Weathertight Services

Has anyone had any experience with the Weathertight Homes Resolution Services Act 2006.

We have had water come into our house during this weeks heavy rain here in Hawkes Bay. To my untrained eye it looks like the flashing is shoddy on the outside of the building where the water has come in. Also some of the window framing around the aluminium joinery has started to rot as well as some visible signs of mould.

Advice?

If you can, stay away from the Act. Builders don't go anywhere near repairs under it because it's a pain in the arse for them. Saying that, this sounds like wear-and-tear type damage (maintain your house), which isn't covered under the Act -- it's for systematic failure of cladding systems (ie, fake stucco on Hardies), and I'm pretty sure it's too late to put in claims now anyway.

I would say talk to a builder/architect (though picking one who's competent in the right areas is hard). 

Cheers Yomcat.

We have a builder lined up to inspect the problem next week. Hoping for a cheap and quick resolution but not holding breath.

What sort of cladding or house do you have? 

We have a similar issue. It's a hardie sheet house, but not a typically leaky one like you expect to see i.e. there's no fake stucco/cementing etc on it. It's just a pure batten and hardie sheet place, built in 1989, one of those fake tudor ones. 

The place was built with basically no eves, the spouting is nearly flush against the side of the house. We sometimes get issues in heavy windy rain around one particular part of the house, but it's so rare and brief that it will leak, but then not leak again for a long long time, so it never stays damp and everything inside is fine and without rot (I have done a lot of investigation around the area, when I first found it I removed some gib etc and had a good scout around, and it passed the building report when we bought it i.e. his moisture readings didn't bring up anything, and it's visibly dry). It has caused swelling of MDF scotia in that corner when it has happened though. 

I'm a little bit at a loss about what to do at the moment and have been sitting on it. I have a builder friend who has said there's several ways we could permanently update the spouting/roofing system to make it so that the lack of eves is not an issue, but none of them sound cheap, even though I've not had official quotes. 

Without looking at it, it sounds like the best solution would be to reclad one elevation (or the whole house), which is pretty expensive. Though if it's only leaking at the top, getting some decent flashings up in there should do it, which is still expensive (scaffolding is a killer).

If you don't mind the odd bit of water sneaking in (ie, leave it as is), just replace that scotia with some pine stuff. MDF is ruined as soon as it looks at some water.

Also, are you sure it's fibre-cement Hardies, not asbestos Hardies? 89 is towards the end of the asbestos cladding, but that makes a huge difference to cost.

Thanks yomcat this is bloody great info.

I have no idea if it's asbestos or fibre-cement. Is there a way I can tell that?

What are the implications if it's asbestos in terms of cost etc?

Yea I was thinking about throwing some pine scotia up there instead just to make it look nicer. 

I'll probably sit for a while, just periodically checking and making sure no moisture sticks around, like I have been. 

Down the track sounds like I'm in line for a re-clad which will be fun.

Yes scaffolding is an absolute killer, I've already been looking into this as we need to start looking at a re-paint as well. It's a two story house, the leaking is at the very top at the highest point. We have a really high roof pitch as well, and a driveway slanting down to the street, so scaffolding is going to be very expensive. I've talked to a couple of people about potentially buying some of my own to store, so I can throw it up when I need it, but not yet sure if it's cost-effective. 

Asbestos versus fc is a tricky one. If you've got the original consent documents (or can grab them from an archive somewhere), they should say what the cladding is. Hardieflex is good (well, it's fibre cement), whereas Fibrolite is bad. I'm guessing it's fibre cement based on the age, but you don't want to find out it's asbestos just as you're ready to start work. A suitably qualified person (old (experienced) builder or architect) should be able to identify it by sight.
Depending on how much asbestos you're dealing with, the costs just go up and up. You need to get in a special crew, tent the house, have negative pressure, and all sorts of expensive things (this is worst case, mind).

With the leak, if you're not already, you should be checking the floor under it. Water is good at getting inside sheet cladding, running down the inside and then eating the floor away. One two-storey house in Strathmore Park we did (it was a proper leaky house, with no eaves, parapets, fake stucco, membrane decks, round windows, the lot) we had to replace the entire floor because the joists were so bad. We only found out once they opened it up as well, which wasn't a pleasant surprise for the owners.

With the painting, if you do it yourself, the Health and Safety rules don't apply so you can do it perched on the end of a ladder like a dodgy bugger :) Another option is to reclad in something like Palliside (plastic) or NuWall (metal) that doesn't need painting, just a rinse every so often. I did this for a 1-storey house in Khandallah that was about 3 stories off the ground at the front with awesome views over the harbour. But that's a rather expensive (it's cheaper to put up timber weatherboards and paint them) solution to a potentially minor problem. And when to repaint is hard to figure it (it's not like cladding, which is required to survive (with maintenance) for 15 years). BRANZ basically say repaint when it fails.

Man you are a wealth of knowledge here yomcat, thanks for answering!

I do have the consents and documentation, and I believe I have seen the term Hardieflex thrown about. I will re-check the docs but I'm fairly confident that's what it is. 

Re: the floor, I did pull back the carpet to check the first time I came across the leak, and it was completely dry and untouched, , but now you've mentioned that I'm going to do it again, and include that in my regular check that I carry out. Thanks for the heads up!

Sorry for hijacking this C-Diddy! Was just interested in tapping into the knowledge when it's there and available ;)

No worries. Glad I could help :)

Disclaimer: I'm not an expert (I lack experience mainly) but I did work as a architectural draftsman in a practise that did a fair bit of leaky buildings (both the legal kind C-Diddy was asking about and the old/unmaintained kind) for a few years. Consult with a proper professional yada yada yada :)