In June this year we began another house in Fairhall.  Sitting on an Allied super slab floor which proves ideal for producing a nicely insulated floor. The house is of timber framed construction with 140mm exterior walls to increase allowable insulation in the walls, a combination of 400mm polystyrene and R2.8 wall batts were used. The owners settled upon using Hardies linea weatherboards for the entirety of the house’s cladding. Internally one of the main features is the aluminium cavity sliders used to separate the living areas from the rest of the house. With the house itself nearing completion we also dabbled in landscaping.  Extensive areas of Vitex watershed decking as well as areas of exposed aggregate paths and patios providing a great finish to the whole project. For a better idea of the project check out the photos below.

Mark

Earlier in the year John and myself spent around 8 weeks working in Christchurch scoping houses as part of the reconstruction process. We were contracting on behalf of MWH  Mainzeal who are responsible for the reconstruction of houses for several insurance companies. Basically our role was to “scope” houses, quantify damage to the houses and land and the remedial action required. Which ranged from basic repainting of a room to uplifting a house for repairs and in some situations make a recommendation that a total rebuild was a more economic or practical option than repairs.

All houses whether 90m3 villas or 700m3 executive houses were assessed using the same systematic process. Each house was checked for level using a zip-level and walls checked for plumb to determine which walls were racked. The damage and remedial action was all recorded in codes easily understandable for people behind desks with no practical building experience, from which costings for repairs would be made. Although the process for scoping each house was uniform, damage to houses was far from it. It could range from cracking in gib-board joints to foundations completely blown apart.

First impression of seeing Christchurch since the February earthquake was simply the share scale of damage. The amount of houses damaged and roads and services effected. You begin to get an appreciation for how long rebuilding of the city and suburbs will take. Visiting individual houses and recognizing the work required to repair homes further reinforced this. Houses requiring uplifting to repair foundations and piles as well as houses requiring removal of brick veneers seemed countless.

From a builders perspective it was an interesting experience and gave an indication of how building materials and practices stand up to such an event. It was encouraging to see how well houses of timber framed construction had coped with the stresses put upon them. Houses which on first impressions looked write-offs and had completely shifted of their foundations and were hundreds of millimeters out of level. But on viewing the inside, damage was surprisingly little. The most simple conclusion to make is that no matter how well a house may be built it is the land which it sits on that will ultimately determine how it will fare in a large earthquake.