I've just completed the installation of a new Bailey Slim Jim 2000 ltr water tank and thought I would share some reflections on this process.The new Bailey Slim Jim water tank has some revised features including a sleek flat finish, modern appearance and is available in a range of colours and sizes.Like most projects, it [...]
What is Double Glazing? The Quick Facts By Resident Builder Peter Wolfkamp Thankfully, double glazing is increasingly common and with the recent improvements to H1 of the Building Code, double glazing will be in new homes from now on. However, double glazing was a rarity when I started building in 1987 and every now [...]
Key Themes Why do retaining walls fail? Key components in successful design Importance of drainage coil Where to put it, where it goes. In my experience, whenever I've had to look at a retaining wall that's a little bit wobbly or seems to be constantly leaking water, the one common feature of the failure [...]
How Does the H1 Changes Affect Me. Most of us probably have the experience of growing up in a home where we shivered through the winter and then our houses were incredibly hot during the summer! Most of this can be attributed to the poor standard of our insulation in New Zealand homes before 1978. [...]
I have been spending a bit of time in the garden recently as it bursts back into life. While listening to the spring rain falling on the roof, there was also a quiet satisfaction knowing that I was collecting that rainwater and directing it into the Bailey SlimJim tank, which I had installed behind the [...]
For those of you that know me well, one of the most rewarding aspects of working on heritage houses, has given me the insight and the skills, plus the ability of the original builders and the materials they used. I imagine that the early carpenters who began building villa’s, using Kauri would have been amazed [...]
Who would have thought that the large plastic water tanks that you see dotting the New Zealand rural landscape can be given a new life? Well, they can. In fact, Bailey’s Tanks commitment to sustainability is at the heart of everything they do. You could say it all starts in the factory and ends on [...]
You may have heard me recently discuss some products from Simple Green. I like to know about the products I use, so here is what I found out. The challenge Simple Green was founded in 1975 by a Californian father and son trying to create a food-safe cleaner for removing tannic acid from coffee vending [...]
If you are at home, looking at your garden or drive way, thinking…”gosh with all this rain I need to sort out that boggy area”, Black Snake drainage coil is the solution for you. Black Snake drainage coil is a sub-soil drainage solution that allows water to filter into the pipe via the slots punched [...]
Render has been a popular finish for literally decades in NZ, and we found clever examples of render in the old villa we renovated in 2020. The original fireplace had a decorative render around the fireplace opening, with a piped grout line that was then painted over. Once we got underway with the restoration of [...]
