That title is a bit clickbaity but true. NZBC says the bits of house that are easily replaced only have to last 15 years. Twisted funny that this includes the entire cladding of the home but true. Now you can spec a cladding that will last 100 years or 40 years but it’ll usually cost more up front.
If all you look at is cost of the home on day one, the initial purchase price, you should expect this. The lowest price on day one is what you are telling the building industry you want.
The solution is for either purchasers of buildings to consider the cost of a home including maintenance and energy costs over the whole lifetime of a building (Yah right that sounds like a Tui beer commercial) or legislate to produce the same result. Otherwise expect the situation with housing quality to get worse not better.
“It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money – that’s all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot – it can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you willhave enough to pay for something better.” ― John Ruskin
Content by Stuff.
Comments 1
My grandma used to say… “buy in haste and pay at leisure”