Articles | SDS Design

Leaky Buildings - Builders and Developers By: Scott, Monday 12 April 2010

While there is a large percentage of buildings being built correctly, by real tradespeople, there is a large amount that are not. We have dealt with so called builder clients where they don't understand the rudiments of timber construction. Obviously, they are not experienced and are not tradespeople. However, to the general public, building construction, from the footpath, looks easy. So they try their hand at it.

We joke often about how "everyone wants to be a builder", but the serious side of it is - they can't be. We know of a Builder in Auckland who builds no more than 10 projects a year, and has the staff to handle it. They pay the usual fees with the councils and have no construction problems or any deficiency in expertise.

On the other hand, we know developers who only speak a language of price competition, and everything as cheap as possible, including sub contractors. Sometimes accountants run these businesses. We know of developers who require carpet to be relayed after serious leaking has been discovered, in and around decks and ranch sliders etc, where a commercial LPG heater is being used to dry out the moisture quickly - due to a final inspection that day.

We have seen with our own eyes, Gib board ceilings being fixed to ceiling strapping, yet the roof has not been installed. These are not usually the workings of qualified tradespeople. Every builder we deal with through our office, has 2 or 3 stories of the funny goings on among other projects. While these stories are humorous, they have serious connotations that in the end, are destabilising our building industry.

We have so called builders ringing us asking questions like what is a BR5? What is a starter? What does cover mean? Do we need head flashings? These are questions that I have never heard being asked except for in the last 5 - 10 years with the influx of all these unskilled people.

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