Serving the greater Auckland Area since 1988
The remediation of so called "Leaky Homes" has not been going on for very long, but unfortunately long enough for many houses to have been repaired badly. Which means there are a depressingly large number coming around for the second, or even the third time.
You are obviously keen to avoid joining their ranks, which is why you are here researching the problem. Hopefully you have already looked at some of the other pages on this site and are thinking about engaging the services of a suitably qualified consultant, surveyor, expert or project manager. The comments under the firms listed below are entirely my own: personal, biased and not to be construed as anything other than that. Never the less, I hope they are helpful!
(I wrote that a year or so ago; since then several of the firms have expressed disatisfaction with what I have written, and nagged me until I edited various bits - so what you read below is no longer quite as "purely mine" as it used to be)
First is a list of the main players: most of these firms started out small, grew quickly and now tend to be the ones involved in remediating and recladding big buildings or complexes - blocks of apartments, office buildings, even hospitals. However, they still do individual homes, so if that is what you have, don't rule them out
If you have read any of the NZ Herald articles you will recognise at least some of the names. If you haven't read any of the Herald articles, enter "Leaky Homes"in their search box - they were the first ones to listen and start publicising the problem about 10 years ago now. The other thing that is worth entering in the NZ Herald seach box is the name of the firm of consultants you are thinking of engaging - you will find the big firms mentioned in quite a few articles, not always favourably.
The English invasion
Building surveying is a much better established career in the United Kingdom. There is an organisation called The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and their members tend to have degrees in building surveying. Used here "surveying" has nothing to do with taking levels and establishing boundaries. More like "Building Technology" (and a lot more besides). Quite a few highly qualified English (Chartered) building surveyors have emigrated here and found employment, I think all the big firms now have one or more. So don't be suprised if you hear a lot of English accents.
Prendos
This is arguably the most well established. Two brothers - Greg and Philip
O'Sullivan - are often described as the "whistle blowers" on the whole,
sorry leaky home saga. Greg had an article published about the "time bomb"
of stucco direct fixed to framing (without a clavity) way back in 1994.
By 1998 the brothers were making a lot of noise about leaking and rotting
houses and people had started to sit up and really listen. Isn't it amazing
how long it took for that knowledge to filter down? The O'Sullivans have
taught me a huge amount, and a large number of other building surveyors
I know have attended their courses run by the New Zealand Institute of Building
Surveyors over the last five or so years. Over a ten year period, they have
racked up a huge amount of experience with remediating leaky homes. Very
low staff turnover, the firm just keeps slowly gettng bigger. So, tons of
experience and expertise. Length of waiting list may vary. Office in Takapuna.
Web site
They also have produced an excellent and extremely comprehensive "Leaky Home Guide".
Steve Alexander & Co
Not quite as big in terms of staff, they now tend to specialise in larger apartment complexes and have pretty well stopped doing houses - unless you have a particularly interesting one. Again with the waiting list - there are simply more leaky homes than suitably trained and experienced people to deal with them. This company has a bunch of those highly qualified English Chartered Surveyors who have found the good life here. Office in the heart of the city. Web site
Babbage Consultants
This is in a different catagory to the firms above, which, though they would hate me saying it, do have a reputataion for specialising in remediating leaky buildings. Of course they do all kinds of other building consulting stuff, for instance court work (acting as expert witnesses) - but leakies are their bread and butter.
In contrast, Babbage is a far older firm (started in 1936), they have quite a long history and breadth of expertise. They currenlty have a large, multi disciplined staff in their office down by the old railway station and over the last few years have recognised and entered the niche market of building defects (including leakies) by creating a specialist team (9 in August 08). This contains, you guessed it, more of those English invaders. Web site
CoveKinloch
Long ago they evolved from Joyce Group. A staff of over a dozen plus an associated firm downstairs concentrating on design with a lot more staff so quite a lot of work going on. Lots of variety, from prepurchase inspections on houses right up to commercial / industrial design. Newmarket based, now also heavily involved in remediation. Web site
There may indeed be other bigger firms seriously involved in remediation here in Auckland that I am not yet aware of, but the ones listed above are the only ones I know anything about.
Besides these companies, there are of course many smaller consultancies (like the one I work for) which consist of one or two staff who set up contracts, project manage jobs and sub contract out other bits like drafting, engineering and quantity surveying as necessary.
I wouldn't be suprised if the list below gets shorter, rather than longer as no one seems to be short of work so the individuals listed may request me to remove their names once they find out I have included them.
Kaizon Ltd
Four Registered or (English) Chartered Building Surveyors plus support staff. Lots of leaky building investigation and remediation experience with both houses and commercial buildings, as well expert witness work. Website and email
Hampton Jones
Another central city firm, young and enthusiastic mostly English Chartered Surveyors with an emphasis on commmercial property but they also have done (and will still look at) lots of leaky home work. Web site
KLHB Ltd
Despite being in the Hawkes Bay, this firm does quite a lot of work in Auckland - and in other areas around the North Island. They tend to engage a local building surveyor to handle the day to day site visits once they have sorted out the project and got the building consent - I have been their local representative on several jobs. This is a smaller firm, but also includes one of those English chartered surveyors. The boss, Kevin Longman, is a past President of the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and, like Greg O'Sullivan, has taught the rest of us a great deal. Web site
Maynard Marks Ltd
Two surveyors left firms above and started their own, read all about them here (website). Ph 09 912 2550 email
O'Hagan Building Consultants Ltd - Pat O'Hagan
Pat's company is in Devonport, there are two surveyors. Ph 09 445 2144 email
Forensic Building Consultants Ltd - Craig Turner.
A Mt Eden based firm with a couple of surevyors who have extensive experience in remediation. Ph 09 624 3881 email
The ones below are sole practioners who may not thank me for listing them here
South City Building Surveyors Ltd
Ph 09 279 3413 027 489 2382 email
Norman Williams Architect
Ph 09 489 9800 027 441 8256 email
DJ Templeman Bldg Consultancy
Ph 09 478 4876 027 459 1911 email
Alan Light Building Consultant Ltd
Ph 09 446 0052 021 15 89 306 email
Also see here for an ever growing list of builders specialising in recladding
And don't forget Lighthouse NZ Ltd for independent advice