural owl. Yes, okay, the one for the
and I sent them because I feared that for some

(01:41:01):
reason you might not have either gotten it or looked
at it. There's a third one from England which is
slightly larger for the bar. The banyl is the largest
of the three native owls, or the three owls that
we have in New Zealand. But look, to be quite honest,
a barno might go in the largest ones that you've
built anyway, as long as it's got an entrance of

(01:41:22):
something like thirteen fourteen centimeters diameter.

Speaker 6 (01:41:25):
Oh, okay, because all of the designs that I had
said that the entranceway needs to be somewhere around seventy
to eighty millimeters.

Speaker 3 (01:41:34):
That's right, and that is for little owls. And I've
got little owls in my garden. You see the one
that I sent you from the fasting We banned those.
This is actually an owl that came from Europe. It's
actually a Naedalance owl.

Speaker 12 (01:41:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:41:50):
Yeah, it's amazing. So here you go. The other thing
that you were You're quite right by saying that Ponsonby
Road is where we found somebody found an owl sitting
there in a tree.

Speaker 6 (01:42:02):
Amazing.

Speaker 3 (01:42:03):
How cool is that?

Speaker 6 (01:42:04):
Absolutely? And I know I've seen some photographs Bayswater. I
think that was rue that was sitting in the tree there.
And then some people that I know over in beech
Haven Way had a barn owl crash into the a
pool glass and kind of wander around the deck slightly
dazed as well, which is pretty awesome. Okay, well, look ill,

(01:42:28):
I may have to. I've still got some plywood leftover,
so make another one.

Speaker 3 (01:42:34):
I'll tell you what now. But that is the cool
thing that we're doing now because these there are other
people that are making barny boxes, if you like, and
and they they love that sort of idea because they're dry,
they're high, they're protected, and it's all good. The other
thing I was going to say is that for barnals

(01:42:57):
there are two types of boxes. One that goes inside
the barn, yes, because they love to live in human barns,
and the other one is probably better for outside buns,
but in trees and in such a way that they
can have enough shelter from rain and all that sort
of stuff. And the sun. It's another thing, of course,

(01:43:19):
hanging them up in the right place. If you hang
them in an area where there's always sun, especially in
the summertime, you'll find that vinyls start to cook a bit.
They get very very hot.

Speaker 6 (01:43:28):
Ah okay, because I must have one of the designs
has got like a little balcony right.

Speaker 3 (01:43:34):
Exactly exactly that's where you go sunbathing. But anyway, the
point I love that. The point though, is that we
have to be careful not to cook them too much.
And the third thing I'd like to tell you that
is something that we've just found out here in New Zealand.
When those binyals got into Kaitaia in two thousand and eight.

(01:43:56):
Is that these pears have three broods a year. Wow,
So imagine it. Imagine that three times four. You with
a bit of luck, that's twelve young and a year
for just one pair.

Speaker 6 (01:44:12):
Fantastic, amazing. Isn't that just incredible?

Speaker 3 (01:44:15):
Just it?

Speaker 15 (01:44:17):
I love it.

Speaker 6 (01:44:18):
And I'll tell you what I was. Actually, I was
at an event on Thursday night with Cactus, you know,
the clothing manufacturers, right, New Zealand based clothing manufacturers. And Ben,
who's one of the owners, was there. Now he actually
sits on the board of Forest and Bird as well,
so he's active. And we were talking about this whole
thing where I guess as government funding for some community

(01:44:39):
organizations dries up and conservation work dries up, in some cases,
individuals are taking on the responsibility themselves and they're going, well, actually,
we think that this is really important work, so we're
just going to carry on and do it. Which is
also and that you've been part of the space for
a long time. I think, well that's so.

Speaker 3 (01:44:56):
Can we trust that sort of stuff? Yeah, absolutely, that's
exactly what this is about. And and and and there's
another group just actually I got an interesting called just
before your missives online from Ethel mccullay. Now, most people
who are in Christians will know Ethel McCully because he
was one of the guys that ran the McCauley Garden

(01:45:18):
Center see Chrusties for a long time. And it was
something that we said last or sorry, something that I
said last week when a woman drum rang up and
said what would you do with what would you do
with chicken manu? And said, I wouldn't use it. And
here's Ethel. He's part of Rotary South Christians and they

(01:45:38):
are selling chicken manure and he knows exactly what I mean.
So he says, can you please tell people that again,
chicken manure itself is not bad, but I would put
it through a compost cycle first before I use it.
And that makes so much sense, or diluted with good
garden mix or you know that sort of stuff. So

(01:46:00):
you don't go to the high faluting chicken manu and
put it on your garden because that will burn your plants.
Be very careful with that.

Speaker 6 (01:46:09):
Just quickly. And because it relates to Father's day, so
dad was an avid My dad was an avid gardener
as well, right, and so because we were, you know, duchies,
and we knew the van Brinks down the road who
had the chicken farm. Right, we would go and collect
chicken compost manure from there, and Dad, I think, knew
intuitively that you didn't put it straight on the garden.

(01:46:32):
So he would go and collect a trailer load of
chicken manure from down the road and we'd bring it home.
And then he had at one stage it was like
an old bath semi buried into the garden, and so
he'd fill that up and he'd let it compost down
and then he would use it, and in the meantime
he put a kind of an old bit of plywood
over the top of it. Anyway, I can remember as
a kid forgetting that there was a plywood lit on

(01:46:54):
there the ply would it obviously rotted. I ended up
knee deep in the pooh. This whole pay.

Speaker 3 (01:47:02):
And just an Ivan Brink fam One of those people
married one of our my what is his brother in law?

Speaker 6 (01:47:17):
The road between Oppertoy and Worry. Yeah, Eve, let's talk
to some people. Mike A very good morning, good.

Speaker 19 (01:47:26):
Morning, how are you good things? That's good, that's good. Hey,
My wife two kids were moving from see what can
I dance the Central Otago? Yeah, I was wanting to
know what we should be planning at this time of
the year and side a gardening tunnel.

Speaker 3 (01:47:45):
Where in Central Otago are you?

Speaker 19 (01:47:48):
We will be moving to rein Freley.

Speaker 3 (01:47:50):
Ren Freury. Okay, okay, so you do get big frosts and.

Speaker 19 (01:47:54):
Things like that as far as I'm a yes.

Speaker 3 (01:47:57):
Yes you will. Okay. You know what is probably the
best thing to do, Mike, and it's and and I'm
not joking, is to go for a walk around where
you are. You know, go to Renfairly town, see who
has got the nicest gardens? What is the stuff that
works well there? And you can you know, I would
normally send you to a botanic garden if you like.

(01:48:20):
I don't think there's a botanic garden in Renfurley. There
will be one in Dunedin. But stay, stay central and
go and never look who's got a good garden? And
I bet you, Mike, if you knock on the door
of a really nice garden, they'll tell you exactly why
and what. Because gardeners do that. They share that, they
share their knowledge and that is probably the best way.

(01:48:42):
The other thing is to go and you've got to
do a lot of work on the internet. I suppose
to find out what you can what you can get there,
but honestly, go local, ask the local people. I bet
you you will find really willing people that will help
you out. Awesome, Thank you very much, No worries.

Speaker 6 (01:49:02):
Mike, all this Mike, you take care and Robbie, a
very good morning to you. Hello Robbie, Hello.

Speaker 7 (01:49:11):
Good morning gentlemen.

Speaker 16 (01:49:13):
Really the question for you.

Speaker 7 (01:49:14):
I've got a lemon tree.

Speaker 16 (01:49:16):
And it's now looks like st or something black that's
leaned over the leaves, and the whole tree is sort
of like it.

Speaker 7 (01:49:25):
I just wondered what it might be.

Speaker 3 (01:49:28):
That stuff is probably called black sooty mold, which is
and and makes sense that name, doesn't it. Are you
in the north of our country? Are you in the
north Wellington? Well that is that is still the North, Okay,
so et ceteras. You will quite often get creatures that

(01:49:52):
suck sap out of the actual plant, out of the leaves,
sometimes out of the stems. And it could be meati bugs,
it could be scale in sects, it could be aphits.
And what these things do is quite an interesting he
but they poop out honeyedjew, which is sweet sap that
they get from the plant. That honeydew then falls onto

(01:50:14):
the leaves, often on the top side of the leaves,
and that is sweet stuff. That is a really good
material on which sooty mold grows. So what you're seeing
there is the end result of some sap sucking bugs
damaging your plants a little bit and pooping out sweet
sap called honeyjew on top of that gross sooty mold.

(01:50:35):
What you need to do is think about how to
get rid of the scale insects, the mealy bugs, and
the aphids. Very simple. Get yourself a material like nim
oil or conquerer oil, and you can mix that with
a little bit of if you like, pyrethroid insecticides, just insecticides,

(01:50:57):
and spray that on top of those leaves of your plants,
of your shrubs, and of your in this case, citrus tree.
You'll find that you kill. You will kill the ones
that pull all over the leaves below, and slowly the
black shooting mold will.

Speaker 7 (01:51:12):
Go, oh, thank you.

Speaker 10 (01:51:14):
Is it conquered.

Speaker 3 (01:51:16):
Conqueror Conqueror oil. It's a mineral oil that you use
on plants, your your gun center will know what conqueror
oil is.

Speaker 16 (01:51:26):
Thank you, okay, thanks very much.

Speaker 3 (01:51:29):
Your mine and welcome.

Speaker 6 (01:51:31):
All the Robbie. You take care. I think we'll take
a break. We'll do that. We'll do that before we
talk to and Nett will be back in just a moment.

Speaker 15 (01:51:40):
Rud.

Speaker 6 (01:51:40):
I'm just looking at the email that you see me
yesterday with the barn l nest boxes for inside Trust.
So this one now has a balcony from the first floor. Yes,
this is a whole new design.

Speaker 3 (01:51:54):
No, I know you'd love it, and it needs a
licensed building practitioner.

Speaker 6 (01:52:00):
I have to say, with the designs you sent me,
I couldn't resist but slightly change them. So I just
couldn't bring my self to build one with a flat roof.
So I've put a pitched roof on them.

Speaker 3 (01:52:11):
I think that's lovely because that's exactly what they like.
But you know what is the good things, especially that
long then one. Quite often you get starlings in there,
or or because your hole is now too big if
you like, or minus and it is. Yeah, oh yeah,
you get them as well. No, no, but what's the

(01:52:33):
point is that we get starlings in our little owl boxes. Now,
the little owl is not really big at all. It's
maybe at the most eight inches in size. That's all
of this is tiny. But when you are styling and
you go into a little owl box, you end up
paying for that with your life. Those little owls know

(01:52:54):
how to kick them out or kill them, right and
then and then they leave the corpses inside the box
because what you get is flies. And if the babies
come out of the egg, they see the flies and
they learn how to and flies. It's absolutely stunning.

Speaker 6 (01:53:10):
That's fantastic.

Speaker 3 (01:53:11):
It's really cool.

Speaker 6 (01:53:12):
I realized though with this one. It requires a barn.
And and I don't have a bar to be fair.

Speaker 3 (01:53:21):
No, you don't need a bar like something that's European.

Speaker 6 (01:53:24):
It all right, all right, I will make it maybe today,
maybe not. It's a nice Father's Day things today. And
happy Father's Day to you too, mate, and your post day.

Speaker 3 (01:53:35):
And oh and is Joseph okay?

Speaker 6 (01:53:37):
Yeah, you know he's great. He rang before and said
happy Father's Day. So that's nice, right, And hello there.

Speaker 4 (01:53:44):
Hello there too, Rude and Pete. Hello, I want to
talk dead compost. I've killed it? Can I believe it
will come back?

Speaker 3 (01:53:54):
What did you do to it? To kill it.

Speaker 4 (01:53:57):
Well, I think I've put too many grass put things
into it.

Speaker 3 (01:54:01):
Oh no, no, no, no, no no, that doesn't mean
it's dead. It means you've.

Speaker 4 (01:54:05):
Actually it's not. It's not roughing anything I put in.
I put all the kitchen scraps out there, but it's
not roughing.

Speaker 3 (01:54:13):
And that's exactly why you're going the wrong way, because
even the kitchen scraps are not part, are not needed.
That is what you need now is wood chips. Right,
So so here's here's a science lesson on compost. Compost
is made basically now on two things. The one is
one is nitrogen, which is all the grass clickens or

(01:54:34):
the leaves, all that stuff, or you're in most of
the food scraps. The other bit that it needs and
the large amount of compost, the largest part of the
compost is carbon, and carbon is wood chips, branches, that
sort of stuff. And if you just keep on putting
green stuff in it, you you don't get enough composting

(01:54:55):
going at all. If you're now going to put a
lot of that wood chips in and mix it in,
if you can with the rake, you'll find that everything
will pick up and there will be your compost won't
be dead. I'll do you that for free.

Speaker 4 (01:55:08):
Well I haven't seen any little wombs or anything in it.

Speaker 3 (01:55:11):
No, because they find it a bit too asset. They
burned their bubs in there.

Speaker 7 (01:55:17):
Always.

Speaker 4 (01:55:18):
Thanks, Can I thank Pete briefly? Thank you very much.
A long time ago he told me to put PVC
windows in.

Speaker 3 (01:55:27):
Oh yes, and.

Speaker 4 (01:55:29):
I did, and I've now sold the house to my
son and he thinks they are absolutely fantastic.

Speaker 6 (01:55:36):
Look, I think it's always one of these things. You've
got to look at the individual situation and make the
right choice for that. And if the PVC was the
right choice there, then that's fantastic.

Speaker 4 (01:55:45):
So great here I've been meaning to tell you. Thank you.

Speaker 6 (01:55:48):
It's a pleasure.

Speaker 4 (01:55:49):
Thanks Rude.

Speaker 6 (01:55:51):
Both the very best. Hey, let's look at a couple.
It's all got time for one more call. Also, if
you want to give us a call. Eight hundred and
eighty ten eighty the number. Gardening questions Germinating peony tree
seeds please tree.

Speaker 3 (01:56:05):
I have not, literally I have not worked with pone seeds.
I think Duly usually gets them from the shop and
and plants them directly as seed links. I've never worked
up so I don't know now I'm not gonna I'm
not gonna dare to do that.

Speaker 6 (01:56:24):
And pianis are not a tree?

Speaker 3 (01:56:26):
Are they not necessarilyful.

Speaker 6 (01:56:32):
Cold, very cold climates for.

Speaker 3 (01:56:35):
That in order to flower properly? That's right, right right?

Speaker 6 (01:56:39):
Another one from Duneed and is it too late to
start sowing seeds. I've collected a lot of seeds from
last year, just checking if seed raising mixes the best
to use. I'm also hoping the red and cream carcabak
seeds will take from Joey.

Speaker 3 (01:56:55):
That's a good thing to do right now. I would
say seeds are sowing depends on exactly what you're talking
about here. But for instance, if I'm now starting to
look at my tunnel house, I need differenstance sew seeds
for what do you call them? Tomatoes? But the problem
is if it's too cold, they don't like that. So

(01:57:15):
you do that inside, and you do that inside the
house until literally all frost tender plants need to do
that until frost is no longer an issue. It's that
sort of stuff. So some varieties can be sown right now.
In fact, I've had broadbeans sewing it's themselves over in
winter and they are now flowering. Unbelievable, but that does work.

(01:57:39):
But other plants can't handle that. So it pays to
google which particular seeds you want a plant and make
sure you do it at the right time. But yes,
you can sew seeds all.

Speaker 6 (01:57:49):
Right, brilliant, Hey Tony, very good morning to you.

Speaker 16 (01:57:54):
Good morning, gentlemen. I've got Micaleia bubbles pedging live and
all front and I've got the beliefs cooling up and
got brownie black spots on them and the falling.

Speaker 7 (01:58:07):
Off the tree.

Speaker 16 (01:58:08):
But the leaves are all filled up and down spots.

Speaker 3 (01:58:11):
Yeah, but it might pay to actually use use some
some fungicides on that because it sounds like a fungal
infliction if you like, and fung sides plant, you know,
for plants to stop that brown spot actually getting on
with it is important. So what I would use is
a systemic fungicide. Go to your local garden center systemic

(01:58:34):
funger side, something like, well, there's all sorts of the
bits and oh, there's all sorts of varieties there, but
ask for a systemic that is taken into the plant
and basically stops these fungi from developing on your leaves.

Speaker 7 (01:58:49):
Thanks.

Speaker 16 (01:58:49):
For yet.

Speaker 6 (01:58:53):
I'm listening attentively because we have Michaelia Grappi's at home.
But thankfully and reasonably good health.

Speaker 3 (01:59:00):
That's it. Sometimes when it's too wet and too cold,
it can get these fungal problems. Yes, all sorts of.

Speaker 6 (01:59:07):
Things, right quick one from you, Richard greetings.

Speaker 20 (01:59:11):
Yea good good morning. Hey, Marsian lawn. I sprayed the lawn,
the marshy part with your wit and for it. It
all died off nicely, yellowed and everything. What do I
do with it?

Speaker 3 (01:59:25):
Now? I would suggest you change the pH that means
the acidity of the soil by literally putting lime on it,
not not not dolomite lime, but agricultural lime or normal
lime or whatever you want to call it. And that
will change the pH and that will that will really

(01:59:47):
disadvantage the moths.

Speaker 20 (01:59:50):
Okay, your morning, welcome mate.

Speaker 6 (01:59:53):
Go well, what's the distribution rate? Is it like a
handful to.

Speaker 3 (01:59:59):
Or you've gotta be a lecense building partitioner to do
that a handful to the meter roughly? No, but yeah,
I know, I know, I know, yeah it is.

Speaker 6 (02:00:10):
Actually I took your advice. I went and got some
nitro foscar blue the other day and yeah, around hand
plum tree and it was a handful or eighty grams
per square meter to be fair. I don't have a
scale in the workshop, but I.

Speaker 3 (02:00:22):
Don't do I this is the point and the handful
to the square meter is something that is like is
years old in gardening. It's been there all the it's
like you know, putting your finger out, said that's four inches.

Speaker 6 (02:00:37):
Thank you mate, first to September, not the first day
of spring. Will come down when I visit that on
the twenty first.

Speaker 3 (02:00:43):
Jack Dam had to go at that two.

Speaker 6 (02:00:46):
Take care mate, Happy Faur's day, all the best, Thanks folks,
thanks for your company. It's been absolute pleasure. See you
next Sunday.

Speaker 1 (02:00:55):
For more from the Resident Builder with Peter Wolfcamp, listen
live to News Talk sa'd be on Sunday mornings from six,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.

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