sharks

Housing - a lotta people seem to think it's built crap in NZ - rising & falling damp etc.... Is it not possible to buy a great site with a run-down clapboard, knock it down & rebuild to imported, ecologicaly friendly specs? can they do it? would it cost that much more? I can see carbon taxes looming and much higher energy bills...

Boopy

I think the housing here is probably built to suit NZ. Timber frames are used as houses need to be pliable for earthquakes. Most houses don't have central heating or double glazing, causing the dampness. But you can buy houses that have both. Most people renovate as their pockets allow.

sharks

i just did a quick bit of research - general consensus is that existing NZ housing stock is of low standard - even though large & atractive from my perspective, much flavoured by years in China. There are a couple of outfits in NZ offering sustainable housing - rammed earth and also pre-packaged housing designs borrowed from Canada. Having followed the climate warming debate for years, and observed the remarkable deterioration in the Asia regional environment since China industrialized - my guess is that things are going to take a marked turn for the worse, faster than we expect. It makes sense (and is moraly justified) to adapt housing stock now. I would much rather buy than build - but housing built along the lines that I prefer seems scarce. Earthquake survivability... that should be a matter of design specs...is all of NZ prone to tremors?

Boopy

Yeah on both islands. Earthquakes average 4 - 5 each week. Then there's the active volcanoes to think about.

sharks

Boy, must make life interesting. Still, for the last few years here when visibility exceeds 3-5km we all remark what a nice day it is. Frequently when on the bridge between Macau & Taipa (the next island) I cannot see land either ahead or behind. The sun is a dull disk. If you fly over this region, all you see is brown. Terrifying, and time to get out. I'd rather take earthquakes & volcanoes...

sky

The houses built to suit, that booby talks about in nz I think is a load of boll*x to be honest Sharks. They were just very cheaply built houses and they are still!
We tried very hard to find an alternative method of building a house here but all were dearer and the local council are very resistant to alternative methods of putting four walls and a roof up over your head. I know of a couple of folk in the Waiamakariri council area who tried and tried to get permission to build a straw bale house and they just could not get through to the people on the council.
The council want a space between the straw and the exterior They just are so consumed and caught up with leaky building sydrome that they just won't listen or read up or see sense. All they need to do is look at the straw bale houses in Europe and they should know that they are a good bet.
We're just using a building company now because it just was easier and we wimped out.

sharks

what about log housing? - no shortage in NZ of wood-stock. I read somewhere that 1" of wood is the equivalent to 6" of concrete in terms of insulating qualities. I found some excelent websites in BC, Canada that offer a complete pre-built package, guaranteed to last, and very nice looking. I am completely ignorant of local authority rules & regs - do they also apply to properties built on land outside of city limits (if you buy a farmlet etc..)... do they accept tried & tested overseas designs? - the NZ market is so small, almost all inovation/new designs must come from more developed markets I imagine... Aussie approved designs?

sky

We looked at log homes too but they were very very expensive. Even if you buy a farmlet you still have to abide strictly by the council rules. It sucks big time.
I gave in and decided to just build what the kiwis like and accept and then maybe we will do it again another two times and then finally we'll have the money to do exactly what we like and maybe have the money to rebel against the local council a bit

kiwi_child

PMSL I spent 30+ years of my life in NZ and in the whole time experienced one tremor, once, in Christchurch (The epicentre of the quake was actually on the west coast)

It's true NZ has major faultlines through it, but that does not mean the place is dangerous or overly risky to live in. The big earthquake in NZ history was the 1931 Napier one. The quakes or tremors that tend to occur are around 4 on the richter scale...in other words, no big deal.

As for volcanoes, virtually all of them are extinct and the ones that aren't are again no big deal. A volcano can be alive but remain inactive for hundreds, even thousands of years.

Kippers

You are perfectly able to build alternative type housing in NZ. Maybe not straw, but log, adobe etc can all be built as well as reinforced concrete and block.
One guy up north has an earth roof with grass growing on it
Don't be put off.
If you want it, in most cases it can be done (if you've got the money)

But I like my little wooden house. It shakes but don't fall down.

Kip

sky

So have you tried?
I have and our local council are just not alternative housing friendly. I know that earth building has been given the green light but it still is expensive to get to the planning stage.

sharks

Surely if you get the local arquitect & builders in on it (in other words they still make their $$$), local councils should be more amenable - they may resent having outsiders come in and take the cream.. There must be some formula for approval, given that small local councils are techincally hardly in a position to evaluate design specs....only desired outcomes. If a design is approved by engineers in Canada/Australia - do local councils detail their objections?

sky

Citrus Design helped us Go for it, i wish you luck but some of the councils in NZ are very set in their ways.

Apple12

I think you could also say that councils *everywhere* are set in their ways, just one of those facts of life things. How is the house building going Sky? My workmate is having the framing for his new house arrive on Mon, it is so exciting watching the changes.
And Sharks, I would be quite wary of deciding how you want a house to be before you have actually lived here. A bit like my ideal of having a two up two down council house in Macau- there are reasons why it won't happen, and there is no hope of understanding these things until you get here.

sharks

true - I am a bit ahead of myself, was planning to rent for the first year or so until I see how things are, and if we are comfortable in the location (undecided) picked. I get wound up in these threads - a new discovery for me - and go over the top... Deep breath............