[callvvijay]

Question to folks from Chennai:
The recent downpour has made us think a lot about demolish our 30-year old house and reconstruct it in a better way.

If you have personal experience, can you suggest a good & economical builder / architect who can give us some ideas and can provide a floor-plan

Thanks!

[Aroy]

I have heard of many horror stories of these locks jamming, leaving the occupant in a lurch.

So I have never installed such locks. What I have done is :

1. Have a normal latch (without the lock) with a handle that can be operated from both sides.
https://www.goldenlocks.com/product/...-for-chateaus/
or
https://www.lockweb.com.au/en/lockwo...0-roller-bolt/

2. For locking we use the good old bolt latch
https://www.flipkart.com/rab-push-cl...01638257223193

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by callvvijay

Question to folks from Chennai:
The recent downpour has made us think a lot about demolish our 30-year old house ...

It has made us consider all sorts of things. A complete rebuild is unaffordable to us: I don't think that my entire capital would pay half the bill.

Has anybody here any experience of jacking a house up and raising it? Any advice, for against? Any idea of current costs? How to find a skilled company to do it?

[condor]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Has anybody here any experience of jacking a house up and raising it? Any advice, for against? Any idea of current costs? How to find a skilled company to do it?

@TEG, were you looking at old pics of apartment buildings in east bloc countries being moved to new locations ?

Anything less than fresh build would be messy, and can create more problems than give solutions.

May be sell this and get an apartment somewhere ?

I speak from the experience of living in a house that has water logging problems *inside* the house.

[keroo1099]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Has anybody here any experience of jacking a house up and raising it? Any advice, for against? Any idea of current costs? How to find a skilled company to do it?

You might want to contact them and get a quote.

https://www.houseliftingindia.com/

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

It has made us consider all sorts of things. A complete rebuild is unaffordable to us: I don't think that my entire capital would pay half the bill.

Has anybody here any experience of jacking a house up and raising it? Any advice, for against? Any idea of current costs? How to find a skilled company to do it?

If yours is an >20 years old building then don't even think about it. Better would be to find solutions workable in preventing the water ingress into the home during the two rainy months.

[Rocky_Balboa]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

It has made us consider all sorts of things. A complete rebuild is unaffordable to us: I don't think that my entire capital would pay half the bill.

Has anybody here any experience of jacking a house up and raising it? Any advice, for against? Any idea of current costs? How to find a skilled company to do it?

One of my mom's neighbour (in Villivakkam) is getting his whole building raised-up, by 4 feet, and the work-in-progress is damn impressive. Mind You this is a 35+ year old building, with a 1st floor that was added 15 years after the original construction.

Hearsay is that the cost starts from 8 to 12L and takes about 3 - 6 months for completion (excluding electrical re-work, finishing, painting etc). Not sure which company/ contractor has undertaken the work, but can get the contact in a week or two.

I have been hearing positive and promising feedback, about such lifts.

[PreludeSH]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

It has made us consider all sorts of things. A complete rebuild is unaffordable to us: I don't think that my entire capital would pay half the bill.

Has anybody here any experience of jacking a house up and raising it? Any advice, for against? Any idea of current costs? How to find a skilled company to do it?

Cant a new floor be added and the ground floor converted to parking ? You can raise the ground floor if needed too.
Its going to mess up the common living areas that are moved but should be cheaper compared to new house.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Thanks for the comments so far. Especially, I'll check out that link

[Thad E Ginathom]

<Later...>

Took a look at the link and forwarded to my wife who rang the number. Local man (Kerala) was happy to talk even at 9.30pm!

We have a couple of reference sites to visit, one of which we think we know, nearby to a family member.

[mvadg]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

<Later...>

Took a look at the link and forwarded to my wife who rang the number...

Was talking about solutions to flooding in homes, and apparently someone they know (third hand information) has fitted a water tight door.
They got the door from some ship related business (ship breaking?) in Gujarat and cost about Rs.50k - could not get any more details.

Googling a bit gave me this link:
https://floodcontrolinternational.in...ood-doors.html

[earthian]

As mentioned earlier, we are building a new house in a small farm house scheme. The total plot is about 5700 sq yards and the house would be about 700 sq yards split on two floors. We are going to build an electric meter cum genset room and a garden store room . We would like numerical electronic locks so that the help and support staff can also access the room without the need for keys. What are the good and reliable brands available in India?


While on the subject, we are also looking for the following:

1. A good study pitchfork (to turnover compost heaps)
2. A sustainable design for making compost? (pits? or something else?)
3. A good washing machine, that rats find difficult to enter and cut the wires.
4. Same as above but a dishwasher (both our dishwasher and washing machine (internal wiring) have been completely shredded by rats

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

It has made us consider all sorts of things. A complete rebuild is unaffordable to us: I don't think that my entire capital would pay half the bill.

Has anybody here any experience of jacking a house up and raising it? Any advice, for against? Any idea of current costs? How to find a skilled company to do it?

Jacking is normally done on either wooden houses or houses that have a concrete frame structure. The reason is that the structure should be monolithic else parts may collapse while raising.

Older house that have brick walls and not column-beam construction may be difficult to jack up. For older brick wall supported houses, what can be done is as follows :

1. Construct an RCC frame with columns around the periphery of the house.

2. If the house is 1 floor then have the 2 storey at the height that you want after raising the ground floor (say 14 feet if you want to raise the house by 4 feet). NOTE it is best to raise the ground floor to at least 2 feet above the high flood level. More if you want to avoid future mayham.

3. Same if it is 2 storey house, though it will be easier if you demolish the 2nd storey.

4. Demolish the ceiling of the ground floor.

4. Now that you have a solid frame, build the top floors on this frame.

For the lower floor you have the following options :

1. Keep it as it is.

2. Demolish the internal walls and use the space as a garage.

3. Demolish the whole ground floor. Fill up the ground to at least 2 feet above known high flood level. The filling can be either plain soil, or if you want it to remain in place come what ever use rubble masonry - construction waste mixed with a bit of cement. This will form a solid impervious base on which you lay the floor slab.

The above method will go a long way in making your house earthquake proof (in case it does not have a frame structure and only load bearing walls).

[deathwalkr]

Originally Posted by earthian

[*]A sustainable design for making compost? (pits? or something else?)

I was actually looking at youtube videos on keyhole garden bed setups to setup in my garden.

The core idea of that is a compost pit in the middle and plants around it. Trying out a small one this weekend.

You could ask here as well:
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shift...am-bhp-28.html (Gardening experts in Team BHP?)

[earthian]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NMCNACFt-o

There are many. Here is one.