This is not necessarily true. I got a 20-year mortgage on a 37 year old gongyu without any question (i.e. the building will be 57 years old if the mortgage is paid back on schedule). The bank will consider the condition of the building as well as its age.
kk
Our community was built maybe 12-15 years ago, not sure. It was built for current and retired military (Air Force). Original buyers had to be active or retired military, but could then sell to anyone. Don’t know if that is relevant, but whatever.
Every outside wall of our unit is moldy, evidence of water leaking in. How long can that last? Every inside wall has cracks. We had them all filled-in when we moved in 5+ years ago, but have all re-appeared. There are puddles in the B1 and B2 parking areas every time it rains.
Remember that as rebars rust, they also expand, causing further damage.
We need an engineer or some examples from somewhere else to give a reference point. Saying, the rebar will rust is not very useful. It depends how much rebar is exposed compared to the total amount. Also does the rust penetrate right through or it is just on the surface?
Ehem, furthermore, we also need someone who can enlighten us as to the phenomena of liquefaction, especially in ex marsh basins like Taipei. I had told you guys about a TV program where they discussed this in way too much detail for my taste. Maybe the buildings are solid, but the ground they are on… One big one at the right frequency and it’s jello. So if we add the wrong soil and an elderly building… maybe the elderly buidling does not weight that much and will not collapse…
I see a lot of constructions where they dig some deep square trenches and then lowers a tall (I really mean tall, almost as high as the building itself) rebar cage into it, then fill it with concrete. Perhaps its to account for the wet soil in Taipei.
What I’ve seen doing is that building foundations are made with steel railroad rails that are knocked down/drilled until the bed rock, than they are fixed in concrete. The huge buildings in Taipei use probably concrete/steel pillars that are embedded in the soil until they hit bed rock. But for the older buildings, residential or not I’ve no idea.
That cage is connected to pillars that hit bedrock. 101 is not going to fall over through liquefaction.
I remember my first year of engineering we watched a documentary about the building of 101. I can’t remember what the name of it (modern engineering marvels or something?) was now but it talked about how the foundation was especially constructed to resist earthquakes and Taipei’s wet soil. It was really interesting and talked about the spring loaded weight ball as well. If I remember correctly, the second half of it was something about Dubai (Burj Arab or Palm Islands, I don’t remember). This video may provide some answers dumbed down to where normal people can get it?