James Hardie's Experts Can't Get it Right
James Hardie’s lawyers have blamed faulty building work for the leaks in houses clad with their Harditex product.
But even the house their experts used to train a leading housing developer leaked like a sieve.
Much of James Hardie’s defence in the early days of the trial revolved around them blaming bad builders for the leaks and decay.
When we have proof that even James Hardie's experts couldn’t make a house weathertight, we have to share it with our readers.
This house was built in August 2001, well after leaky buildings hit the press and two years after James Hardie started its ‘Harditex Improvement Programme’. A well-known housing developer was concerned by the leaky home publicity so decided to get James Hardie themselves to assist building their new Show Home. James Hardie’s experts were there during the construction, teaching the developers’ builders how to properly install Harditex.
When a moisture probe system was installed in 2009, very high moisture contents (>25%MC) were detected at 26 locations, with high moisture levels (>18%MC) at another 39 places around the house. Above 18%MC is evidence of a leak. In fact, they could only find 20 places out of 86 locations where the house wasn’t leaking. That’s a shocking 77% of the building that leaked!
Bear in mind that this house was built in 2001, well after Prendos had told James Hardie that cavities and treated timber were required, and well after NZ Standard 3602:1995 specified H3 framing behind absorbent claddings.
James Hardie was under a special duty of care, considering all the negative publicity about leaky buildings, to get this one right, but failed. Just eight years later, the house was leaking like a sieve. Is it any wonder that as the plantiff’s lawyers reported, James Hardie were unable to present the court with even one house that didn’t leak?
Here is the plan of the house, showing the colour coded moisture readings. Red means 25%MC or higher, Orange means 18%MC or higher, neither are compliant even with treated timber.
James Hardie’s lawyers say that the builders were at fault because they didn’t follow the instructions. The lawyers for the plaintiffs say that even if the instructions were followed to the letter, the houses would still leak. This developer certainly knows who to believe.
We will leave it up to the readers to make up their own minds.
Tags:
James Hardie,
James Hardie Lawsuit,
Leaky Homes