When the Outdoors Flows in

The typical kiwi home suffers from a tension between our desire to feel connected to nature, and the problems that arise when we don’t adequately protect ourselves from nature. Water is a common theme. We love being near big bodies of it. We have high levels of humidity in many of the places we like to live. And water causes problems when it gets into places where we don’t want it.

There has been some good advice posted recently about precautions to take when cleaning up the mess of a flood. Surface water should be treated as if it is contaminated. In all likelihood, it is. We need to take care of ourselves and each other during this critical time. That’s the first priority.

Unfortunately, the clean up will require more than getting rid of visible water and fixing obvious damage.

Like most of the precious items inside our homes, many of the materials used to construct our buildings aren’t designed to get wet. They’re certainly not designed to stay wet. It’s really only the very exterior layer such as the roof, cladding and windows that normally have to withstand water. While some materials can withstand a bit of water for a short period of time, most won’t.

In the process of removing damaged items and drying what we can, it’s important to think about the moisture that’s not so obvious. If there was water inside, under or around the house, there’s likely water, or at least moisture, somewhere within the structure of the house. While it's supposedly summer, it is warm and damp - perfect conditions for mould to grow, and mould is what will cause us problems.

For decades our society has been far too nonchalant when it comes to mould. Just because many Kiwis grew up with it and are accustomed to mould in the home, that doesn’t make it ok.

As we embark on that journey of assessing, fixing and re-building, it’s important that we see dampness and mould for what it is. Mould in our homes should be treated with similar disdain and caution as any other toxin or irritant such as asbestos.

The storm events of late January 2023 have demonstrated just how hard it is to keep our great outdoors, outdoors. “Indoor-outdoor flow” sounds nice, until the outdoors is literally flowing indoors.

There are some conversations we need to have about where and how we build our homes. But in the meantime, we need to dry our homes properly, ventilate well, and no longer accept dampness and mould as the normal state of the kiwi house.?