Lockwood stands strong amid quakes

On the eve of the anniversary of the fatal February 22 earthquake, a Christchurch couple told Rotorua business owners why they would never build anything but a Lockwood home in New Zealand.

Lockwood hosted last night's BA5 networking event, with guest speaker Mark Christison.

"Our home has survived more than 10,000 earthquakes and aftershocks in the last couple of years with only cosmetic damage."

The two big quakes in September 2010 and February 2011 each involved more energy than the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb explosions combined and he said the structure of the house survived with little more than a broken sewer pipe and damage to a gib wall.

Mr Christison and his wife, Maxie, live in a Lockwood home in a subdivision of about 30 houses on the northern side of the Port Hills, only a kilometre from the epicentre of the fatal February 22 quake.

"We had a meeting of neighbours in June and only two houses were not really damaged - ours and a light, timber-framed house."

Brick cladding peeled off adjacent properties and tile roofs were lifted by the big quakes and had not returned to their proper place.

The Christisons are in the process of selling this home to build a new place on a lifestyle block and he said an independent structural engineer had described the house as excellent and in a very good condition.

Mr Christison is the engineer in charge of Christchurch City Council's water and waste water reticulation, so he has witnessed first-hand the damage caused to other buildings.

"Our family has always felt very safe in the house - even the kids. We would not build anything else but a Lockwood in New Zealand."

Lockwood general manager Bryce Heard said none of the Lockwood homes inspected post-quakes had anything more than minor damage and the local franchisee was being inundated with inquiries now insurance claims were starting to come through and Christchurch residents were starting to rebuild.