Business South June 2021

80 | BUILDING Canterbury - Fraemohs Homes Earthquake resilience with Fraemohs T Kim Newth For those planning a new home, choosing earthquake resistant design can be key part of that preparedness. N ew Zealand’s recent experience of the damaging Christchurch and Kaikōu- ra earthquakes has fuelled ongoing growth in demand for earthquake resistant house designs. A natural choice for those seeking peace of mind is a Fraemohs Solid Timber Home, a high performer in the field of seismically strong design. Fraemohs’ Business Development Manager Amanda Van der Kley says the secret lies in the Fraemohs’ design formula that combines solid timber walls with an interlocking timber system. “Each wall plank is made up of three lami- nated timber boards, which is much stronger than a single piece of timber of comparable thickness. In turn, each plank interlocks with the next to create strong joints between planks and at the corners. “On top of that, there’s no separate framing, cladding or lining so the home can flex as one during an earthquake.” “All in all, it’s a much stronger design than a conventional timber and steel stud home, built using wall studs and dwangs and braced with metal angle bracing and plaster board. Walls such as this can twist and break in an earthquake, causing a lot of damage.” Amanda says this can’t happen in a Fraemo- hs Solid Timber Home; experience of natural disasters over the past decade bears this out. “Earthquake resistant homes, from our Solid Timber range in particular, performed excep- tionally well during the Christchurch earth- quakes of 2011 and the Kaikōura earthquakes of 2016.” “For example, one of our Solid Timber homes was completely undamaged following the 7.8 earthquake in Waiau near Kaikōura, despite the home being only 100 metres from the fault line!” New Zealand’s location on the boundary of two of the world’s major tectonic plates means strong earthquakes are always going to happen – and it pays to be prepared. For those planning a new home, choosing earth- quake resistant design can be key part of that preparedness. Fraemohs’ Homes has received a lot of pos- itive feedback from owners of their Solid Tim- ber Homes, saying how safe they felt in their homes during the earthquakes of 2011 and 2016. The overwhelming tone of this feedback is one of relief from owners reporting how their homes came through undamaged and with no risk to themselves or their families inside. One home owner said: ‘I was in Hanmer in a wooden Fraemohs chalet when the first 7.5 hit … the chalet was great – strong as a boat in a storm as we rocked and rolled. It was built on a good thick concrete pad and the interlocking beams performed perfectly.’ A Spencerville resident said, ‘I live in a Fraemohs home and after three major earth- quakes we have had no damage.’ An engineering report on the performance of homes during the 2011 Christchurch earth- quakes found that Fraemohs homes sustained minimal damage. This was the case even with a Fraemohs home in Avondale, Christchurch that suffered severe liquefaction resulting in several tonnes of silt needing to be removed from inside the house. Only minimal separation of some of the log/timber courses was found. It was noted that for Fraemohs homes built using 63mm thick walls (2 and 3 laminates) there were some cases where small portions of the timber sections had sheared off near the bottoms of walls. No damage was ob- served in Fraemohs homes made using 93mm thick, 3 ply laminates. “As this report shows, despite being subject- ed to serious movement of the ground and supporting foundations, Fraemohs Homes suffered only minimal damage. “This was observed only in those homes with 63mm thick walls. “As a result, we now use 100mm thick 3 ply external walls and 60mm thick internal walls as standard, so our current homes are even more earthquake resistant.” CONCRETE POLISHING S E RV I C E S Shop at home with our mobile showroom service or visit our showroom at Unit 2/99 Sawyers Arms Road Phone 03 3654 666 or www.venluree.co.nz for free measure and quote Proud to support Fraemohs Homes Venluree , your local specialist for Curtains, Blind & Shutters www.stewartcontracting.co.nz 03 313 9375 or 027 369 3974 contact@stewartcontracting.co.nz Stewart Contracting Canterbury Proudly working with Fraemohs Homes on another succesful project