This blog is just a layman's account of the path we went through to make our old building better.


Car Porch - reinforcement.

This is the original house plan after it was first constructed, about, say 30 plus years ago.





Many years later, the owner extended the upstair bedrooms forwards, occupied the car porch, and extended sideway to give rooms to the second room extension.

Note that the extension was not built upon stiffer middle column.  So the extension of the second room maybe flimsy to start off with.


The yellow segment is the present extension.  Note the there is no support in the middle on the left column.


To avoid future stability problem.  We have decided to change to the following by adding one extra stronger column as shown below.

Shown Red Column is the new reinforcement.  The Yellow portion, which is the old porch, will be demolished for good.  Giving way to a cheaper shade to cater for modest use.

With that I think we will sleep better inside the extension !


The original look of the old extension.  Note there is no supporting column under the room extension above.



Here's another view.


The frame has been built, grabbing the pillar above for stability.















Enforced beam finally takes its shape.







Old supporting beam is being demolished.  Note the new one replaced its position.























Old porch is finally down for good.  The workers make sure that the neighbour did not get disturbed that much other than the inevitable noise and some dust.







Patching up the surface.





















Final appearance of the new supporting column, this time with proper underground reinforcement courtesy of Ah Phan.  


Just like the rear extension, it was reinforced by deep red wood before the 3-4 feet concrete base.


Old porch was finally dismantled.








The first part of the wooden porch is being set up today.  Here's the progress photo:















The porch is finally done !  Paint work will come later. The workmanship, to be honest, deserved a good praise!  



Note the rain water drainage from the roof.  The open end will have chains connected right down to the drainage reservoir on the ground.  It does not appear to be that sightly for me.  But life is an experiment I would have thought.  So likely that we will just go ahead and see how it turns out.


After a while, the wooden porch experienced a sinking feeling !


With one morning work, it is rectified.  Reinforcement by adjusting the beam supporting the roof tiles are made.

Here's the result :








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6 comments:

  1. i bet ur extension is illegal one, izzit?

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  2. Hi there. We have the necessary paper works for this reno actually. As a rule, it has to be pasted in front of the building.

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  3. opps... sorry. coz i saw ur 1st floor protrude so much out to the car porch, is there rules said the house must be at certain distance from the front gate?

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  4. Not sure about that to be honest. But actually we removed the older porch, which was much more protruded than now. And rebuild it with just roof tiles and timber beams.

    If you noticed the picture of the end product, our porch is slightly less protruding than the neighbour's one.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Not sure about the requirement of your local authority. But, in general, you need to have a setback of min 20' from your front gate, if not mistaken.
    The old structure could be illegal in the first place.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The front extension was originally there, which comes with full plan and approval from the council also ( we still have the original plan). This extension was built on the original car porch, the old owner did not extend forward other than that.
    The front gate is still a distance in front of the extension, but not sure if its 20' length.

    ReplyDelete