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Former engineer and Far North Mayor Wayne Brown, who was part of an inspection team looking at damage to houses in Christchurch’s suburbs, says repair rather than demolition could save millions.
Brown, part of a 12-strong engineering team that inspected house damage in March this year, says thousands of timber-framed houses with damaged brick veneer cladding and roof tiles could be easily reclad with new weatherboards and corrugated iron roofs.
Reported in the NZ Herald, Brown says that timber-framed houses that had shifted off their foundations could easily be lifted, shifted and connected to their foundations (“in many cases for the first time”).
“Even those constructed on concrete slabs on low-lying suburbs could be repositioned at least 800mm above ground level on to new timber piles, with connections designed to allow easy unbolting, re-levelling and reconnecting in the event of further ground deforming seismic activity.
“The upshot is that considerable time, money and heartache could be lessened if remedial on-the-ground action is taken instead of shifting people from the suburbs.”
In essence, the team found flexible structures performed better than rigid ones in the seriously affected areas.
The damage would have been reduced drastically – and with it the danger factor – if the building standards had not been so slack or ignored.
The excellent performance of old timber-frame, corrugated iron houses that preceded the present building code proved this point, he says.
