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
