#66 The ForeverBreathe System with Kelly and Andrew from Premium Homes - Part 1

First time the Build Insite Podcast has left Australian soil. And we've landed in Christchurch for a good reason. This one's a special episode. Luke and Dean have packed the mics and headed across the ditch for a New Zealand road trip, made possible by McCormacks Australia. Huge shout out to Glenn and the McCormacks team for getting us over here. We're recording inside the Premium Homes display home in Christchurch, and a lot of the products you'll hear about are already available in Australia through McCormacks. Our guests are Kelly and Andrew, school mates turned business partners who started Premium Homes nearly 20 years ago after Kelly, a sparky by trade, got sick of wiring houses that weren't plumb or square. They walk us through what the Christchurch earthquakes did to the local industry, how New Zealand's leaky home crisis unfolded, and why the push for airtight homes is setting up the next round of problems: sweaty walls, hidden mould and what the Americans have called sick building syndrome for two decades. Then it's into the ForeverBreathe system itself. Magnum board inside and out, wool insulation in the middle, breathable paint, and no vapour barrier at all. It goes against everything most builders were taught, but the numbers on moisture handling, R value stability and energy performance are hard to argue with. What you'll learn: Why individually approved products can still fail as a system How wool insulation holds moisture without losing its R value, and why fibreglass doesn't What Magnum board does that plasterboard and building wrap can't Why a breathable wall keeps timber drier than a sealed one Who carries the risk when a designer specifies a wall build-up, and how a tested specification changes that Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction 00:33 - Build Insite lands in Christchurch 01:26 - Meet Kelly and Andrew from Premium Homes 02:42 - How the Christchurch earthquakes changed construction 03:56 - Approved products, untested systems 05:37 - What caused New Zealand's leaky home crisis 07:38 - Sweaty homes, mould and sick building syndrome 09:36 - Inside the ForeverBreathe wall system 11:07 - Wool insulation vs fibreglass: moisture and R value 14:05 - Letting moisture move through the wall 16:16 - Why there's no building wrap 17:28 - Putting Magnum board to the test 18:50 - Where's the education on moisture and mould? 20:26 - Getting designers and builders to change 21:58 - Who owns the risk in a wall specification 23:08 - Wrap up Hosts: Dean Backman & Luke Callery Guests: Kelly and Andrew from Premium Homes NZ 🎧 Listen to the Build Insite Podcast on: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. Explore more at: https://buildinsite.com.au/ 📸 Follow us on Instagram: @build.insite