Full Show Podcast: 14 December 2025

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

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Seat by Squeaky Door.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Or Squeaky Floor Get the right advice from Peter Wolfcamp.
The Resident Builder on News talks head.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
By a house sizzle, even when it's dog, even when
the grass is overgrown in the yard, and even when
the dog is too old to barn, and when you're sitting.

Speaker 4 (00:42):
At the table trying not to starve, scissor home even
when we are benn even when you're there, this is

(01:06):
a long.

Speaker 5 (01:07):
Even when there's God, even when you go around came
the ones you love, your moms.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
Screamed on broken pains, appeel in.

Speaker 5 (01:18):
From the locals lives well when they're gone and leaving
them has either when we'll brand, even when you're in
there alone.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:43):
Well, if you're a really good morning and welcome along
to the Rism Builder on Sunday. You're with me people
wolf Camp, the rest of the Builder, and this is
our opportunity, as it is every Sunday, to talk about
things that are not basically important to us. There are
our houses. They are the places that we abide in,
the places that we have to look after, and the
places that Hopefully if we look after them, they will

(02:04):
look after us. So welcome along to this Sunday Morning session,
fourteenth of December. Yes, Christmas is looming. If you're trying
to crank through and get I don't know, a kitchen
installed or the bathroom finished, or the outside of the
house painted, or the debt done, or the landscaping finished,
or the fence finished. I get where you're at, but

(02:26):
I'm not doing that right now. You may hear a
slight difference to the tone of the program. So last
week I mentioned that we were we as in me
and the family away overseas. We've been traveling a little bit.
We're now back in the UK, where I'll be for
the next two weeks and then heading back via the

(02:48):
United States home again at the end of the year.
So I sit here actually at a very good friend's house,
thirty three minutes on the train north of London. If
you leave Euston station and you get the high speed
train the first stop, you hop off there and drive
to my mate's place, and that's where I am. The

(03:09):
remarkable thing about this particular house, while and I say
this with the greatest respect, it is a relatively modest house,
but in the renovation that they've done, they have focused
absolutely on creating warm, dry, comfortable. So this morning when
I got up it was I don't know, it must

(03:29):
have well, it was past freezing last night, so there
was frost on the ground, there was frost on the car,
there was frost on the top of the little skylight
that's in the on suite. That's a good way of
figuring out that it's going to be. It had been
a cold night and yet, to be fair, I've spent
most of the day while I've been inside the house,
which has good insulation, good joinery, well designed, well thought out,

(03:55):
really airtight, in jeans and a T shirt, basically wandering
around the house. There's a modest amount of heating on here.
So all of that stuff that we talk about quite
a bit on the show, in terms of air tightness,
in terms of energy efficiency, in terms of good quality joinery,
in terms of good quality double glazing, et cetera, etc.

(04:15):
The proof is in the pudding in the house that
I'm in at the moment, and it's been a real
delight to stay here and to then you pop outside
and realize that far out it is actually genuinely cold
here it's been. We've been incredibly lucky with the weather,
so not a lot of reason to put on wet
weather gear at this stage. Some delightful blue sky days

(04:39):
and an opportunity to wander around some fairly historic parts
of this part of the United Kingdom. So I'm not
going to bore you with stories about travel and all
the rest of it, but really I'll add one more thing.
And though I dropped some family off at an event
up the road and then said, look, I've got to
get back for the radio show. But then I noticed

(05:02):
that off the side of the motorway was B and Q,
huge British retailer, lots and lots of tools, and I
just couldn't help myself. So it was quick off the
off ramp into the B and Q car park, a
bit of a wander around, a couple of little purchases
to be fair, and then back in the car and

(05:22):
back here to do the show. So a very good morning,
looking forward to your calls your company. Everything works exactly
the same as it always does on the show, so
the simple thing to do is get on the line
and call eight hundred and eighty ten eighty. You can
text I can see your text from here, which is great.
So if you'd like to text nine to nine two

(05:45):
from your mobile phone or CBZB you can you can
send those through. And I've got the email up and
running as well, so it's Pete at NEWSTALKZB dot co
dot nz that will get the email to me as well,
despite the fact that I am literally on the other
side of the world. So nice to have your company
this morning. I understand the There has been a mixture

(06:07):
of well in Auckland anyway, some glorious days and then
the potential for rain, thunder and maybe even flooding again.
So sounds like a typical early summer in Auckland, right,
Let's get into it. Eight hundred and eighty ten eighty
is the number to call if you've got questions around
building legislation. We finished the show last week just before

(06:29):
we tuned into with a long conversation an interview that
I had recorded earlier with Mike Thornton, who has been
on the show a couple of times. Mike, obviously is
a barrister and solicitor working particularly in construction law, particularly
in that part of construction law when it goes wrong

(06:50):
right and parties are at loggerheads, there's been a defect,
there's been a fault in the building determining who's in
the right who's in the wrong. So I wanted to
get his opinion on the proposal from government that will
introduce ten year home warranty schemes that will be compulsory

(07:11):
for all new builds and also for any renovations over
one hundred thousand dollars. It was great to have that
discussion last week with him. If you would like to
pick up on that and we can discuss it, more
than happy to sort of revisit that particular discussion because
obviously it's going to be it's pretty big news actually

(07:34):
and really interesting. A couple of people that I've been
introduced to and that I know in this part of
the world are heavily involved in construction. I'm meeting someone
tomorrow who works for a very large group home builder
here in the UK, so that's going to be really
interesting discussion around how they do their warranty scheme. Had

(07:55):
a delightful chat with a young builder who has a
real focus on energy efficiency and high performance homes here
in the UK as well. Fascinating conversation in the sense
that he was bemoaning the fact that their building, their
building code is not as good as it could be,
and the look on his face when I said to him, Hey, look,

(08:18):
by the way, the New Zealand building code doesn't even
have a requirement for heating and he was genuinely flabbergasted
by that. So, yes, I'm on holiday, but I can't
tune off it or tune out from basically having an
acquiring mind and wanting to have discussions with people here
around how they build, what we can learn maybe what

(08:39):
they can learn from us. But I do have a
feeling right now it's pretty much one way traffic for
me in terms of what I'm learning in the conversations
that I'm having. So join me on the show. The
lines are open. The number to call eight hundred and
eighty ten eighty and Andy, A very good morning to you.
Goody Andy. Hello, Andy, Yep, go for it. You're on air. Yeah, Andy,

(09:10):
I can hear you, Well, maybe I can't. I heard
you for a moment.

Speaker 2 (09:19):
Andy.

Speaker 6 (09:20):
Where have you gone? Mate? Right, I'll just pop you
back on hold and we'll take a short break. We'll
take the ad break now, we'll see if we can
sort out the issue with the phone calls and the
not being able to hear you. Andy, stay by, stay
on the phone. We'll take short break. We'll be back
with Andy in just a moment.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
Helping you get those DIY projects done right. The resident
builder with Peter Wolfgat Call eight Youth Talk.

Speaker 6 (09:51):
Radio News Talks. Heb we'll have a crack at this. Andy.
Greetings and a very good morning to you. Hello. Andy, Okay,
I'll have to let me see radio. How's that? Andy?
Can I hear? Now?

Speaker 7 (10:07):
Have you got me? This time?

Speaker 6 (10:09):
Got you? This time? Perfect? It's all working.

Speaker 7 (10:12):
Oh great, Hey, I'm looking at it. I'm just going
to put this to you. Of I rent my home
out and there are ten tenants in there at present.
And before I rented it out, there were issues with
the roof, so I got a guy into replace like.
He replaced a lot that iron sheets because there were

(10:32):
a couple of leaks, and he did extensive work. But
a few months ago I got a call from the
property manager. One of the leaks was still happening, so
I phoned him and he went round within a week
had a lot reckoned. He had fixed it, but two
weeks ago I got another call from a property manager

(10:53):
saying the leaks occurred again. But now whether he's busy
or is procrastinating because there could be a cost to him,
he is now not returning my calls to fix the league.
And I don't really want to be calling lawyers and
have to become heavy handed. But other than getting another

(11:16):
guy to have a look and seeing if he can
figure out where this leak's coming, it's quite frustrating because
I understand tradees are busy at this time a year,
but it's frustrating that he won't come to the party
understanding what your take on it is.

Speaker 6 (11:34):
I mean, look, is there a possibility that what you've
got is two separate leaks, so he has fixed one
and then another one has occurred. That's a possibility. That's
being sort of looking at it from his perspective. The
other thing is do you happen to know if he
is part of the Roofing Association of New Zealand so

(11:56):
r A n Z member. And the reason I mentioned
that is that if the roofer is part of the
r A n Z then you can always you know,
you can send them a message and just go, hey, look,
I really need you to come back and finish the job,
because what I asked you to do is fix the leak,
and the leak is still there. Therefore you haven't finished.

(12:17):
And in the event that you don't respond, I'm going
to go to the roofing association. Now that only works
if the roof is part of the roofing association, so
that would be the other thing to check.

Speaker 7 (12:28):
Oh, okay, all right.

Speaker 6 (12:30):
Apart from that, I mean you are kind of I mean, look,
he does have legal responsibility to address this, right, You've
asked him to do a job. He's completed it sort
of but not complete because it's still leaking. Therefore, under
the Consumer Guarantees Act and a whole bunch of other legislation,
he has a responsibility. But if he's not responding to

(12:52):
your messages, then yeah, you're right. You know, do you
want to have to go and spend a couple of
hundred bucks with a lawyer in order to force him
to come back, Then he's going to do so begrudgingly
in some ways. You know, you you've obviously paid for
the work that was done. Yes, right, Look, if it's urgent,

(13:14):
you may just have to go and get another roofer.
If you're looking for roofers. My recommendation has always been
make sure that they're a member of the Roofing Association
of New Zealand.

Speaker 8 (13:25):
Okay, all right, good as gold, all right.

Speaker 6 (13:28):
Otherwise there's not really a really, you know, straightforward solution
for that. You're lying on people's good faith and professionalism
and sometimes people that you're down.

Speaker 8 (13:39):
Yes, yes, yeah, all right, sorry to hear that.

Speaker 6 (13:41):
Any all of this you take care. Then, by way
your news talks there be it is let me say,
six twenty two in on your side of the world,
a little bit later in the day for me, and
a day behind on the side of the world. Oh,
eight hundred and eighty ten eighty. Though we've got the
technology sorted out. If you would like to talk about
all things building and construction. It can be the practical,

(14:03):
it can be the legislation, it can be you know,
working with sub trades and that whole thing around selecting
the right person, making sure they do the job. And
then what happens when, in exactly an Andy's case, you've
paid good money because the person said I finished the job,
it's not going to leak. I'm not necessarily a fan

(14:23):
of this, but you do wonder with repairs like that,
whether you do pay most of the account but not
the last part until it rains again and you're convinced
that it's actually worked. And to be fair, I'm dealing
with one of those at the moment where I've got
a job that I'm trying to fix where I thought
i'd got it, but I haven't quite so I'm going

(14:43):
to have to go back and sort out a persistent leak.
You know. Look, in my case, I'm not going to
invoice until I know that the job's finished. That's kind
of how I roll, right. Oh, Ross, greetings to you, sir.

Speaker 8 (14:58):
Yeah, how are you very well?

Speaker 6 (15:01):
Thanks for Ross and yourself.

Speaker 8 (15:03):
Yeah, not so bad.

Speaker 7 (15:05):
Now.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
I've You've got a five year old house and I've
had four of the plastic joiners breakdown in the last
eleven months underneath the driveway and some concrete areas. I've
been to my insurance company and they don't want to
know me and my builder, and I was just wondering

(15:28):
whether there's been any others breakdown over the last twelve months,
whether it was a bat that was faulty or something.

Speaker 6 (15:37):
Oh, so you're talking about your water maine that comes
in from the street, runs from the part underneath the
driveway and comes to the house and you've had breakages
in that or you've had leaks up here and has
it been on the fitting? Yes, right, for.

Speaker 2 (15:56):
Four of them, they are all the same on the
fitting basically where the world meets the tea joiners, they
are where the pee mee there. I don't know what
you call them. Yeah, sure, the world. I've got photographs
of them I've been to. I did bring the master

(16:18):
plumbers to people, and they sort of didn't say much.
The insurance company didn't want to know. I've been back
to my book. My builder has been back to the
place where they got the fittings from, and they basically said, oh,
it's wear and tear.

Speaker 6 (16:37):
In tea, that's just rush. I mean, you know it's
in the ground right, Yeah, I mean, I'll tell you
what I did. I did have a conversation with some guys.
They were contractors to water Care who were fixing a
water main leak, and it was it was at a

(16:59):
property that I look after, and so they'd come out
and then they started to talk about a batch of
fittings that had been purchased that were not quite the
right fitting or some of them that were failing, So
there is a potential that there's some failures on some
of those fittings. What I'm a little bit confused about though,

(17:21):
is like, typically if you're running a water main, the
one thing you want to do is not have many
joins in it, or in fact had no joins in
it if had all possible. So from where it connects
to the toby at the street to let's say where
it does that last elbow and comes up the wall
at your house, you don't want to have lots of
joins in there because that's obviously going to be you know,

(17:43):
it's a potential week spot and what you've discovered. So
I don't understand. I really can't understand why they would
put lots of joins in there. And look, it's five
years old, right. So one of the things government's talking
about at the moment is a mandatory ten year home
warranty scheme. And you know, plumbing works like that should

(18:03):
be warranty should last for at less at least ten years.
So I would suggest that you're probably going to need
to go to a lawyer, who's going to go to
the main contractor who's going to go to the plumber
or maybe the services team that put that in and
say you're going to have to come back and replace

(18:24):
it would be the best solution.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
I don't think it's the plumber's fault though, it's the
tea jointism's broken down.

Speaker 6 (18:35):
Yeah, But let's say let's say they install the tea joint,
but then they backfilled with the wrong material and it
put pressure on the tea joint. Or let's say they
put a tea joint in for a ninety degree and
then the trench was one hundred degrees and so there's
pressure on the joint. There's lots of things that can
happen around you know, care and attention. Like we tend

(18:57):
to think, oh, it's a water pip, right, We'll just
we'll dig a trench, we'll throw it in the ground,
we'll put some crap around it, and see what happens.
You know. That's those sorts of things can cause failures.
It's ultimately still the responsibility of the contractor. So while
there might be a problem with the fitting, it may
also be a problem with the installation and the methodology,

(19:19):
the type of backfill, the depth that it's at, the
way in which they've dug the trenches. The way in
which it's been installed. The hard thing is, of course,
most of it's underneath the driveway.

Speaker 8 (19:29):
Yeah it is.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
And the driveway is now looking like a patch will
that's where quilt because it's got patches for different patches, which.

Speaker 6 (19:39):
Is pretty unappealing as well, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (19:42):
Absolutely Yeah, But I'm of the opinion I've my builder's
been around how to look, and I've had different plumbers
look at it and replaced the tea joiners, and I
just I'm of the opinion that there's got to be
more of these tea joiners out there somewhere that are leaking.

Speaker 6 (20:01):
Look, it's a real possibility, and there have been cases where,
you know, entire batches have failed. We all know the
stuff about the duck Squest. We talked about it a
bit last last week on the show. But I do
remember a story or a conversation ahead with these guys
working on that on this particular leak where they said, look,
somebody you know, just ordered a whole batch and they

(20:23):
were just not quite right. And they've all let they've
all started to let go just as a as a
good long term fixed for you though, and to stop
your driveway looking like a pimple teenager. Eventually, is there
a possibility that you could trench alongside the driveway and
just put in a brand new water main?

Speaker 9 (20:44):
Uh?

Speaker 8 (20:45):
Will?

Speaker 10 (20:47):
No?

Speaker 2 (20:48):
Not really?

Speaker 6 (20:48):
Not okay, all right, I would I still think that
the responsibility in the end, I would. I would sheet
home the responsibility to the plumber or sometimes it's not
the plumbers that do the water mains right. So often

(21:11):
if it's a subdivision or something like that, you'll get
a services team that will come in. They will trench
from the road to the house, and they'll put in
ducting for fiber, they'll put in the water, you know,
those sorts of things, right, so they'll run services. So
you really need to go back five years, find the
records who installed the water main and put some pressure

(21:34):
on them to take responsibility, because I still think that
they've got a responsibility. Plenty of them last a lot
longer than that, and a five year and a failure
rate shouldn't be your responsibility.

Speaker 2 (21:51):
Well for four out of four so far, and you
know whether I'm going to get more.

Speaker 6 (21:58):
Yeah, that's well, you know, again, I'm a little bit
surprised that the number of joints like I would typically
avoid putting joints in a water main underneath the concrete
at the very least. And the notion that you can't
just have a straight run that it's perplexing, but I would,
I would push hard and go back to the main contractor.

(22:20):
And because did you pay the plumber directly or did
it come as part of a package through the main contractor.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
The plumber was paid, Well, directly, I've directly paid the
plumbers for the last lot of repairs.

Speaker 6 (22:38):
The person who installed it in the first place.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
Well, I haven't gone back to him, but I've gone
back to the builder.

Speaker 6 (22:48):
Yeah. So I put a bit of pressure on the
builder to go back and find out who did that
water maine in the first place and get them on
site and start putting some pressure on them. Because it
shouldn't fail in five years. There's not a reasonable excuse
for that. So they've got to take responsibility for it.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
M Yeah, Well, I'm still of the opinion that it's
it's the joiners that have broken down, and the plumber's
fairly simple job to put in a joiner.

Speaker 6 (23:20):
Sure, but then if you can find out who installed
the water main, you can also find out what fittings
they used. And once you've found that and you've got
evidence that they've failed, then you could go to the
manufacturer or the supply the distributor of those items and
put some pressure on them. But I think it's a

(23:41):
little bit of detective work. It all starts with who
put the water maine in and exactly what type of
fittings did they they use, So that's that's where I
would I would start with all the very best of
your OFSS on that one. That's not a situation that
you should be in hot tip for me. And I
learned this from Steve to the plumber a couple of
years ago. I was helping him out. We were putting

(24:03):
in we're trying to find a leak at a school
and and it was old cast iron pipe. In the end,
we'd spend a long time looking for the leak. So
the suggestion was we'll go in there on a Saturday morning,
rip a new trench thirty meters down through the garden
out to the front, and we'll run in a brand
new blue pipe water main, and then it doesn't matter

(24:24):
if other bits and pieces leak, we'll just replace it.
That was the easiest thing to do. The hot tip
from Steve the plumber back then was get a bit
of sixty five mil drainage coil flexible stuff. We put
the water main through there and then buried the drainage
coil with the pipe inside it into the trench. The

(24:48):
thinking being if there was ever a fault with the
water maine in the future, you could just find one
or other end, disconnect it, pull the pipe out and
poke a new one through it. I'm certainly going to
do that next time i have to do a new
water mate. Right, We're going to take a short break.
It is six thirty four at News Talks. We're talking
all things building construction. Pete Wolfcamp, the resident builder with you. Oh,

(25:10):
eight hundred and eighty ten eighty, that's the number to call.

Speaker 1 (25:14):
Meta twice God was, but maybe called Pete first. Peter Wolfcamp,
the resident Builder, News Talks B.

Speaker 6 (25:21):
It is News Talks HEB and it is six thirty seven.
A delightful text from Lynn. Here it goes, Hey, Pete,
could you wish my dad Warwick a very happy ninety
third birthday for tomorrow. He got his carpentry Joining Joinery
Apprenticeship certificate in nineteen fifty three and it's still and

(25:42):
he is still the first handy man that we call on,
but we have to try and stop them climbing up
the ladders. He's a huge fan of the show. Well, Warwick,
congratulations to you, sir on your ninety third birthday tomorrow.
I hope you celebrate in style. And I'm sure you've
got still got a lot of tremendous knowledge that you

(26:04):
can pass on to the next generation and generations beyond.
I'm sure, so happy birthday to you, Warrick, Right, Chris,
A very good morning to you.

Speaker 11 (26:14):
Peter. Hey, this may sound this may sound a little
bit trivial, but I've got a few nails on my deck,
and when I say a few, I mean quite a lot.
They're starting to pop. And the other day I used
a hammer to, you know, smack one of the men
on the side, and it split the wood. I'm thinking,

(26:38):
do I soak the wood with water first and then
there's back in or is there a certain tool I
should be using instead of a hammer to like, like
not damage the wood. Clearly this was made by the
guy who lived here before me, But I'm wondering is
it just because he's cheek timber.

Speaker 10 (27:00):
That's just what.

Speaker 6 (27:00):
I've got to do.

Speaker 2 (27:02):
I'm masking you.

Speaker 6 (27:06):
Sorry, Yeah, no, that's all right. I want when those
nails pop up, do they pop up enough for you
to get some purchase on it and pull them out?

Speaker 2 (27:18):
No?

Speaker 11 (27:18):
No, they pop up enough to make sure you have
to wear shoes outside.

Speaker 6 (27:24):
Yes, yeah, typically it's not.

Speaker 2 (27:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (27:30):
Typically, if we're nailing a deck off hand nailing it,
you would nail it and set the nail so that
it finishes just above the surface, because you don't want
to leave a half crown or a dollar mark from
the face of the hammer. Then you take a nail
punch and you drive it in. Typically a nail punch
will do the job.

Speaker 11 (27:52):
Right now, these aren't flat head normal nails that I know.
They're like sort like they're dark and the sort of
round it.

Speaker 6 (28:02):
Now, it's not a rosehead nail that's designed to sit flat.
That would be unusual for a deck, to be fair.

Speaker 11 (28:11):
I've dealt with a lot in this house.

Speaker 6 (28:14):
Right, OK, that might be unusual. Look, I would suggest, yeah,
don't try and sync the nail with a hammer, use
a nail punch. If it's on the ingrain, then maybe
you don't drive it in that far, because that's where
you will get splitting. Typically, if you're nailing decking off,
you would always pre drill the ingrain. To be fair,
I've got to the point where I pre drill pretty

(28:36):
much everything regardless. The other option is if you can
be bothered, and if you can when those nails pop up,
see if you can get a vice grip onto them
or something like that, pull them out and replace them
with a jolt screw that will have better purchase. And
as the screw goes down, it won't split the timber

(28:58):
because it's effectively drilling its way through. So there's a
couple of options for you there. Chris, I hope that
goes well for you as well. And Peter are very
good morning to you.

Speaker 12 (29:09):
Oh good morning, Peter.

Speaker 6 (29:13):
Can you hear me absolutely.

Speaker 12 (29:17):
I'm looking at installing a louver system over a deck
in the back garden and there's a downpipe on the
wall which is in the way, and what has been
proposed is that the system, the back beam of the
system would move out about one thirty millimeters off the

(29:40):
wall and then the gap would be taken up with
a flashing. In terms of a flashing fitting in that
space between the back beam and the wall, and how
that flashes around the downpipe. The pictures I've seen, it

(30:02):
still appears. It appears that there's nothing sealing the flashing
to the the downpipe, so that the whole concept of
a being waterproof, yes, that doesn't seem to apply, because
there's water, no doubt it's going to get in there.

Speaker 6 (30:17):
Quick question, roughly how long where where the veranda the
proposed louver roof rather attaches to the house. What's that
approximate length?

Speaker 12 (30:28):
So it's that whole area is about five and a
half meters.

Speaker 6 (30:35):
Okay, and the down it.

Speaker 12 (30:37):
Goes out four meters from the roof.

Speaker 6 (30:40):
So where the downpipe comes down, is that sort of
dead center of that five and a half meters Is
it quite close to one edge?

Speaker 12 (30:48):
It is quite close to one end. It's about a
meter in from the left hand side edge.

Speaker 6 (30:54):
And then where the downpipe comes down at ground level,
does it go through a deck or does it go
hard into the ground.

Speaker 12 (31:01):
Yes, it goes through the deck into the grainy system
of the house.

Speaker 6 (31:06):
Okay, underneath the deck. Could you get access to that?

Speaker 12 (31:14):
You would, yeah, you would have to, you know, look
some of the sumbur to get access. But you could, yes,
But it's.

Speaker 6 (31:22):
What I'm thinking is that, you know, it's it's a
lot of work to hold the louver system off the
house to prepare a flashing, Whereas if you worked with
a plumber or a drain layer, what you might find
is that you could simply disconnect that downpipe, build the
louver and then bring the downpipe down from the spouting
across the wall above the louver roof, run it down

(31:44):
parallel to the end of it, and reconnect it underneath that.
You know, it's not actually that much work if there's
good accessibility to just change the location of the downpipe,
so go round, go around it, rather than try and
go through it. Because in the end, once you've done
the louver, okay, you can flash the top. But then

(32:06):
when you're standing in that new sort of enclosed space,
which you the whole point of doing these things is
to try and make that feel like an outdoor room.
And then right there you've got a downpipe. So if
you were to move the downpipe, that might have talk
to your contractors, talk to a drain layer or a
plumber and just say can we do this, because you know,

(32:29):
you're moving at a meter and everything successible. It would
be different if it went into the ground or if
it was you know, if it was smack bang in
the middle, that might be not so easy. But a
meter from the edge, I think, just move it.

Speaker 12 (32:43):
Yeah, so you'd still keep the same grainage connection areas
exactly the same. You're just moving the piping, that's right.

Speaker 6 (32:53):
Yeah. And you know, because you've got the deck and
you've got some drainage fittings underneath there, you know where
there might be an elbow that would get cut off
and becomes an extension, then put a new elbow on it,
drop the down pipe into there. It's it's not difficult work,
and it sounds like a much more well, what I'm proposing,
hopefully is a lot more straightforward than making a flashing

(33:15):
trying to seal that penetration, having to suspend the louver
one hundred and thirty millimeters off the building, which means
extra brackets and so on and so forth. So I
think move for downpipe, looking.

Speaker 12 (33:29):
At it as like a mounting bracket that and it
does seem like a long long way around to it.

Speaker 6 (33:40):
It does, given that you know, moving a down pipe
generally pretty straightforward. So at that to talk to the
guys about that.

Speaker 12 (33:48):
Yeah, so the concept of what they're proposing is you
can't actually steal a flashing.

Speaker 6 (33:55):
You can what you can get, and it's similar to
if you do a penetration through a roof for example,
like for a vent or a terminal ducting or something
like that, you can get a seal that you do
a neat hole through the flashing that the downpipe runs through.
They'll still really need to disconnect the downpipe because what

(34:16):
you want to do is plot where it is, disconnect
the downpipe, cut a neat hole, bring the flashing up
through it, slide the coupling over the top, and then
seal that coupling to it. So it's a flexible sort
of what we'd call a witch's cap type thing that
you'd slide over the downpipe. That would give you a
weather tight seal through that the hole that you've cut

(34:37):
in the flashing. But again, you know, it's it feels
like it's a lot of work rather than simply moving
the downpipe.

Speaker 12 (34:46):
Yes, because we're going to have to go into the
down pipe anyway to channel order, you have to cut.

Speaker 6 (34:52):
The downpipe off or move it anyway, So that's what
I would suggest. That's that's that would be my approach, Peter.
I wish you all the very best for that and
this time of year. Those louver systems, I remember the
New Zealand louver ones that we installed a few years
fantastic for this time of year where it's obviously warm.
My understanding is, and you're still going to have those

(35:14):
in clement days or I think where they're going to
come into their own too is providing shade the fact
that they're open and you can adjust them for shade,
so you know, morning sun great, afternoon sun overheating, have
a louver system that gives you a bit of shade.
I think there's a real benefit to them, right HEO,
it is six forty seven, we've got a break. Then

(35:35):
we'll take your calls. Then of course we've got New
Sport and we're the top of the hour at seven,
coming up top of the hour.

Speaker 1 (35:41):
Viewing other house, storting the garden, asks Pete for a
hand the resident builder with Peter wolfcap call oh eight
ten eighty news dogs me.

Speaker 6 (35:51):
So of course we've got News Sport and where the
top of the hour at seven o'clock still got time
for a quick call before then, if you'd call, oh,
eight hundred and eighty ten eighty, that's the number to call.
You can text as well a couple of good texts.
Actually morning or evening, Pete. We want to jib a
cup of rooms in a villa that is currently sarking
and scrim we can remove. Can we remove the scrim,

(36:14):
take off the skirting boards and trims and install or
plasterboard straight over the sarking. We'd like to then reuse
the skirtings and put them back on over the jib board.
Would you suggest standard or bracing plasterboard and with a
higher stud Is it recommended to run it horizontally or vertically.
Thank you from Catherine. Catherine. It brings back a lot

(36:37):
of memories, most of them actually quite happy of renovating
my own nineteen o five villa quite some years ago.
So I did exactly what you're proposing. Someone had already
removed the scrim, but they had added a thing that
I came to understand was called fakatani board. It was

(36:58):
like an NDF, almost more like cardboard, but a little
bit like NDF. It was about three and a half
mil thick and it was in. It must have been
like six by three sheets and that was nailed all
over and then they'd kind of stopped it and painted
or wallpapered over the top of that. Anyway that came
off the screw, which is the hessian that had been removed.

(37:21):
I then went and added insulation into the cavity. So
that's the big question, Catherine, if you were going to
introduce insulation into those exterior walls, that actually triggers a
requirement for a building consent. You can't do that work
undershed you one of the building Act if you don't
intend to insulate, and to be fair, I don't understand

(37:43):
why you wouldn't take the opportunity to insulate. Then yes,
you can fix plaster board straight to the sarking. I
went through just with some jib screws or some plasterboard
screws and made sure that all of the sarking was
firmly fixed onto the studs, put a straight edge over it.
Any boards that have really cupped or twisted, maybe take

(38:04):
a plane to that and knock any high spots. Horizontal
fixing is great. I would often opt for thirteen mil
plasterboard in that situation. Just because it kind of finds
its own way over walls that are not going to
be particularly straight. And yes, I would always go for
horizontal fixing, either starting with a full sheet at the

(38:27):
bottom and working up just so that where you've got
your joins not at eye level. Depending on the stud
you may also be able to use wideline sheets of
plasterboard they're thirteen fifty rather than twelve hundred. That's an
option for you as well. And then the idea of
reusing your skirting boards. I'm delighted to hear you say that.

(38:49):
I didn't interview. Had a bit of a chat with
brands magazine or brands researchers and it'll be in the
brand's magazine a couple of weeks time talking about renovations.
And what I think is really important sometimes with renovations
is keeping the materiality of them, using existing architraves and
skirting boards and so on. They can be tricky to

(39:12):
take off. You may damage a couple here and there,
but they are repairable, right, So yeah, what you're doing
I think casin, like I say, brings back a lot
of happy memories and it's certainly doable. But please bear
in mind that if you do add insulation, it does
trigger the requirement for a building consent. I think that

(39:34):
should change, but right now those actually are the rules.
A couple of people have texted with regard to Ross,
who was talking about the five year old home that
he's got and the fact that he seems to have
had an extraordinary number of leaks in the fittings for
the water maine. I really struggle to understand why you
would want to add junctions to a water main that

(39:54):
runs underneath the concrete driveway, because even the best ones
might fail at some stage. But as it failed, hey, peak,
that guy with the leaks under the driveway and so
many fittings, sounds like the main water pipe has been
damaged by the contractor, maybe while laying the driveway, so
don't put and then they don't put the fittings in
to cover up their stuff, and it's just not the

(40:15):
right fitting for the job. I you know, a contractor
might have damaged the water maine. He's cut it, put
a junction in to repair it, it's not quite the
right one, or he doesn't quite know what he's doing,
and hey, look a couple of fast forward a few
years and you've got some problems with it. Someone else
has taxed through and suggested, you know, potentially thrusting a

(40:35):
new water Maine to the house and then just deleting
the old one. And I think Lindz just or Catherines
just text me to say hey, thanks very much for
the description about doing the plaster board. Yep, that was
very helpful. A bit of skill in it actually, if
there are ways of doing it well, and certainly one

(40:56):
of those is horizontal, certainly using thirteen mill board, making
sure that the sarking board is well fixed back and
then you know, plenty of glue. Hold the boredom place.
You'll get a great job. Radio Wei got a little
bit of music to take us up to the news
top of the r then we'll be back straight after
the seven o'clock news. If you've got a question to ask,

(41:17):
call us now, oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty back
after the news.

Speaker 1 (41:41):
Whether you're painting the ceiling, fixing the fence, or wondering
how to fix that hole in the wall.

Speaker 6 (41:46):
Give Peter wolf.

Speaker 1 (41:47):
Cap a call on eighty the resident builder on News
Talks EDB.

Speaker 6 (41:53):
Radio Your News Talks B back for the second hour
of the show. It is six minutes almost seven minutes
after seven on a Sunday morning in New Zealand. As
I mentioned, that makes it a Saturday evening in the UK,
where I happened to be broadcasting from this morning. So
looking forward to your calls and your conversation, just following

(42:14):
on from that text that we had and my answer
around plasterboard and so on. Someone also said, hey, how
did you get insulation in behind the sarking and did
this press against the outside weatherboards. There's a couple of
solutions there. So in the end, what I ended up

(42:35):
doing is cutting a section of the sarking out so
that I could push insulation in and up and insulation
in and down, and then when I couldn't reach any further,
i'd go further up the gap between the two studs,
cut out another piece of sarking, push insulation down till
it met the top of the other piece of insulation,

(42:58):
and then push insulation up. And so I did that,
and so I ended up with a bit of a patchwork.
But I didn't want to remove all the sarking. I
guess one way of doing it is to remove the
sarking then put it back on again. The other thing
that I think is really important to do is because
typically old houses like that right up to the gosh,

(43:18):
nineteen sixties or so would have timber framing, They might
have weatherboards on the outside, they might have sarking or
plaster board on the inside, but there's no building rap.
So ideally what you want to do is to be
able to install some building rap, some building paper against
the back of the weatherboard, and then push your insulation
against that. So that's the best case scenario. Again, actually,

(43:42):
just thinking about it, there's some very good guides available
on the brand's website and through the various brands how
to guides that you can have a look at. So again,
it's worth doing well in order to get the right finish,
and it's I guess. The only other thing I'd add
in is that in some cases I opted to use,

(44:04):
in particular Autech green stuff because it's one hundred percent
pure polyester, which means that it doesn't absorb moisture. So
in those instances where it was impractical to try and
get some paper against the back of the weatherboard, I
use that type of insulation because if there was a
bit of moisture drawing through the weatherboard. At least it

(44:25):
wouldn't be absorbed by the insulation. So there's a little
bit more to it than you think about in the
first instance, but it's a really important part to getting warm, dry,
comfortable houses. Oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the
number to call. Brian A very good morning to you.
I am good mate, I'm goods.

Speaker 13 (44:48):
I'm just about that split in the galmanized tea junction
to tea. We also have a house about sixty seven
years old in one split inside our house like water cylinder.

Speaker 6 (45:01):
Yes, so that's split, you know, whether.

Speaker 13 (45:04):
So that there's a little trying to describe it. So
it's the long best where the tea can't butt into
that on that on that rounded joint there, and it
was just like a pin hole, a pin hole and
twenty more house. Obviously the bit of an impression.

Speaker 6 (45:21):
It's a lot of water damage.

Speaker 14 (45:23):
So it was like.

Speaker 13 (45:24):
This was this you guys are talking about. Maybe the
plumber or an installer damaged their mine.

Speaker 8 (45:30):
But this.

Speaker 13 (45:33):
Six years six years old, they wouldn't have been there,
wouldn't have been damaged. So for me, it does might
have been holding or whatever. But the the idea of
plastic one. I guess they used the blue off by
surprise that people still musing Albanie blight from the don't know.

Speaker 6 (45:53):
I don't think that they use GalF in this particular job.
I think it was that the fitting was damaged. And
I'm not even completely sure that he was talking about
let's say metal fitting, So I mean it's it would
be rare. I can't think of the well. I know
the last time that I saw galvanized water pipe, and

(46:14):
it was when I was ripping it out because it
had rusted and failed.

Speaker 13 (46:19):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, share that with you.

Speaker 6 (46:24):
Appreciate that that would be terribly frustrating to in a
five year old house to have modern plumbing fittings fail.
Did the plumber or main contractor or manufacturer distributor come
to the party and help out?

Speaker 13 (46:40):
A dollar job? I don't even worry about it. Yeah, okay,
five could have done it myself.

Speaker 6 (46:49):
But okay, so it was it was accessible, that's the
main thing. Fantastic. Cant your blessings there. Look out for
yourself on the road today. Safe travels, bran all the best,
take care of the driving things. Interesting. I did have

(47:12):
been driving here yesterday and with the growth to respect
to the English. I'm never complaining about New Zealand roads again. Right,
I'll just leave it at that. It was quite the
he raising event. Eight hundred eighty eighty is the number
to call. Paul A very good morning.

Speaker 8 (47:33):
Oh good morning Pete.

Speaker 15 (47:35):
Chris. Just going on from your.

Speaker 16 (47:40):
Insulation that you did behind the sarking. Yeah, now, so
I've got an old posit that I'm thinking about taking
the weatherboards off. Some of them are rotten, right, and
I want to So once I take those weatherboards off
two walls, I'm wanting to put vats in there. But

(48:03):
you're saying that that needs a consent. Okay, yes, okay,
once I take the weather boards off of the sarking
behind the gym as well.

Speaker 8 (48:16):
So so the.

Speaker 16 (48:18):
Exterior framing won't have any knogs, okay, yes, because that's
how they built the houses back in the days. That's
why they use the sarking to actually brace brace they
the framing mont it yep. Yeah, So well I have
to put nogs in because when the when the Council

(48:41):
and Inspectac comes around to have a look at the bats,
is he going to want the builder too well? Won
put some bracing on that that exterior wall and two
puts the loggings in for the bats to sit in correctly,
because I can't understand how you were able to cut

(49:04):
out sections of the sarking from inside guide and just
poke your your insulation in. Like you said, how did
the how did that get inspected properly without the starking
being taken off completely? How did you get around the
inspector coming in and having a lot to see if

(49:25):
you're if you'd actually installed that insulation correctly?

Speaker 6 (49:31):
Uh? Yeah, I think you've got to remember this was
a long time ago, right, and and rules and regulations
have changed a bit. I mean, done this for a while,
so today it would poss And I'm thinking about your job,
you know, like I think if you're removing two elevations
of weather boards, that in itself would probably trigger the
requirement for a building consent. And yes, you do run

(49:55):
the risk of a bit of project creep, where let's say,
in order to comply with the building code, the designer
specifies the fact that you may need to contin newest
bottom plate, in which case you're cutting out the all
of the studs and putting in a new bottom plate,
or you're fixing it all together with CP forty's or

(50:15):
you're having to put two rows of nogs through it.

Speaker 15 (50:21):
Okay, so that.

Speaker 6 (50:24):
Because there is part of me that just goes, you
know what, it's an old house. It's lasted this long.
If you pop the weather boards off, put some insulation,
and put some building paper around the outside, put the
weather boards back on, it would be what you had
before and it will last for the duration of the building. Right.
And making you go through and maybe do a continuous

(50:45):
bottom plate and the whole series of nogs and all
the rest of it seems to me unnecessary given that
the building has already performed okay, and it's it stood
up for this long.

Speaker 8 (50:58):
Sorry if you go.

Speaker 16 (51:00):
So, I was just wondering by taking off that weather
board thatch like Sparker a an inspect to come around
and say, Aniston, you've got to go and do those knots,
because my builder said, by taking off those weather boards,
I'm doing a like for like. So I don't really

(51:21):
need a conceptor I don't really need a consent to
actually do that. I can just replace those weather boards
of light for light. But once I put the once
I want to put the insulation in that starts a
new process.

Speaker 17 (51:35):
That's that.

Speaker 16 (51:35):
So they might come around and say, well, because you're
putting in that insallation, you've got to put new bracing
in a new node at could end.

Speaker 6 (51:44):
I think the better pathway is for the builder or
yourself to go to council and ask for a dispensation. Right,
Explain to the local building inspector the nature of the work.
Explain that it's you know, I think because you're taking
an entire elevation of weather boards off, they probably look

(52:05):
at that as re cladding rather than repairs and maintenance.
And I would have some sympathy for that. But let's
say you say to them, actually, it is just repairs
and maintenance, which is what it actually which is what
it is. And then while I'm doing it, because I've
got opportunity to see the inside of the cavities, I'm
going to put some insulation in, I'm going to put

(52:26):
some building wrap. I'm going to put my weatherwards direct
fixed back onto the studs. Can I get a dispensation?
And they might say to you, absolutely, so go for
the dispensation.

Speaker 16 (52:37):
All right, okay, thanks, get.

Speaker 6 (52:39):
Something and writing all the best you Paul, hope it
all works out, well, I think we should take a break.
We'll do that, then we'll come back and talk to
Keith in just a moment.

Speaker 1 (52:48):
Squeaky door or squeaky floor get the right advice from
Peter Wolfcare, the resident builder on Youth talksb.

Speaker 6 (52:57):
Right News TALKSB seven twenty Keith, A very good morning
to you.

Speaker 8 (53:02):
Hey, good morning, thank you.

Speaker 15 (53:05):
My question.

Speaker 18 (53:06):
I've got a nineteen nineties interlockhorm with polystyrene cladding as such,
with a rendering over that it's attached, and it's on
of approximately four meter polls, so I've got very easy
access underneath, and just like the lockwood as the usual creeks. Yeah,
I'm just checking if I can get access to the

(53:28):
rods and the nuts that secure everything. How tape should
I take those?

Speaker 6 (53:36):
Fantastic question, and just for people that are unsure about
how this works. So interlock homes, lockwood homes and so on,
solid pieces of timber their machine so that they come
effectively with like a tongue in groove. They're like really
chunky tongue in groove. And then what they do is
they put a tie rod from the top plate or

(53:57):
from the top board to the bottom one, and once
they've all been stacked up, they put the rod through,
put a washer and a nut on the top of
the bottom, and tie in the building up. That's what
gives it its strength. But you can imagine that in
what thirty forty years, the timbers dried out, everything shrunk
a little bit, and those rods will be loose and

(54:18):
you'll get a little bit of movement. Now, I presume
that that's what's happening. Look, I think in the first instance,
I would probably actually go back to Interlock and ask
them whether they actually have like a reading a certain
number of newton meters on a talk wrench that you
would do, or whether they would just say, just nip
them up until they're tight, and whether you judge that

(54:41):
yourself in terms of you know, it'll be what a
twenty two million nut or something like that, it'll be
a decent sized nut. You know, if you've got a
reasonably long bar on your socket set and you feel
that you've given that a really good tweak, you know,
maybe it's just a kind of an intuition, this feels
about right, or possibly there is a specific this many

(55:04):
newton meters.

Speaker 18 (55:06):
Okay, so let's just go back to them a couple check.

Speaker 6 (55:09):
Otherwise, Yeah, I think so. But otherwise it'll be really
interesting too to see how many of them are still
able to be tightened, you know, in the in the
sense that nuts and you know, rusters is pretty prevalent
to New Zealand, whether or not some of them have

(55:30):
seized up to the point that you couldn't move them.
Have you tried any so far?

Speaker 8 (55:36):
I haven't tried.

Speaker 18 (55:36):
I've been underneath them, had a look seeing if it's
it's easy to get underneath. A couple definitely have loose washers.
I can just spin the washers. Oh wow, a couple
and a couple look rusty. So I was going to
spray them with CRC first, Yeah, for maybe a week
and let them just soak so less of anything sharing.

Speaker 6 (55:58):
Yeah, but yeah it was great.

Speaker 18 (56:00):
Do I just tighten them up?

Speaker 7 (56:02):
I do?

Speaker 18 (56:02):
I need to use some set quirk. I mean, the
house is probably very quaky first thing in the morning, right,
so the whole thing play with out aver the joy,
which I suppose you've got to expect.

Speaker 6 (56:19):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. For what it's worth, ce
Us is really good. There's also I think they make
another product called penetrol or patron that I've found has
been really really good at just freeing up loose nuts
and that sort of thing. So I tend to have
a whole range of these little canisters on the on

(56:41):
the workbench. But the penetrol works really really well. Also,
enjoy it sounds a great job, all right, nice to
check take care. Actually that does sound like a really
fun We can jobs like that be fun? Yeah, I
think so, Nick. Good morning, Good morning.

Speaker 17 (57:02):
I'm a border, I'm a boorder. I've DoD a lot
of work on around ONTs, some being grayed and things
like that. What happened with those old houses was they
didn't have very effective foundations right from the start, and
often the old houses were maintained through the fifties and
sixties because they were they were in the slum kind

(57:24):
of thing, and the spouting fell off, and then all
the water all the ground around the houses became soft,
and the houses spunk on the outside and stayed up high,
and the dry underneath and around the chimneys, so the
whole houses kind of stagged. And then people came along

(57:45):
in the seventies and thought, I'll renovate my villa, and
they put jib board all over the walls. And what
they did was actually the house had sunk and it
became when you put the jib board on, you're actually
lining a parallelogram.

Speaker 13 (58:01):
And then later on.

Speaker 17 (58:03):
So then you can't paint it after the dig woods
be done. And then people come along later and they go,
I'm going to be going upstairs, and they the border
who does upstairs takes it all up to be level,
and then later on they want to come and to
come and do something else, and then they want to
put a kitchen them and they find that the floor
is seventy more out of out of level or something

(58:24):
like that, and then go the bolder pays you need
to relevel your house, and the level has come in
and the whole house doll stays with it's all got
parallelograms everywhere and you can't level it anymore. So the
first thing before you put your board up is you
need to get the floor level because because there's no

(58:45):
bracing in the odd brothers. So before you do that,
you put the bathing on. The best way to put
the so after you've leveled it, then the best way
is to take all the cycling off put paper and
as someone dead between the studs and around the sides
of it then and today that's and then the board horizontally.

(59:10):
But if you're putting the board onto the sacking, you
better to put the board vertically because the sarking is
there is some thickness between ten and twelve miles. So
if you go horizontally where the joiners, one seat might
be going be back from the yeah, above it, so
you better and it's going to be straight us going
aside going horizontally over the sacking.

Speaker 6 (59:35):
I would always prefer to go horizontal. It's always been
my preference new builds and renovations, so I'd stick with that.
And I look, I hear what you're saying, and there's
some tremendous knowledge and what you've said there there. I mean,
I found that most houses, if they did get lined,
even when they're all but wonky. You know, there's a

(59:57):
couple of twenty ton jacks tend to overwhelm any bits
of plaster board, so it will all crack and you'll
need to restop it or you need to pull the
lining off, and you do it. But you're absolutely right.
And I've got another project coming up in the new
year where while there's work to do on an older house.
I don't want anyone to do anything until we've re

(01:00:18):
leveled it, right, because exactly as per your comment there, Nick,
in this instance, the bathroom probably from the door to
the side wall falls sixty to seventy mil by my guess,
and a cross probably falls another thirty or forty mils.
So you don't want to be going in there doing
you tiling and all the rest of it before the
floor gets leveled. So, as per the comment about the lining,

(01:00:42):
sucking and so on, if you've got an old house,
I know it's can be a little bit challenging to go.
Is it worth tipping the money into repiling? No one's
ever regretted it because it makes such a massive difference
to the house later on. I appreciate the call, Nick,
really do Oh eight hundred and eighty ten eighty is
that I'm going to call Pete a very good morning

(01:01:03):
to you. I'm sorry, mate, Just stay there, Peek. I've
just got to cool button. There you go, gotcha, gotcha?
How are you doing, Pepe?

Speaker 2 (01:01:13):
They're good.

Speaker 10 (01:01:13):
I'm looking at this house. It's got the monolithic plastic
cleaning on it, yes, and above the windows it's got
those hairline cracks. I'm looking at it's to buy. Maybe
what's the story worth that? Someone say, you've got to
get an inspection done on it before the affairs any

(01:01:34):
moisture and behind those the walls.

Speaker 6 (01:01:39):
Okay, this again, this is one of those things, is
quite a bit to it. So because what's happened is
we've tended to lump monolithic cladding into one basket, right,
but it's not. There is lots of different types of
things that are monolithic and that look monolithic, but they
might perform differently. So what you'd want to do is

(01:02:02):
roughly when was the house built?

Speaker 10 (01:02:05):
Yearly two thousands. Basically what I watched it getting built
was no money, basically what it was. I was happy
if they put plaster on the I'm not too sure.
I can't read call quietly now they call it the kevity.

Speaker 2 (01:02:18):
You're not too sure.

Speaker 10 (01:02:20):
They put fiber light on it, and then you put
the paper on it as well. Then I think he
put the fiber light on it and then he sprayed
it texture on it above those windows. Now that's weird.
And they got two or three line sea line correct,
And some people they won't touch like as a barge
while because they leaking syndrome phrase.

Speaker 6 (01:02:38):
Yeah, and you know, the whole thing is like, I've
never been one to go look just because it's monolithic
means that it's a leaker, right, It's a lot more
complex than that. So from what you're describing, and I'm
you know, I haven't seen the house, so don't take
this as uh, you know, gospel that the house isn't
going to cause your problems. I'm just saying that if

(01:02:59):
you've got something late two thousands was or early two
thousands was still a little bit of a problem time.
But if it's building wrap, if it's got a cavity,
if it's got a reasonable system where you can see
how they've detailed flashings at complex junctions like to windows
and so on, if it's got some eves, if it's

(01:03:20):
single story, those sorts of things tend to mitigate the risk.
Whereas you know, go back a couple of years earlier
than that, we had timber frames, direct fixed five er
cement sheet with a spray coating over the top, with
no eves, with no flashing detail around the windows. Those
things caused a lot of problems. In this instance, though,

(01:03:43):
can I ask a personal question, Do you need a
mortgage for this property?

Speaker 4 (01:03:48):
Yes?

Speaker 6 (01:03:48):
I do, Okay, I think it's fair to say that
many banks, and I guess many insurers are very very
reluctant to without good evidence to say it's not going
to be a problem. My understanding is that a lot
of people that I know or know of have had
trouble lending based on that, some of which is justifiable,

(01:04:13):
some of which I think is a little bit too
risk averse. So what you might find is you're going
to need to get a professional pre purchase inspection done.
You need to get someone who's got some qualifications in that.
If they say to you the houses in reasonable condition,
or it might have some small maintenance jobs to do,

(01:04:35):
but in general it's weather tight, then that should be
accepted by the banks. To be fair, I've probably heard
of situations where banks or insurers have said, regardless of
the report, we're still not prepared to lend on it.
So you probably have to have a fairly open conversation

(01:04:55):
with your bank or your insurer before you go too
far down this track, because they might just say we're
not interested. And that's not uncommon these days. Think in
some cases it's unfair. But that doesn't mean that it's
not happening.

Speaker 10 (01:05:11):
It's got it's got eaves on it, a tone of concrete. Ye,
what's what's that single story it is? Yeah, that's quite
just up the windows. The rest of the house is fine.
It's just above basically the bay window and three windows
at the back of the master room and they tore

(01:05:32):
it's just it's only about three hundred mill spare me
tree in the early windows in the.

Speaker 6 (01:05:38):
Yeah, and when you look at the top of the
window there's a very clear head flashing that you can
see there.

Speaker 10 (01:05:46):
And the windows are gone. And like say, inside that
inside that clanning, they just focus, they do, and they remember,
they do, and they put all the paper around he
made it was quite happy put all the all that
that paper around the windows. You see that off actually
that you ever seen the job at the time. It's
quite happy what he did. But now is cracked above

(01:06:07):
the windows. And but one guy said, oh, you can't
really test it with the They do the thermal testing.
But the only way where you can find out where
that water's gone. And the strange thing about it, instead
of putting silicon, they never did. So those headline cracks.
They haven't done nothing to them for the water. You know,
water's water, And I'm just wondering. It's the only way

(01:06:29):
that they can do a thermal test, and where there's
a moisture test, they can do that, but they still can't.
The only way they can do it, they've got to
draw holes inside the inside the house or the outside
and put a camera in then find out on the
on the framing where there's actually rotten the framing.

Speaker 6 (01:06:46):
It's probably I mean, yes, that's true. I don't know
that you need to necessarily go to that extent. I
think that if you did some thermal imaging by someone
who knows what they're doing, that's the important thing. On
the inside, if you took some moisture readings and you
didn't get some exceptionally high moisture readings in that area,
and you did some thermal imaging and that didn't sharp
any anomalies, and if there's a couple of small cracks

(01:07:09):
on the outside and maybe it hasn't been painted for
ten years something like that, it's it's adding all of
those components together and then making a risk assessment from there.
But you know, we could talk about it for you
know as much as you like, and I'm happy to
do that. But I think in the end what you
might find is that your bank or your insurer is

(01:07:32):
reluctant to end on that, so you need to talk
to them. My advice would be to talk to them
pretty early on before you go.

Speaker 10 (01:07:39):
You'd be happy if that came out that was all right, sorry,
If the with the thermal moisture testing they were happy
with that, there's nothing came up as on their way.
If they say is bad, they're happy with that film
or testing.

Speaker 6 (01:07:55):
I think that yeah, a combination of two things. So
you could do some visual like thermal imaging of the
building to see whether or not there's some anomalies there,
and then do some moisture read around the jam liner,
around the window, around the top of the window, and
again if those readings don't very dramatically from somewhere else
that you know. Often if you go the middle of

(01:08:17):
the wall where it's just flat cladding on the outside,
you take a data point there and then you find
that you're within a couple of points when you're at
the window, then you could you could make the assumption
it's probably not going to be an issue. If the
numbers shoot up around the window, then that would indicate
that there's an issue there.

Speaker 18 (01:08:36):
Yeah, thank good luck with it, and you know, make
sure you if you're going to get a pre purchase suspecs, get.

Speaker 6 (01:08:42):
Someone who knows what they're talking about. That's really important. Right,
we need to take a break. It is seven thirty
six at News Talks. B will take the break. We'll
come back and talk to Sandy after the break.

Speaker 1 (01:08:55):
Helping you get those DIY projects done right. The resident
fielder with Peter Wolfgaf call, oh, eight hundred eighty eight,
you've TALKB.

Speaker 6 (01:09:05):
The quick text it's coming. Just as a reference to
Pete talking about sort of early two thousand's build. Someone
sets through to say, hey, look, one of the issues
we had then too is finished floor level. So this
is where outside ground levels were often allowed to creep
up closer and closer to the finished floor level inside.

(01:09:28):
So even if your cladding came down, let's say fifty
mili past the bottom of the bottom plate, ground levels
would creep up. You get a bit of capillary action
or you get less drainage. And it reminds me had
a job years ago where the house was tested and
one of the bottom plates was ninety two percent moisture content, right,
It was just it was ringing, wet, And part of

(01:09:50):
the issue is that whoever poured the driveway poured it
up pretty much to the height of the bricks, even
fractionally higher than the wheepholes or the vents. So water
was actually being pushed into the building because it was
shedding off the driveway. Not a simple facts, but not
a terribly complicated one either. We just cut the driveway

(01:10:11):
back and created some space there and hate problem. Problem solved,
I think, to the best of my knowledge. Right here, Sandy,
what's up, morty, mate?

Speaker 10 (01:10:22):
How are you?

Speaker 9 (01:10:22):
You know?

Speaker 5 (01:10:23):
Hey?

Speaker 6 (01:10:23):
Good? Thanks buddy.

Speaker 10 (01:10:25):
Hey.

Speaker 8 (01:10:25):
Water may burst in under driveways. I love it a lot.
I do a lot of replacement of those we're thrusting,
and I mean a lot a lot. So me, yeah,
there's different reasons why. Obviously, pipes burst on the ground
could be end of life, could be contaminated, trench could
be products not not up to up to standard and

(01:10:50):
just fail like a few years. So there are multiple
and of course joiners underground, which is a weak point, right,
So my best advice would be this is what me
and a plumber that we work together.

Speaker 6 (01:11:01):
We do.

Speaker 8 (01:11:02):
When we drill a new line, we guarantee the pipe
under the drive the new one. We only pull a
single pipe. We don't put joiners on it. If the
joint is going to be anywhere, it's going to be
at either end, at the meter, at the house or
somewhere you can access it as a horrible T twenty
degree or something. But most houses have their pressure limiting
valves at the house, so the house is protected from
the water main pressure, but your driveway is not protected.

(01:11:25):
So we move that. We'll put a new one down
on the road at the meter, So now your driveway
pipe is now protected from names pressure. And that's sometimes
the problem, too much pressure from a council name. So
your poor pipe under the driveway is not protected, but
your house is. So my best advice would be you

(01:11:47):
could either get your pressure tested or do a simple
simple thing and move that valve, or get a new
one and put it down on the meter to protect
the pipe under your drive That's that's it. That's my
advice for to day.

Speaker 6 (01:12:00):
Man, and it's worth thinking about because funny, I was
looking at the job the other day just before we left,
where I was thinking I'd like to install a pressure
meter and I was going to do it at the
end of the water mate, so in part that if
there was a problem, you could just come outside turn
the water off at that point and not have to

(01:12:23):
go and fossic around and find the toby in the
garden and all the rest of it. But what you're
saying is why not protect the water maine from the
toby to the house and put your pressure relief valvel
your limitter there.

Speaker 8 (01:12:37):
Yes, and just put a valve of t valves up
at the house so you can just run outside and
switch it off as Yes.

Speaker 6 (01:12:42):
Yeah, perfect, that's good advice. I like that much appreciated.
Thank you, seeing you for that. And in some ways
it's be careful what you wish for, because what we're
asking most of our water services, particularly in Wellington, is
to sort out all of the old pipes. Right so
where I happen to live, after the last leak in

(01:13:04):
the water maine and the curb the road from me,
and I've had it leak in front of my place
and I've seen it leak in front of my neighbors.
You know, council are going these lines are one hundred
plus years old, so ideally you want them to replace them.
But obviously the more old existing water mains that are
counsel owned are upgraded, the higher the pressure is going

(01:13:26):
to be, and likely the more pressure is going to
be coming into private lines and more failures we might see.
So it's one of those things. Be careful what you
wish for. Right we're being on time, so I'm going
to take the break. Marion will be with you straight
after the break.

Speaker 1 (01:13:41):
Mesa twice, God was, but maybe called Pete first, d
you walcare the resident builder news talks be.

Speaker 6 (01:13:49):
Your new stalks, he'd be. We're talking all things building
and construction, as we do every Sunday morning here at
New Storks CB, and we do it regardless of whether
I'm in the country or not, because right now I'm not,
but with a little laptop and a microphone, which did
cause some consternation when it went through the security check
the other day because it's a rather hefty old beast

(01:14:12):
and the gentleman in Paris was like, monsieur, can you
explain what this is? And I'm trying to explain that
I'm doing some broadcasting and buddy, but anyway, it didn't
go well. But we got there in the end.

Speaker 14 (01:14:25):
Marion Greetings, greeting pieces.

Speaker 6 (01:14:29):
Hello.

Speaker 14 (01:14:31):
Well we built our house in castave Ay about twenty
twenty odd years ago. Yep, so it was brand new.
It's a double story and it's a upside down house.
So now I'm just facing Rangytoto. Yes, right now. We

(01:14:57):
have an earthquakes at Auklin. I know you won't believe this.
And it was at Motor Tampoo and it.

Speaker 6 (01:15:05):
Was out by barrier, wasn't it.

Speaker 11 (01:15:06):
Yeah?

Speaker 14 (01:15:07):
Yeah, And anyway, we in direct line across the water
and we ended up with some cracks in our house.
It's on the earthquake and once in the.

Speaker 9 (01:15:24):
In the.

Speaker 14 (01:15:25):
Kitchen, come lounge, yes, and the others bad one is
in the garage which is downstairs. And also I noticed
this one in the bathroom upstairs. Different little crap. I'm
wondering what we should.

Speaker 6 (01:15:42):
Do the challenge. The challenge is going to be convincing
you're ensurer that the damage is directly relatable to that
seismic event.

Speaker 14 (01:15:56):
I'm not worried about that. I'm not worried about Okay.

Speaker 6 (01:16:01):
See, Otherwise, I think an ensured, like if you went
to the insurance said we had an earthquake, and everybody
knows it because you can check the records right and
then say to them, as a result of that earthquake,
this damage has happened to my building. With the great respect,
I suspect that they will be skeptical if yours was

(01:16:22):
the only incident of reporting damage as a result of
the earthquake. Now, if there happened to have been some
other houses in your area that also reported damage as
a result of that seismic activity, then possibly you'd make
You'd be in a position where you could make a
claim or your claim would be accepted. I'm not speaking

(01:16:44):
for the insurers, but I'm just thinking about how they
might approach this, because you're right, you know, earthquakes in
Auckland are unusual and typically they're off a very low scale.
And whether or not they were sufficient to cause the cracking.
And then the other thing is do you have any
evidence to say that there was no cracking there prior

(01:17:06):
to the event of the earthquake. No, Yeah, Look, I
think by all means make a claim, but I actually,
you know, I know people who are assesses. I suspect
that they will approach it with a fair amount of
professional skepticism, but looks making a claim.

Speaker 14 (01:17:35):
I would say, why didn't you do it just after
the earth quoke?

Speaker 6 (01:17:39):
That's the other thing, you know, if you if you
woke up the next morning and went, crikey, there's some
cracks on my walls, then that would be true too.
But look, I don't want to dissuade you from the factors.
If you've paid your insurance premiums, you deserve the respective
of being listened to. So if you were going to

(01:18:00):
make a claim, do it sooner rather than later. If
you can provide some evidence that would help your case
as well. And yes, I am aware of that earthquake
that happened at that time. Unusual, but they do happen
from time to time, but not that much. Because that's
partly why the government's changed all the regulations around new

(01:18:21):
building or building code requirements for existing particularly masonry instruction
in Auckland, where they don't have to achieve what was
initially thought that they needed to achieve in order to
be a compliant building. Good luck with that, Marian and Jenny.
A very good morning.

Speaker 14 (01:18:38):
Oh good morning, Peter.

Speaker 9 (01:18:40):
We've just moved into a new property and it has
a macrocarpa deck around fifty to sixty square meters, so
quite a big deck. But it's in a really bad condition.
Like the previous signers hadn't been successful in getting the
deck to look good. But the deck shows it's got peling,

(01:19:00):
painting parts which show either bear wood or stained wood.
And we're just wondering, how do we fix it, place
it back to bear wood or water or.

Speaker 6 (01:19:15):
When you say macrocarper, So the actual decking timber itself
is macrocarper.

Speaker 9 (01:19:20):
Yes it is, yes, but I told us that when yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:19:26):
Right, which, to be fair, is not particularly common, right
because soft wood and oh yes, yeah, yeah, okay, and
then they've painted the macro carver.

Speaker 9 (01:19:40):
Yes, they've they've painted, they've stained it. They also have
a t they've got a table on the deck which
they left that's either been stained or painted or something.

Speaker 12 (01:19:51):
But the deck is just really bad.

Speaker 9 (01:19:54):
Yes, he definitely said macro carver. And I think he
did say it's a soft.

Speaker 2 (01:19:58):
Wood, Yeah it is.

Speaker 6 (01:20:00):
And roughly how old would the deck be?

Speaker 9 (01:20:05):
Years old? Oh yeah, around five yeah, and it just
looks really bad and different parts. Yeah, my husband's just
wondering what's the best tick to take initially to take
it back, I guess, And then what would you recommend
putting on it?

Speaker 6 (01:20:26):
Well, that's the thing. See, I look, if if it's
an area that you use a lot, and you you
you know, you want it to be an integral part
of how you live in the house in terms of
indoor outdoor flow, I wonder whether anything you did would
just leave you with a whole lot of compromises.

Speaker 19 (01:20:44):
Oh, I don't know.

Speaker 6 (01:20:48):
I mean, I know you've just bought the house and
all the rest of it. I kind of look at
it and go, you know, if it's a really important
area to you that gets a lot of use, I
would actually think about just pulling it out and replacing
it a more suitable material, which is probably not what

(01:21:09):
you want to hear look there.

Speaker 14 (01:21:13):
To hear it.

Speaker 6 (01:21:13):
No, he probably won't, and I hesitate to mention it,
but I just think that, Like I love macrocarpa right,
don't get me wrong. I think it's a fabulous timber.
I've done some furniture making with it. I've used it
for outdoor seating areas and retaining walls and all the rest.

(01:21:34):
I love it, and I love the smell in particular,
But would I either use it as decking. No, I
don't know that I would. Doing the news is to
see whether or not you can actually get it as decking.
I'll do a little bit of reading during the news.
But look, and then when you say paint, it's literally

(01:21:54):
being painted, as in with color over the.

Speaker 14 (01:21:58):
Yes.

Speaker 11 (01:21:59):
That is.

Speaker 17 (01:21:59):
Yes.

Speaker 9 (01:21:59):
When we moved in, the owner was still here and
my husband mentioned the deck to him, and they came
in and stood on the deck, and that's what he said,
it being done. Yeah, he'd tried everything.

Speaker 6 (01:22:11):
Yeah, acrocauper doesn't really take well to painting. You know,
it's a beautiful timber. I want to keep you. So
there's a couple of challenges there, Jenny, stay listening after
the news. I'll make a couple of recommendations once I've
done a little bit of reading and research because we've
got the eight o'clock news coming up, a little bit
of Christmas music. Remember, in the next hour of the show,

(01:22:33):
the Root Climb Past will join us as always at
around eight point thirty. I'm going to do a bit
of research. We'll be back straight after news, sport and weather.

Speaker 1 (01:22:44):
Doing other house sorting. The garden asked Pete for ahead
the resident builder with Peter Wolfcap Call eighty ten eighty
News Talks V Right.

Speaker 6 (01:22:54):
News Talks V. It is six minutes almost seven minutes
after eight on a Sunday morning. I was going to say,
beautiful Sunday morning. I don't know because I'm not there,
but I could look it up online and figure it out.
And well, it got dark here at about four point
thirty in the afternoon, so you can guess which hemisphere
I happen to be in. Right now, Radio Let's talk

(01:23:15):
all things building and construction. Eight hundred and eighty ten
eighty is the number to call now. I did do
a little bit of research around the macrocarpa decking and
this is egg on FaceTime, right, So macrocarpa decking is
a thing. Interestingly enough, one of the websites that I
had to look at they didn't intend to, but they

(01:23:37):
happened to have featured one of my absolutely favorite houses.
You can only see a glimpse of it on the website,
but it is one of my absolute favorites anyway, that
aside the macrocarp for deckings there it is a popular
solution apparently for decking. Yes, it is a softwood, so
I guess it's a soft wood in the same way
as ponus radiator is a softwood. You don't need to

(01:23:59):
treat it. The natural oils and so on will resist decay.
But I don't think that anyone ever imagined that you
would put a coat of paint over macrocarper. So maybe
that's the issue, in which case just attacking it with
a belt sander, removing the paint and then restoring the

(01:24:19):
timber underneath it. Hopefully the primers haven't soaked too far
into the fibers to cause it to deteriorate, or not deteriorate,
but to stain effectively. So, Jenny, if you're still listening,
and I hope you are, then I would say getting
someone to sand the surface off, remove the paint system,

(01:24:40):
maybe apply to natural oils that will enhance the macrocarper.
You might be able to salvage it. But it does
seem like a crying shame that someone has gone through
and painted over the top of the macrocarper. Right, Oh,
if you've got a question of a building nature and
it can be Actually, it's been a thoroughly practical show
this morning, which I've really enjoyed, or at around this time.

(01:25:03):
Last week on the show we did have Mike Thornton,
barrister and solicitor talking to the proposal by the new
government to introduce ten year mandatory warranties for new bills
and for renovations over one hundred thousand. We can talk
about that, We can talk about all things building and construction.
You can give me a call right now on eight
hundred and eighty ten eighty. As per usual, the Root

(01:25:28):
will be along at eight thirty this morning. We'll talk
all things gardening in the wonderful world of entomology as well,
and a couple of other text that come. And just
with regard to the assurance, the lady asked how to
fix the crack. Oh, she said she didn't care anyway. Look,

(01:25:51):
you can fix and cracks and plasterboard if they're there,
is relatively straightforward. Typically I tend to scrape the surface down,
remove a little bit of the surface, ideally, put in
some bandage, then some stopping compound, flush that off, repaint
and typically you have to repaint the wall. Oh, eight
hundred and eighty ten eighty the number to call. Will

(01:26:11):
take the break. Then we'll talk to Steve in just a.

Speaker 1 (01:26:14):
Moment, whether you're paidy with ceiling, fixing with fens or
wondering how to fix that hole in the wall you
have Peter Wolf Gabber call on the resident builder on
News Dogs.

Speaker 6 (01:26:24):
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(01:26:47):
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zb Your news Talk said, be remember we've got rud
coming along at thirty this morning. If you've got a

(01:27:31):
question of a building nature, you can call us right now.
Eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the number, Steve, Good morning.

Speaker 20 (01:27:38):
Good morning, good one. Hey a goal. I want to
make it out of two hundred by two hundred timber
for the posts. What's the bit timber to use? And
what are your thoughts on late laminated timber for something
that's that's sick.

Speaker 6 (01:28:00):
The laminates are pretty good, to be fair, and certainly
it's hard to go past a laminate in terms of
something that's not going to move around. So you know,
then you've got to go.

Speaker 20 (01:28:12):
Just as well, I'll go to be painting it black?
Has any impact?

Speaker 6 (01:28:19):
Uh yeah, I mean you've got to be so careful
with dark colors onto timber. Right in general you can
or if you're going to do that, then have a
look at the Razine range of cool colors right that
have a reflective undercoat effectively that allows rather than absorbing heat,

(01:28:43):
it will help to push back a little bit of heat.
But saying that, you know, lamonate timbers or all timber
painted dark, yes, but yes, you'll notice some more movement
than you would if you painted it a light color,
all right, but I'm just giving you the background on it.
You can you can do what you want lamon. It's

(01:29:05):
definitely are you know, for big heavy posts if you
don't want them twisting and bending and all the rest
of it. It's pretty much the best way to go.

Speaker 2 (01:29:15):
Okay, cool.

Speaker 6 (01:29:17):
And then if you're going to paint it, make sure
that you you read them, you know, get the details
around the system that you're going to use in terms
of what the primer is. What it might be two primers,
it might be one oil based, one water based, the
right type of undercoats, bring it up and don't wait
too long before you start the painting. Don't let the

(01:29:39):
timber get too weathered before you get a code of
paint on it would be my advice. And then also
if you're you got to think about how you're going
to treat the end grain at the top. So what
you don't want to do is allow water to enter
the post at the top. So maybe you end up
with a little cap flashing or sealing that in some

(01:29:59):
way to make sure water is not entering the top
of the post.

Speaker 20 (01:30:03):
Yeah, I was going to put a slight before cross beams.

Speaker 6 (01:30:08):
A good idea, yep, and then thoroughly seal that and
remember it because the lemon a posts will be h
three point two treated. So when you do the cuts,
use some sealant to re seal those cuts to make
sure you've got the timber preservative right through the timber.

Speaker 20 (01:30:28):
Okay, what about acid washing a newly laid concrete it's
been down for about three weeks?

Speaker 2 (01:30:39):
Is that hard to do or do?

Speaker 10 (01:30:41):
Get?

Speaker 6 (01:30:43):
No, it's it's not. I mean, so have you gone
for an exposed aggregate finish.

Speaker 20 (01:30:48):
No smooth, smooth concrete black?

Speaker 6 (01:30:53):
Or would do you really want to be doing an
acid wash on it? Like, what's the advantage to it?

Speaker 20 (01:31:00):
Well, I need to seal it. Okay, yes, all right
as acid watch it first and then seal it.

Speaker 8 (01:31:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:31:14):
The tricky part is getting an even coat of acid
on it so you don't end up staining it and
having sort of more applied to one area than to
another and inadvertently making your finished go a but patchy.

Speaker 20 (01:31:30):
Okay, So just water plaster and seal it.

Speaker 6 (01:31:35):
Yes, that would be sufficient.

Speaker 20 (01:31:38):
Okay, yeah, all right? Yeah, and sealing it's just like
painting a wall sort of thing, Just a.

Speaker 6 (01:31:48):
Big roller and the where you go, big fluffy roller
and away you go.

Speaker 5 (01:31:52):
Perfect.

Speaker 6 (01:31:52):
Thanks very much, it sounds good. Enjoy that, Steve, take care,
see you. Bobby and Murray, A very good morning to you.

Speaker 19 (01:32:00):
Good morning. We have quite a game. Back to your
Mexica a deck. We have quite a large it's probably
close to twenty meters long by four meters wide, and
it gets very very slippery in the rain, in the wet.
When you go right out there and you walk on
the deck, it can be very very slippery. And I'm

(01:32:21):
open to ideas on how we would stop that slipperiness.
I possibly why they're previous Zoner. When I'm painted, there's
one or some something that was non slip.

Speaker 6 (01:32:35):
You wonder whether that might have been because typically you'd go,
why would you take a really nice looking timber and
then cover it and paint right unless what you were
doing is you were putting some aggregate into that, some
very fine sand into there to give you some slip
resistance on it. And in that sense, I can understand
why you'd do it. The Mecrocarpa decking that you've got down,

(01:32:57):
did it, has it ever had a sealer applied to it?
Like a natural oil or something like that.

Speaker 19 (01:33:03):
I don't believe. So we've bought it with the property
and it's it's not that old as probably only five
years old as grade off, Yeah, I'm much close to
threen years old. But it's grade off quite nicely, and
it looks the party just it's almost treacherous in the rain, and.

Speaker 6 (01:33:27):
I wonder whether it is part of that if like
if it hasn't been sealed and so over time it's
grade off, which is also means it's developed probably a
little bit of a film of some moss and mold
and so on. If you were to use a deck
treatment and remove that surface or clean that surface, would
you find then that it would be less slippery because

(01:33:50):
you've got more of the fibers of the timber exposed
and they're not coated in basically slippery mold. So because
no matter what you're going to do, yeah, no matter
what you're going to do, you're going to have to
clean the timber. So I wonder whether you get the
proprie deck wash, you apply that you let it sit

(01:34:10):
for a little while, agitate with a soft broom, remove
it with a little bit of water pressure, but not
water blasting. It because that will damage the fibers and
then let that dry off. Perfect time to be doing
it now before Christmas. It'll dry. See how that works.
After we get the inevitable rain on Christmas Day, if

(01:34:31):
it's less slippery, then that might be the process. And
it just becomes a maintenance thing where let's say every
eighteen months or every second summer, you give the deck
a thorough clean and then it's the lack of moss
and mold that will make it less slippery.

Speaker 19 (01:34:47):
Right, Okay, that's all right, then we might attack. Thank
you very much.

Speaker 6 (01:34:52):
All right, good luck, take care all of this, and
paul a very good morning to you.

Speaker 15 (01:34:58):
Yeah, hi, Peter, you're in Auckland at home.

Speaker 8 (01:35:02):
Weather A.

Speaker 15 (01:35:07):
Given it a wash scrub down. You know, I'm just
saying we want to put the product on it. But
maybe it was because it was too hard. It might
have dried up, but it's still okay. I'm just worrying.
Is it far off with a couple of coaster stain
it's a quiller, yeah, and it just needs to be

(01:35:28):
cleaned and coated again.

Speaker 6 (01:35:33):
Yes, I think you probably want to leave it for
at least two weeks of dry conditions from washing it
and using a proprietary deckwash on it and cleaning the
surface to applying some sort of seal it because I
know that you know, Auckland anyway, had a hell of
a lot of rain a couple of weeks ago. There's
quite a bit on the forecast for later on this week.

(01:35:56):
So I think that if it's too saturated, it won't
absorb the stain. You want the timber. You want to
saturate the timber to open up the fibers, but then
you want that to dry, and then there's a sweet
spot where two three weeks later, after it's been dry,
apply the seala and the seala will be absorbed into

(01:36:16):
the fibers of the timber. So don't rush to put
a seala on it, your clear sealar on it, or
your colored seala if it's too wet.

Speaker 15 (01:36:26):
Yeah, okay, so just the seala before you put the
whole stained coat on.

Speaker 6 (01:36:33):
What well, what are you going to use? Are you
going for a film forming seala which sits on the surface,
or you going it's it's already been done, yes, so
it just it's and then it's been cleaned. Okay. In
that instance there, I think if you've left it five
maybe a week of dry weather. But then what's really important?

(01:36:57):
Are you using exactly the same system as you used before?

Speaker 3 (01:37:03):
Yeah?

Speaker 15 (01:37:04):
Yeah, basically, but I guess so what I'm asking is
that because it was done in the dry, whether it
doesn't like you're saying, needs to be damp, and we
persolutely have to dry after it's got that cleaner on it.
See you end, I might need to put a seal
it over again and wait five days before I put

(01:37:25):
a Yeah what a cela.

Speaker 6 (01:37:30):
I think. If you've cleaned it and it's ready for
the seala, all you need to do is make sure
that it's dry, reasonably dry, and then apply the seala
or whatever decking finish you're going to do. But if
you've already had decking finish on there, you need to
make sure you're using the same system. So in some
cases people apply an oil over the top of a

(01:37:52):
film and it just sits on top, or they try
and apply a film where there's a seala that's already
penetrated and it won't stick and it goes blotchy. So
stick to the same system and you'll be okay, okay, fine,
very best, all right, you take care to see Paul.

(01:38:13):
Remember we've got red Climb pass coming up shortly. He's
probably ready to go. So if you've got some questions
for Rud, it's eight hundred eighty ten eighty. We'll take
Rid through to the news.

Speaker 10 (01:38:24):
Now.

Speaker 6 (01:38:24):
A couple of quick texts that have come in just
with regard to some of what we've been talking about.
You can water down the acid so that it's less
harsh and it allows for a more even spread. So
absolutely you would never just apply acid to clean concrete
neat onto the concrete itself. So typically it's diluted and

(01:38:45):
the formula will be on the bottle, maybe into a
watering can or into a backsprack, backpack spray apply that,
allow it to work for a little while and then
rinse it off and that'll remove any of that last
residue of the semititious material that's on top of that
and last one on decking. I think today, Hey Pete,

(01:39:05):
we've got Queila deck in an area around the pool
been down for years, it's been left natural, it's grayed off,
there's no seala, but we are troubled with splinters. What
can we do please? From Lynn? I guess if it's
never been sealed. You could do a proprietary deck wash
set to clean it up, then run over it with

(01:39:28):
a sander, and then apply a penetrating oil sealer that
will just bind it all together. Would probably be what
I'd do. I know it seems an unusual task to
go outside and sand your decking down, but that would
at least help get rid of some of the sealers.
And someone picked me up on the fact that I
talked about new government. You're right, it's not really a

(01:39:50):
new government. They've been in almost two years. But I
figure there are different lots of the last lots, so
I'll call them the new ones. But I've got to
come up with a better phrase than that. Radio. Let's
get into the garden arid climb. Past is going to
join us. Oh, eight hundred and eighty ten eighty. You
can ca continue to text rud Is next join us
on eight hundred and eighty ten eighty.

Speaker 1 (01:40:11):
Good Squeaky door or squeaky floor. Get the right advice
from Peter Wolfcamp, the Resident Builder on news Talk SeeDB.
For more from the Resident Builder with Peter Wolfcamp, listen
live to News Talk SeeDB on Sunday mornings from six,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio

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