My partner and I bought a house this summer that was built in two phases.
The original house was built in 1963 and consisted of the house on a crawl space (on sloping rock) and a terrace above a basement.
In 1975, an extension was built on top of 20 sqm of the basement (old terrace), and a small part was built on pillars (3 sqm). Additionally, part of the terrace that was not built in was made into a balcony (4.5 sqm).
Now we want to build in this balcony as well to make one of the bedrooms larger.
I can’t see any signs of settling, and none of the (2) inspectors mentioned anything about this.
However, I don’t know anything about how the basement is constructed, which brings my question about whether it will handle more load?
We are also planning to renovate the bathroom and get a bathtub, which will also add weight to the basement foundation.
How can I find out how much the basement can actually withstand? The previous owners have already installed an extra steel post as support, or if it was there from the beginning, I do not know.
Here you see how the basement is built against the original house.
Here you see how the extension looks on top of the terrace and also the balcony we want to build in.
