Installing elevators in old communities: Are you afraid of “wasting money”?

For the installation of elevators in old communities, it is inevitable that after everything is ready, it will be stranded due to "individual reasons of individual people"

The news wide angle is afraid of "wasting money" ”?

Recently, an excavator and other construction equipment arrived in front of one unit of a 7-story building in the compound at No. 96 Hongxing Road, Luyang District, Hefei City. Under the watch and witness of residents of the community, the elevator foundation pit was officially excavated. This is also the first elevator installation project in an old community in the district.

The project has broken ground, which means that the installation of elevators in old communities has entered a substantial stage. If all goes well, in the future, the 12 households above the second floor of this unit will bid farewell to the history of "climbing the stairs" to return home.

For the elderly people who have lived in this community for decades, this is a very exciting moment for them. For the street where the community is located and the housing and construction department of Luyang District, Hefei City, this is just the beginning. Next, they are not sure how many old communities in the district can successfully install elevators.

It is becoming more and more inconvenient for the elderly to go up and down the stairs

The courtyard at No. 96 Hongxing Road is the old "family home" of the Anhui Provincial Health System. The original seat of the Anhui Provincial Government before the relocation was far away from the community. It's only a few hundred meters away.

The 86-year-old Zhang Baojin has lived in the compound at No. 96 Hongxing Road for decades, and has spent almost half of his life in this community. Although the children have bought a new house far away from the old city and have repeatedly asked the elderly to live with them, Zhang Baojin is unwilling.

“Many of the neighbors are old colleagues and friends. I have deep feelings for this place and I don’t want to leave.” Zhang Baojin insists on staying in this place, which is shabby and low-rise compared with the surrounding new areas. There are many old communities. But as he gets older and his physical strength decreases, Zhang Baojin feels that it is becoming more and more inconvenient to go up and down stairs.

Zhang Baojin often laughs at himself: "We can't actually go upstairs every day, we can only climb the stairs." Zhang Baojin, who doesn't want to move out of his old community, is very eager to install an elevator in his house.

The turning point came at a large-scale visit and research symposium held by Xiaoyaojin Street in Luyang District on the renovation of old communities. When the compound at No. 96 Hongxing Road was soliciting suggestions from resident representatives on renovating the old community, one resident representative proposed the idea of ​​installing an elevator in the community.

This situation is actually quite common in Xiaoyaojin Street, which is located in the core of the old city. The street immediately fed back the collected opinions of resident representatives to the Luyang District Government and the District Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau. The incoming opinions even directly promoted the Luyang District Government’s policy on installing elevators in existing residences. This policy even preceded the "Implementation Opinions" subsequently issued by Hefei City several months earlier.

With the support of policies, the procedure for installing elevators will be clear.

Mr. Zhang Baojin and two other enthusiastic residents in the same unit formed the residents’ representatives and were responsible for some basic procedures for residents’ declaration. The policy of Luyang District at the time was that all residents of the unit where the building is located must agree before it can be implemented. In just two days, all 14 households in Zhang Baojin’s unit, including those on the first floor, signed and agreed to install an elevator.

With the help of three enthusiastic resident representatives in the unit building, subsequent issues such as elevator manufacturer selection and cost sharing were successfully agreed by all residents. In terms of cost sharing, they adopt a coefficient-based sharing method. All floors are based on the third floor as the standard. Above the third floor, the coefficient increases, and below the third floor, the coefficient decreases. There is no need to pay for the first floor.

There are various reasons for not being able to add an elevator

Before raising funds, residents applied for a special private account to pay related expenses. In just one day, all residents transferred their proportional share of the money into designated accounts.

Old man Zhang Baojin was deeply moved by this: "As long as the residents are united, things will be much easier to handle."

The compound at No. 96 Hongxing Road has obviously made a good start, but this This does not mean that other old communities in Luyang District can proceed smoothly in this way.

Cui Wei, chief of the Urban Construction Section of the Luyang District Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau, receives phone calls almost every day about installing elevators in old communities. On average, at least two groups of people come to Cui Wei's office every week to learn about this matter.

In Cui Wei’s impression, No. 96 Courtyard on Hongxing Road is not the first community to have the intention to install elevators, but the reason why No. 96 Courtyard has become the first in the district to actually start construction is Old communities are indeed the result of “all conditions are mature.”

One side of the evidence is that in another unit adjacent to the building unit under construction in No. 96 Compound, residents are also very eager to install an elevator, and the procedure is almost complete. To the extent that "everything is ready, all we need is the east wind", but it is because "some people cannot pretend for a while due to individual reasons."

These "individual reasons for individual people" can be described as diverse, and they are mainly concentrated in the residents on the first floor. Some residents have deep grievances because they have conflicts with the residents above them; some think it will affect the light and ventilation; some think it will affect feng shui; and another is psychologically unbalanced, always feeling that installing an elevator is a bargain. But I don't get any benefit from it.

The ultimate focus of all these conflicts, according to Zhang Jincheng, director of the Property Office of Xiaoyaojin Street, Luyang District, is only one word: money. He feels that most people are worried about paying "wrongfully" and that they are worried that they will not be able to enjoy the same rewards despite paying extra money.

During the application process for installing elevators in old communities, some communities even experienced such a situation: some units were willing to collectively spend money to install elevators for residents in the community, but considering that some houses have already been sold to Employees outside the unit, so their opinions cannot be unified; another situation is that all residents in the community are employees of the unit, and the unit is willing to invest in installing elevators, but some people inside the unit do not live in the old community and cannot Employees who enjoy the service of installing elevators disagree.

There are various reasons for the failure to install an elevator. Because of this, relevant personnel feel that the elevator construction in the compound at No. 96 Hongxing Road is extremely precious.

Crossing the river by feeling the stones

In January this year, the Hefei Municipal Government issued implementation opinions on installing elevators in existing residences, proposing financial measures for urban areas (including development zones) The installation of elevators in existing residences with non-single property rights will be subsidized in the form of ex-post subsidies. The specific amount is 200,000 yuan in subsidies for each elevator, and the municipal and district finances will each bear 50.

The elevator under construction in the compound at No. 96 Hongxing Road will cost about 500,000 yuan in the end. With government subsidies, residents' actual expenses will be much less.

“It can be said now that the policy is very clear, but the specific implementation still requires a high degree of unity of opinion among the residents of the community who applied for it, and the government cannot do everything.” Cui Wei said. Cui Wei majored in architecture. When she analyzed the complexity of installing elevators in old communities from an architectural perspective, she found that some residents had disagreements during the specific process of installing elevators because they did not know enough about the building itself. She I am particularly sorry that this happened.

A typical example is that there is a community whose application time was much earlier than that of No. 96 Hongxing Road Compound, and the basic plan was approved. As a result, during the plan publicity stage, one resident The sudden regret caused the project to be delayed.

According to Cui Wei, old buildings each have their own structural particularities, so the specific elevator installation plans are also different. “We must take into account the safety of the existing building structure. and fire safety, as well as the riding comfort of residents, city appearance and other factors.”

“Once the installation of elevators involves the need for reinforcement of the entire building, it will inevitably have a great impact. Residents generally don’t understand the overall cost of installing an elevator, and they are not willing to share it,” Cui Wei said.

It is understood that the drawing review process for retrofitting plans is very strict. The drawing review agency will invite some experts from the aspects of structure, architecture, equipment, etc. to review and check the preliminary design plan.

"The drawing review process for new buildings is simpler, especially if it is newly built in an old house, which may affect the original structure of the house or change the bearing capacity of the house, such drawing review is the most stringent."

Because of this, many drawing review agencies are not even willing to undertake the drawing review business of installing elevators. They think that such drawing review projects are small and cost-effective, but the drawing review process is extremely complicated and requires a lot of manpower. , material resources are still relatively large.

According to the procedures established by Hefei City, even after the construction drawings for installing elevators have been reviewed by qualified drawing review agencies and fire protection agencies, the housing construction agencies in the jurisdiction must take the lead in organizing planning, finance, land, Relevant departments such as market supervision, fire protection, urban management and environmental protection will conduct a joint review.

If the controls are tight, some methods of relaxing the requirements to save costs will not work, and some residents may not understand them. Cui Wei could only explain this one by one.

“Good things must be done well, so we can only strictly control the source. If we relax the requirements now and let the old communities install elevators carelessly, there will be various safety problems in 8 or 10 years. , hidden dangers occur frequently, how can we be worthy of the people?" Cui Wei said.