STRAIN ON BUILDINGS

Taranaki Daily News, 9 July 1929, Page 14

STRAIN ON BUILDINGS

LESSONS FROM EARTHQUAKE.

IMPORTANCE OF WORKMANSHIP.

“It is true that every brick chimney in Westport collapsed during the big earthquakes, and that a great deal of damage to houses was done by the collapsing brickwork,” said a resident of Wellington who knows the town, and is always in close touch with it. ‘‘But, assuming that we were to experience in Wellington the same rocky time that they had in Westport, the damage to wooden buildings would not have been nearly so great. “The majority of the roofs in Westport go unpainted, and are so badly rusted that they would only have the resistance of cardboard when the chimneys toppled over. Then, again, there are not the same building by-laws in force there as there are in Wellington, for instance. Consequently the roofs are not nearly so W’ell constructed as is insisted upon here. Sometimes just the bare framework is there with the sheets of iron nailed on it without sarkin<r or any equivalent support. Had the roofs been soundly constructed you would not have heard of so much damage being done from falling chimneys. °“The same thing applies to wooden buildings shifting on their foundations. If they were properly constructed there would not be much fear of that even in u severe earthquake. An instance is provided in the Murchison post office, a soundly-constructed wooden building. The chimney fell, but otherwise the building was unharmed. It is. workmanship tiiat counts every time when an earthquake comes along. “You heard what Mr. Holland said: The people camped out in tents and motor-cars, but that was not because the houses were dangerous, but because of the creaking noises made by the timbers whenever a ’quake came. Those creaking noises were inevitable. It was the audible effect of the timbers taking the strain, and the better a house is built the more strain it will take before an actual break occurs.”