September 1999
Good Afternoon
UK Invention Saves Serious Accidents With Broomsticks
Firstly, I must apologise for being a bit slack. I should have
really got this issue out about four or five weeks ago, so I'll
do my best to make it more interesting and jam more in.
The benefits of roof finials
Since we started to specialise in old replica new homes, one
of the finishing touches we add to get that authentic look is
the roof finial. The finial is the piece of timber fitted to the
gable end of the roof, and they stick up about 300mm/12 inches
above the ridge or the highest part. It/they generally look very
decorative but there is a serious and practical reason for fitting
finials to roofs. Finials were first fitted as an obstruction
to stop witches landing on the roof while riding their broomsticks,
it's true, and it's worked for hundreds of years. But thanks,
or no thanks, to modern technology the UK witch has overcome this
problem with the development of the state-of-the-art Harrier Jump
Jet broomstick. Suggestions for the average home owner on how
to overcome this latest problem would be very much appreciated.
How quickly can your wood-fire flue block
and become a fire hazard?
Earlier this year we completed a new home for a very nice couple
in Greytown. And, of course, as winter marched on the woodfire
was getting more and more use. I got a phone call at the office
about three weeks ago from one of the owners saying that they
thought the flue was blocked as the house was filling up with
smoke. And of course I asked the obvious but stupid question,
"have you been burning wet wood?", of course not.
So I rang the plumber and briefly explained the situation, he
said that the flue was definitely blocked. He said it could be
birds, but most unlikely. He said that the wood might be slightly
wet but what's probably happened, and we are all guilty of it
(well I certainly am), is that we fill the fire box up with wood
as we go to bed and turn down the air flow with the hope that
it will burn slowly all night leaving enough hot embers to just
throw on another log in the morning and it's away, right? The
plumber went on to say that a flue can block within as little
as two weeks just by turning down a fully loaded woodfire as you
go off to bed. Of course blocked woodfire flues are where flue
fires start. The woodfire flue had blocked for this very reason,
quite amazing. The couple said that they had been doing it for
years and never had a problem before.
I think, for a clean burning fire, sure fill up the fire box
as you go to bed but don't shut it down or restrict the air flow
too much otherwise you will run the risk of your flue blocking,
too.
Double glazing.
In New Zealand it is a building requirement that we insulate
for heat loss under the floor, in the walls and in the ceiling.
Yet the areas where we lose the greatest heat is through the glass
of the exterior window and door joinery. Just how much heat we
lose really came to my attention just in the last year.
As I mentioned in past editions of the Moss Brothers newsletters,
my wife and I built a replica new home in 1998 on a couple of
acres just north of Masterton. We are very pleased with the end
result except I do believe that the omission of the installation
of double glazing to all external windows and doors was a huge
mistake.
There are two reasons for my not installing it, 1) it simply
didn't cross my mind as being enough of an issue. I suppose I
didn't have the benefit of getting something like what's written
here or having someone point out all of the benefits. You could
say that the advantages and benefits of double glazing should
obvious, but that's not quite true, otherwise double glazing would
be installed as another goes-without-saying product. And 2) Because
it wasn't pointed out as such an important issue, the additional
cost of the installation became the over-riding factor.
The way it came to my attention has a small story behind it.
As a self-employed person (like most self employed people) you
tend to work a lot of unusual hours outside the usual business
hours. Most self-employed people would tend to work these additional
hours in the evening, well not me. I can't focus at night, a few
phone calls is about all I can manage. So I tend to get up at
about 4:45am every morning (except Sunday when I sleep-in to 6:30am).
In the winter months, of course, it's dark until 7:30 am. So I
get up just before 5, re-start the fire and settle down to organising
my day and doing my homework (like write these newsletters). As
the day starts to break I get up from my PC and draw back the
curtains and that's when the full impact of not having double
glazing hits me. The curtains act as insulation so as soon as
they are removed a huge amount of the heat you've spent hard earned
money on generating is lost through the glass. You can feel it,
the cold air off the glass hits you in the face.
Although the additional cost of double glazing must be considered
when building, what other figures should we consider in the decision
making process?
Lets use the home I build in 1998 as an example.
House size is about 220m² or 2,376ft² including the
garage.
The cost of the aluminium exterior windows and door joinery, about
$12,500 incl gst.
The additional cost of double glazing all windows and doors except
the garage would have been about $5,000 incl gst
Ok, so the additional cost is about $5,000, what savings are there?
The cost of drapes and curtains at our place was about $7,500
incl gst. The curtains and drapes had to be thermal backed to
assist heat loss which made them heavier and more expensive than
they may have had to be if heat loss wasn't a consideration. Estimated
savings $2,500 incl gst
Because double glazing reduces heat loss by as much as 72% compared
with single glazing, the biggest saving will be in the amount
of money that will be saved by not having to buy energy or heat.
What I mean by buying energy is the amount of fire wood you buy
and use, the amount of electricity you buy and use, the amount
of gas or diesel etc etc… Most households would use at least
two of these energies during day to day living which could be
a combined annual cost of round say $3,000 a year. Of which a
third would go into heating if the house was single glazed. So
if the annual heating bill is $1,000 and 70% of that could be
saved each year by having had double glazing installed that equals
a saving of $700 or $7,000 over 10 years. When it's put in this
light, we've got to take it seriously and ask ourselves, is not
spending the higher set-up cost a false economy, it most definitely
is.
A couple of other points. Of course during a cold winter's day
no one is going to draw the curtains to prevent heat loss through
the glass. With double glazing, it wouldn't be an issue. We built
a new home for an English family about 18 months ago, they installed
double glazing so I asked them once they had been in the house
through one winter, how it was. Their reply was, "We have
one problem, how do we heat this house? "What do you mean?"
I said. They said that the double glazing was so effective that
they couldn't decide whether to install a wood burner or diesel
or gas heating or do nothing at all. As they pointed out, through
their first winter, all they used was a couple of electric fan
heaters for a 1800ft² house. And the last point, double glazing
is another tool in the war against condensation. We all know the
damage, not to mention the mess that condensation causes to our
homes, double glazing can eliminate most of it.
As a sum up, if we could have saved $2,500 by using lighter drapes
and $700 per year in heating bill, we would have actually paid
for the double glazing in just three and a half years based on
the extra cost being $5,000. It's simple maths when it's worked
out this way.
A very good article out of the "Consumer"
magazine - House Buyers' Trap
Read this very good article, it might save you some stress.
House buyers' trap
If you think buying a house is stressful even if things go
right, spare a thought for Ruth and Jack Lawson of Christchurch
Their offer on a house was accepted last August, and they
paid a $12,000 deposit. But the property was one of several
which seller had mortgaged to a bank, and he couldn't repay
the loan. The bank wouldn't release its mortgage on the property,
so the Lawsons, couldn't get settlement on the house.
Worse was to come. When the Lawsons' offer went unconditional,
the real estate agency (Harcourts) exercised its legal right
and kept its commission. The seller kept his part of the deposit
too, although he had no legal right to it. So the Lawsons
didn't have a house and they had lost $12,000. They could
have taken the seller to court, but this would have been expensive
and, even if they won, it was unclear they would actually
get their money back. The Lawsons ruled this option out.
It seem the only chance of recovery was to repurchase. So
when the bank put the house up for auction at a mortgagee
sale earlier this year, they bought it a second time. And
this time, it really was theirs.
In the end, things didn't work out too badly. The auction
price was lower than the one they had first agreed to. Harcourts
made them a "goodwill" payment of $3,000. The couple
are still out of pocket, but by a lot less than the original
$12,000.
It could happen to you.
The scariest part of the story is that this could happen
to anyone buying a house. When you buy a house, you assume
the seller will have enough money after the sale to clear
any mortgage they have and allow the sale to go through. But
it doesn't always happen this way.
Could the agent have done more? In this case, the Harcourts
listing agent was present when the seller rang the bank, and
was told by the bank that he able to sign the offer. So the
agent had no reason to think problems lay ahead. Is there
something a lawyer can do to prevent this? A title search
will show if the property is mortgaged, but not the amount.
OUR ADVICE (CONSUMER)
To avoid being caught like the Lawsons, you could put a special
clause in your offer. It would say that the seller's solicitor
has to give your solicitor evidence that the seller will be
able to clear their mortgage from the proceeds of the sale
property. If this doesn't happen, the deposit will be refunded.
But note that this could lose you the house if other buyers
are keen and less cautious
The Lawsons suggest another options: that the law be changed
so that house deposits must be held in a solicitor's trust
account, and only paid to agent and seller once the sale has
been completed.
Article from July 1999 Consumer 383
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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)
And PPPS: We are collecting the birthday dates and
months of all people on our database so if you make sure we've got
yours (and your partners) we'll send you out to dinner free on your
birthday to one of Masterton's best restaurants, compliments of
Moss Brothers Housing
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