Moisture Detection

06/09/2024

If you think getting appropriate inspections done before buying is expensive, consider the cost of buying a leaker.

Invasive testing could have revealed that the vendor just made cosmetic repairs to cover up water damage. The new owners have spent over $400,000 on legal fees, have been living in a leaker for four years and are still waiting for justice. Their pre-purchase inspection report should have recommended more investigation to establish the true condition of the house.

Moisture Detection Company offers professional invasive testing services to inspect framing timber for decay, moisture and treatment, without damaging the gib or cladding.

https://www.moisturedetection.co.nz/services/invasive-testing/



https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/auckland-businessman-davinder-rahal-surrenders-jp-warrants-after-900000-leaky-home-damages-order-company-liquidated/4OC4SC6JQFFP7ODMSF7RFSRSOA/

Professional and accurate invasive testing, without damaging walls or claddings, for confident house buying decisions.

02/09/2024

INVASIVE TESTING HELPS HOUSE BUYER AVERT A DISASTER.

It's natural to want to keep expenses to a minimum when shopping for a house and some buyers grow weary of paying for inspections on house after house.

A recent client came to us after a recommendation from their pre-purchase inspector who had found slightly high moisture indications in the dining room of a plaster-clad house.

She was concerned about the cost of a higher level of weathertightness inspections but even more worried about the risk of buying a leaky home.

We carried out four invasive tests using Mdu Moisture Probes in the dining room and the garage and found very high levels of moisture and advanced decay in three locations. See the photos of the timber samples - locations 1,2 and 4 are decayed.

At this point, we asked the client whether she wanted us to test any other areas but she decided to pull the pin on this house and keep looking.

We can't stress enough that the tools used by pre-purchase inspectors doing visual-only inspections are not technically capable of measuring moisture or finding decayed timber. They can identify some areas for further investigation but are not accurate or reliable.

If you buy a monolithic plaster-clad house built between 1992 and 2004 without invasive weathertightness testing, you are at a high risk of buying someone else's problems.

Moisture Detection Company provide invasive testing for decay, moisture and timber treatment without cutting out wall linings or cladding. Vendors accept our process because we don't damage the house.

Contact Moisture Detection Company for further information.
[email protected]
(09) 271 0522.

https://www.moisturedetection.co.nz/

https://www.moisturedetection.co.nz/services/timber-treatment-testing/

https://www.moisturedetection.co.nz/services/pre-purchase-inspections-for-weathertightness/

30/11/2023

Stuck in a Plaster Trap - Why Plaster-clad houses aren't selling.

Our building inspectors tell us that there are fewer plaster houses on the market - in fact, they are hardly getting any enquiries for pre-purchase inspections.

From our observations (and real estate agents we talk with agree), most owners have just about given up on the hope of getting a realistic price and don't want to sell at a stupidly low price. So they are doing nothing.

Read our recent blog learn more, and discover what owners must do to position their houses to sell for what its truly worth.

https://www.moisturedetection.co.nz/stuck-in-a-plaster-clad-trap-the-financial-dilemma-facing-plaster-house-owners/

Plaster house sellers: Owners have stopped trying to sell as prices are too low. Those taking positive action early increases house values.

13/04/2023

THE MOST EXPENSIVE MISTAKE DRIVING HOME SELLERS TO DESPAIR.

The euphoric hype of 2021 has faded and sellers of monolithic-clad homes are faced with the grim reality of evaporating buyers and rock bottom offers. It doesn’t matter how good you think your house is, it’s what buyers, inspectors, banks and real estate agents think that counts.

This is what’s really happening;
• Your house goes on the market with high expectations – after all you know that it is basically sound and dry,
• A buyer is interested and makes an offer subject to inspection and finance,
• Their inspector picks up on a couple of areas which could have high moisture or water damage,
• The buyer’s bank won’t lend, the buyer walks, and the real estate now has knowledge of an adverse building report, which must be declared to future potential buyers,
• From now on, offers are low-ball, even below land value as everyone factors in that the house probably requires a reclad, if not a full rebuild.
• You ask yourself "What the hell just happened?"

We see this pattern repeated time and time again, so how can you head this off and help ensure that your house sells for fair value?

The alternative process;
• House owner has a moisture probe monitoring system installed in their house, which provides accurate, indisputable data on the house condition – moisture levels, decay and timber treatment levels.
• If repairs are required, the house owner either completes these prior to listing or makes full disclosure to potential buyers.
• Buyer makes their first offer based on seller’s disclosures, and buyer’s inspectors are unlikely to find any further issues that would stop the sale.
• House sells at a value that is fair to buyer and seller, and the moisture monitoring system stays as a chattel of the house, to assist the new owner with future maintenance.

A real estate agent contacted us recently and their client’s house which should have been worth over a million is struggling to get offers over $400,000. That’s what’s happening in the real world.

Sellers – take the initiative and put the alternative process into play before listing.

Contact us at Moisture Detection Company for more information on how we can help.

21/03/2023

WARNING: CONTENT MAY BE DISTURBING FOR ANYONE WHO HAS BOUGHT A PLASTER-CLAD HOUSE IN THE SUMMER!

If your Pre-Purchase Inspector gave you a report carried out to New Zealand Standard “NZS 4306:2005 Residential Property Inspection” then you must have almost zero confidence that they found and reported all of the leaks and decay.

Sounds crazy eh. But the NZ Standard for inspections is VISUAL ONLY so what they can't see, they don't report. They can't see decay, and their moisture meters can't measure moisture accurately or find all of the damp spots. They 'may' report what 'might' be happening but that's not good enough when you are laying out hundreds of thousands or more for your dream home.

If the inspection was done in the summer, it's even more unreliable.

Do you want proof? Have a look at the photos below.

CASE STUDY

We put 51 moisture probes in an East Auckland house last January. Overall, the moisture levels in the framing weren't that bad. Only five in the 'Warning' range (between 18% and 25%) and none in the Red 'Danger' level (over 25%). These are shown on the house plan on the first photo.

We also used our meter in normal scan mode (what pre-purchase inspectors use), and no high moisture levels were indicated.

However, the timber samples at seventeen locations showed serious decay, Another twenty showed that decay had started. Now that's a lot of decay for any house! (see second photo - red dots = serious decay, orange dots = early decay).

The timber samples are the proof (see third photo - two samples show serious decay, two show early decay).

Timber treatment testing showed that the framing was untreated against decay or insects.

So when we read the probes again in the winter, we weren't surprised to see that eight were now in the Red zone and seven were at the 'Warning' level (see fourth photo).

A 'dry' house had morphed into a 'wet' house.

How does that happen?

Because decayed timber wets easily and then dries quickly, so a serious leak in the winter often can't be picked up by scanning or even our moisture probes after a long dry spell.

Your inspector can only find this out if he does invasive testing to test the timber condition at key risky areas.

If your inspector didn't (and 99% don't), then there are likely to be leaks and decay because nearly even house has at least one problem area. These are issues which can be found and fixed before causing more damage.

We have approved a number of Inspectors trained to use MDC Moisture Detection probes to identify leaks and timber damage.

These are vital during the pre-purchase inspection process to test whether there are real problems that are going to cost you money to fix.

Only use a Pre-Purchase Inspector who understands weathertightness and the need to properly test the house for leaks and decay.

For existing homeowners, only a full probe installation will tell you what is happening inside your walls. The knowledge helps you to keep your house safe, dry and worth more when you sell it.

https://www.moisturedetection.co.nz/services/moisture-probe-system/

Call us on (09) 271 0522 or visit our website for more information.

09/03/2023

Ticking Time Bomb Warning for Flood-Damaged Home-Owners

The recent floods have hit thousands of homeowners hard. Their houses and personal possessions have been damaged or destroyed by muddy, contaminated waters.

If you or someone you know is affected, then look out. Once the insurance companies have finished their ‘remedial works’, many of these houses will be left as ticking timebombs costing their owners' plenty in the future, unless they act quickly.

The big clean-up is underway and naturally, people want their houses back – back to how they were and as soon as possible. The pressure is on. The insurance company inspectors and loss adjustors are frantically running around instructing contractors on what needs to be done. The contractors are making hay, stripping off gib and setting up fans.

The insurance companies want to get every home signed off at the lowest possible cost.

However, it’s time to just put the handbrake on and take a good look at what really happened and what this means.

Your house framing has just been absolutely saturated with water contaminated with all manner of bacteria and fungal spores. If you don’t take the correct action, decay can set in very quickly. Research by SCION showed that Untreated and H1 timber can decay within six weeks of exposure to moisture.

We had a customer who had been flooded out come to visit us yesterday. He told us that contractors had dried the house out, sprayed a disinfectant on the timber and told him that he could re-gib.

We have been in this game long enough to know that this is physically impossible. The timber cannot be dry, and the treatment they use will not protect it. This is utter madness and bordering on criminal (in my humble opinion) – the next leaky home saga may be around the corner.

BRANZ Bulletin 666 “Restoring a Home after Flood Damage” makes it clear that putting the gib on before the timber is dry may result in mould growth and timber decay. That timber should be checked by a registered building surveyor and retreated if necessary. That it may take several months to dry to an acceptable level and there should be a pre-lining inspection by the council before replacing linings.

How well is this being done or is expediency over-ruling the need to do it right?

The surface scanning equipment used to ‘measure moisture’ cannot give an accurate measurement, especially where it is most important, at the base of the framing, where all of the moisture from the studs runs down to, and where it is hardest to dry out.

If your house was built between 1992 and 2002, there is a high chance that the framing timber is either completely untreated or lightly treated H1. This timber needs to be kept dry to keep it rot and borer resistant. Now that it has been saturated with contaminated water, it is particularly vulnerable.

If your house is plaster clad, direct fixed to the studs then you are more vulnerable as the timber will really struggle to dry out once the gib is on.

Do not, under any circumstance let your insurance company off with a half job that leaves you with future decay, mould and resale problems.

It is possible to get your insurance company to pay up to fix it properly, but only if you are armed with the right knowledge.

Moisture Detection Company designed moisture probes to accurately measure and monitor moisture, and RotStop to treat vulnerable timber and kill off the full range of white, brown and soft rots. This is what we do, and have been doing for nearly 20 years.

We will be writing a full explanation about this and what it means shortly. Send us a message if you would like a copy, or want to talk about your house.

https://www.moisturedetection.co.nz/services/treat-timber-and-stop-decay-with-rotstop/

, , , , , , ,