BUILDING PROGRESS

Evening Star, Issue 21508, 5 September 1933, Page 2

BUILDING PROGRESS

CHANGE IN METHODS AND MATERIALS IN N.Z. The old Parnell School, now being demolished, offers a good ot tiie change that has taken place in New Zealand building methods and materials in the course of half a century (says the Auckland ‘Herald’). The housebreakers’ dissection shows that nothing but heart of kauri was used in the building, and that most of the timber was of a quality now reserved for furniture and fine joinery. To duplicate such a structure to-day would only be possible at a prohibitive cost, if rt all. But for faults in planning and structural design and a very unsuitable site the school might have had a useful life for many more years. Any signs of decay that were noticed were due to the neg!" '. of repairs for a Jong time after its days were numbered. Not a sign of borer could be found in the building, and even the sarking under the roof slates was perfectly sound. The boards of this wr i fastened with 4in nails, whereas to-day in nails are used, and 2in are really strong , enough for the purpose. The framework of the building was not merely nailed together, as in modern practice, but was mortised throughout. While the building proper was unusually stout its foundations were decidedly weak from the present-day point of view, particularly considering that it was built on a steep slope, with two classrooms on a lower floor. The courses of brickwork under the outer walls showed many signs of failure, and some of the internal jack studs were found to be resting merely on pieces of scantling laid on insecure-looking ledges in the clay bank. This apparently was a common fault in old Auckland buildings. It is on record that a brick structure of three stories and a cellar, on reclaimed ground in Lower Queen street, proved when demolished some years ago to have its outer walls resting on nothing more than kauri baulks laid on the original mud below the reclamation level. No attempt had been made to provide a pile foundation.

The housebreakers had an awkward task in bringing down the bell turret of the school. It was cohered wi' no less than a ton and a-quarter of sheet lead, and was supported on a single roof principle—so insecurely, in fact, that

workmen noticed it swaying in a moderate breeze. The timbers at the base were carefully cut away', and the turret was hauled over with a -rope attached to the base of a telegraph pole in the road outside. It fell clear of the building, and when the lead was removed the framework was seen to be practically undamaged by the shock. The bolts securing the roof timbers were quite free from rust, and the nuts could almost be unscrewed with the fingers. The slates, also, were mostly in excellent order, and found an immediate sale in one lot for future use in repairing other slate roofs. Part of the floors had been wom into valleys by generations of small feet. So much dust had accumulated above the ceilings, under-the slates, and in the wall cavities as to , leave little doubt that the abandonment of the school, was in the children’s interest on the score of health.

Candles that do not fit the holders need not be shaved -with a knife. Dip the bases into boiling water, and they will be found to fit any candlestick.