It's likely you've seen recent news reports over the years (example - Newshub) which have investigated botched residential earthquake repairs in the Canterbury Region.
"Government admits potential billion-dollar blowout as EQC publicly apologises for botched claims” - Newshub 2018.
While the focus on residential earthquake repairs is vital to our region, there has been no notable attention paid to the fact that there are thousands of commercial properties in Canterbury that have been repaired incorrectly. The extent of to just how bad these repairs are - is currently unknown.
As commercial properties endure Canterbury winters, further seismic activity and ground settlement, botched earthquake repairs become a far greater issue for property owners. Commercial properties that have had cracking, which has then been repaired with incorrect concrete injection, will allow for water ingress and therefore cause the degrading of the steel within. This can cause further cracking, spalls and weakening of the concrete structure.
Ask yourself - would you be happy for you or someone you know to work in a commercial building with unsafe concrete elements below, beside or above them?
With Kaikoura, Marlborough and Wellington experiencing severe seismic activity and damaging to concrete structures, there is now an opportunity for industry to learn from the mistakes of the Canterbury re-build repairs and set the standard for concrete repairs in New Zealand.
We believe it is important to take you through the importance of setting specifications and quality assurance for injection, repair and protection of concrete. It is our hope that we can inform, educate and work with industry to set a formal standard for Concrete Repair in New Zealand.
Read our full paper on the importance of specification and quality assurance for injection, repair and protection of concrete - presented at the Annual NZ Concrete Conference by Steve Gerrard, October 2013.
Have you or someone you know experienced botched residential and/or commercial earthquake repairs and would like further advice?
Please contact quotes@connectgroup.co.nz