Image courtesy - Wagle ki duniya - Sony Sab channel
In a recent
episode of Hindi sitcom – ‘Wagle ki Duniya’on Sony Sab television channel, one
of the protagonist takes things in his own hands during an undergoing self
renovation of his own house in a multi storied apartment. Even though the
contractor refuses to break a part of the external wall of the house, he
himself hits the hammer leading to part of the wall collapsing below on his
neighbour – Mr Wagle’s car. Leading to a stiff quarrel between the neighbours,
any attempt done to explain the risks to their building by a structural
engineer invited in the society office goes in vain. Here I would like to thank the producers of
the serial to raise an important issue of ‘Self Renovation’ and the impending
risks thereafter.
In the historic
times, it was quite common of our ancestors to build and repair their own
homes. It is perfectly natural for us to think that we have all the knowledge
to start renovating our own house using available material & labour. One of
the biggest advantages in renovating our home by ourselves is that we can take
quick onsite decisions into changing spaces or selecting various finishing
materials as well as fittings. Also you end up taking full responsibility of
the decisions taken during renovation where you explore your creative skills of
defining your living spaces that are close to your functional & cultural
requirements.
The main
difference is that as against historical times where people used to live in low
rise buildings. in today’s context, most of us live in large apartment
complexes with multi-storeyed buildings having a common RCC (reinforced
concrete) frame structure and complex interconnected network of building
services of drainage, water supply, HVAC, fire protection, storm water
drainage, solar water heating etc. While it was easy & less risky to do
renovate low rise buildings , renovations in houses located in the complex
buildings of today demand involvement of professional architects & civil
engineers in the job.
Let’s divide the
types of renovation in two categories:
A) Superficial renovations
involve mainly Interior work like
painting, furniture work, wall paneling, false ceiling, change of electrical
or plumbing fixture & fittings, adding safety doors, changing door panels,
changing sliding windows etc.
B) Extensive renovations – These involve civil changes
in wall locations, breaking walls , building new walls, change in use of rooms
, dealing with leakages, changing plumbing systems, changing wall or floor
tiles in toilets or rooms, air conditioning rooms etc.
While the ‘A’ category of renovations can easily be
dealt own your own with fair creative skills of selection of right colour,
materials & fittings , the category ‘B’ of extensive renovations are
technical in nature. This requires professional guidance from architects &
engineers.
Here are few guidelines for you while going in for Extensive Self renovations:
1) Have a holistic plan on paper before starting out with respect to what & how changes
will affect your home
2) Understand the complexity – Older the house, more will be the complexities & risk involved.
For e.g. – Simple decision of painting may require checking for dampness using
moisture meters
3) If you visualize extensive
renovations in your home, involve a professional Architect & civil
engineers for a pre inspection & possibilities of what all can happen. For old homes, it is fairly common for plaster to come off or
additional damage to walls if they have to be broken
4) DONT BREAK or TAMPER with
the COLUMNS, BEAMS, SLABS & EXTERNAL WALLS.
This will cause damage to entire building.
5) For RCC frame structures, don’t
just assume that internal partition walls could be removed. Especially for
old buildings, even partition walls between rooms may carry structural load.
CALL a professional STRUCTURAL ENGINEER for INSPECTION before breaking partition
walls.
6) Ensure that safety nets
are installed while breaking any part of wall where
debris is likely to fall on lower
terrace of street. In case debris are likely fall within your house, dump heaps of sand on the floor, so that flooring
tiles don’t get damaged.
7) For extensive CIVIL
RENOVATIONS, always TAKE BUILDING PERMISSIONS from LOCAL MUNICIPAL AUTHORITIES
by involving Architects
8) During electrical work of any kind especially if you are adding multiple light points &
additional power points for air conditioning system, dishwashers, home workshop
etc, consult electrical engineers for
overall loading. The entire electrical system of your house is generating
from distribution board or DB where main supply from building is given.
9) When you are relocating
kitchen, toilets or adding additional toilets in
old houses, please have a clear
understanding of location of drainage & water supply system of your
building since connections to drain pipe & water supply pipe will have
to be considered before you take such decisions. Plumbing connections done in a
faulty manner will lead to leakages
10) If you are planning to have temporary
covering of terrace using steel framework, the overall RCC framework of the building needs to be studied as additional
load will come on it.
11) Leakages in your home may
have many reasons. It is important to know if they
are happening from external walls or through pipes or toilets and close those appropriately
before you undertake painting or furnishing work of the house.
12) Removing door frames or
window frames is complex affair during renovations.
Frames are embedded in walls during or immediately after construction. Hence it
is not as simple as changing the door or window panels. There are likely
chances that during removal of frames, part of surrounding walls may break
down.
13) Any part of new wall built
next to an old wall will also require re plastering.
There are techniques used in construction on how to do the plastering of new
walls. If both construction of new walls & plastering is not done
carefully, cracks may develop in due course of time.
14) In case you are adding
additional storage water tanks in toilets, please check if lofts on which
they are supposed to be installed can carry additional loads. Many times both of water tanks &
inverters, lofts can be added in steel fabrication but we need to ensure that the walls on which the
fabrication brackets are to be installed can carry additional loads &
enough support is given.
15) In many old houses, where you are planning to have old cement terrazzo
tile flooring or kotah tile flooring removed & replaced with vitrified /
ceramic tiles, please note that the entire process of removal of old material, disposing debris and
levelling of surface is complex job. There
are techniques where new tiles can be installed on old flooring using adhesives.
16) Finally one should understand that every demolition job done during
renovation creates construction waste & debris which is our duty to dispose
them off in a responsible manner. We should check that contractors & labor
involved are not throwing them in society compound or lakes & streams thus
harming the environment.
Most renovations
falling under category of type A – Superficial or Interior works are relatively
less risky, though taking professional advice from designers may help enhance
the beauty of the spaces in your house.
Ar. Hrishikesh
Ashtekar
