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Author: Matthew Cutler-Welsh

  • Leaky Buildings 2.0

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    Matthew Cutler-Welsh
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    Most of us are familiar with leaky buildings – the perfect storm of poor design, poor cladding systems and poor workmanship, culminating in allowing rain to get in. Now we’ve moved on and have cavities, more stringent weather-tightness checks and hopefully we like eaves again. So what’s leaky buildings 2.0? If we’ve dealt to the…

  • Getting Started with Social Media

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    Matthew Cutler-Welsh
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      This week I had a very special guest in the studio, social media and networking expert Natalie Cutler-Welsh. Nat spends some of her time helping small business owners who are just getting started with social media. This can be a daunting task yet important step for your business. I wanted to get some tips…

  • How to get more of the right clients

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    Matthew Cutler-Welsh
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    I’m always on the lookout for building professionals who are focussed on sustainable design and construction, so when Ian McHugh popped up in my LinkedIn and Twitter networks, I was keen to get in touch. Ian’s specialisations include Code for Sustainable Homes Assessor, and ‘Eco-Refurbisher’. I want to know how good designers and architects can do more…

  • Earth Building

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    Matthew Cutler-Welsh
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    When she was 16, Verena Maeder came to New Zealand from Switzerland for a working holiday and fell in love, but not with a kiwi. Verena fell in love with earth buildings. So much so, that she returned to Switzerland and started training as an architect with the specific goal of learning how to design…

  • Concrete Slab Edge Insulation Update

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    Matthew Cutler-Welsh
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    Updated: See my updated list at the end of this article for currently available products for slab edge, perimeter insulation. BRANZ recently released their fifth edition of the House Insulation Guide. Changes in this edition include ‘waffle pod’ concrete slab systems, and a concrete slab edge insulation update. I discussed the importance of insulating the edge of…

  • How to Design Eco Friendly Homes

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    Matthew Cutler-Welsh
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    Lesley England knows how to design eco friendly homes and importantly for her, she knows how to attract the right clients who want her to design eco friendly homes. It’s all in the name – ecohabitats. Actually, that’s not completely true. The name ecohabitats does attract a lot of clients, but her great design work…

  • Warm Windows

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    Matthew Cutler-Welsh
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    What exactly is ‘PVC’? And is this really a good material for window framing in New Zealand, Australia, or anywhere else in the World? These are some of the questions I put to Oleg Tolmachev, Sales Manager at Warm Windows – Cascade International. PVC PVC is the abbreviation for poly(vinyl chloride) which is a white…

  • Building Guide

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    Matthew Cutler-Welsh
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    Through his company, Aim High Publishing, Mark Graham owns and runs the Building Guide, the Design Guide and Bob – the Business of Building. But as Mark openly admits in our interview, he used to hate advertising – the very industry he worked in and now relies on. The difference today is that he knows he’s helping…

  • Self-Help Housing

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    Matthew Cutler-Welsh
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    Self-help housing is not your typical DIY. I continually comment on the poor standard of the New Zealand housing stock, but we can’t ignore the fact that there are people in even worse housing situations. At least 1 billion of them in fact. Canopy Housing Project is a self-help housing organisation based in Leeds, U.K., creating decent homes by renovating derelict…

  • Affordable Housing

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    Matthew Cutler-Welsh
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    I’ve tried to avoid the issue of affordable housing. It’s a term that gets used a lot and in all likelihood, the provision of affordable housing is going to be an election issue. I avoid it because it’s often brought up as a negative issue. As a problem. But when someone such as Daiman Otto…