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#981021 5-Feb-2014 22:00

Fred99: That's a good idea. While nobody was killed in the Chch quakes due to chimney collapse, there were many serious injuries. If the quake didn't happen in the middle of a work day, then things would have probably been very different/worse.

Indeed. I seem to be the only person in our shortish street who has knocked their chimney down to date. Here's a few pics of my work:

Roof open and some bricks removed:

Looking up into the attic to the top of the chimney:

New beams and battens installed, and one of nine tiles in place:

Six of nine tiles in place:

I made a mistake and discovered that I needed three more tiles, which luckily I managed to buy on Monday. These type of concrete tiles are no longer made.

richms

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#981456 6-Feb-2014 19:10

One thing I found was I was at mitre 10 to get the paint so I could get resene, as apparantly their waterbased stuff is better than the dulux that bunnings sells.

Anyway, I needed some more builders bog so got some "crc" brand stuff which is all they sold instead of the normal brand I get from bunnings (Turbo) - anyway, the CRC stuff is crap. Very fast to cure to unworkable, and then it stays sticky and flexible for at least 2 days, so it tears out in chunks when sanded with 60 grit to get it down to the same height as everything else.

Gave up, got some of the proper stuff at bunnings and it is so different to work with, actually nice and hard after it cures.

And the CRC one was stinking for days after it went on.

Lesson learned. Dont change brand from what you know to save a trip to a different store.

Richard rich.ms

blackjack17

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#981474 6-Feb-2014 19:28

The first builders of our 1950's house concreted the basement without a membrane, or any other type of waterproofing, this has meant anything stored down there starts to grow mould very quickly..

We have ripped up the concrete and as it is below the water table I have put in a sump pump and some drainage. Just waiting on my brother (builder) to lay the membrane so that we can relay the concrete.

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DarthKermit

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#981529 6-Feb-2014 21:14

^^^ Damn, that's a lot of rubble to get rid of. I'm lucky that I got a neighbour two doors down who'll take mine from the chimney. He knows someone who's filling in a gully and wants plenty of fill.

Whatifthespacekeyhadneverbeeninvented?

Bung

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#981562 6-Feb-2014 22:47

blackjack17: The first builders of our 1950's house concreted the basement without a membrane, or any other type of waterproofing,

First builders or was it a later basement conversion? How thick was the concrete?

Then the saying was that best way to waterproof concrete was to put cement into it.

blackjack17

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#981583 7-Feb-2014 05:38

Bung:
blackjack17: The first builders of our 1950's house concreted the basement without a membrane, or any other type of waterproofing,

First builders or was it a later basement conversion? How thick was the concrete?

Then the saying was that best way to waterproof concrete was to put cement into it.

The orginal owner was the builder and over the space of ten years (according to our neighbor) dug out and concreted downstairs with concrete made from sand and rocks from the local beach. It ranged in thickness from 20mm to 200mm.

We are also removing two of the support posts and throwing in a steel beam.

In total there is about 65m2 down there, which I will turn into a rumpus room, garage, study, workshop. Taking our house from 110m2 to 175m2

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Bung

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#981595 7-Feb-2014 07:16

Yes it didn't look like the original build would have been like that. I'm not a builder but I would be concerned that with a perimeter foundation that looks like it's brick that tall piles like that, not being braced, might tend to fold over in a shake.

I have an ex State house with a downstairs that started as just a laundry. The original concrete has no membrane but doesn't let any dampness through. The more recent 70s work had plastic but there was some earlier extension that was like yours thick and thin. I could throw spoil out a window but with no room for a barrowthe new concrete had to be bucketed through.

blackjack17

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#981600 7-Feb-2014 07:27

We are in auckland so the foundations aren't as much of an issue as say Christchurch, and we have had an engineer out looking at removing the supports, and he said while the foundations are not to code today, are fine.

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DarthKermit

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#981605 7-Feb-2014 07:46

blackjack17: We are also removing two of the support posts and throwing in a steel beam.

In total there is about 65m2 down there, which I will turn into a rumpus room, garage, study, workshop. Taking our house from 110m2 to 175m2

Are you excavating any deeper than the old concrete floor? Or is there sufficient head room already?

Whatifthespacekeyhadneverbeeninvented?

blackjack17

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#981617 7-Feb-2014 08:16

Going down 100 which will give us a ceiling height of 2.1m. Going deeper would meaning going below the water table and we will end up with just too much thick sticky clay.

It isnt going to be a living area so we don't technically need a consent

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Bung

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#981630 7-Feb-2014 08:58

Consent or not any work has to meet the building code.

We found that our floor height was dictated by the depth of the foundation footings. Going deeper there would be a real mission.

Fred99

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#981644 7-Feb-2014 09:16

blackjack17: We are in auckland so the foundations aren't as much of an issue as say Christchurch, and we have had an engineer out looking at removing the supports, and he said while the foundations are not to code today, are fine.

They are similar to the piles/posts under our (1962) house in Chch. These survived okay (and we got really badly rattled in our area) - though there was enough movement to loosen the footings of about 8 piles which we have replaced. If they had been to the latest code, they would probably have still needed to be replaced, as the footing depth and size was more or less the same as required these days anyway.
We improved connection between the top of the posts and bearers with straps, and braced joins in the bearers anyway - not to meet any "code", but because it was an easy/inexpensive improvement to do.

Bung

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#981665 7-Feb-2014 09:40

Did you have or add any diagonal bracing between piles?

BinaryLimited

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#981667 7-Feb-2014 09:43

blackjack17: The first builders of our 1950's house concreted the basement without a membrane, or any other type of waterproofing, this has meant anything stored down there starts to grow mould very quickly..

We have ripped up the concrete and as it is below the water table I have put in a sump pump and some drainage. Just waiting on my brother (builder) to lay the membrane so that we can relay the concrete.

....build an underground bunker ( bomb shelter, cinema, man cave? ) ...? :)

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