Red LBP Building Inspections - Auckland Central West

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Red LBP Building Inspections - Auckland Central West Pre-purchase Inspections, Healthy Homes, Toxicology & Building Reports in Auckland Central West.

04/10/2026

Just because you can do something when you design and build a home doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a great idea.

Having a window in a shower is just inviting water to get inside the walls. Any failure of the sealing or waterproof membrane around the window opening will allow moisture to enter the walls and cause all sorts of mischief.

The layout of this bathroom should be completely different so the shower is in the corner away from the window.

28/09/2026

Three years old and already showing serious problems. Is this really the state of new home builds in New Zealand? Unfortunately in my experience it is.

Paint is such an easy product to apply and is reasonably inexpensive when you consider what it is protecting. Yet a lack of paint can very quickly cost a homeowner a huge amount of money.

Checking that a property is adequately painted is not only the responsibility of your local Council when they carry out a final inspection but the tradesmen and developers who put these properties on the market.

All these guys have to do better. It seems like a race to the bottom of the hill when it comes to the quality of new builds at the moment. 

19/09/2026

It’s not that I hate roof spaces. It’s just that on most new builds the insulation is laid across the top of the access hatch. This means when I go to push the hatch up I’m pushing insulation out of the way and I end up getting covered in fibreglass. Well that sucks.

The insulation must be cut at the edge of the access hatch and insulation must be adhered or stuck to the top of the hatch so you can push it up lift it out of the way to have a look and make sure there’s no rats running around your roof space and check for leaks.

I know electricians are going to argue with me here however wrapping an electrical wire around a nail and hoping she’ll be good. Is not securing the wire to the timber framing. Have some pride in your work!

17/09/2026

Once upon a time a tradesman‘s reputation was worth something. Providing high-quality work on time insured an ongoing supply of work. Back in the good old days when most builders worked for a wage. You had a foreman who was there to correct you if standards slipped or you made a mistake.

These days guys just don’t seem to care. This is a classic example of doing a terrible job and walking away without even looking over your shoulder.

Unbelievable and incredibly disappointing.

15/09/2026

Paint, it's not just colour on your home...

When properly applied and maintained it is the first line of defence your home has against moisture. If it is not cleaned and reapplied regularly the life expectancy of your cladding can be shortened, leading to expensive repairs.

So many of these new builds have insufficient paint applied. The cladding and paint companies require at least one primer and two topcoats be applied to all surfaces. I am convinced this building not only had one coat applied but the coat it had was thin and did not cover everything. Even the paint I could see had been affected by rain before it could dry.

What a disgrace!

07/09/2026

There are easy things to look for when viewing a prospective new home. Some of these are good and the agent will surely point them out, you know location and local schools ect.

Some things you look for because they are bad and can dull the shine on a home. These would include direct fixed monolithic cladding, Weatherside cladding, Dux quest plumbing and concealed gutter and fascia systems.

Concealed gutter systems became popular in the 1980’s. And yes they have caused thousands of costly moisture ingress issues. These are now 30-40 years old and failing. Water leaks out of the internal gutter runs across the soffit lining and finds its way into the walls. Things go downhill very fast from there. I have seen whole exterior walls rotten to the bottom plates.

These systems can be removed and changed to an exterior gutter system which is a great idea for peace of mind and wallet. If you see this type of gutter tread carefully.

29/08/2026

Look at the holes in the house.

The old adage " Houses don't leak until you cut holes in them" is very true. Of course, we need holes in houses to let in light and air. The trouble is many people who cut these holes don't know what they are doing, flashings are not installed correctly or there is no maintenance carried out. Moisture gets in and things start to rot. Sometimes this goes on for a long time before we realise there is trouble. By then you can have serious problems.

In this case repairs had been carried out not to fix the problem but to cover over it. Of course, the rot just keeps going making things worse and worse.

22/08/2026

Small cracks can cause big problems.

Moisture can enter through in a crack so small you can hardly see it. Never assume the size of a crack is proportional to the mischief it can cause. “Oh it’s only small” should never be used when referring to these little trouble makers.

As you can see here moisture has been quite happily getting in and soaking into the window sill and flooring. Who knows what the floor joists look like below. Vendors don’t appreciate me cutting holes in things to get a better look.

Smooth plaster homes constructed from 1985-2004 can all potentially have these issues. In my experience nearly all of them do. These are not the homes first home buyers should look at. As my Hawaiian friend would say “no go look”

20/08/2026

I am starting to sound like a broken record. However no one seems to be listening. Certainly not the powers that be. This rubbish keeps popping up and keeps passing the final inspection.

I know it’s not as sexy as cladding or ground level issues however the NZ Building Code and the Standards have rules that apply and these things should be correct. I know I hear you, “Your’e just nit picking Jeremy” yup someone needs to. That’s the thing. It’s either right or wrong.

A first home buyer expects their new home to comply not sort of comply.

I didn’t mention it but did you see the state of the concrete? So many spills and stains. Lovely, right outside the front door. If I walked away from a job and left it like that I would expect a bollocking.

16/07/2026

Renovations not requiring a building consent, do not receive any building inspections by a Council inspector. That leaves a lot of scope for dodgy so-called tradesmen to get up to all sorts of mischief

This drain does not comply with the New Zealand Building Code G13 Foul Water AS/1

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Auckland

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Monday 7:30am - 5pm
Tuesday 7:30am - 5pm
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Thursday 7:30am - 5pm
Friday 7:30am - 5pm

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+64223629988

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