Getting the houses we deserve
Photo: Allen Taylor

Getting the houses we deserve

We’ve tinkered with houses for a while now: adding insulation here and there, swapping single with double-glazing – yet, we still see the photos of people living in squalor in damp, cold, mouldy homes on a regular basis.

How do we ensure that renovating our homes will lead to creating healthy and comfortable places to live in?

Unfortunately, houses are not cars or whiteware. While some may look very similar, the way they have been constructed and upgraded over the years will be distinct. To improve anything properly, we need to know what we are dealing with, and I am not talking tick-box exercises here: we need a full check-up to make a cohesive plan for the healing process.

For any building remediation work, the EnerPHit certification process creates this plan. I would recommend EnerPHit to social housing providers, and other larger-scale operators in a heartbeat.

However, creating and executing a fully-fledged plan of renovations requires expensive specialists, which are out of reach for many homeowners.

From my experience as an inspector in a federal state retrofit programme, step-by-step DIY retrofits are typically of high quality – if the homeowners were properly advised and instructed. And without a quality assurance scheme, many projects completed by professionals lacked the required qualities, and are therefore doomed to fail in the long run.

For owner-occupied buildings, we need an incentive programme which comes with free consultation. This won’t come cheap, as retrofitting houses is the back belt in housing projects. Consulting on these projects isn’t a job for graduates. To do justice to the complexity of the task, you need very experienced people with a solid background in building science on this job (and no: I won’t be available for this). The consultation should be coupled with performance-based subsidies that help with bridging the gap between the initial added investment for better performance, and the eventual gains through lower operating costs.

Homeowners should be free to choose between DIY and professional help – the performance-based incentive should be fixed in any case.

This programme needs to be coupled with a quality assurance scheme. We want bang for the buck, we want measures that perform well – and there is a chance of even making the situation worse with poorly designed or executed solutions. Again: this will be expensive, but without this expense, we may just have gurgled a lot of money down the drain with no benefit to the people living in the house or the wider community.

Overall, the expense is very cost-effective, and in the public interest, as it will reduce suffering and related spending, as well as productivity losses. People who are sick most of the winter, or need to care for sick children cannot possibly contribute to society to their fullest potential.

All of this applies to owner-occupied housing. For rentals, we need measurable performance indicators such as temperature and humidity – simply to ascertain that the places sold as accommodations are fit for the purpose. You cannot rent a car where the brakes don’t work, or the tyre threads are bare. The same needs to apply to accommodation.

It’s a big project, and to do it right, requires significant funding. But unlike other big projects that have been funded recently, there is a clear prospect of alleviating suffering – it’s well worth it!

Annie Wagstaff

Construction Management/Quantity Surveyor

1 年

I am a construction consultant in Wellington helping people with the upgrade of their houses. I whole heartedly agree with you Kara.

Robert Kilgour

Engineer, Strategist, Problem Solver special interests in #energyefficiency #renewables #deepretrofit #lowcarbonmaterials #resourceefficiency #durability #positiveimpact #cycling #running

1 年

Indeed this is a big hairy audacious goal, not just for NZ, but globally (was back in NZ over the Xmas holidays and horrified at the inadequacy of bathroom ventilation in the hotels we stayed in!). With a significant volume of building stock that is unlikely to be replaced in the next 25+ years (and a need to repurpose as opposed to demo and replace), retrofit is something we need to get right. Quality assurance and robust inspection, verification and testing is critical. Education of the owner occupiers is also critical, particularly where new “requirements” to improve health outcomes are viewed as just more “red tape”. The classic boiling frog analogy comes to mind…i.e impacts are so gradual we don’t notice until things are “bad”. Great commentary Kara Rosemeier! Spot on!

Jon Davies

Tech support and Education Manager at Proclima Oceania

1 年
Clarence MACALISTER

Builder at Ionic Construction

1 年

Great article. So much old building stock that needs a load of attention. So much "dangerous half knowledge" around energy efficiency retrofits that can potetnially make things worse.

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