Earthquake cleanup: Tradesmen in hot demand

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Mon, 06 Sep 2010 6:09p.m.

Everywhere you look there are missing bricks and walls completely gone

Everywhere you look there are missing bricks and walls completely gone

By Hamish Clark

While the CBD was locked down, clean up was fully underway outside the cordons.

Cranes, tradesmen and heavy equipment have arrived from all over the country and are in hot demand.

For builders, glaziers and electricians the recession is almost certainly over, with a huge backlog of work that needs to be done in the clean up.

Outside the CBD, diggers moved in, removing any unstable and unsafe buildings.

Business owners could only watch as the bricks came down.

Richard Bairds is lucky his building is intact, but has suffered $200,000 worth of damage - $60,000 in glass windows alone.

Tradesmen are going from job to job – the work force has tripled to cope with demand.

Everywhere you look there are missing bricks and walls completely torn down.

Hundreds of house chimneys that collapsed in the quake are being pulled down, draining the city of mobile cranes.

More are en route from Invercargill and Nelson.

“The phones are running crazy, you go and do one job and the neighbours are asking if we can do theirs,” says crane driver Mark Scott.

The repair work is endless.

The quake has brought heartache and drama with houses and buildings completely destroyed. But it has also brought a silver lining for businesses.

One business owner Gen Kuajarnn had no insurance, and now faces having to start all over after the quake reduced his Thai takeaway to a pile of rubble.

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Comments

11 Sep 2010 07:29p.m.

Deano wrote:

There will be no way to control who does the repairs and new builds.People will be desperate to be resolved,and to get their children settled and back to school etc.The only chance for building control is for the insurer to ask for three quotes,and then audit them all,but they won`t handle the pressure,and won`t have the time.How do we trust the integrity of the inspectors?what happens when funds are limited,and people are told their home is ''ok''but infact is stuffed,and not level.Will they ever sell it?Whats worse, is having a mortgage on the useless building.
The building quality will be crap,as inspectors won`t cope,and tradesmen will rush their work with greed,as they try to do more than they can handle in order to rake in the dough.The goverment needs to tax any money generated from the earthquake repairs at 40% ,That will keep things in perspective.

07 Sep 2010 11:38a.m.

Jo wrote:

Tradesman have come from all over the country to repair damage the in Christchurch. Is this just the commercial inner city the contractors are helping. What about the average resident with small repairs to do to for example, keep a roof water tight after a chimney falling down. Where do you get a builder who has time??

07 Sep 2010 06:26a.m.

Charles Ruggles wrote:

Just got done reading an email from a friend that lives in Christchurch. The just got their electricity one this morning and still have not sewers or water. They've been told it will take some time but has priority on the services. He says his wife and he can't sleep well as the aftershocks keep them awake and they wonder if it's a precursor to the BIG one.