retrofit and

renovation

BRANZ renovation project

Many questions about house renovation will be answered later this year with the
launch of a new BRANZ website and a series of books on the topic.
By David Hindley, BRANZ Project Manager Technical Writing

he BRANZ renovation project launches

mid-year with the first book about
Victorian/Edwardian villas. This will
be followed with a new website that
will cover design, construction, planning and
compliance issues.

From villas to 1970s houses

The different housing styles included in the
project are:
villas
bungalows
art deco houses
1940s, 1950s and state houses
1970s houses.
The BRANZ research, which is being funded by
the Building Research Levy, has determined the
typical building elements and materials for each
house style, potential problems that may be
encountered during renovation, and the design
and construction issues. Both the books and
the website look at the extent to which passive
design and sustainability can be encompassed
in renovation work to improve the comfort of the
building occupants.

Renovation is big business

House renovation is an enormous part of
the building industrys work in New Zealand.
On average each year, there are around
33,000 house alterations/additions big enough
to require a building consent. These projects
have an average value of $47,100, but some
are much bigger. About 45% of total alterations/
additions work is for jobs over $99,000. At the
top end, there are around 2,600 projects each
year costing an average of $226,000.
And theres plenty of renovation work to be
done the 2004/05 BRANZ House Condition
Survey, which looked at 565 houses, found that
over half had no wall insulation and 70% had no
underfloor insulation.
Approximately 70% of our houses were built
before insulation became mandatory in 1978.
40 BUILD 116 February/March 2010

Renovation work may also include significant repair to existing features that are being retained.

193050s houses worst off

But its not the oldest houses that are in the
most need of repair. The condition of houses
built before 1920 was found, on average, to
be no worse than houses built in the 1960s
and 1970s. This partly reflects the upgrading
work already done on many of the 85,000 villas
around the country.
The houses in the poorest condition in the
survey were those built from the 1930s through
to the 1950s (with the latter having the lowest
levels of ceiling insulation).
A maintenance model developed by BRANZ
economists assumes that houses of this era
now require major renovation at a rate of about
35,000 per year. But there is no evidence that
this volume of work is being done.

Industry survey

The BRANZ renovation project began 2 years

ago with interviews of architects, designers and
builders in Auckland, Christchurch and other
centres, and a questionnaire distributed via

Build. The research that followed was designed

to address the needs uncovered by these
discussions and the questionnaire.
Some of the most common problems that
people found on renovation jobs were:
meeting Building Consent Authority
requirements
working out what is achievable economically
and feasibly
difficulty finding or making like-for-like
substitution/replacement
fitting new elements (for example, double
glazing) into existing structures.
The biggest gaps identified in information or
resources already available were:
details or solutions
how to do cost/benefit options for the client
compliance path options.
Although there are some excellent publications
about villas in particular (see book review on page
72), none goes into depth about the technical
details of their construction or renovation. The
BRANZ resource will have typical details to aid

in renovation planning, design and consent

application.

Compliance a burning issue

Without exception, every practitioner spoken
with during the research raised compliance as
an issue that needs addressing. The following
questions are just a few examples:
In what circumstances does original cladding
need to be removed for insulation and wall
underlay to be added?
Can insulation be added to old walls without
underlay?
To what extent can old elements (such
as timber windows) removed during a

renovation be reused, and what are the

requirements?
The website will include a step-by-step path
through the consent process, particularly for
Alternative Solutions (the category that most
renovation work falls into) and where the
detailing is based on that already existing. An
explanation of Building Code requirements,
relevant standards and compliance paths that
can be followed will be specifically tailored to
renovation projects.
There will also be case studies of renovations,
including perhaps the biggest ever renovation of
a large timber villa in New Zealand a project
with a $40 million price tag!

BUILD 116 February/March 2010 41