Less than a year after it was laid, most of the concrete floor in the Otago Settlers Museum NZR building is being ripped up again.
Earthenware sewerage pipes about 1.5m below floor level had been inspected before the new concrete was laid but cracked in either the September or February earthquakes and needed to be repaired, museum project manager, Bronwyn Simes, said yesterday.
The pipes, believed to date from 1939 when the building was constructed, were so close to ground level there had been slow flow issues for some years, she said. Cameras had been inserted into the pipes regularly to check the flow.
After staff smelt a nasty odour in April, cameras were put through the pipes again.
"When we saw cracks, we knew they had not been there the year before . . . and realised it must have been earthquake damage."
Dunedin City Council property manager Robert Clark said yesterday the council, which owns the building, would meet the $15,000 cost. An insurance claim had been lodged.
Acting museum director, Jennifer Evans, said yesterday the repair work would be carried out next week.
If the repairs had to happen, now was a good time, she said.
The museum is closed for redevelopment and the NZR building is empty.
"It is good to catch it now. If it had happened next year, we would have had to move all the artefacts and displays out of there."
Cracks which appeared on one corner of the Burnside Building - the original part of the museum dating from the early 1900s - were also thought to have been caused by one of the earthquakes, Ms Simes said. A structural engineer was assessing the damage and formulating a repair plan which would be carried out as part of stage three of the museum's redevelopment.
