Why are NZ houses made of wood?

Large earthquakes in Wellington in 1848 and 1855 saw many non-wooden houses collapse. Most wooden houses survived, as wood flexes with movement. Earthquake risk and ample supplies of timber meant wood became the dominant house building material. Brick survived as a material for chimneys and cladding.

What are houses in New Zealand made of?

timber
New Zealand is urbanising. Most of the houses are made of timber. Brick is sometimes used as cladding over a timber frame, but is seldom the main building material. A lot of houses have corrugated iron roofs, which is a legacy from pioneering building techniques in the 19th century.

How did Maori make houses?

Māori used what they found in forests and swamps to make houses and other structures. They used timber for posts, ridge poles and outer walls, and rushes, bark or toetoe for thatching, which was attached to battens, often made from mānuka. Slabs of tree ferns were used for walls, and reeds for interior walls.

What type of housing is in New Zealand?

Your options include suburban homes, rural living and lifestyle blocks, apartments, flats and townhouses. New Zealand homes are generally built to make the most of the light and the outdoors.

Why is New Zealand housing so expensive?

Capital is attracted to a non-productive (in respect to current housing stock) sector. High levels of household indebtedness constrain spending and/or other investment.

Do houses in New Zealand have basements?

Researchers at Newcastle University found there were 785 large basements – going at least two storeys under the house, or one storey far under the garden. In New Zealand, basement living – both the super-rich and regular versions – is rare, with Kiwis preferring to build out and up to down.

What are advantages of using wood?

The Benefits of Using Wood

• Renewable, Recyclable, Natural. Timber is one of the few natural, renewable building materials.
• Carbon Positive.
• Low Energy Production.
• Health and Wellbeing.
• Fire Performance.
• Natural Insulation.

What are Māori houses made of?

Traditional housing Traditionally, Māori lived in family-based kāinga (villages) or pā. They slept in rectangular wharepuni (sleeping houses), which were made of timber, rushes, tree ferns and bark, with a thatched roof and earth floors.

Why are houses in New Zealand mostly made of wood?

New Zealand houses are mostly made of wood mainly because of earthquakes. This is from the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. After the 1848 Marlborough earthquake, many Wellington buildings had been rebuilt in wood. Some new commercial premises, however, were constructed of brick because of fire risk.

Is it possible to build a brick house in NZ?

Most houses are not built entirely of bricks but are timber framed houses with brick veneer or the like. However if designed and constructed properly the brick walls will have ties to form a safe structure. Is it possible under the building code in NZ to build a brick and block cavity house or would this not be feasible for earthquake resistance?

Why are so many brick houses in Canterbury being demolished?

The factor for Canterbury will now have to be changed. the majority of brick houses, chimneys and walls that went down were older than 1970, after that there was an earthquake bit added to the building code. the old brick houses had a very weak mortar (cement) mix so under the shaking the bricks didn’t hold together.

When was the first house built in New Zealand?

New Zealands first architecturally designed houses were built pre-colonisation, during the 1820s and 1830s in the Georgian style. This architectural era, most notable for its symmetry and proportion, originated in Britain between 1714 – 1830 and was based upon the classical architecture of Greek and Roman times.