Wow a lot of you people bagging plaster homes really have been sucked into what the media tell you!! It is not the plaster systems that have failed but the design of the homes, blame your architects who did not put any eves on these leaky homes, that is where the problem lies.

Oh and it is also only Auckland that is having these selling issues, everywhere else, they are selling just fine.

Those thermal imaging tests are just like the plaster houses- nice and easy to complete, cheap, the result looks nice, but does it really work? I wouldnt trust my financial future on a thermal imaging test or a polystyrene house. Thermal imaging is for measuring temperature on a surface, not for sensing water or rot inside a wall. For that you need a moisture probe, in as many places as possible.

As a number of people have said, Christchurch houses with plaster or rockcote over polystyrene have fared the best through the quakes. Mine is constructed that way, and I only have a small vertical crack about 30cm long, as opposed to my neighbours either side and opposite me, who's houses have to come down. Yes, they're brick clad. Anyway, design is the biggest factor in leaky homes, combined with untreated timber.

The best house construction is old-fashioned weatherboard on wooden piles. They stood up really well in the Canty quakes. You could perhaps consider brick in Auckland given the lower seismic risk. But, weatherboard can be given a new look so easily with a bit of paint. Reclad your plaster house in wood. Wood is flexible and copes with the environment in NZ. Decent eaves and flashings are also important. Buyers and valuers can spot a property that has been built cheaply. Build a smaller house with proper materials rather than a cheap large house. Who are you trying to impress anyway?

We have a plaster clad home, its amazing. We ensured we had a full inspection to make sure there were no leaks. I think its all been blown out of proportion by the media. Not ALL homes are leaky yet that seems to be the perception.

In fact, our home is warmer and drier than any other home Ive ever lived in.

Russell   #70   via mobile 06:27 am Dec 07 2011

If it's made of plaster, spray coated applications, plaster over polysytrene or hardi backer it's a case of when not if it will leak. Anything built from 1993 to 2005 like this will also have untreated framing. Avoid at all costs. If your bank knows the property is of this type they will not want to fund it - end of story, probably have trouble getting insurance too. If it has decks above rooms soon you will have water dripping through your light fittings! Give me an old villa, bungalow or ex state any day! p.s even homes that have neen reclad are now leaking again - reclads are just as unwanted as original clads!

What does it matter if a plaster clad house is perfectly dry and sealed today? The problem is that it may not be that way tomorrow, the risk that it will leak at sometime in the future is just too great. Just look at the terrible things.

Besides which these houses aren't exactly cheap. They're awful value for money. I want something that will be standing long enough to retire in when I've finished paying for it!

Well i have a house with no treated timber, and no leaks or rot. Why not leaks or rot, because it was designed well. 108 years old and going strong

There is a saying in the building industry, a good hat and agood pair of boots and you will be fine. In NZ terms that means piles and a roof with eves, external gutters and well painted.

This sytem has worked for centuaries all around the world so stick with it is my advise.

Council's can only do and enforce the laws of the time. They tightened up laws under Labour, now under National we are seeing the laws of building be relaxed again.... more chances of leaky homes! More support needed by the government and more accountability required by the companies who actually made/make the products that are prone to leaking.

One of the most interesting things about all this is the various companies making a mint out of doing the building inspections on behalf of buyers. Many of these companies are as bad as those who first built the real leaky homes. These inspection companies simply duck for cover every time they write their reports as they are not prepared to do the due diligence that the potential buyers actually ask them to do and pay for. Instead they write the same old vanilla flavoured reports and protect their backsides by stating these sort of houses have the potential to leak. God save us, every single house ever built has the "potential to leak" and yet these inspection companies get away with blue murder and cream the fees from the prospective buyers and as a consequence play a large part in killing the property market. Where are the ethics there?

Interestingly enough one of the major players in this market was recently the initiator of a complaint to the Real Estate Institute about an agent who had the guts to stand up and be crtical about their credentials. Particular agent, one Mr Waller, an ex-All Black, was taken to task over this - but appears to have a bit of support over the courage he showed.