Why You Might Need Recladding On Your Mission Bay Home
Home ownership is a huge responsibility. You need to keep your family in a healthy environment and you have invested a significant amount of money in the property. Obviously, you need to make sure that your healthy home and major investment are looked after. So, people have lots of maintenance chores done around the house. Many tasks are easy to spot such as flaking paint, or leaking gutters but perhaps the most important task is not so easy to spot until it is a very expensive job. That is the external wall cladding of your home. We know about the problems with leaky homes and the cladding issues there, but all types of cladding need checking and attention too. Here we look at some of the issues that might require a Mission Bay recladding inspection.
Leaky Homes
Let’s look at the elephant in the room first.
Leaky homes are a specialist topic. The issues with monolithic cladding were just one aspect of the whole leaky home scandal. This article is not about leaky homes but about the majority of sound homes where the cladding might need to have some remedial attention. If you do have a leaky home, you will need to contact a specialist in leaky home repairs.
What Is Recladding?
Cladding is the outer covering on your home. It might be timber weatherboard, concrete, plaster, or other materials like aluminium. Clearly, it is an essential part of your home, keeping your home dry, warm and habitable. Recladding is replacing the old material with a new one.
Why Might You Need To Reclad A Mission Bay Home?
Over time, if not maintained, the cladding can become damaged or simply deteriorate with age. Regular cleaning and painting of the cladding can help protect it and extend its useful life. Other times, it might get damaged such as in a storm.
But in some places, the local environmental conditions can be more challenging. This is especially so for areas near the sea which are subjected to a higher concentration of salt in the air. Salt is highly corrosive and can easily start to cause decay in many cladding materials.
Signs That You Might Need Recladding
If you see any damp patches on walls that might indicate that there is a leak in the cladding. Another tell-tale sign is a smell of damp too as moisture builds-up behind the internal plaster walls.
You might also experience draughts near windows or even in the walls themselves. This too can indicate gaps or damage to your external cladding.
What Is Involved In Recladding?
In short, recladding is the removal of the existing exterior covering and replacing it with new cladding. The process is a bit more involved than that. The six basic stages for recladding a home are:-
- Get Council consent for recladding
- Protect the house with a plastic wrap.
- Remove and dispose of the existing cladding material.
- Check the framing wood for rot or other forms of damage.
- Replace any damaged timber.
- Reclad your house.
The process typically takes between 6 and 12 weeks but that can vary depending on the size of the house and how much remedial work is needed to make the timber frame sound again.
Advantages In Recladding A Mission Bay Home
The obvious advantage in recladding your home is to make it weather-tight again but there are others. For example, you can have better looking, modern material on the outside of your home. This can not only make your home look more modern, it could have an impact on its value too.
You will almost certainly have improved insulation after recladding a house. Newer materials and technologies are made to have better insulation properties which reduces the energy demand in a house therefore lowering fuel bills.
Another benefit of recladding your home is increased fire resistance. Some older materials, woods especially, did not have the current fire resistance standards. Any new cladding will have to conform to the more rigorous standards of today.
Prices For Recladding Your Home
The prices for a recladding project will vary depending on the size and scope of the problem with the home. The best idea is to involve a builder that has experience in recladding houses as soon as possible.
They will be able to advise you about the whole process and give you a ball-park price at the start so you can then work out your finances.
Before you sign a contract with the recladding builder, be sure to get a written quotation and time schedule.
Finding A Mission Bay Recladding Builder
Recladding is a skilled job and has to adhere to strict building standards. And, since it is one of the two main protective elements for you home, along with the roof, you most certainly want to hire a qualified builder for the job.
At Fever Pitch, we are Licensed Building Practitioners, a New Zealand government building accreditation programme. This means we have to be trained to the latest building standards and techniques. This can give you comfort knowing that you are hiring the best.
If you have any concerns over the cladding on your home, please call me on 021 209 2214 or email craig@feverpitchbuilding.co.nz. I will be happy to talk to you about your ideas.