Ron Hardie centre floor cracks
27 March 2015
CRACKS have opened between the wooden floor boards of Kawerau’s Ron Hardie Recreation Centre after extraction fans dried the floor.
Kawerau District Council learned about the centre’s flooring woes at a regulatory and services committee meeting on Tuesday.
Operations and services manager Tom McDowall said that after functioning for a month, two extraction fans under the building had made the floor significantly drier.
Previously, geothermal gas under the building dampened the boards, which caused them to bow and become uneven.
However, the drying caused cracks between the boards, which made the floor unworkable for some users.
Mr McDowall said a rectification options report would be presented to an April council meeting.
Since the fans were started, geothermal gas had become almost unnoticeable in the building, except for near a small grilled door in one corner of the building, he said.
A gas detection system would be installed in March.
Source: Whakatane Beacon