Experts warn on house repairs

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Experts warn on house repairs

The Press - Waipara,New Zealand*

By TARA ROSS -

Monday, 13 August 2007

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/thepress/4162377a6009.html

Having a leaky home is bad enough, but some builders are making

things worse for homeowners with poor repair work, building experts

warn.

Too many were patching over problems and failing to remove toxic

moulds and decaying timber from houses, Greg O'Sullivan, director of

building consultants Prendos, said.

" There's people out there who claim to have expertise but have

none, " O'Sullivan said.

Poor repairs not only put homes at risk of further rot – and

expensive repairs – but also affected homeowners' health. Moulds

left to grow in a damp building, particularly the toxic mould,

Stachybotrys chartarum, can cause symptoms ranging from respiratory

problems, skin rashes and fever, to headaches, memory problems, mood

swings and nosebleeds.

" What people don't realise is once you have (mould), it's a time

bomb, " O'Sullivan said.

Yet, he had seen people trying to paint over Stachybotrys or simply

ignoring it.

" It's more prevalent than you would think down there. The practices

aren't good in Christchurch, " O'Sullivan said.

The latest figures from the Department of Building and Housing's

Weathertight Services section reveal the number of Christchurch

homes caught up in the leaky homes crisis has risen to 212 – up from

171 last month.

Christchurch building expert Mike Anticich said they were the tip of

an iceberg. " A lot of people are just covering up, painting it over,

putting it on the market and going. "

He reckons thousands of houses have been repaired incorrectly or

only partially. Some had been repaired two or three times simply

because they were not fixed properly in the first place.

In Auckland, experts have warned that more than half of repairs to

leaky homes are likely to fail, requiring further repairs.

A good test of builders' expertise was whether they sent moulds for

laboratory testing, O'Sullivan said.

" If they don't send samples to a microbiologist, I would be very

cautious. "

Whenever mould was found in a house it should be sent for analysis

by a biodeterioration expert or microbiologist.

Where wet carpet was found, samples should be sent automatically.

, whose Christchurch leaky-home problems have been

featured in The Press, employed a weathertightness surveyor to

oversee his builder's repairs to ensure they were done properly.

and his wife bought the home in 2002 but after only four days

living in it the ceiling collapsed. When builders ripped open the

walls, they exposed Stachybotrys splayed across the wall linings.

About a third of the house's lining has since been removed, along

with all mould-infected timber, and the house has been completely

reclad.

The repairs have cost substantially more than estimated but

said they could not afford to live in a house with mould.

" My wife got very sick. It wasn't good for our health. We're lucky

we haven't been left with any long-term issues. "

According to the Department of Labour's Occupational Safety and

Health unit, finding Stachybotrys in a house does not necessarily

mean occupants have been exposed to toxins.

While it is growing, a wet slime layer covers its spores, preventing

them from becoming airborne.

Exposure is most likely during repair work.