Building Rehabilitation

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorUniversity, Bachelor's February 2008

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The process of rehabbing a building takes many steps. When you are making these changes you must tear down existing walls, change all electrical installation, and redo plumbing and many other jobs. The goal of a rehab is to make the building look interesting and then you can sell the units easily.

The first step in remodeling a building is to hire a general contractor. They are the manager of the entire job. Overall the general contractor is the most important person, because they have to purchase materials and hire employees, electricians, plumbers, HVAC and landscapers. This person meets with the owner of the building what they want done. They must set up a budget and design how they want each unit to look.

The next step is to give notice to any tenants that might still live in the building. When all persons have vacated the building you can start the demolition.

Most demolitions remove interior walls, old doors, windows. They also tear all old electrical wiring and water pipes without removing the existing drains. The demolition process is probably the easiest step in rehabbing, because it takes the least amount of time and costs are minimal.

Now that the demolition is done they must install new windows and also build interior walls. The heating and cooling company begins to install a furnace for each unit and air conditioner on the roof. They than must connect metal ducts to the furnace, this ducts are placed through the apartment to deliver heat and cooling. Also they have to run a cooper pipe from the roof where the air conditioner is located to the furnace, this pipe carries the Freon which is the cold air that comes from vent. The new building code requires that each unit must have a...