Building Craze

Or should I say “the Crazy Way the Chinese Build Things”? That would actually be more appropriate, I think.

I woke up this morning to a symphony of hammers pounding on concrete. It sounded like it was directly above my head but it was actually coming from the apartment directly upstairs and to the left of my home. I figured the owner of that apartment simply did not want a wall where the builder had put a wall and so a bunch of migrant workers with sledgehammers were set to tearing it down.

I’ve lived in this construction zone for a little over a month now, and have had ample time to witness firsthand the disorganized way the Chinese have of building things. I was going to write about it out of sheer frustration when I first moved in here, but decided to stay my hand until I could calm down and rationally (?) tell you about this craziness. For craziness is what it seems like to me. Besides, I needed to learn more about how things are done. Now I know, and so can report accurately.

The architect is only involved in the initial stages of building. He/she drafts a plan and submits it for approval from the developer. The developer ayes or nays the plan and the concrete starts to flow – upon approval. Upon disapproval, it is back to the drawing board, naturally.

All buildings are concrete. All the architect is responsible for is pouring the concrete shell. The shell implies not only the building skeleton but the inner walls – also concrete, tracks and niches for electrical lines and outlets, and imbedded PVC water and sewer lines. Gaps for windows and doorways are also part of the plan. After that, the architect disappears and takes his/her blueprints with him. His/her job is considered complete.

What happens with the plans? They are filed with the district city hall and become city property. If a subcontractor needs to look at the plans they must pay a fee, and they cannot make a copy of the plans. Such subcontractors might include plumbers who want to know where the water lines are, where they come from and where they are destined to. Or, the subcontractor could be a telecommunications officer trying to hook up a phone or internet line without accidentally mistaking a power outlet for a communications outlet.

Confused yet?

So what happens after we have these magnificent, empty shells ready to receive electrical wiring and already plumbed for water? That’s where the subcontractors and engineers come in. but before they do any actual work, the units – apartments are individually sold. Bare concrete walls, no flooring, no amenities such as cabinets in the kitchen or showers in the bathrooms. That is all the responsibility of the new tenant/occupant/owner. Apparently, prospective buyers choose to buy based on building location and price per square meter. As there is nothing but a concrete shell to consider, emotion is completely out of the picture.

The new tenant has the power to choose: do I want an outlet here or there? Do I want to have an internet hookup in this room, or in these two rooms? On this wall or on that side of the room? The only thing the new occupant does not get to decide is where water and sewage is concerned. Those lines are imbedded in concrete, if you’ll remember. There is no such thing as deciding to put in a second bathroom or moving the tub here or there. Most of the time, tubs are not a part of Chinese bathroom landscapes, anyway. For the most part, washing facilities consist of a showerhead mounted on the wall, and a drain in the floor. Only the most affluent incorporate a shower stall or tub in their designs.

The tenant/occupant/owner goes on to choose floor covering. Usually they select tile for the kitchen and bathroom and some sort of laminate for the rest of the dwelling. Some owners want tile throughout the house. There is also a variety of tile to choose from for the bathroom and kitchen walls. The rest of the apartment is at least whitewashed. Some owners opt for paint. Then comes the choice of hot water supply. Does the owner want a solar unit, with the tank mounted on the roof and collectors attached, or would he/she rather have an electrical unit, mounted directly in the bathroom? The third option would be a natural gas water heater. The water lines are prepared for either eventuality.

While new apartment owners are deciding all of this the developer marches forward with the development of the area. He/she hires landscapers to beautify the area, facers to finish the building façade and a road construction crew to pave the streets in the development. If the building is to have a natural gas option for the occupants, the gas lines are run outside the building, along the finished façade. If the apartment owner wants natural gas to cook on or heat water with, then the individual lines are drilled through the concrete and into the individual apartments. If no natural gas is desired, then the line going to that apartment is plugged.

Should the tenant/owner decide they want air conditioning, a unit is suspended on the façade of the building. Holes are drilled into the concrete to run the refrigerant lines. If the owner does not want A/C, the place where the unit should have mounted is either covered with a grate, or there is simply no unit mounted. No extra holes are cut or drilled.

Beyond confused? Yep, me too.

I was beyond confused when they landscaped the area while still drilling through concrete for gas lines and to mount air conditioning units.

Each of these features – natural gas, air conditioning, choice of solar, electrical or natural gas water heaters, where to mount the electrical outlets and the communications outlets involve a different contractor. So, the owner of the new unit must deal with several contractors at once.

Contractors generally hire migrant workers. Some migrant workers have construction experience and some don’t. Those that do have a measure of construction experience are promoted to foreman and instruct the inexperienced workers. Thus we end up with a team of window and door hangers, a team of floorers, a team of tilers, a team of whitewashers, a team of carpenters, ect. These teams rotate through the development as needed. You might have door hangers in a unit before floorers lay the floor. You could have plumbers running solar water lines while tilers are attempting to tile the bathroom. None of the work evinces quality craftsmanship.

If a building is to have natural gas, the landscaping is dug up to run the gas lines. In the case of the road already being paved the pavement is torn up to run the lines to the buildings and the road is then repaved. When the communications contractors run their fiberoptic lines the landscaping and pavement again suffer. There seems to be no concerted effort on the part of the various contractors to make building anything a smooth syncopation.

It seems the goal of the developer is to get out of the area as quickly as possible. Like the architect, he/she does their thing – pave the roads, landscape the area, make the building façade attractive as quickly as possible and then flees, presumably in pursuit of the architect who ran away with the blueprints.

What if the owner wants a window on the right side of the wall instead of the left side? No problem: where the window gap was is bricked up and a new window gap is cut into the concrete before the window is hung. What if the owner doesn’t want this interior wall? No problem whatsoever, about 8 migrant workers armed with sledgehammers will pound for 10 or 12 hours straight and take that wall right down for you.

And that’s where we came in folks. To those pounding hammers that are now, mercifully, silent. In the next post I’ll tell you about building techniques, hanging cabinets and decorating, and the rules of property ownership in general. Being as so many in America are in turmoil over Agenda 21 – the multinational incentive to ‘organize’ urban areas, and issues regarding imminent domain, it might interest you to know that property ownership in China has a time limit.

If you are not informed or aware of Agenda 21, I recommend you google it and do some reading. It might prove interesting to you. While you’re doing that I’m going to get going on the next entry.