CARRY THAT WEIGHT
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It's a lovely character home. Well, it would be with a little TLC. And you have the ideas and energy to do it.
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But it isn't quite straight. Not the deal: the house. It sags in a couple of corners. The real estate agent is reassuring... and pushy. "This house has been here for a hundred years. It will last another hundred... but not at this price." You're worried. Should it be fixed? Can it be fixed? What will it cost?
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Repiling. It's a bit like reading glasses - virtually every house over a certain age needs them. Most modest early New Zealand homes were built on timber piles: usually totara, or jarrah. They last pretty well, but no matter how resilient timber is, if you stick it in the ground, it will rot.
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A slumping house built on concrete foundations is a different problem, which may need the attentions of a structural, or possibly a soil engineer. I can offer a qualified engineer in consultation with myself, to come up with a convenient way to fix even this occurrence! With conventional repiling, we are talking timber framed and clad homes, on timber piles. Why do they droop? Usually it's rot, but sometimes-surface runoff or water leaking from dilapidated spouting or leaking drains has undermined the ground.
How can you tell? A slope on the floor, for starters. It usually runs down to a bay window or comer, and away from the fireplace. If a place looks straight, but is on timber piles, then possibly they're stuffed, but nothing's dropped yet. Bouncy floors are a give-away.
Also, crawl under the house, stout screwdriver in hand. Plunge it into the heart of a pile just below the soil. If they're sound, you'll jar your arm all the way to the other shoulder. Chances are, you won't. The combination of air and moisture just beneath the surface will probably have turned them to compost. They may be carrying no weight at all.
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Do you need a Building consent? Not if you use a licensed building practitioner such as myself, otherwise to safe guard against cowboys, YES!! There are strict standards. Holes have to be dug down to solid ground. Anchor piles {piles dug to a depth of 900mm}, and addtional piles all need, stainless steel connections. Timber piles have to be tanalised to H5. {Guaranteed rot free, for 50 years}. Over a certain height, they have to be properly braced and fixed to the sub-floor frame work.
What are the pile options? Tanalised piles on a concrete footing, or a concrete ring foundation with tanalised internal piles. All the afore mentioned work needs to be done in accordance with NZSS3604 2011. {Building standards for New Zealand}
QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN COMPARING APPLES!
1. Ask for references.
2. Are they licensed? {ask for proof-ID card}
3. Do they replace all old piles with new, and not put new piles next to old.
4. Do they relevel as well as repile?
5. Do they guarentee their workmanship for 10 years?
6. Keep all correspondence in writing. Hand written cash quotes are unacceptable
as there is no paper trail if things go wrong!
7. Is all rubbish and soil removed from site at completion and included in quote.
8. Final payment made only on completion with either PS4 {engineers producer
statement} or CCC {code compliance certificate} sighted.
9. Do they belong to an association? I am a New Zealand Certified Builder.
I hope the above questions will stop you being led down the garden path.
Remember, you pay for what you receive, cheap price, cheap job. Do it once,
it well.
For more information click here...
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