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FREE PHONE 0508 TIMELESS (0508-846-353) |
Designers and
Builders, for Timeless Architecture, Timely Construction |
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Past blogs |
Remember to check that your designers and builders
are Licensed Building Practitioners.
Licensed Practitioner numbers
BP113716 and BP114438 We use Licensed Building Practitioners—always check the LBP Register to ensure your building practitioner is currently licensed. The following information has been obtained from the Department of Building and Housing: “From 1 March
2012 changes to the Building Act 2004 mean that building work (including
design work) that relates to either the structure (load-bearing walls;
foundations etc) or moisture penetration (roofs; cladding etc) of homes
including small to medium sized apartments will be classified as ‘Restricted
Building Work’ (RBW). Restricted Building
work, which also includes the design of fire safety systems for small to
medium apartments, is deemed to be building work critical to the integrity of
a building and therefore required to be carried out by competent,
appropriately licensed building practitioners. From |
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What is a QR-code?
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Ever wondered how to get rid of
Moss, Mould and Lichen on your roof? Many
houses have Moss, Mould or Lichen growing on roofs, paved surfaces and even
walls. This comes about if the house is not regularly cleaned and the cold or
shaded side of the house usually has Moss and Lichens growing sooner than the
warm side or the sunny side. If your
house has a Coloursteel roof, then best for you to follow the cleaning
instructions by the manufacturers. They recommend a mild Chlorine solution,
in other words, common household bleach. The
problem is; If you leave Moss, Mould and Lichen to grow on your house’s
surfaces, then, in time, surface damage occurs. This damage is not only of
the paint coatings, but also the cladding materials such as corrugated steel,
weatherboard and even bricks. Lichens, especially, are an interesting group
of organisms. Lichens are
composite symbiotic organisms consisting of a fungus with a photosynthetic
partner. The problem with Moss or Lichen growing on your house is that the organisms
excrete biological byproducts which can be acidic and these harm your house’s
surfaces. Added to this, the fact the Moss and Lichens help to retain
moisture on the surfaces of your house and you can see how acids, water and
air combined is a recipe for disaster. The Moss and Lichen collects
wind-blown dust and before you know it you have a whole botanic garden
growing on your house! Before long, the surface coatings will deteriorate and
then it’s only a matter of time before the actual cladding surfaces are
damaged, often beyond repair. We recommend that all customers wash their new homes
with a soft water broom at least twice a year. If you live near the sea, this
washing down should take place at least once every three months. Once Mould,
Lichens and Moss have made their home on your house though, a more aggressive
approach is needed. Water alone will not kill the Moss, Mould or Lichen. If you
have an older house, say an old villa or bungalow, and your house roof or walls
have unsightly growths of moss or lichen on the walls or roof, then there is
a chemical substance available that works as well or possibly even better
than bleach. Various commercially available house cleaning products all
contain this same active ingredient. It’s called Benzalkonium
chloride or alkyldimethylbenzylammonium
chloride. Use of the chemical is widespread for skin antiseptics, hand
sanitizers, hygienic towelettes, cosmetics such as eye and nasal drops,
cleaners for floor and hard surfaces, surgical instrument sterilizing and
disinfection solutions, air and surface sprayable disinfectants and as an
algaecide. A quick word of warning: Benzalkonium chloride is
poisonous to a variety of living organisms including you. So, use strictly as
directed. The best
thing to do is to look at the various surface cleaners or Moss, Mould and
Lichen removers available on the market and check the concentration of the
active ingredients. That way you can ensure you get value for money. While Benzalkonium
chloride is cheap you’ll be surprised how the prices for different products
with the same content of active ingredient varies. Buyer beware! So, if you
have a Moss problem or a Lichen problem on your old villa style house, go
hunting for products containing Benzalkonium chloride. I’ve tried it and it’s
certainly got rid of my Moss and Lichen. |
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This entry has nothing to do with
houses! Many people believe that Model T Fords were only available in the
colour black. This myth has been repeated so very often that many people seem
to believe it. Let’s put
the facts out there, for once! Ford Model T’s were manufactured from Within
the first year of production, Model T’s were also available in grey, blue and
red, depending on body style. From 1912 to 1914 Model T’s were only available
with a At some
time in 1914, Henry Ford decided that the car would only be available in
black from then on. Henry did not decide to only use black paint because the
new black lacquer paint dried faster than the other colours as is often
thought. It was simply an issue of cost. Black paint was cheaper than other
colours and Ford’s engineering department believed black was more
durable. From late 1925 (or according to some sources early 1926) onwards,
Model T’s were available in black, dark Arabian sand with a light Arabian
sand stripe, gunmetal blue with French grey stripe, Niagara blue with French
grey stripe and in dawn grey with French grey stripe. Model T’s
were therefore produced for 19 years and, for roughly 11 of those years,
Model T’s were only available painted black. Some thirty different types of
black, but black none the less. The last Model T rolled off the production
line on |
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Read this if your house is insured
for “Replacement Value” We understand that many people are
finding dealing with their insurance companies a challenge following the This is one of our customers
writing to us about this debacle. (Names and company names have been changed
to protect the privacy of our customer) Placed here with our client’s
approval: “Our
insurers have refused point blank to cover the house while under repair and
construction. They have
also added that they will not insure it when the repairs are completed unless
they get a full Geotechnical land report and full structural engineering
report is completed. The
Insurance Company will accept that the property is a repair, and will only
pay depreciated present day value, not for a Replica Villa home but a shoe box
from Run of the Mill Homes. Talking to
a builder yesterday, EQC, Large Building Company and Insurers are
driving re-build pricing as low as $1200/sq.m for a vanilla flavoured shoe
box. I only hope that the rest of NZ sits up and takes notice of what is
happening with insurers and the policy wording that they use and how it is
interpreted. (or liberally misinterpreted)” We believe every home owner with a
replacement policy should speak to their insurers to ensure thy know exactly
what will be covered on their property and what will be provided in the case
of substantial damage or complete replacement. As we are aware, banks will not
provide mortgage funding without the necessary insurances being in place. The
failure of Insurers to guarantee insurance on land that has already been
approved for building by the EQC and the Department of Building and Housing
will make it very difficult for finance and construction contracts to
proceed. |
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A short history of
house floor construction in In Suspended
timber floor construction is found in The
earliest homes used mud as a floor. (Often ‘improved’ with the addition of
animal blood or animal dung as a binder) Early mud floors were usually, later
overlaid with timber planking to provide a better floor. From these
beginnings, a suspended timber floor system was born. The earliest timber
floor system therefore is simply floor boards over square joists laid on the
earthen floor surface. This was not a very durable solution as the joists
tended to absorb moisture from the earthen floor. The
next improvement, after floor joists and flooring laid on ground, was the
‘Sleeper’ system. ‘Sleepers’ (the bearers) are laid directly on ground,
sometimes on a slate or bituminous felt underlay, to act as protection
against ground moisture. Over the sleepers’, floor joists are fixed at the
usual spacing or centres, one-and-a-half to two feet centres. This early
system was used in According
to the book, ‘Construction Technology’ by R. Chudley, suspended floor
construction was the preferred floor in the Suspended flooring, in colonial houses, were often situated within 1 foot
(304.8mm) of natural ground level. The current timber building standard, NZS
3604:2011 sets the minimum height, from underside of floor framing as 450mm.
NZS3604 was originally published in 1978. Prior to NZS 3604, NZSS
1900:6.1:1964, the predecessor to NZS 3604, had a 12” (304.8mm) minimum
requirement. Prior to 1964, there was no Building Code requirement to locate
timber floor framing members at a particular minimum height above ground. The
1964 code took account of the fact that bathrooms were now situated ‘in’ the
house, rather than ‘tacked’ on the back. All rooms had electrical sockets and
for plumbing and wiring access it became important to allow enough space for
contractors to access the sub-floor space more easily. The
Government first set minimum standards for the construction of State Housing,
as first used at the first State House built at Prior
to the 1880’s, a bathroom did not exist. Bathing took place in the Bedroom or
Kitchen, in a galvanised steel bath brought in for the purpose. Lavatories (WC’s)
only made it to the end of the house (not inside, but sometimes attached) by
the 1890’s. (See page
144 of Old New Zealand Houses by Jeremy Salmond.) The first Bathrooms were
constructed on timber floor, with a lead sheet as waterproofing
over the top of the wood floor. (See page 143 of Old New Zealand Houses by
Jeremy Salmond.) While lead was known to be poisonous, no coating was placed
over the lead. Paints of the period
contained high levels of lead, so painting the lead sheet would
not have made a noticeable difference. Even wallpaper was exceedingly
poisonous, with high levels of both lead and arsenic, especially for the
colours white (lead) and green (arsenic). A bright green colour was
exceedingly poisonous. (Refer the book ‘At Home, by Bill Bryson) According
to the BRANZ Help Line, Portland Cement, for the manufacturing of concrete
was available, but imported, before the 1880’s. By 1884, Portland Cement was
manufactured in Concrete
floor slabs are therefore not a modern method of building, as widely thought,
but date from the late 1800’s. The
‘horizontal baseboard’ with gaps for airflow, as a base treatment under
suspended floors, also dates from the 1964 Building Code. A large
number of old homes seem to have been built on brick foundation walls,
concrete foundation walls or had the ‘building base’ enclosed with closely
spaced vertical or horizontal boards, to give the appearance of a solid
surface. Often, these bases were built ‘out’ from the face of the
weatherboards above, so that the base would ‘stick out’ giving a sense of
solidity to the parts below floor level. The usual finishing element was a
decorative moulding, with a sloping top surface, to drain off water running
down the weatherboards to outside the foundation cladding. Thus it
is seen that houses were not elevated any more than required for the
thickness of the floor construction and that the elevation of the floor
structure, for ventilation purposes, only became common, with the
construction of State Houses, from 1937, and greater elevation above ground
was introduced in 1964 to allow for easier access under the floors. |
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It’s quite interesting
how a big difference in comfort in your new home can cost so little! A well designed home saves you money and costs less to run
over the life of the home. A small increase in cost of materials can make a
large difference to energy efficiency. Let’s look at a few
examples: Doubling the insulation level in your new house’s roof,
from an industry compliant level, to double that, only costs around
$11.50/sq.m extra. On a house size of 200sq.m, that’s only $2,300 extra, or
put another way – less than 0.7% of the cost of the house. That 0.7%
additional cost could save 25% of your annual energy bill for heating and
cooling. Let’s say you’re spending $150 per month to heat or cool your house.
That means at least $37.50 less per month, which is $450 per year. “Wait a
minute”, you’ll say – “I only heat my home for 4 months of the year”. That’s
still a $150 saving per year. And, that’s not counting the additional savings
you’ll make if electricity prices keep rising. Here’s another example: An ordinary 300 litre hot water
cylinder (HWC) may cost around $3,000, installed. A 300 litre solar hot water
system, including the HWC will cost around $7,000, installed. That’s an extra
cost of $4,000. Using the same house size example as above, you’re looking at
an additional cost of $20,00/sq.m. But, we know that easily 40% of your
electricity bill goes to hot water heating. So, on a monthly spend of $240,
$96 could be the HWC. Only problem is, we also know that the sun does not
always shine, so unfortunately we’ll not manage to heat the HWC with only the
sun’s rays, year round. At most, we can hope for ¾ of the year. So, a saving
of roughly $800. Let’s be conservative though and count only half the year.
This still amounts to a not insignificant saving of at least $600 per year.
And, that’s not counting the additional savings you’ll make if electricity
prices keep rising – but I’m repeating myself. Now, imagine applying this principle to a few more aspects
in the design and construction of your new home. |
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Condensation in bathrooms. Having recently renovated a bathroom
at home, I became interested in the mechanics of the formation of
condensation. We fitted a bathroom extract fan, where previously there was
none, and I was interested to see how quickly this fan would clear the steam
from the shower. What I found interesting was the
way water condenses on the walls, mirror, and other surfaces in the bathroom
and, in my view, how poorly the brand new fan was extracting the steam. Now, I’ve heard of the ‘dew point’
and what this means is that the surface temperature of the wall surfaces, and
the amount of moisture in the air, will have an effect on how much moisture
ends up on the walls by condensing out of the air. This is a well insulated
room, with heated towel rail providing some residual heating, yet – when the
bathroom door is shut, the room steams up pretty quickly and the fan seems
incapable of removing the steam prior to condensation forming on walls,
ceiling and the mirror. So why did the addition of a fan in a bathroom, which
previously had no fan, fail to improve the condensation problem, I asked
myself? This morning, I left the bathroom
door slightly ajar, and – voila! No condensation! (Not even on the mirror!)
So, what’s happened? Firstly, with the bathroom door
shut and the window closed, the fan could not draw out the steamy air because
the air could not be replaced with everything shut. So the fan is attempting
to remove air, but can’t move the air if there’s no air to replace the air
removed. I’ll have to undercut the door, or open the window slightly, or
install a vent grille in the bathroom door, or leave the door slightly open
to allow the fan with an air supply to be able to extract more air from the
bathroom. Secondly, with the door open,
there’s less likelihood of the air in the bathroom becoming completely
saturated with moisture. Once the air reaches saturation level, it loses it’s
ability to hold moisture, and that moisture will simply condense on every
available surface. The colder the surface, the more condensation will form.
And, the larger the air volume, the longer it will take for that air to reach
saturation level. So, with the door open, and a larger air volume, there’s
less chance of the air becoming saturated. Remember, of course, that warmer
air will hold more moisture than colder air. So, for the system to work,
optimally, the interior of your home should be at a comfortable air
temperature. If your home is too cold, then the air inside your home will
hold very little moisture and the moisture will migrate to room surfaces to,
in time, damage those surfaces. |
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“Imitation is the sincerest flattery” Those were the words of Charles
Colton (1780-1832) These days, we say,
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”. Since our adoption of our
company name, Timeless Homes ®, and our company slogan, Timeless Homes Traditional Period Style
Homes 4-T point promise: Timeless Architecture, Transparent Turnkey Pricing,
Timely Energy Efficient Construction and Top-Class After Sales Service ©, we’ve noticed that others are
hoping to capitalise on our company name and slogan. While we’re
certainly flattered, it’s worth noting that imitation is not the real thing.
Timeless Homes have the skills and experience to embody your building with
the essence of Timelessness. Our buildings retain their usefulness and style.
You will notice how many homes and other buildings appear dated almost as
soon as they have been completed. All to often, today’s breathtaking design
is tomorrow’s orange beanbag. (If you’re into orange beanbags then I
apologise!) Our trained and
experienced Architectural Designers and Technologists will work with you to
realise your vision for your new home or other building, while at the same
time, designing and building a building that does not date. A building that
looks as elegant and stylish many years from now, as it does when new. So, when you next notice
variations of our company name and slogan, remember that only Timeless Homes
has what it takes to provide a truly Timeless Home. |
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Legal age. This post has
nothing to do with Architecture or Construction! With my one child
now at the ‘teenager’ stage, and becoming more and more independent, I’ve checked
the legal ages at which children can do certain things. I found some of these
surprising, and so may you! Ages at which children… ·
Most children must be in school – 6 years. (Although they may start
school at 5.) ·
Must be in school if they have to walk more than 3km – 7 years. ·
Can walk to school on their own – 6 years. ·
Can cycle to school on their own – 10 years. ·
Can be prosecuted for capital crimes – 10 years. ·
Can swear an oath – 12 years. ·
Can be left alone at home – 14 years. ·
Are able to babysit younger children – 14 years. ·
Can be prosecuted for any criminal offence – 14 years. ·
Can sit a drivers test and obtain a learners licence – 15 years. ·
Can leave home without parents consent – 16 years. ·
Can leave school – 16 years. ·
Can do a lot of other stuff that a parent would prefer not to think of
– 16 years. ·
Can join the Army, Air Force or Navy – 17 years. ·
Can join the Police Force – 18 years. ·
Can vote – 18 years. ·
Can enter into a contract – 18 years. ·
And, finally – am no longer a child – 20 years. So, bizarrely, your
7 year old child can legally walk more than 3km along a rural road, but can’t
stay at home, alone, until age 14. Most of this
material obtained from the Office of the Children’s’ Commissioner. |
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Here’s some photos I took of a home I designed, which has recently been
completed.
The client’s design brief called for
a low level design in order to have the minimum impact on site sun shadowing.
The property, in Greytown, has a lovely established garden and the clients
hoped to retain as much of that garden while building a new home on the
property. Actually, it’s not all new as the extreme right-hand side of the
house incorporates an old sleep-out, but only the shell of that was used in
the new building. The customers wanted a low maintenance design, using
materials such as schist, cedar and decking. The large double-glazed windows
and doors make the most of the garden views, admitting much light into the
rooms, but with generous overhangs, limiting solar gain. |
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Proportion: For those of you who may have
wondered where the ‘perfect height to width ratio for a window’ (and many
other things) comes from, this article is for you. The Golden Ratio, also called phi, or Φ is the
ratio of length to width of 1 to 1.6180339887… It can be algebraically
expressed as x/1=(x+1)/x or x²-x-1=0 1.618… is an incommensurable number, which means it is an
irrational number, which is why it’s shown with the … above. This means that,
no matter to how many decimal places you calculated the number, you’ll never
reach a finite number. Anyway, it so happens that, since time immemorial, the
Golden Ratio has fascinated artists, mathematicians and Architects. Phi went on to fascinate Leonardo de Vinci, Michelangelo
and later Le Corbusier. Of course, if these famous Architects relied on the
Golden Ratio, who are we to differ! I’ve been using the Golden Ratio in the design of numerous
building elements for the last twenty-something years, as taught to me by
Rowan Pape, one of the first Architects I worked for as a Architecture
student. Simply, when good proportion of building elements are needed, or
desired, you can’t go wrong with the Golden Ratio! |
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For those of you who have been following
this blog – Thank You! This year,
we’ll continue to write about developments in our business, new and exciting products,
energy efficiency and most importantly, designing an building a home or other
structure that does not date. Remember that Timeless Homes always look fresh
and have timeless style. Your car may look like last year’s model, but your
home certainly won’t. If you would like us to write about a
particular topic, please let us know by using the ‘blog-comment’ feature. |
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Building costs, advantages of building
new: With the end of another year upon us, I take this
opportunity to wish visitors to these web pages a Happy and prosperous New
Year. This year has been one of lessened building activity
and that has affected building costs - in a good way for customers! This is simply because materials prices have not
increased as in previous years and labour costs, by all the different
construction sub-trades have been very competitive. Early next year will be an excellent time to build
or carry out alterations and additions to a home, as these rates will remain
effective and good labour is readily available. Some good statistics to remember, when thinking of a
new home:
We look forward to hearing from
you in 2011. |
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Web Pages changes: The following changes have been made to our web pages. Comments function added: Visitors to these web-pages can now place comments. To protect
against spam or other inappropriate comment, please be aware that comments
are reviewed by the web administrator prior to placement. Individual page slideshows: The various web-pages now have different slideshows in the
header area (see above). There are 8 different slideshows each with 8 or 9
images. This means that visitors to the website have the opportunity to see a
large variety of past projects simply by visiting different pages on the
website. Larger slideshows added: Large slideshows, showing more detail, have been added on
the Home page and on the Brochures
page. |
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Restoration Painting Tips. If your old Colonial House, Villa or Bungalow is looking
worse for wear, and needs a re-paint, then you may wish to consider a
traditional or heritage colour scheme. Heritage Colour Schemes are not for
the feint-hearted, but can provide a very satisfying and unique appearance.
Most people, today, are surprised with the range of colours that were
available in New Zealand in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. One
thing you did not see on a late Victorian or Edwardian villa, was white. Not
everyone today, would like traditional striped verandahs, or architraves
painted in three different colours, but if authenticity is something you
favour – it can be done! A word of warning: When stripping old paint, remember that most paints used prior to
1965 in New Zealand, had high lead
levels. So, when stripping old paints, make sure you obtain the necessary
guidance from a professional as the health and environmental risks associated
with lead poisoning is substantial. Traditional paint colours fall in
roughly 5 groups: 1.
Early Colonial: Mainly reds and browns, ochre and
light cream. White was uncommon, except for whitewash. 2.
Early Victorian: Mainly reds, browns and greens,
some earth shades. 3.
Mid Victorian: Dark reds, dark browns, dark
greens, greys and whites. 4.
Late Victorian and Edwardian: Pinks, beiges, rich pink creams. 5.
Dominion: Cleaner greens, reds and blues. You will note that blues are rare
and there’s a few interesting commonalities: Blue and green roof colours are
a relatively modern thing: While available earlier, green really only became
common as a roof colour after the first World War, blue much later. Early
roofs were plain galvanised or painted dark red. Originally, the undersides
of verandah iron was painted either a pinky-beige, or a sky-blue, while the
top-side was usually dark red and cream stripes. We have several books on
traditional colour schemes and we are happy to provide more detailed advice for
your renovation or restoration project. We can carry out restoration colour
studies where, with careful investigation, we can often determine what the
original paint colours were. If you’re bold enough, you could then paint your
house in the colours it was painted originally! For further guidance, note that
Resene has a range of traditional colour charts. Ask for their ‘Heritage
Colour Palette’. The old British Standards colour
charts also show some old colours: BS5252 and the older BS101 can provide some
guidance. If you do intend to paint the
‘correct’ traditional colours, please obtain expert advice from us – just
because the colours are on the same colour chart does not mean they go
together! Some technical advice: When painting, remember that preparation is everything.
Old timber buildings need careful preparation or the new expensive paint
won’t adhere to the old surfaces and will simply flake off, or worse blister
off. Some old finishes, such as distemper and lime-wash can be particularly
difficult to paint over. If in doubt, bet expert advice. A last comment: Fear not! You need
not have a white house! |
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Here at Timeless Homes we take construction site safety seriously.
An injury, at work, can be a life-changing experience. Timeless Homes have an
unblemished record for site safety and we work proactively to minimise risk
for our staff and sub-contractors on our building sites. We are, naturally, Site Safe Members. Chris Kingdon was recently awarded the Certificate in Construction Site Safety, through Unitec, held in conjunction
with Site Safe. This Certificate only adds to Chris’ qualifications in site
safety. He already holds an Advanced Site Safe Passport and the ‘Leadership
in Site Safety’ qualification. |
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The perils of buying
a property with buildings altered without a building consent. This last weekend, I met some people who have (about a year
ago) purchased a property. Nice old transitional villa with a separate
garage. When they bought the property, they requested a LIM report
from the council which did not show up anything untoward. (You can already
see where this is going, can’t you!) The triple garage had a separate fourth
garage to the one side, under a lean-to roof. Recently, they decided to
commence working from home, and figured that converting the fourth ‘on the
side’ garage to an office would be a good idea. So, they called up a builder friend (not us!) and this
builder took out the garage door and fitted a ranch-slider, insulated the
walls and ceiling, lined the walls internally and lined the ceiling, fitted
some nice new lights and; All done, ready to start working from home! This is of course where the problems started. Someone
complained about the business now being carried out from home and the council
came round. Here’s what they found: The ‘Fourth Garage’ had no building
consent, as it was built as a carport, and then converted to a Garage without
consent. The original owner/builder apparently simply added the carport and
converted this to a garage. No, the LIM report did not show this. Now, to get a retrospective building consent for this
building work is somewhat problematic: 1.
There’s no damp proof membrane (dpm) under the slab, and the slab is
to close to ground level anyway – so they’ll need a dpm and another slab on
top, and an Engineer may have to certify that the foundation is up to
scratch. 2.
The wall cladding will need to be removed to fit building wrap to the
outside of the wall framing. 3.
With the new topping slab, the roof will be too low, so the roof will
need to be lifted. 4.
As a commercial space, they need to consider wheelchair access – no
allowance has been made for that. 5.
They need an electrician to certify the lighting installation. 6.
There’s no toilet facility and, while they can use the toilet in the
house, that means that they need to build a wheelchair ramp. 7.
The bathroom needs to be remodelled to meet regulations for an
accessible bathroom. (Wheelchair user friendly) 8.
All of this needs to be documented and approved. The gist of all this is that much of the costs they have
already incurred remodelling the room will now have to be undone and redone.
This, all because they did not employ a design professional before carrying
out alterations. And, of course, their business is now in limbo because they
cannot work from the office until the council has been satisfied that the
necessary requirements have been met. Can they get some redress from the
previous owner? My thoughts are that it may be difficult seeing that they
carried out changes to the previously un-consented work themselves. The moral of the story: Remember to talk to a reputable Design and Build Specialist before
carrying out changes to your home. It will save you lots of heart-ache
and unforeseen costs if you get the necessary planning consents before
carrying out building work with your home handyman! |
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Drinking water not up to scratch? Here’s how to fix it! Many New Zealanders are unaware
that one in five Kiwis drinking
water either fail to meet bacteriological standards or has not been tested
because the water source has not been registered. 20% of schools fail the
water standard test! This is according to a report released in June 2010, but
only made publicly reported on today. We routinely supply our rural customers with a superior UV and
particulate filter system. Most whole-house filter systems are installed at rural
properties, where clients rely on roof collected tank stored water. But, the
results of the report seems to indicate that city and town dwellers should be
equally concerned. At the very least, - if you live in a town – check with
your local council what water testing regimes they have in place and, does
your water meet the standard? A suitable whole-house filter system which
provides 55 litres per minute UV and particulate filtered water, can be
supplied and installed for approximately $2,000. The system comes complete
with an alarm so that the customer knows when the UV light needs to be
replaced. This seems a small price to pay in order to avoid some rather nasty
bacterial infections, such as E. coli. |
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Our Kitchen display at our Offices and Display Rooms, 142 Main
Street Greytown, is virtually complete. You will note that we have
deliberately done the two parts of the Kitchen display to show two different styles,
two different finishes.
The reason for two different
finishes is to better show potential customers the different options
available. Wright Kitchens
have done a fabulous job and the kitchen display showcases exquisite real
granite benches by
As you can see, the one unit is
more traditional, with panelled doors and traditional knobs and pulls, while
the other is more contemporary, with stainless steel handles. We’ve taken the
opportunity of fitting the ‘soft-close’ drawer and door controls to the
‘traditional’ side. These are the drawer and door controls which, almost
magically, close the drawers or doors if you don’t close these completely
and, at the same time, does so softly without a bang!
To round it all off, Dinger
Natural Stone has fitted two different granite benches, one dark, the other
light. We think this is a great way of showing different options in one
space. Oh – if you wonder about the four yellow dots – that’s the light
fitting’s reflection. All the energy efficient light fittings in our offices
and display rooms were provided by Superlux
Lighting
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We
received a letter from a satisfied
customer, which I’ve copied here: Dear Mark It was nice to hear your voice the other day and have a
wee catch up chat. I hope you, Annie and the children are well and thriving. I enclose a copy of the letter we received re the Branz
Survey, which was the reason for my phone-call. It is interesting to know that these
investigations go on!! The gentleman, Mike O’Malley, had a lot of Branz
experience and spent a half-day asking about things like insulation, smoke
alarms, available water tanks etc and going around looking over the
house. Bob had to go out during the
morning and I wondered what I would be told at the end of the morning. What a relief – not unexpected though –
that there was nothing to report! Apparently, at the end of the inspection
they sit down with the house owner and list the things that need seeing to /
improving / repairing: For your interest –
and gratification; He sat and thought for ages and finally said there was
nothing to fault! Mike O’Malley commented on: Under house: Very neat plumbing. Good ventilation under
house and good under floor platform. In house: Very solid well built house – one of the best he
had looked at – couldn’t find anything to fault. Stainless steel hot water
cylinder great – we did not say it had been replaced under guarantee! He said it was the
“Rolls Royce of houses”. (We knew this anyway
but nice to have it confirmed by the experts!!) |
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The Blower Door
Computer generating graph of test
results. The N50 Test is a standard test in Europe and Canada to comply with
local building codes. |
Gwyn Williamson, from ProClima, has been to our offices on Friday,
to carry out the N50 blower door test. This is the test, as used in Europe
and Canada, where the building is subjected to a ‘negative 50 Pa pressure’, in order to see where the structure
leaks air, and in doing so, finding out how energy efficient the building is
likely to be. “Why on earth do you
want the building airtight?”, I’ve been asked? Simply, the more airtight
a building’s structure, the better the insulation works. Ventilation is very
important, but ventilation should not be through the insulation! The test is
carried out by installing a special ‘blower door’ and computer interface. The
first step is to measure wind speed and temperature on all side of the
building. Next, the building’s ‘vital statistics’ are entered into the
program. Gwyn inputs, as accurately as possible, the floor area, the ceiling
area wall areas and air volume of the building. Then, making sure that all
doors and windows are shut, the fan cycles up to a fan speed where 30 Pa can
be maintained. This is done as a “pre-test” to test the system responses.
After this, the fan ramps up to 65 Pa and from there, the whole process is
automated as the fan changes speed and tests the integrity of the building at
ever lower pressures. Finally, the fan stops and the programme assigns a test
score. Our building scored 4.2. This is somewhat less than we hoped for but
substantially better than most modern, well built, New Zealand houses which
tend to score 7-8. Put another way: That’s 45% better than most modern
houses. We next re-set the fan and inspected the whole building using a smoke
wand. This is a little tool that emits artificial smoke and users can see
where the building ‘leaks’! We anticipated that doors and windows would be
bad because this building was built with timber joinery to fit in with the
traditional buildings on Greytown’s Main Street. We know that the doors and
windows we usually fit to our customers houses, Hollings First Aluminium doors and vertical sliding sash windows,
will perform much better than timber windows. We were surprised with the
windows, which did not leak too badly. Mainly, through the sash-cord pulleys.
Doors were another matter! French doors, with their rebated meeting stiles
and simple sills performed particularly poorly. We’re confident that, had we
tested a similar building with aluminium joinery, then the set result would
likely have been a score of 3 or better. If you’ve read our blog, How many hours has your
heat-pump been running this winter?,
then you’ll know we’ve saved hundreds
of dollars this winter on heating costs as result of the new technology
built into this building. This is a direct result of the installation of the ProClima Intello airtightness and
moisture control system. It simply does not make sense to ignore this
technology when building a new home. The results are simply fantastic. This
technology has been used in Europe for many years but is only now available
in New Zealand and results in up to
75% savings in heating and cooling costs. It is, of course, possible to
have a home with no heating or cooling energy bill. For more information,
read the ZeroEnergy
pages. Lastly, remember that anyone can make claims as to Energy Efficiency.
Can they back it up with test results? |
Close-up of fan
Blower door seen from outside. The
door assembly measures air pressure inside and outside. |
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Press comments about Home-Owners
looking to sue the Christchurch Council I noted,
with interest, that the Sunday paper reports that home-owners in Bexley are
looking to sue the Christchurch City Council because they believe the Council
should (a) never have allowed a residential development there and (b) should
have insisted on greater than building code minimum standards in order to
allow construction on soil that may liquefy during an earthquake. I cannot
say if such a (potential) law-suit would be successful or not, but would like
to comment with regard the Building Code: The New Zealand Building Code,
Building Act and the relevant Building Standards, as amended, are a fairly
robust set of documents and, provided the code is followed then home-owners
will have a reasonably good building. Bear in mind, the Standards are minimum
standards. It’s always possible to do
better and many reputable builders (such as ourselves!) routinely build to
much higher than minimum code standards. So, while the code does not require
reinforced slabs for some single storey homes, Timeless Homes always
reinforce all our slabs. According
to the press, some badly damaged homes in Christchurch only had reinforcing
to the concrete edge footings, but not to the slabs. Perfectly legal, so I
would argue it would be hard to lay blame at the Council’s door. One of
the very first things we do, when visiting a client’s property, in order to
design a new house, is we carry out a Scala
Penetrometer test. A Scala Penetrometer test measures the soil bearing
capacity where the house is to be situated on the site. One of the
requirements of the Light Timber Framing Standard, NZS3604:1990, as amended,
is that the soil bearing capacity of the site should be checked prior to
pouring foundations and a Scala Penetrometer test is probably one of the best
ways of doing that. Poor soil
conditions exist throughout New Zealand. Here in parts of Greytown, for
instance, it’s not uncommon to have to drive piles to more than 4 metres
below ground level to establish a good foundation. Or, it may be necessary to
dig the footings deeper, say to a metre, to establish “Good Ground”. Before
you build, make sure your designer and/or builder has taken the time to check
the soil conditions under your new home and that your designer and/or Engineer
has designed the foundations correctly for the ground conditions and that
your builder has priced to build the foundations as needed. A
standard foundation may work fine – but only until the big one shakes things
up! This may be a good time to remember that a 7.1 earthquake is a
substantial force and the Building Code is not really designed for that
magnitude of earthquake. |
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How many hours has your heat-pump
been running this winter? With the last of winter (we hope!) behind us, it’s
certainly time to reflect on How much
the heat-pump cost to run this winter! We’re run our two heat-pumps a
total of 12.5 hours over the whole of winter. At 2.1kW each that’s maximum
4.2kW x 12.5 hours = 52.5kWh. (Actual use is actually less.) The panel heater
downstairs has used $133 worth of electricity over the whole of winter. That
means we’ve spent less than $150 this entire winter staying warm. That’s
between $30-$37 per month. If you too would like to seriously cut your
heating energy bills, give us a call and we’ll let you in on the secret.
Remember that ‘building code compliant’ and even ‘slightly better than code’
will not give you these savings. It’s not rocket science – The technology
works and simply gives you a better building. When combined with good passive
solar design principles and moderately energy efficient fittings and
fixtures, you too can have an energy saving house, without altering your
usual lifestyle in any particular way. |
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Availability to work in
Christchurch We are carrying out work in
Christchurch, and often travel to Christchurch, Canterbury and even the West
Coast for work. If you have been affected by the recent Darfield earthquake,
or if you simply have been searching, locally, without much success, for a
reputable Master Builder that offers ‘Timeless Design’ and are experienced in
new work and/or alterations and additions to more traditional style homes,
feel free to call us and we will be happy to meet with you during our next
visit to your area. For new design and construction projects, or substantial
alterations and additions to your property, we’ll visit as soon as travel
arrangements can be made. |
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Same amount of light, less
electricity used. A Wellington based lighting
company, KTL Technologies,
is on the forefront of LED light technology. Up to now, LED lights have not
proved popular in household use because it’s not been easy to replace a low
voltage down-light or a compact fluorescent down-light and obtain the same
light output from an LED light ‘unit’ (Can’t call it a ‘bulb’ – there’s no
‘bulb’ to speak of.) The new LED lights clip straight into existing low
voltage halogen recessed light fixtures and because light output is similar,
there’s no need to cut more holes in the ceiling, add more fixtures and
wiring. As an added bonus, these lights have a rated lamp life of up to
50,000 hours, which is 34 years at 4 hours a day average use. Compare that
with the 500-1,000 hour lamp life of the average incandescent light fitting
and the added cost of the LED unit can quickly be justified, especially for
those difficult to reach spaces. With the equivalent light output of up to a
100W, using 13W of electricity, these lights are cheaper to run than compact
fluorescent lights and, unlike compact fluorescents, contain no mercury, so
no heavy metals into the landfill 34 years from now! |
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Same insulation, less heating
energy required. You can now have a home that uses
up to 80% less heating energy than the norm. With the norm, we mean other
brand new code compliant houses. A little known problem is uncontrolled air
movement through your house’s walls. In simple terms, air pressure on
opposite sides of a house are seldom equal. This can be because of one side
of the house being warmer than the other, or because of a light breeze
blowing one way or the other. As soon as you have a pressure differential,
nature will try to equalise. Problem is, nature will quite happily suck the
air through the timber wall structure to equalise pressure. Simply place your
hand near a hot-point on a windy day, and you’ll feel the air movement
straight away. A new intelligent air barrier membrane, which is fitted on the
inside of the framing, under the internal linings, prevents this. The ProClima Intello system protects the
insulated wall cavity from uncontrolled air movement and this means the
insulation works much better. Much the same way as adding a thin windbreaker
over your sweater on a windy day will make you feel warmer. Consequently, in
our new offices, we have two heat-pumps that remains off on most winter days.
As an added bonus, the product allows airborne moisture out of the wall, but
not back in, thereby eliminating the problem of mould growth inside walls. To
find out more, visit the ZeroEnergy pages. |
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Electricity Costs. If you’re thinking of building a
new home, have a think about electricity costs and how, slightly different
design and construction technology can save you heaps over the years you own
your home. Many a new home designer and/or builder will pay lip service to
“energy efficiency’ and “lifecycle costs” but will they actually (a) building
you a better house and (b) save you money in the long term? We’ll be
publishing a range of articles on this broad topic over the next few weeks.
The short answer is – Yes – the technology is available now and – No – it
need not cost a fortune. You can have a home that costs next to nothing to
heat and/or cool and is comfortable year round. All that is required is a
little design forethought and special care and attention to detail by your
builder. |
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Timeless Homes Limited FREE PHONE 0508 TIMELESS (0508-846-353) |
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Timeless Holdings Limited © 2010 |
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