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Starlight Tower, Inc.
7000 Beach Plaza
St. Pete Beach, FL 33706
RESTORATION PROJECT: STATUS
REPORT (#3)
October, 2008
What a summer this has been! We have successfully dodged
hurricanes (although worried through one near-miss) but have had
our share of driving rains and thunderstorms. As we have passed
the half way point in this project, we have suffered some delays
but have made significant progress. Since winter plans are
needing to be made, I’ll open this report with the TIMELINE and
let you know what can be expected in the months ahead.
Project Timeline:
Our construction and asbestos teams have continued work
throughout the summer, even though the frequent storms and ‘high
wind’ days kept them off the swing stages more than anyone
liked. The only ‘official’ delay days logged to date include 5
days for the demobilization and remobilization required at the
approach of Hurricane Fay and 5 days allowed for the company to
take on the additional task of removing the unsightly, unused
large water pipe that ran the length of the overhead 8th floor
walkway. The current estimated date of
completion is now early January, 2009.
For those
wondering at what point it would be ‘safe’ to come back to sunny
Florida, the only limitation (other than noise) is when the
walkway surfaces are poured on each floor. The current plan is
to do this towards the end of the project, after the painting is
done on the East side. When the walkways are poured on
your floor, there can be no foot traffic for a period of FOUR
DAYS. If the current timeline is maintained, this would
be occurring in December. Exact dates per floor can not be
determined at this time.
In order to ensure that as much as
possible is completed on the East (street) side in preparation
for your return, we have modified
the original West (gulf) side plan, as follows.
West (Gulf) side:
As reported previously, the West side work is done by ‘stack’
(e.g. all the ’08 units) since it requires a swing stage to be
suspended from the roof for each group. To date, the stacks
completed are: ’06 –’08 and ’01, with the ‘02’s currently in
progress. Rather than allowing these work teams to continue,
we will be shifting both teams (and
the swing stages) to work on the East side once the ’02 stack is
done. The teams will shift back to the West side
to complete the ’03 – ’05 stacks once the East side is
completed.
With this plan, we will have addressed all the
“open balconies”, with the exception of 203-205, which are over
the “open area overhangs” outside the lobby and pool bathrooms,
and can be sounded and evaluated for damage via ladder. With the
exception of 907, the open balconies and surrounding areas have
proven to require the most repairs, other than the 1st floor
knee walls.
So if your unit is in any of the ‘completed’
stacks and you have not been notified of the need to remove
windows and/or shutters, your unit is OK.
“Completed stacks”
have had all of the following done: asbestos removed, soundings
for damage, damaged areas repaired, cracks/holes repaired,
sealing around windows and/or shutters done and painting
completed. In addition, per contract
and to protect the integrity of the building, all open balconies
will have their floor covering (if any) removed, sloping for
water drainage installed and waterproof coating applied to the
floor.
Summary of
damage found by stack:
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‘08’ Stack: required window removal from 2 units (one of
which also required shutter removal) to effect repairs to
the building wall. Also damage to the kneewall of unit 108
was found.
-
‘07’ Stack: Only unit 107 required window & shutter removal,
again related to severe damage of the kneewall (as with 108,
probably related to previous 1st floor flooding). Inspection
of our first “open balcony” (907) showed that both it and
the unit below (807) were structurally intact and did not
require repair.
-
‘06’ Stack: Severe damage found in balcony of 806
necessitated repairs through the floor of 906 and ceiling of
706. Open balcony of 206 was ok, but Unit 106 beneath
required extensive repairs above the window area. No
window/shutter removal required for any of these units.
-
’01 Stack: Kneewall of 101 required rebuilding w/removal of
windows. Damage was also found in unit 701, but repairs made
w/o window removal.
-
'02 Stack: Kneewall of 102 required rebuilding w/removal of
windows. Exam of balcony of 902 (and 802 below) is not
showing any major damage. Although evaluation and work on
this stack is in process, no other major issues have been
found to date.
East side:
-
Asbestos removal (abatement) completed on all floors..
-
REPAIRS for walkway joists is complete on the 9th and 10th
floors, with 8th floor in process. Thanks to a challenge by
our Engineer to the Cathodic Protection company, an improved
installation process has been identified that will allow
joist repairs to proceed at a speedier rate on the remaining
floors.
-
Cathodic protection system: installation is occurring as the
joists are repaired.
-
Elevator Tower (shear wall): a risk of concrete delamination
(potential for large chunks of material to fall from the
Tower) requires evaluation of the structural integrity of
the Tower. A swing stage has been erected on the Tower and
the soundings and asbestos removal (where needed) is
underway.
Other Issues:
-
Water, Water, Everywhere: much
time and effort has been spent in evaluating potential water
flow issues, both on the walkways and open balconies AND the
leaks reported within the units.
-
Walkways: a professional survey of the integrity of the
current walkway drain system found the drains are intact
and able to handle the walkway drainage. Therefore, the
sloping to be applied will route the water towards these
drains. The costs for this approach were budgeted
($14,000) and saves us about $85,000 – which would be
the cost to revise the plan and re-slope and route the
water out through the knee wall scuppers (drainage
holes). Good News!
-
Open Balconies: all will have open scuppers and sloping
to best meet drainage needs while still keeping the
floor as level as possible.
-
NEW ! For those suffering with balcony leaks not related
to the window areas, a potential cause was identified --
the old ‘balcony drain’ system! These drains go through
each balcony from the rooftop and while they may have
been viable when first constructed and all the balconies
were open, (with open scuppers) they are now seen as a
possible problem. This relates both to the large volume
of water flowing from the roof and the number of folks
who have closed off or tiled over the drains in their
units (which changes the pressure gradients). As a
result, the Board is going to have a professional
evaluation of the roof done, to include options for
rerouting the rooftop water off the building and closing
off those drains (allowing only water from balconies to
drain).
-
This evaluation of the rooftop will also determine the
scope of damage and how much work will be required to
repair and reseal. We had hoped to be able to postpone
extensive roof repairs and just do ‘patches’ after the
swing stages are removed, so will have to see what the
report shows to identify our next steps.
In short, we’re making progress and are looking forward to
the final, finished product!
~~ Lynn Dopp
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