RPCConstruction
03 384 6073Contact

Earthquake Strengthening

We strengthen existing buildings across Canterbury

We have experience carrying out earthquake repairs and structural strengthening across commercial, community and church buildings. Projects you can view to see this are: DMC House on Colombo Street, St Albans Baptist Church, Rangiora RSA and Hamptons ITM on Ferry Road. Several of these projects were completed while the buildings remained in use, with the work carefully staged around the people and businesses using them.

Two workers in RPC Construction hi-vis, hairnets and dust masks forming a long in-situ concrete channel, timber formwork and angled props running its length, a reinforcing cage in the open trench, and the work area sealed off behind plywood and clear sheeting

Where you are in the process

If you're dealing with an earthquake-prone building, you may already have a council notice, a detailed seismic assessment or an engineer's strengthening design. Here's where RPC fits into the process.

A section 124 notice
Section 124 of the Building Act 2004 is the statutory basis for an earthquake-prone building notice. If you hold one, the building has been rated and the council has put a requirement and a date on it.
A detailed seismic assessment
A DSA is the engineering report that rates your building as a percentage of the New Building Standard. It is an engineer's deliverable, not a builder's, and it is what a price is eventually built from.
A %NBS rating you now need to act on
Below 34%NBS, a building is considered earthquake-prone and the rating appears on its LIM. Even above 34%NBS, the rating can still matter to insurers, lenders and tenants. Some owners therefore choose to strengthen beyond the minimum requirement.
A design, and no builder
This is where RPC starts. An engineer has produced a scheme, and it now has to be built, in a real building, usually with people still in it.
A galvanised steel beam bolted through a plate into a brick wall, with the brickwork cut away around the connection and older red brick exposed behind it

RPC is a construction contractor, not a structural engineering practice. We don't assess buildings or design strengthening schemes. We build the work designed by your engineer. If you don't yet have a strengthening design, we can also help organise experienced consultants to work with you on one.

A galvanised steel beam being fed through an opening cut high in a whitewashed brick wall, lifting chains and hooks hanging in the daylight beyond it, with a folding ladder standing against the wall below

What we can do to help

The points that guide what RPC does on an earthquake strengthening project.

  1. Meet you onsite and talk through what you need from the project – no charge
  2. Organise experienced consultants if you need help with the design
  3. Work with you to find a solution that is within your budget
  4. Plan the work so you, your tenants or your customers can remain in the building where this is safe and practical
  5. Coordinate the work through to completion and arrange the required sign-off and council approval
Two people looking at an open architectural floor plan held between them on a building site, one in an RPC Construction hi-vis jacket and work gloves, scaffolding and building wrap behind them
Request a no-charge site visit

Staying in your building

For a commercial owner, keeping the building operating during the work can be a major part of the decision.

We can work with you on the way the project is staged, including keeping you, your tenants or your business operating in the building where it is safe and practical to do so.

RPC-M29Video60 to 90 seconds on a live strengthening job in an occupied building: the staging, the boundary, the building still working. Ambient sound, on-screen captions, no voiceover script, no music-led drone reel. Captions cleared against published facts before the edit. Supply a poster frame.16/9 · min 1920px wide
Hamptons ITM, Ferry Road
Earthquake repairs and redevelopment across 3,380 square metres, staged in two so the business could continue trading throughout. Access, zones and pathways were progressively set up for staff, subcontractors and customers.
Rangiora RSA
Extensive strengthening to the existing structure alongside a full refit and extension. The work was split into two stages so the club could keep trading in one area while work continued in the other.
St Albans Baptist Church
Ground remediation and rebuild while the church continued to hold services and to hire out the meeting rooms adjoining the auditorium, so the income did not stop either.
DMC House, Colombo Street
Handed back to its owners for rental while neighbouring properties were still in the early stages of repair, which cut the landlord's rental downtime and let tenants back in sooner than expected.
A timber-framed plywood and polythene dust screen dividing a work area from the rest of an operating food-processing plant, the plant's lit floor and racking visible through the screen

Earthquake strengthening projects

These projects show the range of earthquake repair and strengthening work RPC has carried out, including projects in commercial, community and church buildings.

Questions building owners ask

Straight answers, including the ones that send you somewhere other than to us.

A new galvanised steel bell frame bolted into the brick wall of a church tower, bearing blocks and fixings visible.An installed galvanised steel bell frame in a brick belfry, bells hung on their headstocks with bolted fixings and green bearing blocks, a wheel alongside and hand tools laid along a girder
Do you carry out the seismic assessment?
No. RPC is a construction contractor, not a structural engineering practice. We do not perform detailed seismic assessments and we do not design the strengthening scheme. We build what the engineer has specified, and we can organise experienced consultants if you need help getting to a design.
What does 34%NBS actually mean for us?
A building assessed at less than 34% of the New Building Standard is earthquake-prone under the Building Act, and that status appears on the building’s LIM. Clearing the threshold is the legal minimum, not the only option: where to set the target is a decision for you and your engineer, weighed against insurance, tenants and what you intend to do with the building. St Albans Baptist Church was handed over at 100% of the New Building Code.
Can we stay in the building while the work is done?
Sometimes, and it is worth asking early because the answer shapes the whole programme. Hamptons ITM on Ferry Road was broken into two stages so the business traded throughout. Rangiora RSA was broken into two stages so the club kept trading in one area while the team worked in the other. St Albans Baptist Church kept holding services and kept hiring out its meeting rooms during the rebuild. Whether it can be done on your building depends on the structure and the scheme, and nobody can tell you over the phone.
Has our deadline changed?
Possibly. The Building (Earthquake-prone Building Deadlines and Other Matters) Amendment Act came into force on 26 November 2024 and extended remediation deadlines that had not already lapsed by four years. That is a real change and it means the urgency framing you may have been given two years ago might no longer hold. Your notice carries your own date against your own building; check it against the council record rather than against anything written on a builder’s website, including this one.
“We at St Albans Baptist Church have used RPC Construction twice in the last 10 years, firstly on a very large new build addition to our church facility and then 3 years later on a complete reconstruction of our 500 seat auditorium following earthquakes, and I cannot recommend them highly enough. We did not know RPC before hand, but went on someone else's recommendation and we are 100% glad that we did so.”
John Alpe, Senior Pastor, St Albans Baptist Church

Start with the site visit.

We'll meet you onsite, listen to what you need and talk through the building with you. There's no charge for the initial site visit. Bring the DSA if you have one. If you don't, bring the notice.

Book a site visit03 384 6073