House lifting in East Vancouver is happening up and down many streets. Alair Homes next one is on East 32nd Ave. The homes typical of this area are from the 1940’s with classic Craftsman style built on narrow lots. Vancouver construction bylaws were created relatively recently, and some have notable consequences.
Alair Homes Project
In our client’s case, they wanted a new house, or infill as it’s broadly referred to. However, one of the many bylaws is that new house construction requires a garage to be installed within the setbacks from the surveyed property lines. The idea here is to lessen the parking congestion on the street. So that in essence means that the garage takes up most of the basement on a typical 30 foot wide lot, and the driveway takes up most of the front yard.
However, our client needed to have an in-law suite so the garage is not an option. Therefore, we had to approach this as a renovation, in which case (subject to many more rules and checks) meant that the renovation did not trigger the garage requirement.
Scope of the Project
Scope of the project is removing all the asbestos and hazardous materials, then removing the roof, stucco, drywall, piping and old electrical. Then the structure is raised (our favorite house lift company is Nickel Bros. That requires digging down to proposed grade to install the cribbing required to hold up the temporary beams, and preparing the site including stiffening the old structure prior to the lift.
In the end, they will have a gorgeous new Craftsman style house designed just for their family!