In brief
- New-build experience does not transfer to renovation because the existing structure, not the new work, sets the risk.
- Ask for references on occupied, staged refurbishment and for photographs of what was exposed before it was covered.
- Watch the first openings and tie-ins yourself, because these are the points where a weak team is hardest to catch later.
Contents
Renovation experience gaps in Burao appear when a team that builds well from new materials meets an existing structure it did not build and cannot read. The gap shows in the method: no survey of what is there, no sequence for working around occupants, no habit of recording what the opening revealed. Quality suffers at the junctions, not in the finishes.
Why does renovation work expose gaps that new build does not?
New build starts from a known design and clean ground, while renovation starts from someone else's decisions. A team used to laying new block on new footings can carry that habit into a house where the original footing depth, the wall core and the roof support are unknown. Ask the municipal engineer's office whether it holds any drawings or approval records for the building, and treat whatever comes back as a starting point only. If no drawings exist, the first paid task is a measured survey and a few trial openings. General practice is to expose a section of wall, a footing edge and a roof bearing point before pricing the main work, and to confirm the extent with the project engineer. A team that quotes the whole job from a walk-through has either guessed or intends to decide on your money.
What should a client or engineer ask to see?
Ask for evidence of renovation on an occupied or partly occupied building, because that is where the hard decisions live. References should name the building, the scope and the person who supervised it. Then ask process questions, not opinion questions. How did they decide which walls to keep? What did they do when an opening revealed cracked masonry or rotten timber? Where are the photographs of the strip-out before it was covered? A competent team keeps those records because it needs them to price variations. A weak team answers in general terms and cannot show a single photograph of an exposed detail. One site walk of a recent job will tell you more than any document: look at how the new work meets the old, not at the paint.
Which parts of the work go wrong first?
Openings and tie-ins go wrong first, because they are where old and new materials must act together. Watch the first doorway or window opening cut into a load-bearing wall. General practice is to prop and needle the wall above before cutting, and to confirm the propping arrangement with the project engineer, since the correct detail depends on the wall, the span and the loads above. When new block meets old, the joint needs to be keyed and filled, not butted and pointed. Where a new roof member lands on an old wall plate, the bearing and fixing matter more than the timber size. On an occupied building, dust control, protected routes and a stated working day are supervision items too. A supervisor who checks the first opening, the first tie-in and the first new bearing, and records each one with a photograph and a date, closes most of the gap before it reaches the finishes.
What to do next
Pick one recent renovation the contractor claims and walk it with the person who supervised it. Ask to see the strip-out photographs and how the new work meets the old walls. Then open one small section of your own building under supervision before signing the main scope, and price the rest from what that opening shows rather than from the walk-through.
Frequently asked questions
Does a good new-build contractor automatically do good renovation work in Burao?
No. New build starts from known drawings and clean ground. Renovation starts from an existing structure with unknown footings, wall cores and roof bearings, so the team must survey and expose before it can price or build well.
How do I check a renovation contractor's experience if there are few finished projects to visit?
Ask for strip-out photographs, opening records and the name of the supervisor on each job. Then walk one recent site and look at how the new work meets the old walls rather than at the finishes.
Who confirms the propping detail for a new opening in a load-bearing wall?
The project engineer. General practice is to prop and needle the wall above before cutting, but the correct arrangement depends on the wall, the span and the loads above, so confirm it against the project specification before work starts.
Local reporting: this article is written for building work in Burao and Somaliland. Ground conditions, prices and rules differ between places; confirm the details for your own site.