Condo Completes Major Roof Replacement in Record Time
Quail Run Condominium 1, Deer Park, N.Y.
Fast work — if you can get it.
That could be the catchphrase for the recent repair job at Quail Run Condominium 1, where a major re-roofing job was completed in about 30 days.
The 160-unit condominium, located in Deer Park on Long Island, was built more than 40 years ago as a collection of one- and two-story buildings, now an enclave for the middle class. About ten years ago, leaks began appearing, although they were minor and the nine-member board felt it had them under control.
After superstorm Sandy, however, the leaks started becoming more severe. The board hired R&W Engineering to evaluate the roofs and take samples to determine what was needed to correct the problems. Apparently, the flashing hadn't been installed properly in some areas and this became a problem, especially in the two-story ranch-style units. "Any time there was an elevation change in the structure — wherever it went from a single-story to a double-story roof — they had a lot of leaks," notes managing agent David Niederman, of Fairfield Properties.
The board members did not disagree, feeling, in Niederman's words, that "it was basically time for the [full repairs] to be done." The unit-owners were another matter. Since they were looking at an $850,000 job, most of them had questions, which the board addressed in a pair of meetings.
Practicality Pays
"We explained some of the options they had for raising funds and what had to be done," says the manager. "Some of them wanted to know if they really needed to [do all the repairs] to the whole community, whether they could just do some of them for now, or asked, 'Can we patch some of them as opposed to replace them?' or 'Can the project be spread out over time instead of being done all at once?' We told them it was less expensive to do them all at the same time."
It was also more practical. "You could not partially replace the gutters — we were putting in bigger gutters when we redid it. You couldn't really do that on half the roofs," Niederman says. They were also using a different style of shingle, which would mean the shingles wouldn't match if they only did some of the buildings.
"We told them that we really had to do this now, and we had voted for it, and that's why [they had] elected us," observes Mike McClorey, the board president. "We look at it like this: These people own these properties; it's their home. So we want to get their input as well. We all want to be on the same page."
The condo ultimately borrowed $900,000 — the extra $50,000 would go to some paving work that would be done in the near future — and the job started October 13, finishing roughly 30 days later on November 17. The contractor that did the roof work was JEM Consolidated.
"We were kind of surprised [at their speed]," says Niederman. "The contractor told us it would be done that fast, but we didn't believe it. He actually did get it done in that time frame, however. It was impressive."
PARTICIPANTS
R&W Engineering
David Niederman, managing agent, Fairfield Properties
Mike McClorey, board president
JEM Consolidated, contractor
For more, see our Site Map or join our Archive >>
Photo courtesy of David Niederman. Click to enlarge.