LEAKY HOMES & REASONS

[minimoke]

In an earthquake situation your house should remain standing even although it might be on an almighty lean and still habitable. macdunk

Duncan. No house fell down in the earthquake - with the exception of some really old ones and even then they didn't totally fall down. The severely damaged ones were the ones that were built on a raft foundation on a base of sand. Unfortunately the sand liquefied and the slabs broke. Most house remain habitable - if you don't mind being on a lean, have no sewage due to broken pipes and water to broken supply.

The brick veneers essentially stood up to the stress - unless they were old buildings which didn't have the bricks tied and the mortar was a bit old. New brick house veneer broke - no surprise given it was the slab that broke when the ground split.

Concrete tile roofs didn't cause too many problems. Its was the brick chimneys falling that was the issue.

My place is on a raft and didn't break. Indeed at 4.35am it rocked precisely like a ship on a big swell - the floor pitched so much the kids couldn't stand.(edit - and its why it continues to rock as I type when every after shock comes through!) But the cracks now make it a leaky house. One of my ex-rentals had a weatherboard exterior and the bulldozer will go through it once it gets to that street.

The problem wasn't so much the house construction (which on the whole was pretty good - hence no deaths). It was the land the houses were built on. And the bone for those problems can be pointed to the developers who developed the land.