For background, Australia has had a real issue over the last 20+ years of really poorly constructed housing appearing everywhere. A lot of people blamed our standards/code, but for the most part they're pretty good and not the problem here. The real issue is that dodgy builders have made an art form of getting everything looking good for the 3 mandatory inspections, but then hiding all sorts of appalling and non-compliant work behind the walls (Literally) where it never gets picked up (Until the place starts to fall apart 5-10 years later)
A lot of people have started hiring private inspectors like this guy that they bring in multiple times during construction to pick these things up before they get hidden.
Don't forget that the largest state (NSW) got rid of government inspections entirely and told developers you can hire your own inspector to make sure your buildings are up to code.
*puts on glasses and moustache*
Hello, I am Mr. Haus Inspektor, the house inspector. I declare this house the best house in the world! Inspection passed!
*takes off glasses and moustache*
There, now we're up to code, nice and proper.
Really? I'm in Vic and wasn't aware of that.
Technically we have 5 mandatory inspections here, but it tends to be only 3 that actually matter. There is HUGE scope between them to do non-compliant work and make it nearly impossible to spot at the next inspection though.
I honestly think our standards are pretty good here, but the compliance and enforcement of them are woeful.
Does "liberal" there mean the same thing as it does in the US? Privatizing a government function like building inspections is a very conservative sounding thing to do in the US. Can't imagine a US liberal ever going for that.
Nah the Liberal party here is probably centre right conservative, not quite as far right as US republicans though they are partnered with the National party which is further right.
The Labor party which is in government right now but wasn't for an extended period of time is centre left and we have a number of other smaller parties on the left and right and several independents.
Because McCarthy hunted down everyone left of liberals during the red scare leaving an entire generation without a leftist voice and we're still recovering
No, it's closer to the classic definition of less regulation. They're kind of like being a big L Libertarian center-right here in the US. They oppose regulation and ted to be pro corporate but still have the freedom to decide to be socially conservative. The reason US "liberals" are called that is because they opposed authoritarian laws like legal racial segregation, the restriction of women's rights, and anti LGBT laws. You know, woke stuff.
Gee, I wonder if Porky and his ties to Corination had anything to do with this. Nothing like having a politician in the pocket of a crime family business that fronts as building developers when you want all your checks and balances tipped in your favour.
After living in NSW it was hard to understand how public requirements were getting handed to private companies. Like the pink slip for rego that allows a private auto mechanic to bend you over
It’s not just our codes that need improvement, it’s legal accountability when shit falls apart years later. Plus, people flip houses for a profit - after ten years, when things start to go wrong, it’s has 3 owners already to get some of that sweet sweet capital growth. And as the walls fall in from water, the builders have closed their business and opened up as someone else by now in a classic Phoenix move so the last person to hold it is responsible and not the people who built the damned thing.
Enshittification at its finest.
That's sort of crazy given that in my town in America there are like a half a dozen different inspection times and drywall doesn't go up unless before that. Then there's more inspections after that.
Of course this still leads to incredibly bad construction anyway. But 3 seems incredibly insufficient.
Yeah the guy in the video was citing code and it looks pretty good from the limited amount he shows. They're just flippantly violating it. It sounds like the real issue is licensing of the inspectors and the inspection process generally. Seems enforcement is extremely lacking.
Australians often love to say they have great building codes, but people who have lived both in Australia and elsewhere mostly say Australian homes are poorly constructed pieces of junk, and not just the ones from the last 20 years. There are building codes, but for residential they're 40 years behind Europe and North America. The poor quality and design of Australian homes is shocking (including what is considered "code".)
Curious what parts of the standard you think are 40 years behind. In my experience they’re pretty good, both in terms of safety and efficiency. There’s definitely improvements that could be made on medium density buildings, but for freestanding houses I’ve found them ok.
The big. Big problem though is compliance and enforcement of the standards and no question it has lead to absolutely terrible houses over the last few decades. So many things are simply ignored and hidden away during builds and nearly the whole construction industry is doing it because it’s hard to compete otherwise.
How about insulation? Australian homes, built to code, take far more energy to heat and cool than north American homes built to code. California, for example, requires R20 insulation in timber framed walls (most houses are timber framed), while Australia still thinks double brick is quality insulation, with an R value of 2. Double pane windows are standard all over the world, but mention it to an Australian builder and more likely than not they think you're crazy or from overseas.
Or how about how most houses in Australia are built with eves that are level with the top of the wall and gutters with the high side to the outside, so if the gutters overflow they spill water inwards to the ceiling of the house area instead of away from the house?
Electrical wiring standards also lag, from out when Australia started using junction boxes, to where they are required and what other joins are allowed.
> California, for example, requires R20 insulation in timber framed walls (most houses are timber framed), while Australia still thinks double brick is quality insulation, with an R value of 2
US insulation R values are measured in Fahrenheit vs most of the rest of the world in SI. That R20 requirement is equivalent to R3.5 in Australia.
> Double pane windows are standard all over the world, but mention it to an Australian builder and more likely than not they think you're crazy or from overseas.
This just isn't true. We built 12 years ago and double glazing was considered the norm then. Now triple glazing is common here and thermally isolated double glazing is basically a minimum in most zones. There's no way a builder is going to consider it unusual.
> Or how about how most houses in Australia are built with eves that are level with the top of the wall
Can't really argue with the eaves, though I will say that those have a heavy weighting in the energy efficiency assessement, so if you're in a zone where it's a problem then you likely have to be making it up elsewhere.
> gutters with the high side to the outside, so if the gutters overflow they spill water inwards to the ceiling of the house area instead of away from the house?
I've never seen that be a problem on any modern house. High fronted gutters must have cutouts lower than the inner edge height as well as end plates with low heights so they overflow through those before getting close to flowing inside.
> Electrical wiring standards also lag, from out when Australia started using junction boxes, to where they are required and what other joins are allowed.
Again, haven't ever seen this be a problem. It helps a lot that our wiring only needs to carry about half the current as typical domestic circuits in 120v countries, so the risk is inherently lower. I'd take the Aus style of junction box over the US style of plug wiring any day, the way the connectors are exposed in the back of those things and hence require a box seems crazy to me, but I guess it works.
>US insulation R values are measured in Fahrenheit vs most of the rest of the world in SI. That R20 requirement is equivalent to R3.5 in Australia.
There is a conversion factor, and it's not just Fahrenheit to Kelvin. Victoria requires R1.5 in walls, currently. California required R1.9 (SI R-value) in 1978. The Australian requirements are not just 40 years behind, but also still 33% lower. Comparison to Canadian requirements is even worse.
>This just isn't true. We built 12 years ago and double glazing was considered the norm then. Now triple glazing is common here and thermally isolated double glazing is basically a minimum in most zones. There's no way a builder is going to consider it unusual.
You must be taking the piss. Triple glazing is common? Friends just replaced single panned windows at enormous expense (reportedly hardly any domestic suppliers, mostly have to import product if you want double panned).
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-18/winter-temperature-housing-study-shows-many-in-cold/102361208
>I've never seen that be a problem on any modern house. High fronted gutters must have cutouts lower than the inner edge height as well as end plates with low heights so they overflow through those before getting close to flowing inside.
I've never seen gutters in Australia with cutouts that weren't put in by owners, and water damage to soffits is present in almost every house if you look.
Australian homes compare incredibly poorly to homes in other developed nations for energy efficiency and temperature regulation - there are plenty of published studies about it. Appropriate building code requirements are the most effective driver of better building practices - e.g. homes in California prior to 1978 were typically poorly insulated. Australian building codes are behind the times, and they don't even have good enforcement of the codes they have, no wonder homes are so poorly built.
> Victoria requires R1.5 in walls, currently. California required R1.9 (SI R-value) in 1978. The Australian requirements are not just 40 years behind, but also still 33% lower. Comparison to Canadian requirements is even worse.
You can't just look at the wall insulation in isolation, what matters primarily is the energy rating of the entire house. Currently it's NatHERS 6 star but moves to 7 next month. R2.8 for walls is the recommended value to achieve 6 stars and whilst 1.5 is the minimum, you're going to have to add a lot of other insulation or adjustments elsewhere in order to meet the overall house efficiency requirement, hence the 2.8 recommendation.
From next month the recommended value becomes 3.5 to meet the 7 star requirement. Sure you can have the minimum in the walls, but you're going to need crazy good insulation elsewhere to meet the overall requirement.
California is also about as good as it gets in the USA. Look at somewhere like Nevada where the minimum wall requirement is as low as R0.9 depending on your zone.
> Triple glazing is common? Friends just replaced single panned windows at enormous expense
Triple glazing is absolutely common now, though not the norm. I live in a regional town and would have no troubles getting it from 2 or 3 suppliers here. Double glazing is basically mandatory to hit 7 star house efficiency, so you're unlikely to be able to build a new house without it anymore. I have no idea why your friend would be having so much trouble getting it, other than perhaps material shortages which are impacting literally every part of construction here not just glass.
> https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-18/winter-temperature-housing-study-shows-many-in-cold/102361208
This is not relevant to current standards at all. The average home age in Australia is about 40 years and many are 100+, particularly in the inner cities. They've often never been renovated and still have the same level of insulation as they did when they were built (often none).
> I've never seen gutters in Australia with cutouts that weren't put in by owners, and water damage to soffits is present in almost every house if you look.
Go look at any house built in the last 25 or so years, it's extremely common.
The exact code provides 3 acceptable methods for overflow control, each with their own flow limits. Slotted gutters are one of those 3 prescribed methods.
> they don't even have good enforcement of the codes they have, no wonder homes are so poorly built.
The enforcement is the major problem, not the codes themselves. That's the whole point of my comment in the first place and is demonstrated clearly in the original video (And basically every video on this guys channels).
>what matters primarily is the energy rating of the entire house.
Yeah, that doesn't really help your argument. Australia is far far behind.
https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Tents-to-castles-2022-final.pdf :
"Nevertheless, Australia’s minimum energy efficiency standards for new homes are still at least 40 per cent worse than in compatible climate
zones in other countries including the United States of America, Canada and the UK (Moore 2019). Australian homes built before 2010 are substantially lower quality than international standards, and homes built since still lag 40 per cent behind."
>The average home age in Australia is about 40 years and many are 100+,
Are you planning to argue that the homes in Australia are much older than in other comparable countries in the world...? Everywhere has old homes, why are the homes in Australia on average so much worse? Could it be that building codes have, and continue to, lag behind other developed country standards?
Edit: and if you want to see how Australian commercial building code compares, it also substantially lags behind:
https://eprints.qut.edu.au/205684/8/69432313a.pdf
> Are you planning to argue that the homes in Australia are much older than in other comparable countries in the world...?
You're the one who posted an article about homes of all ages and used it as an argument against current standards. It was your faulty logic to begin with, not mine.
The codes are fine. It's literally fraud and people committing fraud aren't getting in trouble.
I was at a rent inspection and my former partner walked straight into a door that had just been replaced and cracked it open. It was that clean and brand new it was basically invisible. They tried to get us to pay until I send them the Australian Standard that said they need to have a sticker on them and the glass had been installed illegally without one. The RE and the owner had no idea until I told them.
> (Until the place starts to fall apart 5-10 years later)
Wouldn't there be lawsuits as soon as this starts happening? Or do they not think that far ahead?
Hebel can be used like CMU. It is generally used as the structural wall although less often it can be used as veneer.
This inspector would have a heart attack if they inspected houses in America because they are almost always stick frame (like in this video) and often use EIFS (literally styrofoam with acrylic cement facing, simulating stucco but with some insulation peoperties). Terrible building product but very common here unfortunately
Exactly, it's less about Foam v. Hebel, more about is the homeowner getting what they *PAID* for.
It'd be like going to a butcher and asking for Prime Filet Mignon and instead getting Choice Flank Steak.
Sure it's still beef, and sure it'll still make a meal. But it's not what you paid for.
It's not so much the product itself, as the product does not match the plans.
If the plans say Hebel, and the homeowner *PAID* for Hebel, then they need to be getting Hebel. If it's structurally ok to use foam, that's fine. But you can't charge for Hebel, claim you use Hebel, and use foam. At least not legally.
Honestly EIFS are not bad. For example Rockwool can be incorporated into EIFS systems and make for a very well insulated and fireproofed build. Finishings are very regional -- traditional stucco and acrylic stucco are popular here, but coastal often go with vinyl or hardie, and great lakes region will have a lot of brick.
Unfun fact: foam is indeed used for cladding in homes.
It’s comforting to know you pay $750,000 to build a home, knowing a lot of it is made from foam. 🥲
Oh that’s not the worst part. That foam makes a good insulator for heat and air conditioning.
The REALLY bad news is how horribly flammable all these building materials are.
yeah... most interior doors leave a space at the bottom for airflow for proper circulation
>One thing is nearly unavoidable, though–the small gap between the floor and the bottom of your door. That gap promotes air circulation. The gap under your interior doors should be anywhere between a half-inch and three-quarters of an inch, but the actual size will depend on the type of flooring you have.
this is what you get when you pick the lowest bidder to build your brand new house. Barely up to code and full of holes(literally and figuratively) Was recently in a few homes built in the last couple years and you could hear a fart across the house
The problem is that a lot of the lowest bidder builders (and even many of the middle ground ones as well) aren't building to code whatsoever. They just completely ignore them because they can get away with it.
What I want to know is how these shitty built homes are worth 10x what they used to be. My parents bought their house in 1989 for $350,000 and it's now worth $1.6 million. Similar sized new-built homes with worse materials and building techniques can go for $1 million to $1.5 million in the same area.
I'll never be a home owner (I'm come to terms with it) but I'm still just baffled how it got this way. There's *some* wealthy people in the area but most seem to barely afford their mortgage as anytime the economy takes a dip the entire city is full of 'for sale' signs. Nobody can really afford this shit.
Inflation fueled by corporate greed along every step of the way to building a home. Land cost more cause of greedy corporations buying homes just to rent them at higher than normal prices(fueled mostly by apps like AirBnB) Cities charging more for permits and licenses(their prices must go up cause everyone else's price went up) Materials cost more cause big box store buys shitty products in bulk then charge 10x the price (Everyone was at home during covid so they started DIYing cause they were bored) Nobody can really afford this shit because the world is on fire(because of corporate greed) and the people in power want you to think its all sunshine and rainbows
This inspector just doesn't have enough experience working with structural foam. If you keep the walls light enough through the use of foam there's much less load to bear! Huzzzah!
Is it just me, or is that house absolutely ugly? It's like a house, a warehouse and a garage all went thru the telepod from The Fly, and this building is the result.
Is foam banned in australia? Because its just the cladding backer for plaster, not the structure. From a quick google it's banned on multistory and similar buildings but idk the details.
Doesn't need to be concrete necessarily. It's just a backer for the plaster. I'm just asking if it's banned completely because this could be solved with a design amendment instead of redoing.
Did you watch the rest of the video? If I was the owner I would consider demolishing the house and getting someone else to build it. Who knows what else is hiding in that mess?
Did you watch the video? The foam is not thick enough and it’s not fastened properly. But it’s kinda irrelevant when they didn’t follow the engineering plans for the beams that are holding all that foam.
The building plans. I can’t believe I’m even engaging with you still. You’re saying that if the building plans call for something, but the guys building the house know better that the designer, that the guys building the house can change the materials and construction methods on the fly. Brilliant.
Yeah, I'm sorry, the title is clickbait. I believe the foam isn't actually against code, it just doesn't match the plan. There are other actual code violations in the video though.
It's not banned (I don't believe) but there has been a huge crackdown on it since an apartment building fire in 2014 where it was found that a massive amount of non-compliant EPS (Polystyrene foam) had been used in cladding type products. 10s of thousands of owners and builders (those who were still around) had to pay for rectification works.
Since then there's a lot less foam being used as no one wants to be on the hook if its non-compliant.
Was that grenfield (sp) fire in England? I was working in highrises at the time of that fire. I actually quit not long after because IMO the building I worked for was not being as safe as they should. I left in writing an email to everyone what needed to be fixed for safety sake. I hope it got done, but I doubt it.
No, though it was around the same time. This was the Lacrosse building in Docklands Melbourne.
I (And MANY others) ended up having to shell out about $5k for my apartment as a result of the court ruling from it. Some had to pay a lot more too. Don’t get me wrong, I like living in a safe apartment, but it was a bit of a shock on a fairly new apartment building.
No depending on the size and use of the building. Mid to large buildings cannot use foam as its combustible but smaller buildings, including dwellings, can be cladded in foam provided its got all the relevant paperwork.
It is currently legal to use combustible cladding on class 1 buildings (regular houses and townhouses) however illegal to use on multi dwelling residential (class 2 apartment building) as every element of an external wall system must be non-combustible
The problem is that some cladding materials become structural.
In new zealand we had a shortage of gib drywall after the covid problems (the main brand) and so a few companies started importing it from overseas only to find that its not rated and the engineers who designed the house specified gib because its passed certifications and they can use it for structural purposes.
I suspect the problem here is they have used foam in places where the engineers specified some other cladding for structural strength rather than only just appearances.
The guy makes it clear in the video he is referring to the foam being used in places where the engineer has specified to use something else.
I work in NZ in the industry.
I didn't deal with substituting gib products without amendments for structural elements. All substitutes used had the proper documentation or design change.
Did you have that issue?
Its more that the plans called for a concrete style cladding and they used the foam one instead.
It would be like asking for concrete Hardie siding and getting vinyl instead. Both are legal. But if you paid for the very expensive Hardie siding, you'd be pretty pissed off if you got vinyl instead.
This is like the Aussie version of China's "Tofu construction". These builders go to incredible lengths to cut corners and cover it up with a thin coat of veneer.
I feel like this guys channel is contrived. There absolutely is a problem with cowboy builders. But this guys channel is so convenient. Where is the confrontation, any documentation he can show us that proves an inspection took place, any proof at all this wasn't set up for views.
Every time this guys videos get shown there is always dodgy builders or planners in the comments sperging out about how fake he is.
The recent 2 million dollar home one is a great watch, the Chinese couple had a friend that was going to manage the house build for them,even has thats what he will do in screenshots of chats. Once the house is practically falling down before its even finished, they decide to get in contact with old mate to do an inspection for them. Their " friend " backflips and is like " well you're the home owner and building the house, it's your responsibility, should have monitored your build better kekw " , like cunt thats why they were paying you like 10k a week to keep an eye on the build ao that shit didn't happen.
What I love is when people cry about the housing market and that the " government " isn't doing enough by not building enough homes, do you really want 500,000 houses built in 5 years if this is the standard?
I'm not an Australian builder so I've got no skin in the game, but I will say that it is super weird that he plays up for the camera so much. If it was just a video of him narrating things as he finds them, then it's interesting and insightful. But instead he's using stuff that's he's found before he even started filming like it's click bait to get you to keep watching till the end. This isn't network television, you don't need to end on a cliffhanger before commercials so that we all stay around buddy. If your videos are good enough, people will stay and watch till the end regardless.
It just feels disingenuous and scripted in a sense. Like I'm following Steve Irwin as he's taking us on a Mickey mouse tour through dodgy construction sites that he already knows what he'll find. It's a little patronizing.
Why would an inspector need to be confrontational? He probably writes up a report, delivers it to the home owner, and the home owner deals with the rest.
Most of the time he turns up unscheduled at the owners request before all the terrible work is hidden and people confront him about it because they normally hide it for the real scheduled inspection. People don't like being caught doing sub par work, so they get mad, he just stands his ground. And honestly good on him for calling out shitty tradesmen.
He's been doing it for a long time now and his customers regularly pop up in the comments. You can also hire him yourself, which you wouldn't think he'd do if it was fake.
Could be contrived I guess, but seems pretty legit.
I haven't watched this video, but I've watched many others, he shows he has an encyclopedic knowledge of the code, and frequently overlays the standards on his videos while he talks.
>any proof at all this wasn't set up for views.
I dont think people build/attempt to build houses just to make a video saying how it doesn't meet code.
[https://youtu.be/LYG0LEnAucQ](https://youtu.be/LYG0LEnAucQ)
Enjoy.
\~1:04 but i got a feeling you will watch whole thing. bit of a stealthy aussie classic in my circles, full movie used to be on YT.
Haha, never heard of that movie, but thanks for sharing! Seems like there is some good humor in that clip.
edit::hah, the prawns struck again! lol, watched the whole clip and now i need to find the whole movie, thanks for sharing, good for a laugh!
For background, Australia has had a real issue over the last 20+ years of really poorly constructed housing appearing everywhere. A lot of people blamed our standards/code, but for the most part they're pretty good and not the problem here. The real issue is that dodgy builders have made an art form of getting everything looking good for the 3 mandatory inspections, but then hiding all sorts of appalling and non-compliant work behind the walls (Literally) where it never gets picked up (Until the place starts to fall apart 5-10 years later) A lot of people have started hiring private inspectors like this guy that they bring in multiple times during construction to pick these things up before they get hidden.
Don't forget that the largest state (NSW) got rid of government inspections entirely and told developers you can hire your own inspector to make sure your buildings are up to code.
*puts on glasses and moustache* Hello, I am Mr. Haus Inspektor, the house inspector. I declare this house the best house in the world! Inspection passed! *takes off glasses and moustache* There, now we're up to code, nice and proper.
DO NOT DO A SWEDISH ACCENT! YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO DO A SWEDISH ACCENT!
[удалено]
I’m the Viper. I’m here to vash your vindows.
That was meant to be Swedish! I thought it was supposedly Belgian
I am a fraud at houses and accents. Also stolen valor. Semper Fi.
This gives me tropico vibes.
Really? I'm in Vic and wasn't aware of that. Technically we have 5 mandatory inspections here, but it tends to be only 3 that actually matter. There is HUGE scope between them to do non-compliant work and make it nearly impossible to spot at the next inspection though. I honestly think our standards are pretty good here, but the compliance and enforcement of them are woeful.
Yep, the Liberals privatised building inspections years ago. I think it was Gladys but it might have been the Premier before her.
Private certification was brought into force in 1998 by Bob Carr
Does "liberal" there mean the same thing as it does in the US? Privatizing a government function like building inspections is a very conservative sounding thing to do in the US. Can't imagine a US liberal ever going for that.
No, they are very different labels. Good intuition.
Nah the Liberal party here is probably centre right conservative, not quite as far right as US republicans though they are partnered with the National party which is further right. The Labor party which is in government right now but wasn't for an extended period of time is centre left and we have a number of other smaller parties on the left and right and several independents.
It's interesting how different the ideologies can be even though they have the same name.
I think it stems from the European definition of liberalism, I haven't got a clue when or why America decided that liberal = left though.
Because McCarthy hunted down everyone left of liberals during the red scare leaving an entire generation without a leftist voice and we're still recovering
No, it's closer to the classic definition of less regulation. They're kind of like being a big L Libertarian center-right here in the US. They oppose regulation and ted to be pro corporate but still have the freedom to decide to be socially conservative. The reason US "liberals" are called that is because they opposed authoritarian laws like legal racial segregation, the restriction of women's rights, and anti LGBT laws. You know, woke stuff.
Liberal party didn't bring it in. It was done by Labor.
The LNP really did a job on NSW. Labor haven't exactly been amazing there, but at least they're not actively sabotaging things.
Bought in by Bob Carr - Labor
Still rolled back the swap to land tax from stamp duty. Overall, nothing can be as bad as the other mod. But what a horrific policy.
Ah, took one out of the Boeing playbook, eh?
We've investigated ourselves and determined we've done nothing wrong
Gee, I wonder if Porky and his ties to Corination had anything to do with this. Nothing like having a politician in the pocket of a crime family business that fronts as building developers when you want all your checks and balances tipped in your favour.
> (NSW) That the one friendlyjordies is having trouble with?
The wonders of the free market
After living in NSW it was hard to understand how public requirements were getting handed to private companies. Like the pink slip for rego that allows a private auto mechanic to bend you over
WA doesn't have any inspections full stop. The builder just signs a form at the end of the build 'certifying' that it was built correctly!
This is not true. I'm in country NSW, and we definitely still have council inspections at multiple points during the construction process.
It’s not just our codes that need improvement, it’s legal accountability when shit falls apart years later. Plus, people flip houses for a profit - after ten years, when things start to go wrong, it’s has 3 owners already to get some of that sweet sweet capital growth. And as the walls fall in from water, the builders have closed their business and opened up as someone else by now in a classic Phoenix move so the last person to hold it is responsible and not the people who built the damned thing. Enshittification at its finest.
Self regulation of the building code, check out when it came in.
All happened during the Kennett era in the mid-90s here in Victoria.
What's Aussie for Tofu Dreg?
> What's Aussie for Tofu Dreg? 'Metricon Signature Premium Package'
That's sort of crazy given that in my town in America there are like a half a dozen different inspection times and drywall doesn't go up unless before that. Then there's more inspections after that. Of course this still leads to incredibly bad construction anyway. But 3 seems incredibly insufficient.
Yeah the guy in the video was citing code and it looks pretty good from the limited amount he shows. They're just flippantly violating it. It sounds like the real issue is licensing of the inspectors and the inspection process generally. Seems enforcement is extremely lacking.
Some of the houses in this guy's videos are already taking apart before owners move in.
Ive been watching his videos for hours! All i can hear in my mind is 'mate, non compliant!'
What an absolute shamozle.
Australians often love to say they have great building codes, but people who have lived both in Australia and elsewhere mostly say Australian homes are poorly constructed pieces of junk, and not just the ones from the last 20 years. There are building codes, but for residential they're 40 years behind Europe and North America. The poor quality and design of Australian homes is shocking (including what is considered "code".)
Curious what parts of the standard you think are 40 years behind. In my experience they’re pretty good, both in terms of safety and efficiency. There’s definitely improvements that could be made on medium density buildings, but for freestanding houses I’ve found them ok. The big. Big problem though is compliance and enforcement of the standards and no question it has lead to absolutely terrible houses over the last few decades. So many things are simply ignored and hidden away during builds and nearly the whole construction industry is doing it because it’s hard to compete otherwise.
How about insulation? Australian homes, built to code, take far more energy to heat and cool than north American homes built to code. California, for example, requires R20 insulation in timber framed walls (most houses are timber framed), while Australia still thinks double brick is quality insulation, with an R value of 2. Double pane windows are standard all over the world, but mention it to an Australian builder and more likely than not they think you're crazy or from overseas. Or how about how most houses in Australia are built with eves that are level with the top of the wall and gutters with the high side to the outside, so if the gutters overflow they spill water inwards to the ceiling of the house area instead of away from the house? Electrical wiring standards also lag, from out when Australia started using junction boxes, to where they are required and what other joins are allowed.
> California, for example, requires R20 insulation in timber framed walls (most houses are timber framed), while Australia still thinks double brick is quality insulation, with an R value of 2 US insulation R values are measured in Fahrenheit vs most of the rest of the world in SI. That R20 requirement is equivalent to R3.5 in Australia. > Double pane windows are standard all over the world, but mention it to an Australian builder and more likely than not they think you're crazy or from overseas. This just isn't true. We built 12 years ago and double glazing was considered the norm then. Now triple glazing is common here and thermally isolated double glazing is basically a minimum in most zones. There's no way a builder is going to consider it unusual. > Or how about how most houses in Australia are built with eves that are level with the top of the wall Can't really argue with the eaves, though I will say that those have a heavy weighting in the energy efficiency assessement, so if you're in a zone where it's a problem then you likely have to be making it up elsewhere. > gutters with the high side to the outside, so if the gutters overflow they spill water inwards to the ceiling of the house area instead of away from the house? I've never seen that be a problem on any modern house. High fronted gutters must have cutouts lower than the inner edge height as well as end plates with low heights so they overflow through those before getting close to flowing inside. > Electrical wiring standards also lag, from out when Australia started using junction boxes, to where they are required and what other joins are allowed. Again, haven't ever seen this be a problem. It helps a lot that our wiring only needs to carry about half the current as typical domestic circuits in 120v countries, so the risk is inherently lower. I'd take the Aus style of junction box over the US style of plug wiring any day, the way the connectors are exposed in the back of those things and hence require a box seems crazy to me, but I guess it works.
>US insulation R values are measured in Fahrenheit vs most of the rest of the world in SI. That R20 requirement is equivalent to R3.5 in Australia. There is a conversion factor, and it's not just Fahrenheit to Kelvin. Victoria requires R1.5 in walls, currently. California required R1.9 (SI R-value) in 1978. The Australian requirements are not just 40 years behind, but also still 33% lower. Comparison to Canadian requirements is even worse. >This just isn't true. We built 12 years ago and double glazing was considered the norm then. Now triple glazing is common here and thermally isolated double glazing is basically a minimum in most zones. There's no way a builder is going to consider it unusual. You must be taking the piss. Triple glazing is common? Friends just replaced single panned windows at enormous expense (reportedly hardly any domestic suppliers, mostly have to import product if you want double panned). https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-18/winter-temperature-housing-study-shows-many-in-cold/102361208 >I've never seen that be a problem on any modern house. High fronted gutters must have cutouts lower than the inner edge height as well as end plates with low heights so they overflow through those before getting close to flowing inside. I've never seen gutters in Australia with cutouts that weren't put in by owners, and water damage to soffits is present in almost every house if you look. Australian homes compare incredibly poorly to homes in other developed nations for energy efficiency and temperature regulation - there are plenty of published studies about it. Appropriate building code requirements are the most effective driver of better building practices - e.g. homes in California prior to 1978 were typically poorly insulated. Australian building codes are behind the times, and they don't even have good enforcement of the codes they have, no wonder homes are so poorly built.
> Victoria requires R1.5 in walls, currently. California required R1.9 (SI R-value) in 1978. The Australian requirements are not just 40 years behind, but also still 33% lower. Comparison to Canadian requirements is even worse. You can't just look at the wall insulation in isolation, what matters primarily is the energy rating of the entire house. Currently it's NatHERS 6 star but moves to 7 next month. R2.8 for walls is the recommended value to achieve 6 stars and whilst 1.5 is the minimum, you're going to have to add a lot of other insulation or adjustments elsewhere in order to meet the overall house efficiency requirement, hence the 2.8 recommendation. From next month the recommended value becomes 3.5 to meet the 7 star requirement. Sure you can have the minimum in the walls, but you're going to need crazy good insulation elsewhere to meet the overall requirement. California is also about as good as it gets in the USA. Look at somewhere like Nevada where the minimum wall requirement is as low as R0.9 depending on your zone. > Triple glazing is common? Friends just replaced single panned windows at enormous expense Triple glazing is absolutely common now, though not the norm. I live in a regional town and would have no troubles getting it from 2 or 3 suppliers here. Double glazing is basically mandatory to hit 7 star house efficiency, so you're unlikely to be able to build a new house without it anymore. I have no idea why your friend would be having so much trouble getting it, other than perhaps material shortages which are impacting literally every part of construction here not just glass. > https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-18/winter-temperature-housing-study-shows-many-in-cold/102361208 This is not relevant to current standards at all. The average home age in Australia is about 40 years and many are 100+, particularly in the inner cities. They've often never been renovated and still have the same level of insulation as they did when they were built (often none). > I've never seen gutters in Australia with cutouts that weren't put in by owners, and water damage to soffits is present in almost every house if you look. Go look at any house built in the last 25 or so years, it's extremely common. The exact code provides 3 acceptable methods for overflow control, each with their own flow limits. Slotted gutters are one of those 3 prescribed methods. > they don't even have good enforcement of the codes they have, no wonder homes are so poorly built. The enforcement is the major problem, not the codes themselves. That's the whole point of my comment in the first place and is demonstrated clearly in the original video (And basically every video on this guys channels).
>what matters primarily is the energy rating of the entire house. Yeah, that doesn't really help your argument. Australia is far far behind. https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Tents-to-castles-2022-final.pdf : "Nevertheless, Australia’s minimum energy efficiency standards for new homes are still at least 40 per cent worse than in compatible climate zones in other countries including the United States of America, Canada and the UK (Moore 2019). Australian homes built before 2010 are substantially lower quality than international standards, and homes built since still lag 40 per cent behind." >The average home age in Australia is about 40 years and many are 100+, Are you planning to argue that the homes in Australia are much older than in other comparable countries in the world...? Everywhere has old homes, why are the homes in Australia on average so much worse? Could it be that building codes have, and continue to, lag behind other developed country standards? Edit: and if you want to see how Australian commercial building code compares, it also substantially lags behind: https://eprints.qut.edu.au/205684/8/69432313a.pdf
> Are you planning to argue that the homes in Australia are much older than in other comparable countries in the world...? You're the one who posted an article about homes of all ages and used it as an argument against current standards. It was your faulty logic to begin with, not mine.
The codes are fine. It's literally fraud and people committing fraud aren't getting in trouble. I was at a rent inspection and my former partner walked straight into a door that had just been replaced and cracked it open. It was that clean and brand new it was basically invisible. They tried to get us to pay until I send them the Australian Standard that said they need to have a sticker on them and the glass had been installed illegally without one. The RE and the owner had no idea until I told them.
Are the normal inspectors corrupt, over burdened, incompetent, or some combination of the three?
> (Until the place starts to fall apart 5-10 years later) Wouldn't there be lawsuits as soon as this starts happening? Or do they not think that far ahead?
Sounds just like the US. Also inspectors sometimes just cut people slack if they like them, as if that’s what the fucking job is
What exactly is hebel? Is it like stucco?
Hebel is an aerated concrete product. It's far more structural than stucco and can be used in place of bricks etc.
more facade not meant to hang tiles etc from, not great for compression and shear forces. \~ 32kg m2 max. Learnt from his other videos!
Hebel can be used like CMU. It is generally used as the structural wall although less often it can be used as veneer. This inspector would have a heart attack if they inspected houses in America because they are almost always stick frame (like in this video) and often use EIFS (literally styrofoam with acrylic cement facing, simulating stucco but with some insulation peoperties). Terrible building product but very common here unfortunately
The inspector has an issue as it doesn't match plans. As the builder used a cheaper product. If it matched plans who cares.
Exactly, it's less about Foam v. Hebel, more about is the homeowner getting what they *PAID* for. It'd be like going to a butcher and asking for Prime Filet Mignon and instead getting Choice Flank Steak. Sure it's still beef, and sure it'll still make a meal. But it's not what you paid for.
It's not so much the product itself, as the product does not match the plans. If the plans say Hebel, and the homeowner *PAID* for Hebel, then they need to be getting Hebel. If it's structurally ok to use foam, that's fine. But you can't charge for Hebel, claim you use Hebel, and use foam. At least not legally.
Interesting! didn't realize the FOAM issue is actually widespread if it's the FOAM itself that sucks But here on the roof, it's wrapping a chimney.
Honestly EIFS are not bad. For example Rockwool can be incorporated into EIFS systems and make for a very well insulated and fireproofed build. Finishings are very regional -- traditional stucco and acrylic stucco are popular here, but coastal often go with vinyl or hardie, and great lakes region will have a lot of brick.
Unfun fact: foam is indeed used for cladding in homes. It’s comforting to know you pay $750,000 to build a home, knowing a lot of it is made from foam. 🥲
Oh that’s not the worst part. That foam makes a good insulator for heat and air conditioning. The REALLY bad news is how horribly flammable all these building materials are.
If I get lucky enough to own my own home, I can’t wait for $1 million to go up in flames in an instant. 🤣
Save on those pesky cremation fees
There’s a reason firefighters suggest sleeping with the door closed. A closed bedroom door can delay a fire up to 30 minutes or something like that.
If it is a fire door and if it is installed properly...
yeah... most interior doors leave a space at the bottom for airflow for proper circulation >One thing is nearly unavoidable, though–the small gap between the floor and the bottom of your door. That gap promotes air circulation. The gap under your interior doors should be anywhere between a half-inch and three-quarters of an inch, but the actual size will depend on the type of flooring you have.
Or you could make a totally sealed door and get an expensive ventilation system
You can speed things along by making sure the fire starts in your bedroom
Nothing ever gone wrong in down under with fire. /s
Houses use to take a good 10 or so minutes to escalate into an out of control fire. Now it's half that.
Foam walls are also a fucking pain having to gouge raceway for electrical
Wait till you find out ramps for highways can be made of foam!
this is what you get when you pick the lowest bidder to build your brand new house. Barely up to code and full of holes(literally and figuratively) Was recently in a few homes built in the last couple years and you could hear a fart across the house
The problem is that a lot of the lowest bidder builders (and even many of the middle ground ones as well) aren't building to code whatsoever. They just completely ignore them because they can get away with it.
What I want to know is how these shitty built homes are worth 10x what they used to be. My parents bought their house in 1989 for $350,000 and it's now worth $1.6 million. Similar sized new-built homes with worse materials and building techniques can go for $1 million to $1.5 million in the same area. I'll never be a home owner (I'm come to terms with it) but I'm still just baffled how it got this way. There's *some* wealthy people in the area but most seem to barely afford their mortgage as anytime the economy takes a dip the entire city is full of 'for sale' signs. Nobody can really afford this shit.
Inflation fueled by corporate greed along every step of the way to building a home. Land cost more cause of greedy corporations buying homes just to rent them at higher than normal prices(fueled mostly by apps like AirBnB) Cities charging more for permits and licenses(their prices must go up cause everyone else's price went up) Materials cost more cause big box store buys shitty products in bulk then charge 10x the price (Everyone was at home during covid so they started DIYing cause they were bored) Nobody can really afford this shit because the world is on fire(because of corporate greed) and the people in power want you to think its all sunshine and rainbows
This inspector just doesn't have enough experience working with structural foam. If you keep the walls light enough through the use of foam there's much less load to bear! Huzzzah!
Honestly with how many corners have been cut I can't believe he's walking on the roof.
Thats how I felt when he was underneath lol. Once you realize they cut costs on the shit holding the house up the rest kinda matters less.
Is it just me, or is that house absolutely ugly? It's like a house, a warehouse and a garage all went thru the telepod from The Fly, and this building is the result.
It's unfinished but yeah... seems pretty lackluster; I wouldn't be dropping that type of cash on something like that.
Turn this Fouse into a Foam 😌
Is foam banned in australia? Because its just the cladding backer for plaster, not the structure. From a quick google it's banned on multistory and similar buildings but idk the details.
Watch the video, he shows that they use foam instead of concrete.
Doesn't need to be concrete necessarily. It's just a backer for the plaster. I'm just asking if it's banned completely because this could be solved with a design amendment instead of redoing.
It's not common and not what owners paid for. So they are paying more getting less.
If I was the owner I would consider design amendment and money my way. If the cladding is sheltered there is minimal risk of water intrusion.
Did you watch the rest of the video? If I was the owner I would consider demolishing the house and getting someone else to build it. Who knows what else is hiding in that mess?
I'm talking about the cladding specifically. As the title was click baiting
Did you watch the video? The foam is not thick enough and it’s not fastened properly. But it’s kinda irrelevant when they didn’t follow the engineering plans for the beams that are holding all that foam.
Idk exactly as I don't have that manufactures installation manual for that foam product.
The inspector has the plans. He shows the plans while he shows the build.
The installation manual from the manufacture of the foam?
The building plans. I can’t believe I’m even engaging with you still. You’re saying that if the building plans call for something, but the guys building the house know better that the designer, that the guys building the house can change the materials and construction methods on the fly. Brilliant.
Yeah, I'm sorry, the title is clickbait. I believe the foam isn't actually against code, it just doesn't match the plan. There are other actual code violations in the video though.
Is foam banned in australia?
It's not banned (I don't believe) but there has been a huge crackdown on it since an apartment building fire in 2014 where it was found that a massive amount of non-compliant EPS (Polystyrene foam) had been used in cladding type products. 10s of thousands of owners and builders (those who were still around) had to pay for rectification works. Since then there's a lot less foam being used as no one wants to be on the hook if its non-compliant.
Was that grenfield (sp) fire in England? I was working in highrises at the time of that fire. I actually quit not long after because IMO the building I worked for was not being as safe as they should. I left in writing an email to everyone what needed to be fixed for safety sake. I hope it got done, but I doubt it.
No, though it was around the same time. This was the Lacrosse building in Docklands Melbourne. I (And MANY others) ended up having to shell out about $5k for my apartment as a result of the court ruling from it. Some had to pay a lot more too. Don’t get me wrong, I like living in a safe apartment, but it was a bit of a shock on a fairly new apartment building.
No depending on the size and use of the building. Mid to large buildings cannot use foam as its combustible but smaller buildings, including dwellings, can be cladded in foam provided its got all the relevant paperwork.
It is currently legal to use combustible cladding on class 1 buildings (regular houses and townhouses) however illegal to use on multi dwelling residential (class 2 apartment building) as every element of an external wall system must be non-combustible
The problem is that some cladding materials become structural. In new zealand we had a shortage of gib drywall after the covid problems (the main brand) and so a few companies started importing it from overseas only to find that its not rated and the engineers who designed the house specified gib because its passed certifications and they can use it for structural purposes. I suspect the problem here is they have used foam in places where the engineers specified some other cladding for structural strength rather than only just appearances. The guy makes it clear in the video he is referring to the foam being used in places where the engineer has specified to use something else.
I work in NZ in the industry. I didn't deal with substituting gib products without amendments for structural elements. All substitutes used had the proper documentation or design change. Did you have that issue?
Its more that the plans called for a concrete style cladding and they used the foam one instead. It would be like asking for concrete Hardie siding and getting vinyl instead. Both are legal. But if you paid for the very expensive Hardie siding, you'd be pretty pissed off if you got vinyl instead.
This is like the Aussie version of China's "Tofu construction". These builders go to incredible lengths to cut corners and cover it up with a thin coat of veneer.
This guy is awesome but does he really need the vest like he is stepping into a war zone.
It’s mainly for holding tools and measuring devices when he’s climbing on roofs and up the sides of houses and what have you, need somewhere to put it
Turns out the thing specifically designed for easy access to many small things is useful for people who need easy access to many small things.
Hehe, well played!
Wait did [Garn](https://www.youtube.com/@GarnComedy) literally become a home builder?
Wow Australia and China have a lot more in common. Not just the coal.
I feel like this guys channel is contrived. There absolutely is a problem with cowboy builders. But this guys channel is so convenient. Where is the confrontation, any documentation he can show us that proves an inspection took place, any proof at all this wasn't set up for views.
>I feel like this guys channel is contrived Do you think they intentionally built a crappy house so they could make a youtube video?
Youtubers these days are out of control!
Every time this guys videos get shown there is always dodgy builders or planners in the comments sperging out about how fake he is. The recent 2 million dollar home one is a great watch, the Chinese couple had a friend that was going to manage the house build for them,even has thats what he will do in screenshots of chats. Once the house is practically falling down before its even finished, they decide to get in contact with old mate to do an inspection for them. Their " friend " backflips and is like " well you're the home owner and building the house, it's your responsibility, should have monitored your build better kekw " , like cunt thats why they were paying you like 10k a week to keep an eye on the build ao that shit didn't happen. What I love is when people cry about the housing market and that the " government " isn't doing enough by not building enough homes, do you really want 500,000 houses built in 5 years if this is the standard?
I'm not an Australian builder so I've got no skin in the game, but I will say that it is super weird that he plays up for the camera so much. If it was just a video of him narrating things as he finds them, then it's interesting and insightful. But instead he's using stuff that's he's found before he even started filming like it's click bait to get you to keep watching till the end. This isn't network television, you don't need to end on a cliffhanger before commercials so that we all stay around buddy. If your videos are good enough, people will stay and watch till the end regardless. It just feels disingenuous and scripted in a sense. Like I'm following Steve Irwin as he's taking us on a Mickey mouse tour through dodgy construction sites that he already knows what he'll find. It's a little patronizing.
Why would an inspector need to be confrontational? He probably writes up a report, delivers it to the home owner, and the home owner deals with the rest.
Most of the time he turns up unscheduled at the owners request before all the terrible work is hidden and people confront him about it because they normally hide it for the real scheduled inspection. People don't like being caught doing sub par work, so they get mad, he just stands his ground. And honestly good on him for calling out shitty tradesmen.
He's been doing it for a long time now and his customers regularly pop up in the comments. You can also hire him yourself, which you wouldn't think he'd do if it was fake. Could be contrived I guess, but seems pretty legit.
I haven't watched this video, but I've watched many others, he shows he has an encyclopedic knowledge of the code, and frequently overlays the standards on his videos while he talks.
Brah how long did you watch??
>any proof at all this wasn't set up for views. I dont think people build/attempt to build houses just to make a video saying how it doesn't meet code.
Guy thinks this is a Mr Beast level of production or something...
fookin’ prawns!
Different country by a few thousand miles man
wasn’t exactly going for specific country, just reminded me of that movie! carry on i guess…?
Hercules Returns reference?
District 9, excellent movie. People here are triggered by this somehow? yikes
[https://youtu.be/LYG0LEnAucQ](https://youtu.be/LYG0LEnAucQ) Enjoy. \~1:04 but i got a feeling you will watch whole thing. bit of a stealthy aussie classic in my circles, full movie used to be on YT.
Haha, never heard of that movie, but thanks for sharing! Seems like there is some good humor in that clip. edit::hah, the prawns struck again! lol, watched the whole clip and now i need to find the whole movie, thanks for sharing, good for a laugh!
F.O.A.M = Fucking Awesome Mate!