More than $700,000 was spent on repairs to the National Portrait Gallery in 2012, just four years after it opened, new documents reveal.
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The portrait gallery will close for six months next year for more repairs to the building, with the new cost still to be calculated.
The building defects cost schedule, created in August 2012 and released under freedom of information, shows defects classed as glazing, fire, timber flooring, basement ramp seal leak, roofing leak and terrazzo flooring were all repaired. The final bill for all the work was around $779,852.79.
The cost for the individual defects was not released, but the total covers "the ongoing management and rectification of the six identified defects".
A Department of Finance spokesperson confirmed the repairs done in 2012 were outside the defect liability period for the building, which was designed by Sydney architects Johnson Pilton Walker, and built by John Holland for a cost of $87 million. The gallery was opened in late 2008.
The gallery will be closed between April and September next year for works to repair structural issues including windows with faulty double-glazing, floors throughout the gallery and the waterproof membrane underneath the concrete podium surrounding the building.
While the 2012 document references defects with timber flooring and terrazzo flooring, the Department of Finance spokesperson said next year's work will not repeat work done in 2012.
The government will foot the bill for the repairs in 2019, but just what the final figure will be is unknown as it has not yet been put out to tender, a process that is expected to take place later this year.
The gallery's 2015 annual report also declared $850,000 of "unforeseen funding" for rectification of building defects.
