\u201cThe walls were just running with water.\u201d<\/p>\n
And when the 81-year-old climbs the scaffolding, put there to examine and repair his roof, a crane rises to the north where Fletcher Living is building The Hill, a $500 million development of about 370 homes on the edge of Ellerslie Racecourse.<\/p>\n
On the scaffolding surrounding his home as his roof is repaired, Ian Calhaem has a view of the The Hill development. Photo \/ Mike Scott<\/p>\n
Calhaem blames the construction, including vibration from earthworks, for damaging his tiled roof and causing leaks.<\/p>\n
It was damage to neighbouring houses, happening at the same time, that made him think the leaks were more than wear and tear.<\/p>\n
The Herald also visited Susan Rees at her home on Derby Downs Place, a house her late husband Brian, an architect, designed.<\/p>\n
After a fortnight of earthworks in August, 2025, she was in the kitchen making sausage rolls when she heard a \u201ccrack, crack, crack, crack\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll my tiles in my laundry, toilet and here [the atrium] have all left the concrete. I have to replace the whole lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fletcher Living offered to repair one affected patch but Rees refused because she claims the damage was more widespread.<\/p>\n
She has since sent the company a legal demand letter putting the damage at almost $30,000.<\/p>\n
Fletcher offered her $7000 to settle but only if she signed a confidentiality agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just said, \u2018Oh, get lost\u2019,\u201d Rees said. <\/p>\n
Deborah Chait believes The Hill development, being built by Fletcher Living, is damaging her home. She has cracks in walls, doors and windows that no longer shut and the house is now damp. Photo \/ Mike Scott <\/p>\n
On Ladies Mile, Deborah Chait\u2019s house has cracks in plaster walls, windows that won\u2019t shut and are held closed with cable ties and a front door that has been modified to fit four times.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want to have people over to our house, it\u2019s like living in a fridge … It\u2019s so damp.\u201d <\/p>\n
Kitchen cabinetry installed in 2019 had pulled away and skewed from the wall as the house shifted, she claimed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was all flush,\u201d she told the Herald, placing a finger into gaps she said didn\u2019t previously exist.<\/p>\n
An example of the cracks in the walls of Deborah Chait’s home. Photo \/ Mike Scott<\/p>\n
Auckland Council says the site has been found compliant with its consent conditions.<\/p>\n
Fletcher Living denies construction at The Hill is responsible for the damage.<\/p>\n
The company says all works are \u201cwell within the limits allowed under our consents\u201d, and it \u201cabsolutely dispute[s] any allegations to the contrary\u201d.<\/p>\n
It has encouraged residents to lodge claims with their own insurers or against the contractor\u2019s insurance.<\/p>\n
Calhaem has taken a different approach – no lawyer and for now no claim.<\/p>\n
When, in August last year, the construction work allegedly rattled his home so hard he couldn\u2019t write with a pen in his upstairs office and his roof started to leak, he decided it was time to get measuring.<\/p>\n
And when he researched how vibrations should be measured under The Hill\u2019s own consent conditions, Calhaem concluded the monitoring had been done in the wrong place \u2013 on the ground, rather than upstairs.<\/p>\n
A seismologist <\/p>\n
Calhaem has led quiet a life. \u201cI\u2019ve done some things.\u201d<\/p>\n
His CV runs for 10 pages and makes for interesting reading. Highlights include two seasons in Antarctica, a printing-technology career that reached the Palace of Westminster and a doctorate in geophysics.<\/p>\n
There have been Royal Society chairmanships, numerous universities, lectures, presentations, publications and even a walk across China and mention of Nasa.<\/p>\n
He still does forensic imaging work for police investigations,<\/a> based out of his home laboratory, which is a mess thanks to the house damage.<\/p>\n The history of Calhaem\u2019s career includes work as a seismologist helping design and install the micro-earthquake network that monitored the filling of the Pukaki hydro dam.<\/p>\n So, he knows earth movement and it was logical for him to analyse the recent shaking like a scientist. <\/p>\n Even before construction began on The Hill, he had three seismographs recording from his house foundations to monitor for earthquakes, sharing the data publicly<\/a>. <\/p>\n He said he matched the recordings against visual confirmation of construction work, and cross-checked them against the measurements taken by Fletcher Living\u2019s own vibration consultants, Marshall Day Acoustics, at Susan Rees\u2019 house about 100m away. Calhaem also assessed weekend and night-time recordings to eliminate traffic as a source of the vibrations.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a scientist, you\u2019ve got to verify everything.\u201d<\/p>\n He read DIN 4150-3 – the German standard that outlines how to measure and assess ground vibration impacts. It is the document used to consent The Hill development and is in the Auckland Unitary Plan.<\/a><\/p>\n The standard required measurements to be taken on the highest floor of a building. So in March, Calhaem bought an additional seismograph and installed it upstairs.<\/p>\n The difference was immediately apparent. He said the new upstairs unit recorded movement around 10 times greater than the seismographs in his foundation.<\/p>\n That sent Calhaem back to August last year, when the shaking had stopped him working at his desk. <\/p>\n The scientist reasoned that if the foundation seismograph readings he recorded then were increased by a factor of 10, the measurements would have reached the level that causes \u201cminor damage\u201d, according to the German standard.<\/p>\n Minor damage is symptoms like \u201ccracks form in plastered surfaces of walls, existing cracks in the building are enlarged and partitions become detached from load-bearing walls or floors\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t forget this is 100 metres away from the rock-breaking, so the houses closer will have experienced much higher shaking,\u201d Calhaem claimed.<\/p>\n The standard also outlines how vibrations differ, depending on their nature. <\/p>\n Short-term, more isolated single jolts, can be absorbed by a building at higher levels. <\/p>\n Long-term – more sustained or repeated shaking – is judged against a lower level of movement because the cumulative effect does more damage. <\/p>\n Calhaem believed constant earthworks at The Hill meant the vibrations fell into the more damaging long-term category and that the result on his home was the broken roof tiles.<\/p>\n He is confident in his methodology. <\/p>\n His biggest question was whether official vibration monitoring occurred on the top floor of homes close to The Hill construction.<\/p>\n \u201cIf measurements are only gathered at ground level, they do not match the requirements of the standard that was used to get consent,\u201d he claimed.<\/p>\n The Herald talked with Dr Andrew Stolte, a senior lecturer in civil and environmental engineering at the University of Auckland, setting out Calhaem\u2019s methodology and the instruments used.<\/p>\n Without a full review of the data, Stolte said Calhaem\u2019s method and instruments appeared sound.<\/p>\n \u201cI would just say that his approach seems reasonable, and he has the personal expertise that lends itself to giving me confidence in what he\u2019s trying to do.\u201d<\/p>\n However, a full review of the raw data would answer whether the vibrations experienced by Calhaem were short-term or long-term under the standard and therefore which amount of vibration was allowed.<\/p>\n Sharing the data and the response<\/p>\nIan Calhaem, stands in his home laboratory which is critical for his forensic imaging work. Photo \/ Mike Scott <\/p>\n
The corner of a broken roof tile retrieved from the roof of Ian Calhaem home. Photo \/ Mike Scott<\/p>\n
Ian Calhaem stands amid the disorder of his home thanks to repair and renovation work he has to undertake. Photo \/ Mike Scott <\/p>\n