Backyard renovations turning buyers away

[muppet]

Backyard renovations turning buyers away

By Alice Neville
4:00 AM Sunday May 9, 2010
Builder Sandy Pyne has seen some shoddy work. Photo / Herald on Sunday


Home improvement is a national pastime in New Zealand, but DIY could actually be slashing your property's value.
Badly done do-it-yourself jobs can reduce a home's value by as much as 5 per cent, a survey has found.
Wayne Boberg, of Boberg First National in Epsom, said: "If it's obvious, it's a bit like a leaky home - there's not a buyer for it anywhere. Nobody wants to know."
John O'Roarke, managing director of LV= home insurance which commissioned the survey, told Britain's Daily Telegraph that not only could bungling DIY jobs devalue your home but, if they caused a serious problem, they could invalidate your home insurance cover.
Certified builder David Brown says the problem with DIYers is they often take shortcuts. "These guys don't realise that even if you don't need a consent, you still need to build in accordance with the Building Act."
And as home buyers are increasingly getting professional building inspections before they put in an offer, shoddy DIY jobs are no longer going unnoticed, says Brown.
"If someone's wrecked a nice house by doing a cheap extension, it does devalue it because it just screams 'that wasn't done properly'."
Brown advises DIY enthusiasts to get advice from a professional, find out what the legal restrictions are and be realistic.
"If you're not sure you can do it, then don't. Get professional advice - if you've got a friend who's a builder, give them a couple of dozen beers and get them round for a chat about it. And if you do get into strife, don't be afraid to ask for help."
Andrew Chisholm, chief executive of home maintenance company Hire A Hubby, says DIY disasters occur because people these days often don't know what they're doing.
"The skills haven't been passed down through the generations like they used to be," says Chisholm. "It's probably in Kiwis' nature to back themselves to do something - but then it's not quite as straightforward as what they might have thought."
Builder Mark Welham of Auckland's Humming Builders says he comes across examples of shoddy DIY constantly, with the most recent example a wall that had been lined with plaster board so badly it looked like a patchwork quilt.
Damage often subtle
Auckland builder Sandy Pyne has seen his fair share of DIY disasters.
The damage done by shoddy DIY jobs, says Pyne, can be subtle to the untrained eye so it's important to check out renovated homes thoroughly before buying.
"With renovated homes, we can tell if something hasn't been done to a good standard quite quickly but the general public might not be able to."
Pyne once repaired a shower that a DIY enthusiast had installed without removing the base's protective plastic coating.
"Once that plastic coating lifted, water was being sucked up under the back of the shower," says Pyne. "After a year it had trashed the floor and the whole thing had to be pulled out - it was an absolute mess. That cost them thousands of bucks."
Pyne doesn't want to discourage DIYers but says it's essential to get advice - the legal requirements of home improvement can be complex.
DIY tips:
* Know what the legal restrictions are.
* Talk to your local council to see if you need a building consent.
* Work in a logical sequence to avoid damaging work already done.
* Make sure exposed surfaces are protected.
* Work through the rooms in a systematic way.
- Consumer Build website

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10643713

[egan123]

Coudn't agree more Muppet. I see it every day, shoddy DIY'rs everywhere, worst thing we ever did to the industry. Blame Fletchers/Placemakers, for that. And now they are all promoting DIY. 2004 building act will take time to bite, but in the end it will, and DIY'rs will have very little that they can actually do legally.

[Viking]

Yep and who was it that built leaky homes? DIYer's?
No.
Master Builders.
More shoddy builders who ran away from their responsibilities than DIYers.
By the time the Act bites no one will be able to pay the builders because they will become like drain layers. Worse the dentists when it comes to over charging.

Its plainly erroneous to tar everyone with the same brush.

[egan123]

Yep, there were, and still are shoddy builders out there, or people that call themselves builders. The public should not be allowed to do DIY to there own homes, they're not allowed to do Electrical or plumbing, and it was not builders or Architects, Engineers that caused leaky rot, it was the old building act that approved the work under NZS3604, and the grading rules for timber, stop blaming the Bl...y builders. You give me a set of plans, I'll advise, and you say no, to dear, stick to the drawings, so I do, WHOSE FAULT, I'll tell you, the client, the building act, the timber grading standard. Not BUILDERS.

[kirschbaum]

I can't agree more with this article. I've looked through a lot of homes on the market, and it's depressing seeing a bad DIY renovation job done. The vendor's spent money doing a bad job, then they expect the buyer to pay more for their property, when they would've been better off keeping their money in their pocket and letting the new buyer have it renovated to their taste and standard.

I think the key to DIY is to know your limits. Unfortunately, Kiwis tend to back ourselves beyond our capabilities.

[Traff]

DIYers

You would be horiffied if you see on a daily basis what property investors do to cut costs < we see dangerous properties everyday and bad attempts by landlords to fix them --often to late when a tenant or a child falls through a deck......

We are not a country of DIYers anymore that was our parents era - thats why companies such as Greenacres are so much in demand..Whats most frustrating is people who just do something badly and leave it afterwards when they know its unsafe or not going to work. Especially electrical ....