Renovation & structural soundness

Everytime a house owner purchase a new or old house for his own occupation, most likely he will do some renovation to the house he bought. The extent of renovation depends on individual requirement or budget. Whenever a house owner want to have renovation done to his house, he will most likely look for a interior designer and a renovation contractor. The renovation contractor will construct the skeleton of new extension or make modification to the existing structure of the building as well as the various services such as plumbing installation works, sanitary installation works and the electrical wiring works. The interior designer will then work together with carpenter to finish off the renovation by putting of the finishes and furniture.

Most of the time, after confirming the quotation of the renovation contractor, the owner will allow the contractor to proceed with the construction work without much intervention. The house owner normally get the renovation contractor through recommendation of friends or relatives and they assume the contractor to be competent as far as construction is concerned.

While most renovation contractor are competent to a certain extent in construction works, many small timers acquired their experience from years of involving in the business, many will built according to what they know when they were not provided with a structural plans. While not all renovation involve structural changes, some major renovation may involve extension and changes to the existing structure. In the absence of structural plans, the contractor will built the structure based on his experience and unless the contractor himself is a qualified engineer, his experience in structural soundness of building actually leave much to be desired. There may be cases where the owner may want a certain pillar (known as column in engineering terminology) to be removed and the contractor obliged without advising the owner on the consequences in taking down the column. There may be cases where owner decided to add another floor to the building and the contractor do so without strengthening the column and the foundation. Hence it is advisable that the owner engage a structural engineer to design and supervise the construction so that the end product is structurally sound. Or at least the owner should include the engagement of the structural engineer in the scope of works of the contractor so that the owner can request from the contractor a stamp and certified copy of the structural plans before the commencement of construction and with the structural plans, the owner can liaise with the engineer concerned so that the construction work is actually carried out in accordance with the certified plans.

The engagement of structural consulting engineer is important as the construction of the structure only account for a portion of the total cost of renovation where the other cost that involved include the finishing works and the furniture and fittings that is installed in the property itself. There are many cases where the house owner proceed with the renovation without a structural consultant and when the renovation completed with major works and much money spend in putting all expensive finishing and fittings, suddenly they found their house start to crack here and there and when all things have been completed, it would cost a lot to rectify the construction as a lot of construction works will have to be carried out again in the correct manner and in the process, all expensive finishes will have to taken off and majority will be damaged in the process of them being demolished and of course the labour cost involved, not to mention the wastage of money.

Another case would be upon the completion of construction and if the interior finishes involve the putting up of ceiling below beam level and the wallpaper on the wall where all brick wall and column is covered up. In which case, any cracks that appear may not be visible to the occupant of the house and any visual warning to the impending failure may not be available and dweller may be caught off guard if there is any collapse that happen suddenly.

Therefore it is always wise to engage an engineering consultant if you intend to embark on a major renovation to ensure that whatever extension and modification to building is done in accordance with acceptable code of practice and standard before one even put in all the expensive finishes and fittings.