Buying a second hand Condo in Chiang Mai ~ Pitfalls?

[laislica]

I have heard that when a condo is constructed it has a "life" and must be demolished at the end of that life.

Is this true, and if so are there other pitfalls to be aware of?

If true, how to find out the "life" of the building?

Grateful for any help.

[Rooo]

moved to housing.

[cheeryble]

Sounds like absolute twoddle.

If the structure is properly looked after it will last indefinitely in fact concrete will get slightly stronger.

Naturally there needs to be cyclical maintenance, happily renovations benefit from being shared by many owners.

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[laislica]

Sounds like absolute twoddle.

If the structure is properly looked after it will last indefinitely in fact concrete will get slightly stronger.

Naturally there needs to be cyclical maintenance, happily renovations benefit from being shared by many owners.

Sent from my iPad using ThaiVisa app

Many thanks for your reply.

I agree it seems very strange but it was a Thai from Chiang Mai that mentioned it and I wondered if someone else had come across it.

Could be an Urban Myth?

[cheeryble]

I have heard this nonsense before, but that's what it is nonsense.

In fact the society of insurers mentions lifespans for types of building but that again is not relevant to reality I think their life for a wooden building is like 20 or 25 years they never heard of the Victory and that moves too.

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[cheeryble]

As i have said before on TV the structure of the building is essentially it's foundations and it's concrete/rebar/pretensioning (if present). All other services......roofing/piping/wiring/etcetc.....can and are replaced or renovated as a matter of course in a properly run building. (Many 20 year old buildings have already had their galvanized pipes replaced by plastic. It's not a big deal as the common area piping is all in ducting columns and plastic is cheap and quick.)

As the the foundations, they are specified by the engineer and in any case any problems will soon show.

As to the structure, reinforced concrete is an amazinf thing.

The only problem apart from bad materials (now rarely an issue as Insi and other concrete companies check their mixes exhaustively) and bad design (remember Ronan Point?...except that wasn't a similar structure if I remember it was made from precast sections)......is occasionally caused by water access which can always be dealt with....with rebar becoming rusty after the local concrete "blowing" (sort of expansive cracking) as constantly wet concrete can sometimes soften and allow damp in, and when the rebat rusts the rust is more voluminous than steel and "blows" the surrounding crete. It's easy visibility is extremely fortunate as it can all be fixed while it's area is very limited. It usually (though rarely) happens on exposed horizontal beams due to where leaking water drips under the beam and slowly softens the crete......happily again this happens at the bottom of the beam which is where the concrete does very little indeed it's the rebar that does the work at the bottom in tension and the concrete at the top in conpression. Bear in mind that where blowing happens and rebar gets rusty the rust itself is a protective layer against further corrosion. I have checked damage like this myself that looked goddamn awful when one actually cuts into the rust it tends to be very thin indeed a surface layer and of course the rebar and the whole structure has plenty of redundance with each beam only holding up a local area of a floor (fairly heavy) and walls (light). The beam is generally not carrying anything higher than it's own floor all the wallwork is just infill.

Feel better? :-)

If not find one of those big skeletons from the nineties with just the framework all exposed to the weather all that time no roof no nothing......and try banging your head against it. Or one of Hitler's bunkers or a gun emplacement along the south coast of England.

Edited February 14, 2014 by cheeryble