Work on leaky homes pressing

Just 8 per cent of the total number of leaky homes identified by a government-commissioned report have so far been repaired. Although this potentially offers plenty of work for builders to fix the mess, the industry is cautious about taking it on.

A PricewaterhouseCoopers report issued by Building and Construction Minister Maurice Williamson last week estimates 42,000 leaky homes were built between 1992 and 2008. The report suggests fixing all of them, including 9000 homes overtaken by a 10-year legal liability time frame, will cost $11.3 billion.

However, PwC estimates so far only 3500, or 8 per cent, of the leaky homes have undergone any form of repair. Now, with Mr Williamson set to take an assistance package to the Cabinet early in the new year, it is possible the repair work could be speeded up, potentially creating a flood of work for builders.

But Registered Master Builders Federation chief executive Warwick Quinn said concerns remained over liability and indemnification issues if builders did repair work following design specifications, and a home continued to leak. The federation planned to call on Mr Williamson in the new year to seek clarification.

"If the builder fails to live up to the workmanship side then he should be culpable," Mr Quinn said.

"But if the builder is told to do A, B and C and he does A, B and C and A, B and C fails, then he will be liable for work that really isn't under his control."

If, however, the Government resolved both funding and liability issues, Mr Quinn envisaged a wave of leaky home repair work coming on tap six months or a year from now. Ironically he noted it was likely to come as building sector activity was picking up after the most severe downturn in decades.

The latest Statistics New Zealand monthly figures, for October, show 1424 new dwellings – including apartments – received consents. New building authorisations, excluding apartments, are now up 34 per cent since March after falling more than 50 per cent from a June 2007 peak. And Mr Quinn expects another 5 per cent to 10 per cent lift in activity next year.

"We've not only got new builds and alterations and additions happening, we could also have a lot of leaky-home houses to repair faster than they would otherwise have been."

Meanwhile Fletcher Building, New Zealand's biggest building materials manufacturer and distributor, expects a boost from leaky home repairs.

Although Fletcher does not make external cladding products, some of the repair work will require the timber framing, gib board and insulation products that it makes.

"There'd be no doubt that if the numbers are correct and there's a move to accelerate the rate at which houses are fixed up, that would be beneficial," Fletcher spokesman Philip King said.

Leaky home problems are largely confined to buildings with monolithic external cladding – either fibre cement, stucco or coated polystyrene – installed over untreated timber framing and without a drainage cavity between the cladding and the external walls.