1. Site preparations

In some instances where the ground is not too stable, piles have to be hammered into the soft ground to form a base on which the concrete foundation of the house can be laid. In Hamilton, the hilly soil is very firm and it is not common to see piling done, especially for single storey houses. However in areas near the gullies which have been filled in recently, piling will be done after doing a soil test by drilling a test hole or doing a piling test to determine the integrity of the ground.

2. Footing and foundation

If the section is located on firm ground, concrete is laid for use as a simple footing for the house. Otherwise piles are driven into softer ground to form a firm base for laying reinforced concrete as a foundation.

3. Framework

The frame work of this house is almost entirely fabricated using 2x4's. No concrete pillars or larger main beams  are utilized here. The pink colour indicates the grade of the timber used which can be H1  to H6. Nails are not often used here because during a severe earthquake all the nails will pop out, causing catastrophic failure and collapse of the house. Staples and galvanized connector plates are used instead of nails, giving the butt joints flexibility and ability to withstand mild earthquakes. For the same reason, double storey houses are not so popular here.

No nails

4. Roofs

At first glance, this house appears to have walls made of paper. In fact the paper is used, during construction, for keeping the insulation material, Pink Batts in place between the jib board inner walls and the outer decorative brick walls.

The more popular roofing material used in NZ is colour bond steel (90%) formatted to look like ceramic tiles. Leaks are minimised by using less number of  joints by fabricating whole sheets using a simple cold form machine on site. Ceramic tiles, due to its greater weight and more chance of leaks, are less popular in NZ (about 10 %).

On building sites it is usual to see only one or two men working on a house at any one time. On the same building project in Malaysia, we will see at least 5 to 10 people, because of the cheaper cost of labour there.