Good to get your reports and photos , as always...
And I like your glass half-full temperment - well, at least that's what
comes across here :-)
stay well,
ann
David Mann wrote:
On Mar 4, 2011, at 9:11 PM, Bob W wrote:
that must be really depressing.
Not at all. The chimney that fell to bits in September is one we were planning
to take out anyway as part of our kitchen redesign. So having that part done
for free is a silver lining. The down side is that we don't have much chance
of getting a builder for a while.
The one that was taken down today is more of a pain because we have a gas
fireplace under it which we can no longer use, and that's our primary source of
winter heating. We'll have to drag out the electric heaters.
On the bright side, I've always wished I could put the TV on that wall so in
the long term we may be able to do that. Or it may work out possible to run a
short flue instead of a full chimney, I don't know. To clarify, the gas
fireplace was built into the old open fireplace's cavity and the flue was run
up through the chimney. We'll need to discuss it with the relevant authorities
to work out the best way forward.
I hope you get the place sorted out quickly,
It won't be quick, there are 50,000 others in the queue. We only had the
builders around so quickly because the EQC assessor saw the chimney as
potentially dangerous. I thought it looked ok but I wanted it checked out
anyway after I'd seen what happened next door. It turned out that the assessor
was right and my fears were justified.
The EQC assessor was door-knocking on our street as part of a three-person
team, with a guy from Civil Defence and a lady from the Red Cross. They've had
a few hundred of these teams checking on every household in the city to make
sure people are OK and their houses are safe, and they're able to organise help
straight away for those who need it. It's that kind of response that makes me
proud to live here.
and on insurance.
Oh yes, it's all on insurance. EQC (the Earthquake Commission) is a government
insurance programme which covers the first $100,000 per household for damage
caused by natural disasters to residential buildings, contents and land. Any
extra is paid by private insurance, and they also cover things like driveways
and fences. The system was set up for exactly this kind of event and they have
several billion dollars available. I think we're cleaning it out for this one
but it will be replenished.
Because it's so expensive to rebuild a chimney, we have options for alternative
"clean heat" sources to be installed instead, ie a heat pump or a modern gas
fire or wood burner. We've lost two chimneys now but I'm not sure if that means we'll
get two heat pumps. It probably does as the insurance is generally obliged to replace or
offer an acceptable alternative for each covered item.
The down side is that insurance is going to get a lot more expensive now. I
don't think the industry likes replacing cities after they lost all their money
on mortgage-backed securities a couple of years ago. (I'm making that up but
I'm cynical enough to almost believe it.)
Dave
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