Housing Quality and Work
 

Apologies if the subjects have been covered before in other threads, but I have read through loads of them and my particular querries haven't been covered.
A lot of the entries mention how cold the houses are in NZ particularly in winter, and the fact that central heating is very expensive to have on. My question on this is why not insulate the house like we do in UK? Loft insulation, double glazing, cavity wall if possible (I know house construction may not make this possible) and any other means of insulation. NZ promotes itself as being greeen and environmentally freindly so this should be being promoted by the Goverment as it is over here. If/when we get over that will be one of the first things i do.

My other question is on casual work, my wife is going to be the principle applicant as she is a well qualified nurse and has had several job offers. I am currently in the UK fire service and would probably apply once over trhere. in the mean time until they recruit, i would need some money coming in. What is NZ like for casual work such as decorating, site labouring or similar cash-in-hand type work? Stuff that maybe the tax man wouldn't get to know about?

Obviously this would only be short term, sort of helping a mate or neighbour out until something came along more permanent.

Anyone any experience of this sort of temporary stop-gap work?

Re: Housing Quality and Work
 

Hi Gingerseamonster,

can't help with the work qusetion I'm afraid but with regard to the housing you will find that newly built houses do have wall and loft insulation and are generally much better constructed than the older stuff. This is however fairly new so anything more than a few years old may have minimal insulation. Where the kiwi industry hasn't caught up yet is on double glazing, certainly in the Auckland area at least. Brand new houses and even commercial properties still come single glazed in aluminium frames with no inulation. These are OK when new but soon start to let in draughts.

On the subject of central heating the most popular system seems to be heat pumps whuich supply warm or cool air depending on the season. This is an option even in brand new houses and most kiwis seem to rely on a combination of Gas or wood burning fires and electric blankets. We arrived here in September and are renting a trdaitional kiwi weatherboard house, believe me it was warmer outside than inside the house during a period of cooler weather in October.

The answer is if you want to be warm, buy a new house and ask for heating to be fitted, the cost of heat pumps is quite low initially, about $5,000, but I'm not sure on running costs.

Best of luck :beer:

Re: Housing Quality and Work
 

Just a quick one whilst we are on the subject of electric blankets if adults have electric blankets to keep them warm what do babies have

We have an 8 month old and I was wondering what you do out there to keep a babies nursery at a even temperature and to keep the baby warm

Cheers

K9

Re: Housing Quality and Work
 

There are some wall mounted electric, panel type radiators which are supposed to be good for keeping the chill off. They are warm to the touch and therefore safe for childrens' rooms. Each one is rated at something like 400 watts and you have as many as you need in a room.

It's so true about houses being cooler on the inside during the winter, the converse is true during the summer. I guess this is mostly because of inadequate insulation.

It's not just the cold really that is a problem - it's the damp too. If you had a trad CH system you'd just bung it on for an hour or two to drive the damp out, but you can't do that here. So, a dehumidifier is a good buy , some are only 300 watts and quite cheap to run. Don't buy anything fancy - bog standard from the Warehouse will do the trick.

It is possible to buy uPVC double glazed windows here but most double glazed windows are just single skinned aluminium frames, with a sealed unit double glazed sheet of glass in them. So you still get problems with cold frames and condensation. (back to dehumidifiers again)

Rolls of insulation are quite expensive from what I've seen, Pink Bats is one particular brand but there are others, if you're buying a fair amount it may be worth haggling a bit over the price and getting a discount for bulk.

We used electric, oil filled radiators during the winter and the monthly bill was around $200. Had them on mostly in the evenings though.

Re: Housing Quality and Work
 

Have you come across the baby sleeping bags whilst you've been in the UK - babygro is one sort but there are plenty of others - you get different togs 0.5 up to 2.5 and then you can just layer the child up inside the bag according to room temps (and most of them come with guidance as to what layers are needed) - from a simple babyvest in warmer months to longsleeved babyvest plus pyjamas and socks for colder nights - we brought ours with us and our little one has been fine although we've yet to do a winter (we did experience cold nights when we first arrived in Oct!)
Cheers
Vicki

Re: Housing Quality and Work
 

Insulation is not as rare as all that. From a survey (link here) 71% of NZ houses have loft insulation, 50% have wall insulation, 10% have double glazing, etc.

In the UK 93% of houses have loft insulation and 70% have some form of double glazing but only 30% have wall insulation (source).

Re: Housing Quality and Work
 

These replies have been like buses - nothing for 2 months and then half a dozen come along at once!!

Thanks for the replies.

Anyone any experience with the stop-gap, casual work question i asked ?

Thanks in anticipation,

Gary

Re: Housing Quality and Work
 

Vicki

All we use in the UK are grow bags/ baby gro they are, as you say fantastic I don't know what we would do with out them. We are just about to go on a spending spree to buy lots more all different togs and different sizes

It's just from what people have been saying on here in the winter it gets so cold ( inside ) I didn't know if that would be enough. Everyone says it's colder inside than out so maybe we should let our son sleep in the garden :D

Have you bought any baby gros in NZ are they like everything else expensive


Thanks Vicki

K9

Re: Housing Quality and Work
 

Gary

Not sure abpout the casual work - although there always seems to be a fair amount advertised in The Press. However, where we are living (Kaiapoi - near Christchurch), all fire fighters are voluntary and therefore not paid. I'm not sure if this is true NZ wide but definately worth checking out.

Re: Housing Quality and Work
 

I have several sons who have looked for casual work in between contracts. Depends where you are going to be based and at what time of year - fruit/vegetable picking/vine pruning is a possibility if you're in the right place at the right time. Does it have to be cash in hand? There are reputable organisations who hire casual labour for building sites/removals, etc on a day to day basis but you would be taxed at source - called withholding tax here - usually 20%. Seems to me the whole of NZ works on personal contacts - would have thought making pals with your local NZ firefighters as soon as you arrive would be an extremely good move!

Re: Housing Quality and Work
 

Hi K9
I've got bumpto3 australia catalogue and they sell the grobags - prices are aud $55 up to aud$83 plus aud$12.50 postage to NZ so about the same as UK prices (so expensive when spending NZ$!!) www.bumpto3.com.au
Vicki