For the past few days, a residence in the borough of Saint-Laurent, in Montreal, has been turning heads and clicking, because it has a gigantic awning evoking winter car shelters. Although the image seems comical to some, it is not a joke, since the structure allows major construction work to be carried out.
Posted at 11:57 a.m.
A landlord who doesn’t like to clear his roof? Who wants to annoy the neighborhood? Or one of those viral jokes made with Photoshop? Internet users have multiplied antics and hypotheses about a Montreal house above which a temporary shelter has recently been installed, some evoking a giant car awning. In short, the photos circulating in social networks have not failed to amaze. But if there is one person who sees nothing in it, it is Daniel Singh, owner of Canevas Métropolitain, the company that designed and installed the structure.
“Shelters like that, I’ve made 500 of them over the past 40 years, and even bigger!” “, he slips on the phone, not hiding his perplexity in the face of the viral craze caused by this project in particular. “In the residential sector, it’s not really usual,” he admits, however. “Companies like Bombardier or Pratt & Whitney all have shelters of this size and even bigger, it’s just that they are not in sight. »
The mission of the large format shelter in the context of this specific residential project: an additional floor will be added to the building, which requires protecting the site from the fall weather. Its dimensions? 36 ft wide by 75 ft long, or 11 m by 23 m approximately; that is to say about the size of a tennis court. Three days are necessary for the installation of such a structure, requiring cranes, nacelles and anchors. Also in this particular case, it will remain in place between 20 and 30 days, until the work is completed. But a similar structure mounted in a fixed location could stay there for 15 to 20 years, Singh said.
PHOTO FROM ANDREW WALACH’S FACEBOOK ACCOUNT
Three days are needed to assemble the shelter, the first being devoted to the structure. Carport owners will remember these numbers before cursing next winter.
The huge shelter is also not rented, but sold (it takes between $45,000 and $60,000 for this kind of custom-made product, installation and equipment included, indicates the owner of Canevas Métropolitain) and will be subsequently put back on the market — there would already be five potential buyers on the list.
Faced with Internet users chaining jokes of more or less good taste in reference to the storm Fiona, Mr. Singh wants to be very clear on one point: it will not go away. “It’s not the kind of product that blows away. For 40 years [que nous en proposons], that never happened. Residential car shelters blowing away are poorly installed. »
PHOTO FROM ANDREW WALACH’S FACEBOOK ACCOUNT
The structure, seen from an assembly platform.