Hazara / Haripur Seismic Zone-3 Safety Manual

Haripur and the Hazara division sit close to the fault system that produced the October 2005 Kashmir/Hazara earthquake. Pakistan's Building Code (BCP-SP 2007) places this region in Seismic Zone 3 (design ground acceleration roughly 0.24–0.32 g — confirm the exact value for your plot with your structural engineer). Buildings here must be designed for sideways shaking, not just the weight of the roof.

Ring ties hold the main bars from buckling and keep the concrete core confined. Many thekedars bend rings with a quick 90° hook because it is faster. In an earthquake the outer concrete cover spalls off first — and a 90° hook, sitting in that cover, simply opens. A 135° hook is anchored in the core and keeps the ring closed.

During a tremor, different parts of the ground move by different amounts. A continuous RCC plinth beam over the footing makes the whole base move as one rigid ring, which prevents differential settlement and keeps cracks from running up the walls. A continuous lintel band (not just short lintels over openings) and a roof band do the same at the top and tie every wall to the slab.

• Plinth beam: at least 9 in wide × 6–9 in deep, 4 bars (#4) with rings at 6 in, poured continuously — no gaps at doors (take bars through the sill).
• Lintel band: full wall thickness, same level all round; windows and doors share one level so the band never steps.
• Overlap bars at corners and T-junctions with an L-bend of at least 24 in so the bands act as one ring.
• Roof slab bars must be hooked into the lintel / roof band; never leave a slab simply resting on bare brickwork.
• Parapets, water-tank stands and mumty must be tied to the slab with dowel bars — they swing hardest in a quake.

Brick is strong when squeezed but weak when pulled or sheared — and shaking does both. Without vertical tie columns, the walls are just stacks of bricks: they crack diagonally from window corners, separate at the wall corners and fall outward. Small RCC tie columns at every corner, wall junction and door/window edge, joined by the bands above, lock each wall panel into a frame (“confined masonry”).

• Tie columns: min 9×9 in with 4 bars #3–#4 and rings at 6 in (3–4 in near ends); build the wall first with toothed (alternate-brick) edges, then pour the column against it.
• Mortar: cement:sand 1:4 for load-bearing walls (1:6 only for partitions); keep joints 10–12 mm and completely full.
• Wall panels longer than about 12 ft or taller than ~10 ft need an extra tie column or band.
• Openings: keep them small and away from corners (≥ 2 ft), total opening ≤ about 40 % of a wall length.
• Never remove or notch a column or tie column later for plumbing or a new door.

• Get a soil bearing-capacity test before fixing footing size; hillside plots in Hazara need slope-stability advice too.
• Found everything on the same type of firm soil at the same level; never half on rock, half on fill.
• Keep the plan simple and symmetric: avoid heavy cantilever balconies, large open ground floors (“soft storey”) and L/T shapes without a joint.
• Prefer light roofing above the last floor; heavy water tanks high up add shaking force.