I came to this elegant condo to discuss some renovation work to the existing retaining wall. The developer wants to create a 2.5mx3.0m high opening through one segment of the perimeter reinforced concrete retaining fencing wall. Although the task looks rather intimating because the wall is massive and it is 5 m high it is still doable.
The solution is to knock down the upper portion of the wall until the level of the top of the door opening. After that construct a reinforced concrete lintel beam to bridge over the opening. With the lintel beam in place the upper portion of the wall can then be rebuilt to the original specification.
During the project construction phase I had a terrible time when the boss asked me to take over the management of the project from the project engineer who had abruptly resigned. At that time the project was in a big mess and because I was not a party to it from project inception I had zero knowledge of the whole scheme. The design and drawings were incomplete yet the construction work went full steam ahead. Thus I was practically producing real-time design and drawings feeding the contractor as the work progressed. Somehow despite the tremendous challenge I managed to overcome all the difficulties to complete the project on schedule.
I noticed that although the condo is CF certified, ready for occupation and more than 90% sold it was rather quiet. The basement parking was empty save for a few cars, parked far apart from each other.
I was told that the majority of the buyers are investors, buying the units hoping to resell at higher prices. Then there are also purchasers who buy the units for their children but the children do not want to move into the apartments. I reckon that only about 30% of the tenants there are owner-residents.
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