Renovations and extensions
Johannes Hofmann advises on the structure of existing houses and villas in Corfu. A renovation study records what is built, then designs the alteration: a new opening, an added floor, a pool, a retaining wall, or a repair after movement or decay.
First visit
The building as it is, not as it was drawn
Old drawings, when they exist, are a start. They are often incomplete. Stone walls vary in thickness. Concrete members from a later decade may not be on the original sheet. A visit, photographs, and simple measurements establish the structure the calculation will use. If a topographic survey or an architectural measured drawing is already commissioned, the study uses it.
Typical questions
What owners ask on Corfu
- Can a stone wall take a wider opening to the garden or the sea?
- Can a floor be added, and what must the walls below be given in return?
- Is the crack in a corner a finish, or a movement of the structure?
- What does a pool or a retaining wall on a slope ask of the ground beside the house?
- Before a purchase, is the structure fit for the alteration the buyer has in mind?
Each of these is a structural question. The answer is a short opinion or a full study, depending on whether a permit will be filed.
Limits
What a structural visit will not pretend to be
It is not a valuation, a legal title check, or a guarantee that a planning application will be granted. It does not hide unpermitted work. If that work exists, it has to be on the table, because the drawings that follow have to match the procedure the authority will actually use. Write via the contact page with the village or the coast, and with photographs if you have them.