Every strata property has some large projects. It’s inevitable. And the larger the property, the more these large projects cost too much. Here’s a look at why this happens and what the current council has done to avoid ballooning budgets.
As we’ve seen from previous efforts to reroof Windsor Garden, and other major initiatives, large projects on a Strata complex often end up with budgets that spiral out of control.
Let’s look back. Way back. To about 2015. Before the current roof, Strata Council hired several roofing companies to bid on a reroofing project. The Property Management company, Dwell, created a quotation scope and sent it out to large companies. The project was enormously expensive. The owners rejected it. In response, they ended up hiring an untrained handyman in flip flops, simply because they were scared off by the large budget presented through the standard process.
In 2021, then council president Ryan Clare, who had an engineering background, approached the roof replacement with the same “big project” mentality as had the earlier Strata Council. In his view, and his experience, this needed a comprehensive engineering effort, including a full engineering analysis, deficiency report, professionally created scope, roofing project management company and even an official roofing inspector who would make sure that these highly experienced roofing companies would install the roof correctly.
Naturally, the project once again became absurdly expensive. What could have been done very well by any reputable company became a massive project with hundreds of thousands of dollars budgeted for things that, quite frankly, were not necessary.
Many years ago, I was a co-owner of Fraser Valley Roofing, a small roofing company in Abbotsford. We had a reputation for excellence. Why? Because the roofs we installed didn’t leak.
That’s the bottom line. Roofers have one job: to create a cover over a building, one that doesn’t leak, hopefully for as long as the shingles installed would last. Roofing companies know what they need to do to meet this objective.
Roofing quotes depend on three key factors: the steepness of the slope (ours is average), the complexity of the roof (how many valleys and peaks; again ours is average), and the quality of shingles being installed. That’s really it. Workmanship doesn’t take that long. A typical house, even a large house, can be reroofed often even in a couple of days with a crew.
So why does a complex like ours end up costing $2 million, roughly $75,000 per building, or more?
One of the primary reasons is that the larger the project, the more bureaucracy happens. More people are involved. There are more questions and more fear from people who really don’t know anything about construction and raise valid yet often unnecessary “what if” scenarios. Strata councils, like all committee structures, fall to the lowest common denominator. Each “what if” scenario brings another decision to do the “safest” thing which of course leads to increased cost. And before you know it, your budget has exploded.
For example, with a roof there’s a common objection raised by property managers that you really need a roofing inspector involved to oversee the project. These people charge a hefty percentage of the overall budget just to ensure that yes, the roofers are in fact using electro-galvanized 1.25″ roofing nails and installing flashing correctly. Really? $30,000 or more just to confirm that roofers, already vetted, already working under a warranty, already highly experienced, are doing what every roofer is already trained to do?
No wonder these projects balloon to ridiculous levels.
Looked at from the normal perspective of being a “large roofing project,” most roofing estimates already start at a higher than necessary amount and go up from there. Thus, it’s not unusual to end up with a quotation that works out to $65,000 or $75,000 per building for a complex our size, when a typical house roof of the same dimensions would be less than $50,000.
For this year’s quote, driven by the owner’s request at the AGM to present a multi-year roofing option, council approached things from a different perspective. A reputable roofing company was asked to quote on a building-by-building basis. Instead of looking at the project as a “huge project” it was looked at as a series of large houses which could be worked on over one year, two years, or three years.
The resulting quote was much lower than expected, simply because it reflected what would normally be charged to roof a number of large houses. Including a 10-year workmanship warranty, replacement of all vents, full replacement of all gutters and downspouts, and high quality GAF certified shingles, the quote came to $40,000-$50,000 per building.
None of this negatively impacts the strata in any way. The companies quoting are all reputable. They are all experienced. They all offer ten-year warranties. They are all vetted by major certification systems such as RoofStar or GAF, which huge warranties on the shingles. As a result, there’s no need to involve the extra cost of engineering studies or costly roofing inspectors.
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