We deodorise the stink, dehumidify the damp, and overheat our thin-skinned homes, to create an illusion of comfort and health, especially when selling, because it's easier to reward healthy perceptions, than measure the unhealthy reality, of poorly designed or poorly maintained homes.
A Kiwi life in New Zealand Housing Stock
A Kiwi childhood in Pre-1970’s NZ housing stock, drafty, uninsulated, warmed by open polluting fires, fuelled by coal or wood, vigorously chopped in the backyard, blistered hands to keep the winter chills at bay, or life was cold and miserable.
Adulthood and upgrading your family's neighbourhood for better schools, meant buying the worst house in the best street. A 1950’s build, 2 bedroom, uninsulated, “drafty” house, with an open fire. Instantly replaced with a gas fire replica heater that could not compete with the air leaks. 30 years later, kids departed, much insulation fitted, a warmer house, that was still somewhat drafty, requiring addition electric heating and the use of blankets in living spaces.
Pre-retirement in your dream 21st century new house. Comfort supreme, winter months in single layers, short sleeves and no heating. You wouldn’t know it was 10 degrees outside. Your energy and water bill has plummeted, the old electric blanket is in the bin, and you just get a great feeling being inside your healthy new, New Zealand home.
All Kiwi’s have a choice of, a miserable cold life, high energy bills, or a new home. Most cannot afford a new home, many cannot afford high energy bills, so here is how miserable many of us are…
Habitability of NZ Housing Stock (source Stats NZ)
A 2018–19 national housing assessment, undertaken by the Building Research Association of New Zealand found: half of dwellings lacked adequate insulation in the roof space, do not have mechanical extract ventilation in the bathroom, have no heating in bedrooms, and a third of people reported problems with damp and mould in their homes.
We know how to build a better safer living environment, but we are still ignoring the poor quality of our existing housing stock.
We have to incentivise the raising of national standards of housing design and maintenance. If we can prevent a 21st century home from getting a Code of Compliance Certificate until it meets today's healthy living standards, by passing what seems like inordinately difficult tests, why do we not insist that the standard is maintained, or reassessed, anytime in the future, for any New Zealand home? It doesn't matter how good anything was in the past, what is it like now?
Common Healthy Living Standards - Made to Measure
If you measure something, you can improve it. I had a beer in an earthquake prone stickered pub in a Wellington recently. If a public authority can warn us of the risks of drinking alcohol, they can also warn us of the hazards to our health, from the housing we chose to live in.
By re-testing our homes compliance, every 10 years, for relative % compliance with current building standards, and publish this alongside the expected % compliance for the era the home was built in, we establish the actual vs expected healthy standard of our homes. This will incentivise private investment in, maintenance that prevents air and water infiltration, capital investment in extract fans, ventilation systems, insulation, retrofitted double glazing, energy efficient appliance upgrades, because the market will reward those who improve the standard we are measuring, helping more Kiwi’s to live, the healthy home dream.
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“Celebrating 50 years of New Zealand Building Economist 1972 to 2021”
By Matthew Ensoll
Life Member NZIQS. Reg.QS.
Editor New Zealand Building Economist.
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