About

Whether you want to keep living in your house, maximise the sales price, or want to know whether a house is safe for you to buy, we are the only company who can deliver you the information and hard evidence that you need.

Welcome to Moisture Detection Company

Moisture Detection Company was started in 2004 by Ian Holyoake as a result of extensive independent research into diagnosing leaky homes.

Every house built with monolithic cladding was tarred by the media with a ‘leaky home’ label, regardless of how well it was built.  Seventeen years later, and that label has stuck.  Owners find the houses hard to sell, and are worried there may be leaks and decay.

At that time, Ian’s company Hitex, manufactured an advanced monolithic cladding system, which in spite of keeping houses very dry, was still affected by the negative publicity. Over many years, Hitex had worked closely with the University of Auckland, to research and understand the behaviour of moisture in walls and behind claddings.  A true entrepreneur, with the aid of this research team, Ian invented and patented the Mdu Moisture Probe System to prove that his claddings didn’t leak.  The potential benefits of the probes were obvious – so much so they were put into houses with other cladding systems to look for problems.

Now installed in over 2,000 houses, the Mdu Moisture Probe system is a low cost, practical and accurate tool that finds the leaks and decay in any house.

Before long, evidence provided by the probes was being used in leaky home court cases claims around the country.  At last, homeowners could find and prove all of the defects in their houses without having to wait for obvious external signs.

Moisture Probes were, and still are, the only way to non-destructively measure and monitor the actual moisture and decay levels inside walls.  The alternative is ugly, expensive, hard to repair cutouts in the gib or cladding.

While finding problems was useful, what owners really wanted was solutions.  Someone who they could trust to fix their houses, resolving the issues that made them leak, and repair the damage caused by those leaks.

Further research projects led to “RotStop”, a unique proprietary system to manage existing decay and treat untreated timber insitu, without damaging the house or costing a fortune.

By this time, the re-cladding industry was starting to wind up, supported by the myth that leaky homes were caused by bad building and monolithic cladding.  It made sense – replace the cladding and the bad building details and the problems are gone.  Unfortunately, whilst some re-clads were good, many just failed again after costing their owners a small fortune.  In many cases, whole houses were re-clad when only certain areas had problems.

Most owners just wanted their houses to be dry, safe to live in, and to maintain their asset value.  An alternative to re-cladding was desperately needed.

Moisture Detection Company, and their sister company “Step Up Group”, developed a range of solutions to solve typical problems with plaster clad homes including;

  • Rotstop to kill existing decay, and treat untreated or undertreated timber
  • Drying skirts to dry out walls and fix high ground-line problems or cladding buried into the ground
  • Window eyebrows to deflect rain from the top of windows where there are no eaves
  • Window sill flashings to stop leaks around windows
  • Custom designed flashings for stop ends, decks, scuppers, etc
  • Overflows for internal Taylor fascia style guttering

Once these repairs were undertaken, reading of the Moisture Probe system measures the success of those repairs.

Moisture Detection Company looks after the house, no matter who the owner is.

The key is to have the probes read regularly and undertake recommended maintenance to keep your house safe and dry.

You may book a half an hour phone consultation (Free)

The Plaster-Clad Home Specialists

Serving Auckland and surrounding areas

Let us help you by: 

  • Finding and Fixing Leaks Fast
  • Installing a Patented Moisture Probe Monitoring System
  • Providing a Pre-Purchase Weathertightness Inspection
  • Repairing Instead of Recladding 
  • Treating Timber and Killing Decay with RotStop 
  • Preparing Your Monolithic Clad House for the Maximum Sale Price
  • Providing Timber Treatment Testings

No other company provides our level of expertise when it comes to addressing New Zealand’s ‘leaky house crisis’. 

You may book a half an hour phone consultation (Free)

Our Team

Meet your moisture detection and repair experts

Moisture Detection and Repair Experts in Auckland

Ian Holyoake

Managing Director

Ian Holyoake is the Manager Director and genius behind Moisture Detection’s Mdu Probe System and the popular RotStop solution.  Ian has developed comprehensive, professional processes used to diagnose and repair plaster-clad homes.

With over 30 years in construction, building, claddings and leak detection, Ian is unrivalled in his knowledge and experience.