September 2001

Good Afternoon

If you have a condensation problem at your place, you must read this.

1. Radical changes to Moss Brothers Housing gives clients more options and helps them save more money
2. The age-old problem of condensation. If you want to get rid of most, if not all, condensation at your place, start by reading this.

Moss Bros change to provide what you say you want.

For almost 15 years Moss Brothers Housing has been designing and building character, replica and frontier style homes from as far north as Keri Keri and as far south as Blenheim and Golden Bay in the South Island. But for at least eight of those years I've been asked many times would we just supply plans or other lesser services than design and build. And my reply has always been no, the minimum we will do is design and build to shell.

You're probably thinking, gee this guy is slow or a bit thick or doesn't want or need the business. I'd like to think that it's none of those things. The reason is that I've been trying to protect the business and have my team do the construction work. Well, it's about time I got real, started providing more options and gave more people what they want instead of what I want. Many of the new options won't be for everyone as they involve a more hands-on approach from the owner, however the two main benefits are, the owner has more control of the actual project, and the project will cost less to build because with some options there are not going to be any main-contractors over-heads or margins added.

The enclosed schedule explains in more detail what our new options will mean to you.

As an introductory offer I have included with this month's newsletter a gift certificate for the first two hours of consultation and preliminary design work valued at $150 free to anyone that brings in the gift certificate.

The age-old problem of condensation. If you want to get rid of most, if not all, condensation at your place, start by reading this.

BRANZ have a simple and most effective suggestion to stop condensation. They say that we are the problem so that if we move out of the house the problem would stop. Ha ha very funny, unfortunately the statement is 75% true. Let me describe what happened just recently.

A few months ago we completed a new home for clients in Blenheim, actually the house was almost identical to our Masterton showhome. Anyway, the owners rang me after a few weeks of moving in saying they were having terrible problems with condensation. I didn't think that was possible as we installed double glazing, and condensation is not supposed to form on double glazing.

Then they explained that the condensation wasn't forming on the glass but the aluminium that holds the glass in place. That it wasn't just water running down the inside, oh no, it was much worse than that, the condensation had frozen and the drapes had stuck to the ice. Unsure of what to do next, I phoned the BRANZ help line. Understand that this house was built up the Wairou Valley where they have consistently been experiencing -5 to -7 deg frosts.

BRANZ's main comment was that although the frosts were extremely heavy, which aggravates the situation, to have that much condensation the moisture must be coming from somewhere. They quizzed me on the house by asking questions like:

Q Was it built on a concrete floor as concrete floors release moisture into a new house for over a year after completion.
A No. Our replica homes are built on particle board or tongue and groove floors.

Q How dry was the timber wall framing?
A The house was started in January and the owners took possession in June of this year. Last summer was one of Marlborough's driest summers and autumns on record.

BRANZ made the comment that as the house had only just been finished some moisture will still be evaporating from gib board plastering and internal water-based acrylic paints. However this was only minimal. At this point we had established that the building was not the origin of the moisture so we then focused on possible source and cause. Next question:

Q Did the windows have passive vents fitted?
A Yes.

A passive vent is a small controllable vent inserted into the aluminium joinery which allows for air circulation while the windows are sealed tight. So the passive vent not only allows for controlled air movement while you're at home, but also if you are away on holiday when the house is locked and secure. Passive vents don't have to be installed to a house at the time of building. So for more info contact your nearest aluminium window joinery company. By the way, double lugs on the window handles allowing the window to be open just a fraction work just as well, however most people would find this a security risk.

Q Do the other wet areas of the house (ie bathrooms, ensuites, laundry, kitchen and water under the house) have adequate steam or moisture extraction.
A Yes, to all rooms except the laundry. Could have it been improved on - yes.

Lets discuss the four rooms separately.

Bathrooms
All bathrooms should have a steam extractor fitted. Actually most often these are a 2-in-1 appliance, ie: a fan and light or 3-in-1 - fan, light and heat-lamps. I don't think the building codes are strong enough here. All the code says is that bathrooms (and ensuites) must have adequate ventilation, and to pass the building act all that's needed is an opening window. But let's be realistic here, who opens the bathroom window in the morning to let the steam out while having a shower when it's minus 5 deg outside? You must have an extraction fan because steam remains as moisture in the house and ends up as condensation. All wet room ceilings, especially bathrooms, must be painted with oil base enamel paints. In fact not just ceilings but all woodwork including skirtings, scotias, architraves, timber trim around the shower door and bath etc and the bathroom door, itself, must all be painted with water repelling paints.

Wet room walls. If they are gib board or any kind of paintable wall board, they must be painted with oil based enamel paint. Other very good and ideal water repelling bathroom products are tiles or pre-finished Hardie products, such as Hardieglaze or Hardietile. But remember the article I did last newsletter, you can't use tiles on the shower floor if the floor is supported by wooden floor joists or timber because they will leak around the edges as cracks appear.

Ensuites
Ensuites come under the same category as bathrooms. The same rules apply.

Laundry
Same wall and ceiling finishings apply here as bathrooms and ensuites, but the main culprit in the laundry is the clothes drier. Far too often the exhaust is not ducted outside adequately or at all, and the moisture is pumped in to the house causing condensation.

Kitchen
How efficient is the extractor over your cooking area. Boiling pots and pans are a huge source of internal moisture. Your over hob extractor fan should be a turbo.

Damp or wet ground conditions under house.
Most people would never think that moisture under the house is a reason they have condensation on the inside. Well a staggering 1 in 4 New Zealand houses have this as a major contributing factor for unwanted condensation on the inside of their houses. Most of us think that the underside of their house is well ventilated and that's probably true if the floor is concrete, but moisture will seep through the cracks (even in a new home) if you have one of the following moisture problems under your house:

1. Blocked or damaged stormwater pipes or spouting down pipes (including blocked or poor draining stormwater soakage pits) that allow water to flow unrestricted around the perimeter or under the house.
2. Burst or broken water pipes.
3. Disconnected or leaking waste pipes from toilets, baths, showers and the kitchen sink etc.
4. Storm water running off the bank behind the house and then running under the house.
There is only one way to find out if one of the above four are causing problems and that is to have someone climb under the house and check the ground for dampness - all over.

Another contributing factor to internal moisture is drying the washing inside. Most people are guilty of this. We think to ourselves, it's cold and damp outside and I can't get the washing dry or as dry as I'd like it. The washing comes inside and put on a portable rack near the fire or by the central heating. Think about it this way, how heavy is a basket load of washing that's just come out of the washing machine, and how much does it weigh when the clothes are dry and ready to be put away? The difference in weight, which is quite a lot, is how much water you pump into your house every time you dry the clothes this way.

Most of us close all the windows when it's cold to keep the heat in and the cold out however a nice warm house doesn't get rid of the moisture problem. To do this you need heat, internal air circulation and most importantly ventilation, that's how a clothes drier works.

You may think that making changes to your existing house like what I've suggested here could cost you more than what you want to spend on the problem. But these kinds of things are what make an energy efficient house. And an energy efficient house is a place thats more cost effective to heat and maintain. Dampness is the biggest cause of house damage.

A BRANZ ideal energy efficient low condensation house has: Good insulation including double glazing, dry ground conditions under house, moisture extractors where ever moisture is generated, window ventilation in every room and finally a heating system that circulates heat throughout the house as evenly as possible, eg a fully ducted heat pump air conditioning system, but a simple low cost transfer fan system is an efficient substitute.

Visualise the dream.

One of our best assets we have is we draw all our plans on the computer. What the computer can do these days is quite fantastic and amazing, and they continue to improve at lightning speed. Because many people find it difficult reading plans, what this means is that you can see exactly what your proposed new home will look like before it even gets printed onto paper. The benefits for you are that we can show you and print out for you a 3D model view from any angle of your new home. So take advantage of this new technology and to make it easier we have a special offer price if you bring the attached flier with you when you come to visit and want to start the planning process.

Regards

Julian Moss

Oh PS: More and more inquires and sales are from beyond the toll free area of our office. Because of this, for your convenience I have installed an 0800 Free-Help phone line to our office. So if you have any questions or queries you can contact me (that's Julian Moss) on:

0800 MOSS BROS (6677-2767)