Leaky homes

[basilio]

I came across a builder from New Zealand a few days ago and in our conversation he mentioned that he had just quit working for an Australian building company because he couldn't stomach the shoddy work they were putting out. He believed that almost all of the homes this company was building would end up seriously water damaged within a few years.

The reason he said this was his experience in NZ which currently has around 30-40% of homes, apartments, office blocks built in the last 20 years in serious trouble. This problem has also affected Canada.

Why is this so ? Apparently its a combination of the use of modern lightweight external wall coverings, poor sealing of joints, flat roofs, untreated timber for internal stud walls, lack of capacity for water to escape from internal walls, poor workmanship and poorer building inspection. In the worst cases (and there are many) homes are ruined within a few years !

Check out the urls to get an idea of the scale of the problem.

My question however is what is happening Australia ? We seem to have the same building materials, I suspect roughly the same quality of builders but at this stage I can't find any public reference to leaky homes in Australia.

Does anyone in ASF have any knowledge of flats/homes/offices that have been affected ?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaky_homes_crisis
http://www.leakyhomeforum.co.nz/
http://sciblogs.co.nz/science-of-ar...aky-buildings-–-part-1-–-how-did-we-get-here/

 

[prawn_86]

Our washing machine broke down and overflowed and it leaked into the below apartment. That's my only experience witht he issue...

 

[Calliope]

A similar thing happened with a unit I used to rent out. The tenant didn't release the pressure on the washing machine filler hoses after use The unit was vacant for a month. The hoses had burst and the carpets were ruined.

 

[Knobby22]

It is well known that Aussie houses were among the worst in the world for quality.
The good thing about the 5/6 star program is it forces up the quality - a little bit.

 

[moXJO]

NZ is having a lot of problems with their buildings leaking at the moment; I'm heading over there at the end of the year to investigate.
Despite what people think our homes are reasonably well built. But lack of experience and a tendency to go for the cheaper option can have consequences. There is a range of reasons but generally it's because builders do not follow the standard when installing the product.