Chatham Green Tackles Roof Replacement Project

Consisting of three buildings — one residential and two commercial —the co-op had some bad luck on its last major project, as well. A facade repair project took three years to complete and ended up with 26 change orders before it was completed this past fall. "That didn't go so well," admits Torres. "There were quite a few issues with the specifications." Explains Torres: "There was a lot of additional work that needed to be done that wasn't indicated to the board before. It showed up when they were doing the jobs; some of it was caused by on-site conditions."

But almost before the nine-member board could complete that particular project, it had to deal with the leaks. "The [commercial spaces] were constantly getting leaks into their offices," recalls board secretary Richard Scorce, who adds that the board first thought of repairing the roof a few years ago but was dissuaded from doing anything major by its manager at the time. "He said, 'Don't worry about it. You'll be spending $70,000 to replace the roof, when you can get by with repairs.' So we did patch work. That was three or four years ago, and it didn't work. We just threw the money away. We learned not to go for the quick fix."

With a new managing agent on the team, the board then hired engineer Patrick Chen of PC Design-Build Engineering to investigate the problem. He did a study reporting that the whole roof, including the sub-roof, needed to be replaced. That would be costly since the contractor would have to strip all previous roofs of plywood to get to the metal girders. The board, with an eye toward this and future projects — a domestic heating and hot water plant, perimeter concrete/asphalt replacement — took out a second mortgage for about $6 million.

After examining multiple sealed bids, the board tapped Teamwork Restoration as the contractor. Initially, more problems were uncovered. Besides damage dealt by the July 25 thunderstorm, deficiencies were discovered in the parapet wall. Says Torres: "Not only did we do a roof replacement but we were also forced to replace the parapet wall."

With such challenges, no one would have been surprised if the board had hunkered down against expected criticism by the shareholders. Not so: it kept the shareholders in the loop. Besides sending out a letter, the directors called a shareholders' meeting. "We have one every quarter," reports Torres. "The board gives a report and then they have a Q&A session for about 35 to 40 minutes, where the shareholders ask questions and we answer. They were actually very understanding. They have a lot of common sense, so they understand the need for replacement."

Ultimately, three roofs will have been replaced. The first, for the commercial space, 217 Park Row, began in May 2014. Although the roof replacement has been completed, the roof railing has not yet been installed. The projected cost was $750,000; the actual cost was $829,235.24. The roof replacement project for 1-5 Madison Street was started in October 2014 and finished in February 2015. The total cost was $155,057.64. The roof replacement project for 215 Park Row started October 2014 and was finished February 11, 2015. The total cost was $265,578.20.

Torres, who says the roof project has proved to be a success, observes: "It was quite weird to have that freak storm happen; we tried to time it so that we would not be in the rainy season — it would be the summer — but it's just the luck of draw. So I don't think there was anything we could have done to prevent that. If there had been a way to control Mother Nature, that would have made a difference. Since there isn't, [the experience offers a lesson]: when you're doing exterior work, you should always be prepared for the unexpected."

Participants

Orlando Torres, manager, Gerard J. Picaso division of the Halstead Property Group

Richard Scorce, board secretary

Teamwork Restoration, contractor

Patrick Chen, engineer, PC Design-Build Engineering, PLLC

Photo courtesy of Orlando Torres, manager, Gerard J. Picaso division of the Halstead Property Group.

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