Auckland - Dreadful Houses. Am I the only one???

[chrissie]

Is there anyone else out there who has struggled to find a decent house in the North Shore Bays area? One that is solidly built? and dry? Is it just me that can't stand the way the houses are built down these right of ways where you are overlooked by countless other houses or where the house is built into the side of a steep bank and therefore depressingly dark and dank?

We have spent weeks looking at dismal, damp, expensive houses and I am just about ready to go out and buy some Prozac, I am feeling soo depressed!!

We have finally found a house that doesn't smell of damp as it is elevated but because we were getting so desperate to buy a house (we had to be out of our rented house within a few weeks...they called it a house, I'd call it a scout hut with its wooden walls and tin roof!!) we ended up paying much more than its true value, just because I couldn't bear the thought of some of the alternatives.

Unfortunately, when we came here there was very little available on the market so perhaps it was just a bad time to be looking, as I notice there are a lot more 'for sale' signs up now... so maybe it is just me....

Anyway, I'd appreciate others' comments on the subject...

[Carol]

Welcome to New Zealand!
:

[Moorf]

If you scan through some of the posts on here you will find we were all faced with the same housing problem the length and breadth of the country! I think it's possibly the most disappointing aspect of NZ life? Correct me if I'm wrong!

[toots]

If there is one single thing that I find very disappointing about NZ it is the quality of it's houses.

Godness knows how many forests have been hacked down to make these wooden sheds, the resulting houses are usually rotten and damp. How many times do we see these home improvement shows on TV where they remove a wall only to find rot somewhere. Wooden houses are fine in dry climates, even ok in cold climates so long as the winters aren't warm and damp. Not suitable for NZ at all.

Modern houses are no better, all these new "plaster" types are very often applied over polystyrene which is just bonded to a wooden frame. Wood dries out over time, give them a few years and the plaster will be peeling like sunburn.

Very disappointing, we are trying to find a decent brick built house but even those have wooden frames. Would like to have one built but the land prices are way too high at the moment so we're sticking it out until next year.

I remember the wood frame fiasco in the UK a few years ago and can see it happening all over again here.

Good luck to you in your search :hopeso

[veronica]

We have been told by both NZ builders and English that the reason for the timber and tin is because of the earthquake risk. I must say I would rather have a tin roof come down around me than a tile one. The brick houses are outside clad and the roof joists dont actually sit on the brick part, this is to alow the brick walls to fall outwards in quake events. There was a posting here a while back disagreeing with this. I am no expert and don't even know the clay/brickmaking situation here but I am sure expense/viability comes into it. I have also been told that the dehumidifier will improve the damp type of problem.
You sound as if you are not making any adjustment to your thinking about this subject but you are in NZ now and that is the way things are here, you can only try and improve what you have and get it to your own standard. I think you are also living in the more expensive area, any chance of you being able to move out of Auckland and build your own house somewhere, that way you get what you want.

[Gran]

Hi Toots,
I certainly agree with Veronica on this subject, I prefer a weatherboard house any time, although I have a brick one now, because they dont seem to build too many weatherboard ones any more, having said that I would never buy a sprayed house.
There are weatherboard houses in Auckland from 1840. standing as strong as ever, they will have been built of Kauri, which is as strong as iron. We really do have to adjust our thinking when we move countries.

[toots]

My thinking is based on personal experience.

The first rental we had was a weatherboard one, very cold and damp and lots of holes through which cockroaches and other beasties could and did crawl. The windows ran with condensation during the winter and it cost a fortune to heat. My son's room was so damp you could smell the water when you walked in.

Our present place is modern, brick and tile, properly insulated and noticably warmer in the winter, no creepy crawlies either. The only use I have for the dehumidifier for is to dry the washing as we never have problems with condensation.

I know which I prefer

Since the risk of strong eathquakes is pretty low in Auckland I'd take brick and tile anyday. If I lived somewhere like Wellington I may have a different point of view, who knows. There's no guarantee a wooden house would stand up in an eathquake anyway unless it had been specifically designed or modified to do so.

[veronica]

I dont think the cold, damp and condensation is anything to do with the materials the houses are built of, more how they are built. Certainly a lot of houses in the states and alpine places are built of timber and they are warm and dry. Its the lack of insulation and double glazing that are the biggest problem. and that can be sorted easily when you buy your own place.
Its easy to forget that the rental places we all start off in here are just money earners to the landlords and there are better place about that are peoples homes. The landlords don't want to spend any money on improvements that will earn them no extra income, and NZers seem to be philosophical about the cold because they very often haven't lived in a centrally heated house, so they are happy to rent them even if you aren't.

[catjlin]

"We have been told by both NZ builders and English that the reason for the timber and tin is because of the earthquake risk."

Having grown up in San Francisco, earthquake central, I have to say that I think these builders are just trying to excuse shoddy workmanship. There is no legitimate reason that you cannot have a safe modern house with materials other than wood and tin in NZ. Is it perhaps that it is the cost of materials that is prohibitive to good work? Are materials produced nationally, or must they be imported from OZ?

Cat

[toots]

Veronica, the landlady in our first rental had split the house in two and was living in the lower half. Bless her, she was just as cold and damp as the rest of us upstairs. She had recently emigrated from South Africa and bought a "home and income" to make ends meet. We too lived in Africa many years ago and always had brick houses there so it must have been a shock for her.

As far as I'm aware there are no government grants here to insulate and damp-proof houses. So retro-fitting can be quite expensive. You also have to live somewhere whilst it's being done.

Remember a lot of these houses were built when electricity and fuel was really cheap. Fuel prices have increased markedly in recent years and shows no sign of getting any better. We had a similar situation in the UK before the oil crisis, no one had insulation or cared about the conservation of energy. Government grants and building regulations have improved things greatly since then.

There is a movement towards building masonary houses here. Insulated slabs are being laid, new houses have insulation in walls and roof spaces, they are being built on reinforced concrete slabs and roofing felt can now be found under the roof tiles (keeps out dirt and sand). If you want you can have double glazing and central heating too. You can even get heat pumps to warm your house in winter and the pool in summer!