Additional Floors in Old Apartment Blocks

Abstract

A national programme of research was carried out in Finland to explore a concept for renovation of apartment blocks. The aim of the project was to develop an industrial-scale, economical and efficient concept for renovating, expanding and adding floors to apartment blocks. The technical solutions forming part of the concept make effective use of the opportunity provided by new Finnish fire regulations to use wooden structures when renovating. The apartment blocks built between the 1960s and 1980s now need to be renovated. One alternative that has come to light for the covering costs of renovations is additional construction. Buildings often have flat roofs, which makes the addition of a floor both architecturally and technically easier.

Full text

1876-6102 © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the SBE16 Tallinn and Helsinki Conference.
doi: 10.1016/j.egypro.2016.09.143
Energy Procedia 96 ( 2016 ) 815 – 823
ScienceDirect
SBE16 Tallinn and Helsinki Conference; Build Green and Renovate Deep, 5-7 October 2016,
Tallinn and Helsinki
Additional floors in old apartment blocks
Anu Soikkelia,*
aUniversity of Oulu, PB 4100, 900140 Oulu, Finland
Abstract
A national programme of research was carried out in Finland to explore a concept for renovation of apartment blocks. The aim of
the project was to develop an industrial-scale, economical and efficient concept for renovating, expanding and adding floors to
apartment blocks. The technical solutions forming part of the concept make effective use of the opportunity provided by new
Finnish fire regulations to use wooden structures when renovating. The apartment blocks built between the 1960s and 1980s now
need to be renovated. One alternative that has come to light for the covering costs of renovations is additional construction.
Buildings often have flat roofs, which makes the addition of a floor both architecturally and technically easier.
Prefabricated modular units were developed in the project in cooperation with the industry. The size of the units chosen has
implications for structural planning as well as for the planning and implementation of the construction site and installation.
Prefabricated wood-framed units can be installed on existing concrete slab. The direction and placement of the units are usually
determined by the location of the load-bearing structures below. Installation of an array of beams upon the roof of the original
building is often the best solution. The beams distribute the load from the new units over the old structures.
© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the SBE16 Tallinn and Helsinki Conference.
Keywords: Renovation; apartment buildings; prefabrication; expanding
1. Introduction
Urban sprawl is a problem in Finland also. This term describes the expansion of human populations away from
central urban areas into low-density, monofunctional and car-dependent communities. The goal of retrofitting is to
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +358-40-8655314.
E-mail address: anu.soikkeli@oulu.fi.
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the SBE16 Tallinn and Helsinki Conference.

816 Anu Soikkeli / Energy Procedia 96 ( 2016 ) 815 – 823
create a more sustainable urban environment within the context of the existing urban form. Sprawl retrofitting
projects are focused on increasing density and diversity in a failed area. The main approaches to retrofitting are
called reinhabitation and redevelopment. [1]
The choice of materials used in refurbishment, also, is significant from the standpoint of the sustainable
ecology of the entity. Materials used in renovations should be renewable, recyclable, long -lasting and such that
their manufacture has consumed only a minimum amount of energy and has created as little emissions as
possible. The use of wood as a construction material is advantageous from the standpoint of climate, as a growing
tree binds carbon dioxide from the air and wooden structures thereby function as carbon stores. Studies show
wood products are associated with far less greenhouse gas emissions over their lifetime than building materials
such as steel, concrete, aluminum or plastic. [2]
The use of wood brings benefits in building based on prefabricated units: wood-framed solutions are light; the
degree of heat insulation can be freely chosen; and dimensioning to meet specific needs - tailoring of individual
elements - is also feasible. The integration of components of the façade – windows, doors and cladding – into units
as part of the prefabrication process is possible and if desired the interior cladding of prefabricated units may also be
installed. [3]
From 2012 to 2014, an extensive national programme of research, known as KLIKK, was carried out to explore a
concept for user- and business-centred renovation of apartment block neighbourhoods in Finland. The active
participants in the project were University of Oulu, Aalto University, Tampere University of Technology, VTT
Technical Research Centre of Finland, as well as numerous cities and companies in the construction sector. The
Ministry of the Environment was involved as a cooperating partner. The project pursued a range of aims. Firstly, it
sought to explore the opportunities for additional construction in the neighbourhoods and to develop innovative area
planning practices and research into solutions for renovating apartment blocks; the particular focus here was to
generate ideas for how to best build additional floors in apartment blocks and to develop the planning and building
solutions this would require. Secondly, the project focused on exploring opportunities to develop operational models
for carrying out renovations; of particular interest were opportunities for interactive planning and for implementing
the project collaboratively among all of the participating parties using the alliance model. This article is based on the
final report of KLIKK research project and project’s outcomes. [4]
The overarching aim of the project was to develop a user-centred industrial-scale, economical and efficient
concept for renovating, expanding and adding floors to apartment blocks. The technical solutions forming part of the
concept make effective use of the opportunity provided by the new Finnish fire regulations to use wooden structures
when renovating. In tandem with this work, the KLIKK project has engaged in research and development geared to
developing new practices with which housing associations can implement renovation projects. For building
managers and housing associations, user-centredness means that the planning, cost estimates and implementation of
renovation projects can be handled reliably through a single partner and that these are based on a jointly drawn up
and agreed project description. [5]
Renovation projects involve an unreasonable amount of work and inconvenience for building managers, housing
associations and building residents. It is hard to find partners who are willing and able to take on renovation of an
apartment block, and often it becomes necessary to seek out and assemble a range of contractors, whose work is
then very difficult indeed to coordinate.
On the level of practical implementation, renovations of apartment blocks are slow, expensive processes that
bring dirt and disorder and disturb building residents. The reason for this is that renovation projects in Finland
typically apply operational models conceived for new construction. The renovation of apartment blocks uses
methods designed for new buildings and the work is done for the most part on site, disrupting life for residents, the
area near the construction site and the local community. The increasing amount of overdue renovation of apartment
blocks in neighbourhoods built in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and the impending regulation requiring improved
energy efficiency in existing buildings pose a challenge that cannot be addressed without tapping the efficacy
offered by industrial-scale building.
In its component projects, KLIKK developed a range of solutions for additional construction in neighbourhoods
and for adding floors to existing buildings using prefabricated units. Solutions were also developed for upgrading
building envelopes, in particular the external walls, for energy efficiency, for renovating facades using a variety of
materials, for building balcony systems and for installing lifts.

Anu Soikkeli / Energy Procedia 96 ( 2016 ) 815 – 823 817
The typical concrete frames used in Finland in apartment blocks built between the 1960s and 1980s can easily
bear an additional floor using the light structure allowed by the new national fire regulations and it makes sense
to build the extra floors using prefabricated units in order to minimize inconvenience to the residents. The
planning and manufacture of prefabricated elements poses challenges, however, in that the roof slabs cannot as a
rule bear extra loads; these have to be borne by the load-bearing walls or pillars farther below, which are typically
few in number. On the other hand, one approach to increase the buildable area might be to expand the floors
beneath the uppermost one. Other locations requiring particularly close scrutiny are existing cable conduits and
ventilation shafts going up to the roof. Yet another challenge is seen in the fire regulations, which allow
construction of a single additional floor made of wood but not two, at least not without special arrangements.
However, economic considerations and the aims of infill construction and extending existing buildings in
apartment block neighbourhoods often speak for building two additional floors, and the present project has
articulated the principles by which solutions to this problem can be developed.
Renovations require not only money but know-how. The individual needs of apartment blocks in terms of both
technical solutions and architectural and environmental constraints vary to such an extent that it is not possible to
develop a universally applicable approach to carrying out renovations. Mindful of this, the KLIKK project set out to
develop an industrial-scale concept for renovation in which, applying an ‘all inclusive’ principle, the renovation
solutions could be tailored for each site using an operational model that integrates suppliers and implements
solutions using a business network. Where the renovation methods are chosen successfully, it is possible to shorten
the time needed for the work and thereby reduce the disruption of residents’ lives caused by on-site construction.
2. Infill construction and extension in apartment block neighbourhoods
The renovation and technical upgrading of apartment blocks, as well as the more compact community structure
created when supplementary construction is undertaken, are aims in themselves, but they can also be seen as means
for a more comprehensive renewal of apartment block neighbourhoods. Indeed, extension can be used to address
problems noted in the neighbourhoods, be they functional, social, ecological, or aesthetic.
Fig. 1. Additional storeys provide new opportunities for the regeneration of suburban apartment architecture. Old loadbearing concrete frame
usually can easily take two lightweight additional storeys. Lightweight usually means the use of a steel or wooden frame. (Lotta Kindberg,
University of Oulu)
One alternative that has come to light for the covering costs of renovations is additional construction. When
renovations are accompanied by the building of additional space for the housing association that can be sold or
leased, the cost of renovation can be offset by income form the additional space. In city centres, where the price
per square meter of units is higher, a housing association might in fact make a profit through infill construction.

818 Anu Soikkeli / Energy Procedia 96 ( 2016 ) 815 – 823
In an apartment block neighbourhood, a reasonable amount of additional construction will hardly cover all of the
costs of renovation incurred by the housing association, but income from the additional space can make a
substantial contribution – one crucial in fact to the association deciding to undertake extensive renovations
without fear of going too deeply into debt.
The KLIKK project has studied and tested a model in which an apartment block neighbourhood is examined as a
whole and a new type or town plan is drawn up for the area that serves its developmental needs. This plan, a ‘lite’
version of the regular one as it were, sets out the building rights as ranges rather than fixed values and, similarly, the
heights of storeys are defined flexibly and the locations for the space to be built are presented in indicative rather
than prescriptive terms. Unlike in the case of new construction in a previously unbuilt area, these locations need not
be specified on the plan given that the area already has buildings and residents. Building economy and the needs and
wishes of the area’s residents provide better guides to infill construction and extension than the ideas of those
drawing up the plans for the area. However, limit values must be set for construction even in a lite plan, so that the
rights and equitable treatment of the building’s neighbours are ensured. For example, the following constraints have
to be set out in the plan for future construction in sufficient – but not excessive – detail:
x how close the construction may be to existing building, roads, etc
x how high the building may be
x what the maximum amount of additional space is that may be built
x what cannot be removed from the buildings, for example, to preserve the city landscape
The idea and aim here is that the plan, within the established constraints, will allow for a wide variety of
solutions and implementations in the infill construction and extension to be undertaken in future decades.
In neighbourhoods that have been built with greater-than-average efficiency and near the centre of cities, setting
aside enough parking spaces for building residents may become problematical and in fact the number of parking
spaces that can be located in a block determines the extent of infill construction. The interrelationship of building
efficiency and the number of parking spaces was studied in the KLIKK project using the case of block 41 in district
4 of the City of Joensuu. The study showed that the planning of infill construction and extension should begin with
the planning of parking spaces; that is, it should first be determined how many additional parking spaces can be
located on the site, block or urban block naturally and without detracting from the living environment. Using this
approach, the number of additional parking spaces that can be set aside for residents yields a figure that can be used
to determine the amount of additional space to be built.
The residents of apartment blocks know their buildings and the best features of their environment and those most
worth retaining. But they also know what aspects of their living environment have greatest need of renovation or
improvement. The participation of residents and apartment owners in planning plays a key role in the success of any
renovation project and guarantees that they are motivated. There is no justification for or even sense in planning
renovation of an apartment block without taking advantage of interactive planning. In order to ensure the feasibility
of plans and to keep costs under control, it is nevertheless recommended that the contractors and prefabricated unit
suppliers also take part in the planning as soon as the condition of the building has been assessed and the objectives
of the renovation process have been articulated.
3. Additional floors in apartment blocks
The apartment blocks built between the 1960s and 1980s very often allow for the construction of an additional
floor, as they generally have no attic. They also often have flat roofs, which makes the addition of a floor both
architecturally and technically easier. Moreover, the structure of the buildings is also well suited to adding floors.
Their load-bearing frame can easily bear an additional floor that is lightweight, and could often support more than
one. Thus the reasonable approach is to build additional floors that are light in structure, that is, steel- or wood-
framed.

Anu Soikkeli / Energy Procedia 96 ( 2016 ) 815 – 823 819
Fig. 2. Up to 7-storey P1-class residential apartment building allows one new wooden storey with no need to be equipped with an automatic
sprinkler system. (Petri Pettersson, University of Oulu)
Chapter E1, section 6.2.3 of the Finnish Building Regulations as revised in April 2011 states that one extra floor
with a wood frame for residential purposes may be added to a P1-class dwelling of at most seven storeys without
automatic fire-extinguishing equipment having to be installed.
1
If plans call for adding two or three wood framed
floors to such a building, the entire building must be viewed as a P2-class building, which must have an automatic
sprinkler system for extinguishing fires. [6]
The KLIKK project decided to put forward a solution for fire prevention whereby the existing building and two
additional floors would be separated using a REI-M 120-class
2
horizontal firewall and the stairwells would rise up
into the additional floors and their walls as well would meet the REI-M 120-class firewall standard. In the proposed
solution, the P2-class additional floors would be equipped with automatic fire extinguishing equipment and the
uppermost floor of the existing building would be as well, meaning that a fire breaking out there could not spread to
the upper floors via the windows. Installing a sprinkler system in the uppermost original floor would be easy, as the
pipes required could be laid in the space between the roof of the old building and the new floor; all that would then
be required for the space below is that holes be drilled in the roof for the sprinkler nozzles. The fire resistance rating
of doors and other openings in the firewall may not normally be halved but because the three uppermost floors in
this solution would have sprinklers, the proposal was put forward that the rating could be halved on the order of a
minute in the case of the doors and conduits.
The fire-safety solution examined was presented to a fire safety expert from the Ministry of the Environment as
well as to the risk management directors or leading fire inspectors of emergency services at the joint partnership
meeting of Finland’s Emergency Services, held on 10 October 2013. Both parties considered the solution feasible
and in keeping with the spirit of the E1 regulations. The heads of the emergency services expressed their desire to
see the solution incorporated into Chapter E1 of the Fire Regulations.
1
Load-bearing constructions in buildings of fire class P1 are assumed, as a rule, to withstand fire without collapsing. The size of the building and
the number of occupants are not restricted. The requirements concerning loadbearing constructions in buildings of fire class P2 may in a fire
technical sense be inferior to those of the preceding class. A sufficient level of safety is obtained by prescribing requirements especially on the
properties of surfaces of walls, ceilings and floors. In addition, the number of storeys and the number of occupants are restricted depending on the
use of the building.
2
If the product meets the requirements for class REI 120, the result means that the structural element can resist fire for two hours with respect to
load bearing capacity, integrity and insulation.

820 Anu Soikkeli / Energy Procedia 96 ( 2016 ) 815 – 823
Fig. 3. The solution developed in KLIKK project. With wooden frames, additional new storeys on top of P1-class residential apartment building
is considered a class P2 building – the new storeys and the uppermost floor of the old building is equipped with an automatic sprinkler system.
Between P1 and P2 class there is REI-M 120-class horizontal firewall. (Petri Pettersson, University of Oulu)
The proposed solution would make it possible to have a functional firewall between components. An old building
whose top floor is outfitted with an automatic extinguishing system would continue to be classified as a P1-class
concrete framed apartment block and additional, wood-framed floors could be added to it; these would be P2-class
wooden structures. The raised stairwells would continue upwards within the additional floors as P1-class spaces and
would have to have effective smoke removal. The fires resistance rating of the conduits coming up from below and
of the doors on each additional floor would be halved, becoming EI 60 class elements.
Fig. 4. At the early stage of planning the new storeys the location of old ventilation ducts, drainage systems and flues intended to serve also
additional storeys were taking into consideration. (Tomi Tulamo, Smart TES project, Aalto University)

Anu Soikkeli / Energy Procedia 96 ( 2016 ) 815 – 823 821
4. Building additional floors using prefabricated modular units
Prefabricated modular units are construction elements that comprise wall, floor and roof structures. Part of some
of the walls may not be included. The prefabricated modular unit forms alone or in conjunction with other units a
module or functional whole.
Raising or extending a building using prefabricated units brings the advantage of speed and minimizes disruption
of residents’ daily lives. As the units are prefabricated to a high degree and are built in factory conditions protected
from the weather, their dimensions are precise and the time needed on site is reduced considerably.
When planning apartments and how the prefabricated units will be located, one consideration is that due to fireproofing
and soundproofing regulations a unit may not contain space belonging to two different apartments. Waterproofing may
also not extend from one unit to another; that is, each bathroom or toilet must be located within a single unit.
Which prefabricated units are used and where is determined by the plan for the apartment as well as the
dimensions of the elements, which are constrained by the production techniques used and considerations of
transportation and hoisting. In other words, the larger the units are, the sturdier their structure has to be to
accommodate their increasing weight and, further, the heavier the hoisting equipment that will be needed on site.
These factors make the construction more expensive, one component of the higher price being the need for special
transportation. Such arrangements are required in Finland where the load is wider than 4.5 m, longer than 13.5 m or
higher than 4 m. In particular cases, it may be economical to use larger-than-average elements, however, for
example where the construction site is near the prefabrication plant and appropriate hoisting equipment is available
locally. The size of the prefabricated units chosen then has implications for structural planning and heating,
plumbing and ventilation as well as for the planning and implementation of the construction site and installation.
When designing the floor plan of additional floors allowance must be made for the fact that the old roof slab will
not bear the weight of the additional floors but rather the loads have to be borne by load-bearing walls and pillars or
beams below. So the direction and placement of the prefabricated units are usually determined by the location of the
load-bearing structures below. If the load-bearing structures are not appropriately placed for the new apartments and
the placement of rooms, or the load-bearing structures are far apart – as those usually are –, it is possible to install an
array of beams on top of the existing roof slab to distribute the loads, with the new floors then built on top of the
beams. The beams will then make the new floor structure higher, which needs consideration when extending
staircases and fitting the facades.
Installation on an array of steel beams is often the best solution due to problems with the location of load-bearing
structures below the new floors. The beams placed on top of the original roof distribute and even out the load from
the new elements over the old structures. The most sensible solution is to use steel beams; this prevents the height of
the new modular units from becoming too great. Where beams are used, it provides a good deal of leeway in
planning the units, offers a space for heating, plumbing and ventilation facilities. In addition, ducts and drains from
lower floors can be brought up between the beams. Further, the beams provide a flat base on which to install the
elements; old roof slabs may be quite uneven indeed.
Fig. 5. (a) Original building and the use of prefabricated module units; (b) fabrication of CLT module units.

822 Anu Soikkeli / Energy Procedia 96 ( 2016 ) 815 – 823
Fig. 6. The old apartment plans do not require to be template to new apartments, if the new module units are installed either on a ready fireproof
concrete slab or on an array of steel beams placed upon the roof of the original building. The beam mode operates at the same time, where
appropriate, as horizontal route to ducts and sewers. (Petri Pettersson, University of Oulu)
Fig. 7. (a) Original building (Kirkkokatu 18 in Joensuu), present situation; (b) a view of the suggested additional constructing on the top of the
existing buildings.

Anu Soikkeli / Energy Procedia 96 ( 2016 ) 815 – 823 823
Prefabricated units may have pole or CLT (cross laminated timber) frames. The choice of type of frame depends
on the particular features of the construction being planned. The load-bearing structures in CLT-framed elements are
CLT boards. The advantage of CLT frames is that they are self-bearing, which makes it possible for the unit to
extend some two metres above the line of the outer wall below. CLT frames also allow for corner windows if the
prefabricated elements do not form a projection. The costs of building an apartment from prefabricated units depend
on how many units have to be used. The most economical apartment for a developer is one built of units as large in
size and as few in number as possible. This keeps manufacturing and transportation costs per square metre of space
as low as possible.
If prefabricated units are installed directly on top of the old roof structure or fireproof slab, it is best for the floor
of the unit to be a trussed floor even if the walls and ceiling are CLT board. The trussed structure makes it possible
for heating, plumbing and ventilation conduits to be laid under the floor. Where a unit is to be installed on top of
steel beams, the floor should be CLT board or equal.
Acknowledgements
University of Oulu, Aalto University, Tampere University of Technology, VTT Technical Research Centre of
Finland, Ministry of the Environment.
References
[1] Wilson B, Chakraborty A. The Environmental Impacts of Sprawl: Emergent Themes from the Past Decade of Planning Research. In:
Sustainability 2013 / 5. p. 3302-3327 (www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability)
[2] Soikkeli A. Possibilities in the renovation of suburban apartment buildings. Case: Porvoonportti. In: Improving the Quality of Suburban
Building Stock. COST Action TU0701, Italy; 2012. p. 127-140.
[3] Modular and prefabricated housing: Literature scan of ideas, innovations and considerations to improve affordability, efficiency and quality.
BC Housing, Manufactured Housing association of BC, Real estate institute of BC; 2013. p. 7.
[4] Soikkeli A, Koiso-Kanttila J, Sorri L. Korota ja korjaa: kerrostalojen korjaamisen ja lisäkerrosten ratkaisuja. Univeristy of Oulu; 2014.
[5] Herkel S, Kagerer F (edit.) Advances in housing retrofit; process, concepts and technologies. SHC Germany, 2011; p. 19-21.
[6] E1, Finnish fire regulations. 2011. http://www.finlex.fi/data/normit/37126-E1_2011-fi.pdf