Beacon

One of the things we were particularly interested in was which houses needed the most improvement.  The bulk of the homes were built in 1950s through the 1970s, before insulation was first required in the Building Code.  Only about 7% of homes were built in the last 20 years, with a smattering of very new homes.  

Surprisingly, the data showed that house performance problems occur in all ages and types of New Zealand homes - including very modern homes.  This confirms the need for wide scale improvements, including to Building Code standards.

Given the age range, it wasn’t surprising that a large number of houses in the study had some fundamental problems which are the main causes of performance problems. 

• 55% of houses had no ceiling insulation, or so little it was completely ineffective
• 42% had no underfloor insulation
• 67% had no wall insulation
• 25% of homes were damp under the floor
• 55% of homes needed draught stopping
• 22% had leaky gutters

Related Documents

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  31-May-2010 (Report HR2420/13)

  HomeSmart Renovations: Householder Actions and Responses to Dwelling Performance (PDF 1.1MB)

  Kay Saville Smith, Ruth Fraser, Nikki Buckett, Michael Camilleri

  This report presents self-reported and monitored data from householders participating in the HomeSmart Renovation Project. It describes the profile of those householders, their perceptions of house condition, and their past, intended and actual renovations. It considers the profile of house performance of the subset of householders whose dwellings were monitored for temperature and the impact of renovations on electricity and water consumption.