By John Lam Asset Enhancement • Building Law • Building Technology • Uncategorized • • 0 Comments

Coring the rock stratum engineering our pile foundation

Site investigation is a term to cover a lot of aspect about the site. For the Engineer in construction site, it means the process to find out the soil and rock condition. From the project management perspective, we see the most essence is whether the quality control system is working well in place . This control system involves sampling , inspection, recording and counter-check. Although the PNAP has imposed a lot of restrains in the site investigation, the entire controlling mechanism still heavily rely on the professional site staff. The sample taken will be inspected the the engineer. This inspection is to be fed back to the Designer to confirm the design assumption of piling coincide well to what happens on site. This is the feedback loop essentially important in the entire QA process.

I witness the coring process and I can say the coring of soil / rock is not a pleasant job. Sometimes, the sample was damaged in the process, sometimes, the sample was dropped in pieces. Thus , a good sampling and coring process did demand patience by labour, right machine set up, on-site engineer inspection and recording.

 

 

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Surveying technique to the structural opening found in the RC beam

Professional Building Surveyors are always called on board to do structural survey. There is one situation where the RC beam is cored with the opening and this caused a lot of anxious to the occupier about its structural safety. Usually , the surveying to this kind of damaged structural elements are tricky and professional. It needs to review the original structural frame ; RC beam rebar details , slab thickness and the exact position of opening being formed on the beam section

Details of infrastructure – Construction worker hands securing steel bars with wire rod for reinforcement of concrete

Since the reinforced concrete beam is composed of the rebars configured in designated position to achieve different structural purpose, thus , the inspection to the opening . To ensure a complete and proper visual inspection to the rebar is in place , we adopt the endoscope to inspect also the inside view of the opening . It is to technically identify whether any rebar has been damaged. Also , it helps to ensure the opening was not backfilled with undesirable materials.


Once the visual inspection is done and recorded , we need to cross check with the original design and identify the fall-short and assess the physical damage. Sometimes, we need the input from Structural Design to advise the structural loading capacity effect from the physical damage

Since the portal frame can be either fixed joint or pin joint in nature , thus the beam may exhibit different bending moment . The opening formed on the beam may diminish much the bending moment capacity of beam if the opening were wrongly poised and erred sized

By John Lam Building Technology • 0 Comments

Maintenance Problem from “Party Wall” in Urban area

According to the Land Surveyor “Word Press” 16, Aug 2012 “by Edmond Cheung,  “Party wall” is the physical separating wall of two adjoining building. It functions to divides houses of two different owners buildings but the wall is in shared ownership. In the DEVB(PL-CR) 2/15-08 dated 29th Mar 2010,

A party wall is an integral element, and it is unlikely that half of the same can be removed with the other half remaining intact. Therefore, the removal of the party wall is subject to heavy control stated in Buildings Ordinance Cap 123. To the very least, the lot looking for removal of his own part of “party wall” must have the consent from the rest of owners of the “party wall”. To ensure the integrity of remaining half , we usually apply the structural strengthening by in the steel bracing bolted and mounted to the structural element of the building.

This remains of party wall structure , i.e usually the half of its original wall, becomes some maintenance issues attributed to the already aged cement mortar in brick and rusting of the steel bracing by weather. The steel members sometimes become rusty and decomposed to have lost its strength and also becomes bittle . This also creates the problem of water seepage through the bolt hole path to the interior space. Owners also need to aware that the thickness of party wall is GFA consumable. Since the problem of maintenance is impairing much the integrity of wall and also poses the water seepage problem , it is important to pay attention to it maintenance and to carry out routine inspection.

The steel bracing is bolted to the structural frame of the RC building and this bracing to strengthen the integrity of the “party wall”

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Revitalizing and unlock the potential in Asset

GBE <> KPDO is teammed to give a touch to turn around the simple corner becomes seductive and eye-catching art piece . Apart from aesthetic pleasure, the new architectural design regenerates the lobby and enables the vertical transportation to the podium levels. The capex and the technical-know-how are low and simple, but the magical effects is profoundly sharp.

By John Lam Asset Enhancement • Building Law • • • 0 Comments

Senior Citizen Housing display away the stranded podium retail asset

Senior Citizenship house is now calling for de-densitified 

Why the World’s Highest Virus Death Rate Is in Europe’s Capital

Senior Citizen becomes the upset topic of today C -19 prevalence. Many asset managers are looking the way to improve the stranded property for post c-19. GBE noticed the demand for de-densitified the habitation has triggered the call for more Senior Citizenship habitation houses.

In the metropolitan like Hong Kong, the aged population also faces the strong need for sleeping accommodation. The podium floors which are worst hit by declining retails business, is now hot for turning into elderly center. GBE shares with you that the technical constraint in premises for elderly houssuch window provision, headroom, DMC restriction, town planning ,street level entrance for emergency , catering and sanitary provision, supporting facilities, and operation needs. The licensing authority is Social Welfare Department while the law is Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) Ordinance.

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Technical Consideration to Residential units in UK

Real estate development in UK Great Britain.We have recently received a lot of inquiries regarding the UK residential market. Putting aside valuation and rental income for a moment, there are many technical considerations involved when dealing in the UK residential market. On a high level, the HK and UK residential market can be quite similar, such as residential unit layout, headroom, room size, window provision, bathroom design, and apartment provision. Nevertheless, there are many material differences between the two markets that demand caution. For example, the concept of “area” can be confusing from the various ways it is presented, the concept of “Air Rights” similar to that in New York City, the prevalence of historical external facades that are maintained at the owner’s expense, or lifts that may not reach your floor. One interesting thing is that the elevator may not reach your preferred floor. Also , remember the judge leading the Grenfell Tower Inquiry has ruled that the cladding installed on the tower did not comply with building regulations, finding that the polyethylene-cored panels were the “primary cause” of the rapid spread of flames. It can end your building apartment life immediately

One popular way to get into the market is via pre-sale. While pre-sale activities are increasingly common, there is little to no regulation that governs these activities. Some apartments on the market for sale may not even have “planning permission”. Hence, project delivery risks are often underestimated. Meanwhile, some projects are developed in special districts, such as “Business Regeneration Zone”, which may not be well understood by most potential buyers. Moreover, agency activities involving sales of UK property in Hong Kong may not be regulated under the HK legislative framework. Overseas buyers and investors should tread carefully and with guidance from experts.

 

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Underground Pipe Inspection – Tree Roots Issue

Underground drainage inspection can always help you to prevent blockage issues which may cause flooding in the future. Tree roots blockage is one of the common issues which may find easily near the plantation area. Regular inspection is necessary to prevent damage to the underground drainage system.

Here is one example which shows how tree roots can block the stormwater piping system.

 

By John Lam Asset Enhancement • Building Technology • Uncategorized 0 Comments

Maintenance problem from wrong “water to cement ratio” of concrete cover mix

Concrete cover is the outer concrete layer serves to protect the rebar in RC structure. Its thickness and density dictates both the protection performance and fire – resisting ability.  The extract from the research paper by Albert K.H. Kwan in Department of Civil Engineering, University of Hong Kong , the concrete cover will become much permeability to water once the “water to cement ratio” exceeds 0.4. Adversely does the high water to cement ratio happen in many concreting process in Hong Kong. To account the reason behind , it is the slump of the concrete or the workability of the concrete affects the entire concreting process. The drawback from high permeability is very obvious . The concrete cover becomes lesser defensive against the water nor air penetration . The alkaline environment around the rebar is diminished along with the carbonation due from the air pollution

 

 

By John Lam Building Law • Real Estate • • • • • 0 Comments

Paradox of “Area” in Building of Hong Kong

There are a ranges of terms from “Usable Floor Area / space – UFA , “Saleable Area – SA ” , “Gross Floor Area – GFA “, ” Internal Floor Area – IFA” , “Common Area – CA”, “Lettable Area – LA ” and “Construction Floor Area – CFA” to describe and present the “area” of the space in numerical way. The confusion of amongst these terms stems from the different definition of their respective legal context, code of practice and the application. In short, “Usable Floor Area” is originated from Buildings Ordinance for population estimation in a proposed space whereas the Saleable area is for property conveyance in First Hand sale. The “Common Area” is the idea coming from Deed of Mutual Covenant and Building Management Ordinance. On the contrary, “Construction Floor Area” is for construction cost estimation and this area covers also the ceiling and wall face area.

Hong Kong Institute of Surveyor has published the “Code of Measuring Practice” MPracticeCode-199903 (1) There has laid some quick understanding to the “area”.

residential area of the city at dusk,bird’s eye view