Substandard concrete in private buildings
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Question No.5
Reply by Hom Graham Barnes, CBE, JP, Secretary for bands & works, to question by Hon. Edward ś.T. Eo, JP, at Legislative Council on 27 April 1983
5. MR. EDWARD HO asked:
Questiani
In view of the discovery of widespread substandard concrete in public housing blocks built in the 1960s, will Government inform this Council whether similar problems existed in buildings of that period in the private sector, and if so, what is being done to ensure that proper checking and necessary repairs are carried out?
SECRETARY FOR LANDS AND WORKS: € sir,
The conditions that led to the substandard
concrete in public housing blocks applied to the whole
building industry at that time. This, combined with the
of lack of proper maintenance e many private blocks has very
likely resulted in a considerable stock of private sector
buildings where the concrete has also deteriorated and is
substandard. In downtown buildings of the sixtlès period
usually concrete deterioration occurs first in kitchen
areas, then in external staircases and in the building
facade. Deterioration of the concrete structure occurs at
a much later stage.
2605
tends to
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To indicate the extent of the problem would
require a systematic survey of the whole post-war building
stock of some 60,000 buildings, but last year 746 orders
were issued by the Buildings Ordinance Office requiring
per cent structural defects to be repaired. About 85 of these
were for post-war buildings., Six post-war high rise
150;
concrete buildings from the 50's were in such poor state,
that demolition was necessary.