Gone in 60 minutes

A handful of contactors armed only with an excavator made quick work of bringing down a distinctive, but dilapidated house.

A few people stopped by to snap a picture, or just watch, as Quality Demolition started working on tearing down the property at 82 Wallace St, in the Wellington suburb of Mt Cook yesterday.

Operations manager Todd Hanning said while the house had been ‘‘top of the list’’ for demolition, because of safety concerns it had been rushed through as an ‘‘emergency job’’.

‘‘We pushed it through fairly quickly but it wasn’t a big job at all. It didn’t take much to get it down.’’

Demolition began at 10.30am with the house reduced to rubble in less than an hour.

‘‘It’s pretty standard to get a house like that down quickly and the guys should have the site cleared by the end of the day,’’ Hanning said.

Just over a week ago, Wellington City Council had deemed the property at risk of collapse, prompting the closure of a popular walkway nearby.

‘‘Right from the word go, when we were notified, we issued a dangerous notice on the property, which meant no-one could spend time in there,’’ building compliance and consents staffer Ricky Kernohan said.

No-one had been inside the 1930s three-bedroom house, after the council deemed it was dangerous and earthquake-prone late last year.

Despite that, the rundown property, which had a current rateable value of $540,000, was sold by tender on March 31 for $480,000.

The remnants of the house are set for landfill as little could have been salvaged because of the poor condition of the house before demolition, Hanning said. - Photos: Monique Ford and Ruby Macandrew/Fairfax NZ