Day 17 smooth the render

Throw cement powder to the render to smoothen the surface. The top part still not rendered.

Day 15 start rendering

7 back: off again to render very rough cement mix to the brick wall on our side. Did not render the top part because the bench the worker was standing on was not high enough for him to reach the top part. Stay off.

Another renovating

4:
Saw a skip in front of 4 today. Looks like back extension is being carried out and today is the first day.

7:
Day 13: No visible changes can be detected by me for the back extension. Am not monitoring the side extension. Still lots of hard thumping sounds of sledgehammer hammering on the brick walls. Felt the whole house shook. Not posting unless there are visible changes to the back extension.

Day 12 cut roof tiles

7:
A noisy day as the roof tiles were cut to fit. Metal sheets for the roof flashing were put on. Wooden trim was put on the eaves. Lots of drilling sounds which continued until 7pm.

Rendering starts

Stagnant water

Finally moved in

Today joss sticks were burnt and a red cloth was placed around the top frame of the main door. Although the carpenter table and skip are still there, the family has moved in finally after nearly 6 months since reno work started and the interior reno work is not fully done yet.

Day 10 Roof tiles up

For the back extension, yesterday the roof rafters were installed. Today metal sheet were put on top of the rafters and then purlins were put on top of the metal sheet.

Then roof tiles were laid. The eaves overhang is the length of one roof tile which juts out into the back lane.

Then only the bricks were laid in a 90degree triangle shape at the top end of the roof tile to form the part of wall next to the roof tiles.


Font and side:

Day 9 wood beams up

Roof tiles have been delivered and blue divider is up. Back condenser has been removed so that the wooden beams to support the roof tile can be installed.

For the side extension, two wood frames columns have been constructed with concrete mix inside.

Morning and afternoon state:

Day 8 concrete top beams

Start of day 8. The wooden frames for the horizontal concrete beams directly above the window openings have been removed.

Nailing wooden planks together to form the frames for making the top horizontal concrete beams.

Wooden frames completed. Iron rods structures are put within the wooden frames.

Concrete mix poured into the wooden frames to form the top horizontal concrete beams.

The existing walls has been hacked so that the newly built horizontal concrete beams are joined to the existing walls.

From afar, it can be seen that the back extension has taken form. This method of building is hack and build as they go along. Instead of hacking everything that needs to be hacked and building the concrete frames of the structure first before building the brick walls, they build the base concrete beams and then the brick walls, then only the concrete pillars, and then only the top horizontal concrete beams.

I believe building the concrete frame of the structure first is better and needs more skills to do so because the brick walls have a concrete frame to hang onto. By building the brick walls first and then doing the vertical concrete beams and horizontal concrete top beams, the brick walls take a lot of load from the wooden planks that form the frames for the concrete beams.

So it has taken 8 days for the back extension to take form.

Day 7 windows opening

The wooden planks forming the frames for the 3 concrete pillars have been removed.

Two window openings have been created by using wooden rods to support planks nailed together to form support frames for horizontal concrete beams above the window openings.

But before the concrete mix in the horizontal wooden frames can fully set, bricks have been placed on top of them.

For the front that is to be extended, supporting wooden structures have been placed to support horizontal concrete beams that have just been built. The horizontal concrete beams form the top of the main window or door opening that faces the main road.

Cement top unveiled

Rendered smoothly

Can the difference be detected? The sides of the porch have been smoothen with cement.

Day 6 concrete pillars

7:
Back -
Nailed wooden planks to form the frame for the 3 back pillars after putting in the iron rods. Poured concrete into the pillars frame
Front -
Bricks are all up to envelope the front that needs to be extended

10:
Repaint the planks on the main gate and the recently rendered plastered portion of wall next to the moved main door.

Day 5 bricks higher

7:
Back - bricks are up higher, nearer to ledge but not quite there
Front - bricks up the front
Didn't do concrete pillars yet

Glass divider

10:
Dining set delivered
Glass divider placed in front of the fish pond

Day 4 Rest day

As today is a Sunday, no work was done.

But for 10, workers worked until 9.30pm in the mbr putting up wall paneling.

Day 3 half brick walls

The method used is bricks up before concrete pillars.
Bricks were put up for half of all walls for the back of the house.


For the front one wall nearest to the side garden.
The ground of the front to be extended has been prepped with cement and a thin gap left in the cement which I think is for the new sliding door.

Day 2 back fence all off

Foundation work being done:
The back fences are all removed. Shallow trenches have been dug where the back fences were. Wooden frames have been built around the shallow trenches and concrete mix poured into them. There are going to be three vertical pillars. Now iron rods were sticking out where these pillars are going to be.

Skip is now here.

Day 1 work started

Finally the day is here. The back chicken wire fence has been removed and some shallow trenches were dug and I think some have been filled with cement. No skip in sight yet.

Ext 1st floor too?

Looks like doing a concrete platform to extend the back 1st floor portion?

First lorry

Around 4pm on this day, some bricks, sand, gravel, iron rods and planks were dropped off at the house and then everyone left.

Met the main con

Spoke to the main con who was in the house at around 12.30pm. Work will start in one or two days. Approval takes about 4 months so not going to wait. Estimated to take about 2 months. Work scope is similar to as told to me by owner.

** A few days earlier, either on Friday 8 Oct 2010 or Saturday 9 Oct 2010, I noticed water dripping out from the joint where the water meter connects to one of the water inlet pipe. Thus I realized that the water meter has been reinstalled after the new owner applied for it. Therefore, I was expecting work to start soon.**

So 2 months and 13 days since 28 July 2010, the day where I spoke to the new owner, finally the day that I have been dreading is going to dawn on me soon.

Back street reno

I think this reno started on Oct 1, 2010.

Other streets

The corner house with a large piece of land on 1st street. VP end 2005 but someone only just renovated it recently but not completed yet. Nearly 5 years to do this.



Looks like something went wrong and the supporting wooden frames were removed (noticed the holes on the beam) and then reinstalled. Occupant not moved in yet.

October monthly status

8 finally moved in last month (sept) so 1 more house in.

2 houses are doing active renovation:
10 (near completion)
18 (a lot of hacking and removal of concrete frames and beams)

Stats:
8, 12, 14, 16, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30 (10/15 = 67%)
3, 5, 9, 11, 15, 17, 19, 21 (8/12 = 67%)

18 in out of 27 so 67% in.

It has been a little more than one year since VP and yet only 67% houses occupied on this street which is quite slow.

Move main door

The house faces south. The main door is being moved about 2 to 3 feet to the west. First, the main door is removed and the walls around the door frame hacked away to release the door frame. Then some parts of the walls to the west are hacked away. Then the door frame and main door were installed again in the new opening nearer to the west. Lastly, the opening nearer to the east was filled with bricks again and rendered with cement. All due to feng shui.