Test piling at Crescent Court. We hit solid ground at 16.5 metres but the engineer wanted to go deeper. The piling company tried, they tried so hard that the they sheered off the steel on the test pile!

“Mr Engineer, the ground is so hard our equipment is breaking, can we stop now please?”

This is what we are facing these days. Extreme over-engineering of our building foundations.

We built across the road 4 years ago and used 4 meter long wooden piles. Today we have to use 16.5 meter long steel screw piles. The cost has increased from approx $15,000 to over $75,000.

Just another example of how housing costs are increasing rapidly, and none of the extra costs add any benefit to the home owner/occupier. In this case it’s money thrown into a hole in the ground in the name of ‘potential liquefaction’…

If we have an earthquake and if we have liquefaction as a result, both big ifs, then the floor on this building will be solid and in tact, supposedly. Not sure how that helps though when the roof caves in, the water line breaks, the sewer system breaks, there is no power and you can’t drive on the road. Yet you will have a nice floor!!

We keep pushing housing costs up and up and up, beyond the reach of regular Kiwi’s. Why? When is it going to stop? Can’t we just build good houses? Do we have to build Gold Standard houses that no-one can afford?

John Kenel
Frustrated Builder/Developer
Assured Property