Why Are Auckland Homes Susceptible To Being Leaky?

Knowing what you’re getting yourself into is a fully involved investigation when looking to purchase a home in Auckland. So many people warn about ‘leaky homes’ and talk about them like they are life ruiners. The term ‘leaky home’ gets thrown around so often that a lot of the facts fall through the cracks.

So, what are the facts? Why are Auckland homes so susceptible to becoming leaky? Is it really the end of the world?

Let’s investigate!

A leaky home is categorised by moisture being able to get into the space between the interior walls and the exterior cladding. With moisture being able to get inside the walls with no way to drain out, the integrity of the home is compromised and can lead to expensive damage.

Water pooling inside your walls can lead to a tonne of structural damage, rot, mould and mildew – so people aren’t baseless in wanting to avoid buying one of these properties. Swollen walls, cracks in the cladding and rotten carpet all are results of a leaky home gone undiagnosed.

Some builders will have a knee-jerk reaction to signs of weather tightness issues in a home and recommend a full reclad for your home – which can be inconvenient and costly. Here at Sound Homes, we offer full consultations on potential leaky homes and only quote what is necessary to fix so that owners of said property don’t have to spend unnecessary money.

Auckland and New Zealand as a whole have taken a big hit from the leaky home drama, due to the popularity of a certain style of build that rose to fame in the 90s and lasted for over 10 years. Every home built between this time is considered at risk of being a leaky home due to the building practises of that period.

The Meditteranean style of build was the trend that took the housing development world by storm and was a far cry from the traditional methods of building in New Zealand. The then-modern style of building did not allow for suitable ventilation between the exterior and interior cladding and became a melting pot for the leaky building syndrome taking Auckland by surprise.

The reason New Zealand suffered so badly from the leaky home crisis was a mash-up of many problems and irregular practises over that time period but was also helped along by lack of regulation. In 1993, the Building Act became law in N.Z, which allowed the regulation of building to be self-regulated by each individual developer or building team.

While most builders were thorough and continued to build with integrity, some builders and developers started skipping corners, and accidentally or knowingly cut their building costs by carelessly constructing houses and using short cuts.

Due to being self-regulated, they were able to get away with building a property that was not properly ventilated and weathertight – which caused problems later on once sold and out of their hands. Coupled with the interest in Meditteranean style builds, it was a recipe for disaster due to the lack of regulation and inspections to check that the constructions were weathertight and properly built.

While this was a huge contributing factor towards the leaky home crisis in Auckland, many things played a factor in creating the housing problems we now face on the regular with leaky buildings on the market all over New Zealand. History with using the wrong kind of wood for weathertight structures and having many unqualified builders working out in the market possibly played a large role in the crisis, as well.

The minute you suspect that your property is leaky, the best thing to do is get it properly checked as soon as possible. The longer you leave a potential leaky home, the more damage it will create, which means a more costly fix. Holding off could cause structural damage and require a full reclad instead of smaller repairs, which you want to avoid!

Sound Homes provides expert advice and services when it comes to Leaky Home repairs, offering transparent and reliable workmanship. If you’re in Auckland and you suspect your home is leaky, get in touch with Sound Homes today and secure a FREE inspection of your property to get back on track and put value back into your home!