I had the opportunity the other day to be involved with the installation of a Bailey Bazooka culvert. It's actually the first time I've ever installed a culvert and it was great to work alongside experienced contractors, familiar with civil drainage work, who were able to offer up some advice to ensure that it installed [...]
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. [...]
Author: Resident Builder Peter Wolfkamp Date published: January 2023 Changes to the NZ Building Code regarding the energy efficiency of our homes were announced in 2021 and all changes will take effect by November 2023. When the H1 changes were announced, some of the public and construction industry responses were along the lines of “Why? [...]
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 [...]
