20 January 2007
Climate Change
Means More Maintenance For Home Owners
Rain falling through out Victoria could ease the State's house cracking problem but forecast weather patterns of heavy falls means increased maintenance for home owners, Archicentre the building advisory service of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects said today.
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Managing Director of Archicentre, Robert Caulfield said, "The suggestions that with climate change we are likely to see less rain but heavier falls means that home owners will need to increase their maintenance on homes, especially in the drainage area or face the problems of roof and gutter failure which can result in expensive damage to interiors through leaks." An Archicentre survey of over 57,000 Victorian homes during pre-purchase home inspections has found that 54% of all homes inspected had some form of roofing problems. "The intense dry weather has been stressing trees resulting in increased leaf build up in gutters causing gutter over flows, increased fire risk and blocked down pipes". "Home owners, especially those with water tanks, will need to undertake increased maintenance on their homes to maximize their rain water collection". |
"The downpours and floods reported in the last twenty four hours could be a sign of what home owners are likely to face every year as a normal occurrence which could have implications for future sizes of guttering and down pipes as Australian home owners move to harvest water from millions of roofs," Mr Caulfield said.
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