Leaky Homes Exposed 

Leaky, rotting Harditex clad homes are the builder's fault, or so the lawyers claimed. However, the Harditex instructions were defective, did not follow NZ Standards, and this doomed these houses to fail - no matter what the builders did. Read the unbelievable facts here.

When your nearly new house is leaking and rotting, who do you blame first? The builder of course. After all, they built the house, and your contract was with them, so that’s fair enough. However, the big timber processors successful lobbying for widespread use of untreated timber was to blame. This article shows how this happened and why.

How did we ever end up with houses that rotted as soon as they leaked? Standards New Zealand are to blame because they changed the standards, reducing our well treated framing timber to timber treated with fly spray and then with nothing at all. Even when it became obvious that these changes were wrong, it tooks years to change them back.

What happens when the only trusted organisation, relied on by NZ architects, builders, and councils, approves faulty products and systems? Leaky, rotting homes and lots of them. Without the flawed BRANZ Appraisals of defective products, the leaky home scandal couldn’t have happened.

The Watchdogs were those organisations with the responsibility and authority to watch over our homes being built. Standards New Zealand, BRANZ, Building Industry Authority, the Councils. They all failed us, then conspired to cover up and blame the builders for their negligence.