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Breathe easy with proper ventilation

This month, with temperatures finally starting to cool down, I thought it was a good time to examine the importance of proper ventilation. We’ve touched on it in passing in previous newsletters, but this time, it’s the focus – hopefully you’ll learn something new to help make your home a healthier place for you and your family.

Let’s get down to basics. When people talk about ventilation, what exactly are they talking about? On the most straightforward level, ventilation is the intentional flow of air from outdoors to indoors (and back out). This can be as simple as air coming through a window, or as complex as a gadget-packed whole-house system.

So why is ventilation important? There’s air inside, there’s air outside… what difference does it make? In fact, there’s a whole host of reasons, including:

• Reduced condensation. Ventilation is a key way to control moisture in the home. And moisture migration can lead to all kinds of nasty things – from aesthetic concerns like peeling wallpaper to more pressing issues like mould and mildew development (which we’ll go into in more detail further down).
• Getting rid of allergens. If there’s insufficient airflow in your home, things like dust and pollen can get trapped indoors, leading to nasty allergic reactions if anyone in the family has sensitivities. Making sure that living spaces are well-ventilated means the whole family can breathe more easily!
• Protecting everyone! You don’t have to have allergies to have your health affected by poor ventilation. Everything from smoke to bacteria to carbon dioxide and other gases can build up when they don’t have an easy way to escape, meaning that anyone can be at risk of complications from just breathing the air at home.

The health benefits are reason alone, but even the plain unpleasant effects of poor ventilation can be a real pain. Whether it’s the mirror fogging up after every shower, smoke lingering in the kitchen after a cooking experiment gone awry, or a damp corner of the house starting to take a turn for the worse, you don’t have to put up with it.

There’s one very simple way to make some headway towards better ventilation in your home, and it doesn’t require any fancy gadgets or installations.

Just open your doors and windows! It’s not always possible, of course, when it’s raining or especially windy, but allowing as much natural airflow in from the garden as possible is a great way to encourage air circulation.

Keeping interior doors open also helps – so if your moody teen keeps shutting themselves away in their room, you can use the ‘for the good of your health’ argument to get that door open!

If the weather’s too cold to leave windows open for a long period of time, it’s still worth airing things out for a few minutes at a time.

Keeping windows and doors open isn’t the be all and end all. Make sure that you’ve got extractor fans in your bathroom, laundry and kitchen, even if you’ve got an external window. You don’t want to have to keep the window wide open during your bath through all the winter months…

If you find that your situation still needs some help, it could be worth looking at a home ventilation system – the two main types are positive pressure heat transfer systems and balanced pressure heat recovery systems. Keep in mind that while you might see a small temperature increase, ventilation alone isn’t enough to keep your house warm in winter, and you’ll need to make sure you’ve got a heating solution in place too.

For people on the verge of selling their home, a property inspection report will indicate whether or not your ventilation is up to scratch – and you can sort out whether anything needs sorting out before going to market.

Remember: a ventilated home is a happy, healthy home. So protect your family’s wellbeing this winter and get serious about that airflow.

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Care for your water systems

I hope you’ve had an excellent start to 2016 – and a summer with as few household hiccups as possible. There are always new things to learn about your home – and since I have made a relatively recent shift from the suburbs to a rural property, I’ve found myself finding a few things out the hard way too.

Care for your water systems

Just before going away at the beginning of January, our rainhead was blocked. I thought it was probably just leaves, and figured I’d sort it out when I got back.

When I came back home, everything was unblocked again, which was what I had been hoping for. Until I went to check on the tank itself, and saw – here’s a warning for the squeamish to look away – a dead, rotting possum. It had been raining while we were away, which must have gradually softened things up so it wasn’t stuck where it had been before.

Thankfully, we have filters and purifiers, so nobody got sick as a consequence – but the tanks needed to be cleaned (running up a $600 bill) and we’ve had all the inlets vermin proofed. Not a nice surprise to have to deal with straight after a holiday.

So for those of you on tank water – whether it’s your main home or at a bach – be sure to keep on top of things:

• Get your tanks checked periodically by by a professional.
• Protect your inlets from vermin and debris with properly fitted screens and gutter coverings.
• If things get blocked up, investigate straight away – you could save yourself a large cleaning bill.
• Seal the tank itself to prevent insects, small animals, birds and sunlight from getting in – it’ll also keep it safer for any children playing nearby.
• Clear your gutters and roof regularly – especially if there are trees overhanging the area.

And if you don’t have to worry about tank water, thank your lucky stars for the mains keeping your tap water possum-free!

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What to look for in an investment property

I’ve had a lot of rentals in my time, and one thing I’ve learnt is that the best tenant is the one that never calls you. Get the best kind of tenants with a little foresight and ongoing maintenance.

Things to look for in the property.

In general, think about the common things that you might get called out to fix.

• Check the water pressure in the shower. Would it be acceptable to you if you had to shower there every day?
• How does the paint look? Is it neat and presentable?
• Is there mould? Is it warm? This comes down to insulation, both top and at the bottom.
• Taps and fixtures. Water damage can have a huge effect and be very expensive to repair. I’ve had a whole house flood due to a cheap tap bursting, causing $120,000 worth of damage. This was a huge stress – thank goodness for insurance
• Look for low-maintenance materials. You’ll thank yourself in the long run.

Pay attention to and be wary of the normal, routine things that you would notice if you lived there every day. These are the things that will cause you stress with a rental property that could otherwise be a low maintenance source of income. Ask yourself, would you live here? Could you rent it in its current state?

Be practical about it.

After buying your investment property, make sure you get good tenants, and that you or your property managers are doing regular checks, and most importantly, don’t leave things to get worse. Avoid having to repair things; instead. you want to be spending time and money on maintenance and prevention. Maintenance costs can be claimed back, while “improvement” right before you sell can’t.

The most important thing to remember is that maintenance keeps up the value of your investment property. While repairing is you spending money to try to get it back to where it was. Make sure you keep on top of it.

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What’s underneath your house?

Buying a house is probably the single most expensive purchase you’ll ever make.

If you’re mortgaged up to the hilt when you move in – as many people are when they buy a home or invest property – then finances can be strained if there are any immediate repair bills needed. One of the biggest things that you’ll want your building inspector to check for are the piles under your house.

What are piles?
If you look under pretty much any house built in this country, you’ll see that the foundations are generally formed by wooden poles or posts, or concrete piles with wooden jack studs. Their purpose is to evenly distribute the house’s weight across the soil. The house, in turn, should be built to distribute its weight evenly over the piles so that the house stands straight (and not on a slope).

Some older houses are built on tree stump piles. Nothing lasts forever, and over time you can find that the piles have rotted away and the house’s weight has become unevenly distributed. Sometimes you’ll find that a house has been re-piled. A couple of signs that this has happened are that the piles have been made from tanalised (H5) pine. It’s also fairly common to spot a few new piles in with old wooden ones. Today’s Building Standard requires foundations to have seismic connectors to give the foundation strength in an earthquake.

Does my house need re-piling?
Your house may need re-piling if some or all of the piles are moving. Moving causes the house to twist, and crack, causing damage. To stop the damage getting any worse, it will be necessary to re-pile your house. Sometimes it’s really obvious that your house will need re-piling, such as when it’s sloping – although usually the signs are more subtle.

What does re-piling involve?
Essentially you’ll have to dig new piles into the ground and realign the house to its new foundation. It’s also important to understand what caused the piles to move in the first place. Was it poor soil, rotting wood, or water damage? Some of these issues may need to be fixed before you can even think about re-piling.

If re-piling sounds like a hard process…that’s because it is. Re-piling is a major job, and isn’t for the typical DIYer! This is Restricted Building Work and is required to be carried out by a Licenced Building Practitioner, and may need a Building Consent. That’s why it’s so important to find out these things before you sign a contract. By negotiating for something to be fixed, or re-negotiating prices based on a problem that you’ve found, a building inspection report can more than pay for itself.

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Want to freeze your power bills this winter?

Brrr…This winter weather is a daily reminder of how important it is to make sure your house is insulated properly.

Good quality insulation won’t just keep your home cosy and warm in winter; it’ll also keep the heat out during summer. In other words, with proper insulation, your house will be a comfortable temperature all year round, as well as cheaper and easier to heat.

Cold, damp houses are a serious problem in New Zealand, and anyone who has been following the news will know that it causes health issues for thousands of people around the country. Hundreds of thousands of houses are believed to have insufficient insulation. If you need to get some installed yourself, then the priority should be:

1. Ceiling
2. Underfloor
3. Walls
4. Windows

Often people look for insulation in their ceilings and walls. Once they see the Pink Batts, or other type of insulation, they figure that they home should stay warm. But then they forget about checking for insulated floors. See if you can check under the property for the underfloor heating. If there’s no insulation there, then it’s best to get some – you’ll really notice the difference. Similarly, it’s best to remove the old insulation and replace it with new insulation if it has gaps or missing bits, if the insulation has been damaged, or if it doesn’t extend under the whole floor.

Floors and ceilings can benefit from added insulation, and the rule here is that you can never have too much! But beware – if you need to put insulation in the walls then you must have a building consent.

Also, hundreds of dollars fly out the window – literally – in lost heat through single glazed windows. I’ve talked about double glazed windows previously, but it’s worth mentioning again that in New Zealand, double glazing isn’t standard. Nevertheless, it’s incredibly useful for retaining the heat, and will often end up paying for itself. Not to mention, it really helps with noise reduction, so if you live near a busy road then that can be a real bonus!

A lot of housing, especially in Auckland, is substandard and requires better insulation. Just because a property owner or agent claims that the property is fully insulated, that doesn’t mean that it definitely is. Check all of the areas of the house from the ceiling and underfloor, to the walls and windows.

In fact, a house may require quite a lot of work just to make it a healthy and safe place to live. If you don’t know how to check the insulation, then I can do that for you as part of the property inspection.

Needing a Property Inspection?

We offer detailed and thorough property inspections with a same-day turnaround!