When your home has been leaking, a reclad is both a relief and challenge.

You know that you will end up with a weathertight home, but you know you will have to go through the pain and mess of having the existing cladding stripped off and the new cladding applied.

"Our reclad clients fall pretty much into two groups," says Modus Construction's Bryan Wheatcroft. "There are the people who have just become very depressed by the whole process, and those who are disappointed but they're able to cope with it."

Modus Construction are general contract builders, but reclads as a proportion of their work has been growing steadily over the last five years.

"We developed a relationship with a company which specialises in supervising leaky home reclads, and the work has just grown from there," Bryan says.

For several of the reclads Modus has been involved in, Jenkin A-lign has been the cladding system specified by the supervising building surveyor after consultation with the architect and client.

"When I first saw the A-lign system, I thought 'this is just a way of charging a lot more than they can charge for standard weatherboards.' But the extra cost was offset by it being much quicker, and the quality of the job when finished, with the pre-cut scribers and boxed corners that fit just perfectly, it makes us look good.

"The combination of our guys doing a great job, and the A-lign product, is a perfect finish"

It's a finish that finally won the trust of a recent client who was struggling with the reclad process.

"She criticised everything, nothing was right, even though our guys were doing a really good job. Then her brother-in-law came to visit just as we were finishing the job. He was an old-time chippie and he had a pretty good look around and said 'this is better than good. This is outstanding.' We had no problems with the client after that!"

Bryan's advice to anyone undergoing a reclad is to do it as well as possible, with the best possible advice and materials.

"Leaky buildings were often built at speed first time round, to a budget, and the result was atrocious. So get a good supervisor, a good architect, good BRANZ-approved products, good detailing, the best you can afford. Don't just look at the bottom line. Listen carefully and be careful of who is giving you advice."

For Bryan and the rest of the Modus team, it's always enjoyable to build a new house, but reclads offer their own rewards.

"It's satisfying to take a house in very bad condition and put it right. It's human nature -- we like to fix things. And it is great for clients to have it behind them and be able to get on with their lives."