ROOFING STANDARD CHECK BY COUNCIL

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31657, 18 April 1968, Page 10

ROOFING STANDARD CHECK BY COUNCIL

The City Council would investigate the reasons why roofs were lost from many houses in the recent storm to see if building procedures could be strengthened for certain types of roof, or for roofing in exposed localities, said the City Engineer (Mr P. G. Scoular) yesterday.

Mr Scoular was asked to comment on a letter to the Editor of "The Press” from “A.J.K. and 8.H.1.” who drew attention to the severe damage done to newly-built homes, particularly on Cannon Hill, and asked if the fault lay in the standard of building inspection Mr Scoular defended both the council building standards and inspection, but said that the storm had revealed possible weaknesses in roof construction. Mr Scoular said that most of the damage he had seen was to roofs on flat-roofed houses. Flat roofs were most prone to lifting by the wind, as wind, passing over a flat surface, created its greatest suction.

He agreed with Mr Scoular that problems were created by wind suction on flat roofs, and by the wind getting under extended roof overhangs. An architect would take the nature of the roof and the exposure of the site into consideration. but he knew of cases where roofs had been torn away, leaving their fastenings standing. Fabric materials were not so much used now on flat roofs, but special attention had to be paid to fastening the material down, he said Similar precautions were taken to hold down “long run” roofs in other materials.

“Some of the houses that lost roofing had flat roofs parallel to the slope of the hill,” said Mr Scoular. He said that the City Council’s building standards were those of the New Zealand standard code of building specifications. These had been in force for many years, and had proved adequate.

The storm had been an exceptional one, he said, and Cannon Hill had been exposed to its full force. He could only recall one or two other instances in the past where roofing had been lost, in all probability through freak gusts.

“We may not be able to control the design of buildings, but we can take steps, if they are necessary, to see that structural standards are suited to a particular kind of roof, or its locality,” he said. “We should be able to arrive at something which could make roofs safe at very little added cost.” “This gale was beyond reasonable design standards," said an architect, who asked to be anonymous.