Earthquake proofing

What are folks thoughts about the proposed new earthquake standards that may be introduced because of Christchurch?
We have a lovely old house in Henderson on a hill with great views that has been here since 1925. It has the typical wood piles on concrete blocks which I guess would be a no-no. I could go round and drill holes thru all the blocks and thread wire through and staple to the piles but that may not be enough. Having said that I wouldn't like to test it now in a big quake (or the recent tornado event, which is more likely in Auckland than a quake).

Its a shock
My AKL CBD character apartment (my home) has been declared EQ prone. At this stage we have no costings on upgrades to comply with standards, but conceivably it will make the building uneconomic and a complete write off.
It seems a bit rich to destroy so much wealth at the stroke of a pen especially given that AKL hasnt had even a moderate EQ ever as far as I know, certainly not since 1848. And 99.99% of EQ's in NZ occur south of the Waikato

So the old maxim about diversifying ones wealth is proven correct again.
Dont really know how I could've predicted this one.
I will have more to say about this later on when not at work

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Originally Posted by George

What are folks thoughts about the proposed new earthquake standards that may be introduced because of Christchurch?
We have a lovely old house in Henderson on a hill with great views that has been here since 1925. It has the typical wood piles on concrete blocks which I guess would be a no-no. I could go round and drill holes thru all the blocks and thread wire through and staple to the piles but that may not be enough. Having said that I wouldn't like to test it now in a big quake (or the recent tornado event, which is more likely in Auckland than a quake).

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Thats not your worry in an earthquake your type of house would bend and twist but would never kill you. What your worry should be is Auckland is sitting on volcanoes which one day will blow up. Nobody else seems worried about it and continue to build over the top of them. Wellington is the place where major fault lines run right through the middle of it so I expect they have more to worry about than you. Your house should stay intact but come off the piles regardless of little bits of wires and staples. Easily jacked up and re leveled so dont waste your time on that. Tornado will take your roof off so if you have time to react cower down in your smallest room which is the toilet. you might have a bigger chance of being run over by a bus which definately would be a worry. On a more serious note a tornado will normally come off the sea, so TeAtatu, and Helensville on your side would be more likely than you up on a hill at henderson. I once built an extension at Mt eden namely an extra bedroom. On digging the foundations I come across a huge empty cavern in the ground in volcanic scoria rock. I said to the owner if we go to the council thats the end of your extension, but it is a natural volcanic cavity that can be filled in and we can do it properly. The cavern was about 3mtrs wide and 2 mtrs deep with there house perched on the side of it oblivious to its existance. There are hundreds of those cavities in Mt Eden, Mt Roskill, under the roads and houses so you being up a hill at Henderson in a house that has survived for eighty five years have no worries at all. Incidently we filled and compacted the cavern built the bedroom and every one was happy. Reduce your risks is a wise move but dont let the risk factor controll your life worry about your real worries family friends and health are more important than property or money worries. Macdunk

Google may be a better search engine but Bing has better pic's of the day Attachment 4247

We earthquake proofed for signoff (Auckland)......3 straps on hot water cylinder, heat pump bolted down and water pumps bolted down :-)