Hi there,

I am in a mist of planning for my house extension and I need some real good advice from you guys.

I want to extend my side of the house for about 15feet and latter in a few more years have extension on the first level.

Do I need to do any piling for a solid and strong structure now?
I plan to make a big balcony on my flat roof in this current extension which in a few more years will turn out into more rooms.



I heard that normal brick walls is not strong enough to hold another floor on top. So What do we normally use if we do not do piling ?

Since you are going to have a balcony in your extension (which in future will be renovate into rooms), yes you are recommended to have piling works done. Unless your housing is sitting on a very solid ground (previously the land before housing developemtn is hilly type), then you can opt for pad footing.

If you are unsure of your ground condition, you can hire Geotechnical Engineer to do a simple soil test for you. So judge whether piling is needed or not.

Normal brick wall does not transfer load from above. The important factor is your column and beam. As long as you have your column and beam, you can also use plywood to be your wall.

Perform a simple probe is good enough to determine the soil strength for your case.

2 storeys residential building does not require any piling unless it is on the reclaimation land. Otherwise for non-reclaimation land, the soil bearing capacity could easily achieved 60kpa. With this assumption, by having the slab as non-suspended slab and 6 columns to carry the load. Each footing would be about 2mx2m in size.

Hi,

My house is currently on renovation to extend my kitchen. Works is still in progress.

My advice is you must put a piling if you're planning to build a balcony later on. If not, when you want to build a balcony, you have to rebuild back the whole floor that you extend. Like mine, I just extend the ground floor (29 x 10 sqf) but the structure, I build to prepare in case i want to extend the 1st floor later on.

It is not only about the brick, it is the approval from Majlis Perbandaran will be the issue when you want to build a balcony later on.

Anyway, my contractor is very good and so far the works progress as planned and price wise is cheaper than other house that extend the same size as mine. .

This post has been edited by ichigo1661: Aug 26 2010, 07:37 AM

I do not understand what do you mean by saying ,"rebuild back the whole floor".

A lot of building is built with lower floors and extend upwards later on without rebuilding.

As for the adequacy of the foundation, as long as it is calculated and investigated you are within the boundary of the engineering standard.

If there is intention of building balcony in the future, why don't you do the submission showing the balcony during the first time submission.

since u are extending the ground and the first floor, piling is highly recommended. You will need to build ground beam and first floor beam to support the walls and the floors.

for house extension, do we need any local housing government approval/etc?

Just your local council approval.

I have too many 2 storeys and 3 storeys buildings constructed without piling. Recommendation of foundation type should be done after soil investigation.

oic . By the way, how does it look 2m x 2m? wouldn't it be looking very large? Is it for the sidewalk too? I mean horizontally?

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Added on August 27, 2010, 1:17 amHow much is the difference in price estimation if we do piling and without piling?
Some said that we need big pillars to support our walls or else it may fall or collapse one day when we have extension on the first floor later..is it true?

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Added on August 27, 2010, 1:24 amreally ahh? Are you one of the contractor? how many extra feet do we need if we want to use slabs without taking up space of 15' x 22'? I mean do we need to add any additional space for building the walls and frame ?

Can we reuse any sliding door or window casements which are taken out during renovation?

This post has been edited by bunnyhoney: Aug 27 2010, 01:24 AM

I'm have worked for consultant, contractor and currently working for developer. I do not really understand your question regarding the extra space/feet required. However, whatever structure would surely take up space. It all depends on the design, extension of the house could always design to make sure of existing wall to save space. Depending on the type of doors and windows, these two things usually could be reused and not the frame.

I consulted my nephew who is a civil engineer. His advice is that, if our house is on a solid land (rubber plantation land like most part of PJ), you don need to do piling.

However, to raise the floor from s/s to 2 storey, you should do footing. That involves digging a trench (1 meter or more depending on engineer spec) and re-enforce with solid steel bars. If you have plans for 2nd storey, you should do the plan to cater for this. If not, after you done the tiling, etc, to dig the trench for footings, will be a costly affair.

Since u are extendng sideway by 15 feet, it sounds good. Before deciding on the layout, find out where the existing location of the beams/columns. Knowing in advance, u can incorporate taht into your design so thatt the ugly beams and columns are not appearing all over the house!!

Balcony needs to have RC slab. Alot of houses, the car porch has a tiang in the middle, so when doing the balcony, u can ask for the car porch to be 'column-less'.

well, you will need to consult a civil engineer as he will sign off on the construction in the end. He will also need to prepare drawings for submission prior to construction

guys, how much is those red clay brick and those white brick(made of sand i think)

agreed carry out SI 1st, mackintosh probe only cost few hundred......i did few blocks of 5 storey mid cost apartment on pad footing @ subang 2 before