QuakeStar is an incorporated society formed to establish and operate an earthquake rating scheme for New Zealand buildings, including houses.
New: Get a QuakeStar rating for your house! (trial version for NZ houses)
HouseCheck is an interactive online tool that lets you see how your home may perform in a major earthquake.
Update: Resilient Buildings for NZ – Who Cares? A Call for Action
The aim of QuakeStar is to improve the management of earthquake risk in the property industry by providing owners, tenants, users and the public a basic means to distinguish between buildings on the basis of assessed earthquake performance in terms of safety, damage and repair time.
QuakeStar Rating | Risk of Harm* | Damage | Repair Time |
|---|---|---|---|
★★★★★ | Extremely low | Minimal | Days |
★★★★ | Very low | Moderate | Weeks |
★★★ | Low | Significant | Months |
★★ | Moderate | Substantial | > 6 months |
★ | High | Severe | > 1 year |
Modelled on the United States Resiliency Council Ratings system with a 500-year shaking intensity. *Safety (Risk of personal harm).
- QuakeStar improves the consistency and accessibility of building reporting
- Buildings with higher design standards, score higher star-ratings
- QuakeStar records vital earthquake characteristics
- QuakeStar is indicative (and not predictive)
- QuakeStar provides a basis for the comparison of NZ buildings
- QuakeStar synchronises with %NBS (but with advantages)