WestCon Tribune

MAY REVIEW
KEYS TO A SUCCESSFUL
MEGA-RESIDENTIAL RE-ROOF
PRESENTED BY: KEN KOSLOFF
RICHARD AVELAR & ASSOCIATES

At the May meeting, Westcon member Mr. Kosloff discussed the case study of an 800 unit condominium complex located in Northern California. It was originally built in the early 1970’s, and was converted to condominiums in the mid-1980’s. The complex consists of two (2) large, stucco clad rambling five (5) story buildings that were originally covered in what appeared to be a 3-ply built up roof system with gravel ballast. This was a common roofing system for this type of construction, and somewhere around the time of conversion, a new 3-ply system was installed. Based on take-offs from the original drawings, we estimated the square footage of the roofs to be in excess of 320,000 s.f. or 3,200 squares.

It was estimated that the BUR was approximately 15-20 years old, since exact records were no longer available, and the condition of the roof was extremely poor. There were approximately 800 original HVAC condensers that were sitting on the roof on 2x4 sleepers which were nailed into the existing BUR. Many of these HVAC locations had been constantly leaking along with over spanned joist areas that had severely deflected during the past 30 years and were serving as low areas where water was ponding as deep as 3 inches during the rainy season. It was estimated that as much as 25% of the entire roof area on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th floors had been covered with either some sort of flood coat, mastic application or single ply modified torch down membrane in a variety of emergency leak repairs over the years.

One of the many challenges faced by Mr. Kosloff and Richard Avelar & Associates was having to deal with “multiple” owners. This project dealt with a Board of Directors consisting of 7-9 owners, an Architectural Control Committee consisting of an equal amount of owners, and a “Major Projects Committee” consisting of an additional 5 people. To make matters more challenging, these owners are typically non-technical individuals with little or no construction background who are being called upon to make decisions involving millions of dollars worth of roofing work. Of all the players involved in the process, it is likely the roof consultants responsibility, more than anyone else, to educate the owners in the huge and costly process they are about to undertake.

In the Spring of 2001, the process began. Even though this group of owners wasn’t familiar with the re-roofing process, they tried to set up the project in the most professional manner possible. First they had their attorney draw up contracts for all the major players they decided to hire, so that the contracts would not be redundant, would dovetail into each other, and the language would be compatible. Then they started by writing a scope of work for the design consultant, and ultimately interviewing and hiring an architectural firm to fill that roll. In that process, they decided that the Scope of replacement would include all the residential roofs, and all the individual HVAC condenser units as well as the larger package units which handled the hallways, laundry facilities, clubhouse, etc. Rather than hiring a separate Mechanical Engineer-of-Record to handle the HVAC design issues, they decided to let the Architect incorporate that individual as a Subcontractor under the Architect’s contract. This would consolidate all the design under one “umbrella” so to speak.

Next they decided to hire the Roof Consultant/Construction Manager. This would be a dual role entailing a multitude of tasks that were outlined in a 25 page contract. Essentially, the roof consultant/construction manager would be responsible for the following:

•-Interfacing with the design professionals to determine the best choice of roof material and application
•-Providing the initial cost estimates and budgets for the entire project
•-Developing an initial timeline for construction and CPM schedule
•-Putting the design package out to bid after researching and qualifying prospective contractors
•-Other aspects of the bidding phase including bid recaps, setting up interviews with contractors, interfacing with the attorney to develop the construction contract
•-Manage the weekly construction meetings, including meeting minutes and follow-up
•-Interface with Homeowners in matters of scheduling disputes, damages, and punch list items
•-Interface and coordinate design consultants with regards to RFI’s, Change Orders, and in-progress inspections, Substantial Completion, and final sign- offs
•-Oversee all applications for payment by contractor, and keep an up to date job accounting and change order logs, etc.
•-Maintain all job file records at job site trailer
•-Coordinate and implement any special inspection or special testing necessary
•-Provide weekly on-site observations to insure quality control and quality assurance
•-Attend monthly meeting with the owners to review job progress and owner issues
•-Provide all close-out documentation including verification of completion of punch list and/or any other outstanding items

The above Scope of work ended up incorporating some administrative tasks that would normally be handled by the Architect as well as construction management tasks. In this instance, the roof consultant performed a somewhat hybrid scope of work as requested by the owner.
In a very thorough and informative presentation, Mr. Kosloff went through the Design, Bidding and Construction Phases of the project and discussed the Close-out Phase detailing many of the unusual problems and solutions that were required by this project.

Mr. Kosloff’s presentation was an abbreviated version that was given at the 19th Interntional Convention & Tradeshow of RCI. Some of the information in this article was taken from a paper written by Ken. If you would like to receive a complete copy of the article, please let Rikki know and it can be emailed (with photographs) or mailed to you.