When is a “Band Aid” sufficient to deal with a problem – and when does it make a problem worse?
Unlike residents in other Vancouver neighbourhoods, everyone in False Creek South lives in buildings shared by their occupants, whether co-op, strata, rental or special needs, and almost always in an apartment or townhouse. Both individual and co-op homeowners share in the decisions to be made about their enclaves and all of them – renters included – pay for whatever costs those decisions may incur.
Among those decisions, maintenance issues loom large, raising more or less constant questions of what is needed and when – and what we can get away with.
Long-time Creek resident and architect Monty Wood (Spruce Village) has given a lot of thought to the question of what can – and ought to be – done in the maintenance of homes in False Creek South. Invariably, he says, many maintenance problems involve water, and usually the problem is obvious: something is leaking.
But where the leak can be seen is critical. If it’s on a sloping roof, such as the school or False Creek Co-op, the Band Aid solution is a good one. You don’t need a new roof. You just find the hole and patch it.
Monty’s focus is on wood frame buildings where leaks can do more damage more quickly than in concrete buildings: months vs years. And where wood frame meets concrete, things can become more challenging.
Many False Creek South wood frame townhouses are set on top of concrete underground car parkades. But if the leak is through the membrane, just finding and tracing the source and all its pathways isn’t easy.
Take, for example, a hole in the membrane under the deck of a townhouse set directly above a parking garage. The leak water can travel down though a crack in the concrete and into the parkade and is noticed on someone’s car. This water can move horizontally under the townhouse and not be noticed until some rot is found in the wood structural frame of an adjacent townhouse.
“A membrane is a challenge”, Monty said, “because oftentimes it’s at the same level as an interior space. Water gets underneath the membrane and onto whatever is underneath that. Eventually it will rust out the rebar.
“When the leak gets into the garage the collateral damage is then even greater because the water can slide into the house, accumulate, and rot out the framework underneath the floor. And if it rots out a piece of the framing the water will get to the base. Then you’re actually trifling with the foundation.
“Sealing a visible crack isn’t really sealing anything. It’s just trapping the water inside. You might not see it coming out anymore but you’ve only displaced the water. And you don’t see what it’s doing to the house.
“A better solution”, he concluded, “is not a Band Aid, but may require a new membrane”.
False Creek South co-ops manage major maintenance issues through capital plans that tend to be more long term than those of many strata enclaves. For strata leaseholders experiencing or anticipating a failed or failing membrane (or any other leak-related problem), there are important steps that can be taken in working out the solution.
- Track down all the original documents of the original Building Permit drawings for your building(s). Check your strata’s archives and ask other strata members and the property manager. Also try City Hall, but bring a letter of authorization. Once located, get these documents scanned, make PDF’s, and keep them dry and safe.
- Find a really good envelope consultant and/or roofing consultant, and /or a good roofing contractor, who will search out the source of the leak, (“sometimes it’s really hard to find”), do a walk through, take patches and conduct tests. Secure an estimate and map out a plan and a timetable. As well, refer to your Depreciation Reports. If necessary, the work can be done in phases.
- Join the Condominium Homeowners’ Association of B.C. (CHOA). They provide assistance and services, including information on handling maintenance, electric car storage and charging, education for new strata council members, and essentially all issues related to managing shared apartment/townhouse living. www.choa.bc.ca/resources/choa-information-bulletins.
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In the next issue: Does green retrofitting make sense for False Creek South buildings? Monty Wood thinks so.