Options for Fixing & Selling a Leaky Home
There are so many home owners that either know they have a leaky home (and a leaking bank balance as a result), or they are worried they live in one and aren’t sure how to find out. The other portion of people have their head in the sand and don’t want to know.
For the ‘head in the sand’ home owners:
Just because you’ve seen one small area in the house that looks like a leak is showing itself, it certainly doesn’t mean the rest of the home is leaking. In fact, it could only be a minor joinery issue in that one window, or a flashing failure at a junction in one small area that has caused the issue. It could be something as minor as ‘movement’ that has caused the ‘problem’ and it’s a simple fix. Yes, you may need to replace some timber frame in that area, but that’s very simple for a builder to do a target fix… it’s quick and easy in some cases! Just put a quick call into the council before you touch your home structurally, as rules may vary in different areas.
Do you think about it all the time? … “I hope this isn’t a leaky home?”. The annoyance of wondering all the time can be sorted out within a couple of hours with a quick moisture test. Maybe your partner keeps harping on about it, and that’s annoying you also? (We hear of this situation all the time!). For the sake of a few hundred dollars, you can get it looked at from a non-biased point of view from a company that doesn’t sell recladding services or building repair work, and has been in the business of moisture testing for years. That’s right, we don’t sell you anything at the end of the inspection.
Got a leak you can see?
Before you hit any panic buttons, or your hair turns grey at the thought of it, why not get someone around to open up that section of wall to take a look. Usually a builder can open a section of gib board within 15 minutes and this allows you to get a direct look at the timber. 50% of the time the actual structural integrity of the timber frame behind the wall is Ok, but there is moisture in the insulation and possibly some black mould on the timber.
Before you do open up your walls (sounds daunting, but it’s not), get a leak test done just in case a similar area on another section of wall has the same issue. This will allow the builder to explore those areas at the same time, which will save you money.
We’ve had cases where the home owner was sure they lived in a leaky home and wanted to sell it, but it was only a few windows leaking and the issues were sorted out real quick from the internal side without touching the cladding or taking out windows!
Options for fixing a leaky home:
This is a case by case basis, but as of 2011, there now ways to repair target areas of a leaky home without having to get a reclad… and the council will be happy with it. We can put you in touch with a company that states they have approval from the council to treat timber without recladding!
