Hi gang,
I'm a kiwi expat currently living in the Netherlands. My partner and I are planning on moving back to Wellington in probably a years' time and we intend on buying a house, renting it out immediately and then when we return performing a cosmetic renovation and probably making this our PPOR.
We have found a suitable property that is approx 110 years old and the tender closes very soon so I don't have much time. I noticed on the building report that the vendor organised, the following comment:
Looking at the wall linings the plasterboard has been installed over the top of the scrim walls which remains in place. This appears consistent to all rooms based on how the plaster board is installed with not transition between the wall linings and skirting boards and trims
Sounds like some lazy sod in the past just took the easy way out. I had another builder over to the house to further inspect and quote me on some work (very sound idea, considering I'm on the other side of the world and am only going on photos!) and he recommends, per some previous threads here, to rip out the plaster and the scrim, remove some of the sarking and install insulation. (and I will probably have to get some rewiring done at the same time) then gib over the top again. Oh, and since the ceiling is old Pinex that's warping over time, that's gotta be re-gibbed too.
I would be happy to take this on when I get back along with the rest of the cosmetic renovation except that I rang AMI insurance today and they said if the house contains scrim they will refuse to insure it - and it seems this is very common that insurance cos will flatly refuse to insure scrimmed houses. My questions are:
- If I was to purchase this property, I'ld want to keep it as-is as much as possible for now. Does anyone know a way I can get insurance for the house until we return and begin renovating?
- And if no insurance companies will insure it, how did the vendors get it insured? (ok I know that's probably not a serious question) But what I'm getting at, is if they were, lets say, hiding scrim behind the plaster board, and just saying the interior material was plaster, would they be uninsured in an event? Say the house burns down and they find evidence of the scrim? Or an earthquake partially destroys the place?
- Am I biting off more than I can chew (in your opinion)? I don't really want to start renovating now just to make sure I'm insured. Especially if I spend $25-30k on replastering the whole place only for a tenant to scuff it all up or put holes in it!
I'm a kiwi expat currently living in the Netherlands. My partner and I are planning on moving back to Wellington in probably a years' time and we intend on buying a house, renting it out immediately and then when we return performing a cosmetic renovation and probably making this our PPOR.
We have found a suitable property that is approx 110 years old and the tender closes very soon so I don't have much time. I noticed on the building report that the vendor organised, the following comment:
Looking at the wall linings the plasterboard has been installed over the top of the scrim walls which remains in place. This appears consistent to all rooms based on how the plaster board is installed with not transition between the wall linings and skirting boards and trims
Sounds like some lazy sod in the past just took the easy way out. I had another builder over to the house to further inspect and quote me on some work (very sound idea, considering I'm on the other side of the world and am only going on photos!) and he recommends, per some previous threads here, to rip out the plaster and the scrim, remove some of the sarking and install insulation. (and I will probably have to get some rewiring done at the same time) then gib over the top again. Oh, and since the ceiling is old Pinex that's warping over time, that's gotta be re-gibbed too.
I would be happy to take this on when I get back along with the rest of the cosmetic renovation except that I rang AMI insurance today and they said if the house contains scrim they will refuse to insure it - and it seems this is very common that insurance cos will flatly refuse to insure scrimmed houses. My questions are:
- If I was to purchase this property, I'ld want to keep it as-is as much as possible for now. Does anyone know a way I can get insurance for the house until we return and begin renovating?
- And if no insurance companies will insure it, how did the vendors get it insured? (ok I know that's probably not a serious question) But what I'm getting at, is if they were, lets say, hiding scrim behind the plaster board, and just saying the interior material was plaster, would they be uninsured in an event? Say the house burns down and they find evidence of the scrim? Or an earthquake partially destroys the place?
- Am I biting off more than I can chew (in your opinion)? I don't really want to start renovating now just to make sure I'm insured. Especially if I spend $25-30k on replastering the whole place only for a tenant to scuff it all up or put holes in it!
Comment