Pictures of the Week-What's Wrong With This?

So I looked at a job yesterday here in SLO County; the contractor is taking over a job from another contractor, and the decks and stairs were already flashed and drains installed...
This is what I found...looking at the stairs, can you see what's wrong with the flashing/weep screed?

Yup, the weep on the down leg is not there, the stucco guy didn't install a weep, and just brought the paper and wire to the edge of the flashing. Now I have no way of bringing my waterproofing into the corner and out onto the flashing...this is a big leak possibility unless the stucco is opened and weep installed and terminated properly.

Then I looked at this drain set up...I have no idea what they were thinking of either...

How our Ancestors Waterproofed-Ancient History Tales

Trivia question-when did our ancestors start to waterproof things?
Answer-from a recent find in Mexico, around 3500 years ago!

Here's an article I got from my Google alerts...

Mexico City, August 18 (ANI): Archaeologists have gathered the earliest evidence of tar used as waterproofing material in Veracruz in Mexico, which is more than 3,500 years old.
Earliest remains of containers with tar are those recovered in the municipality of Hidalgotitlan, Veracruz, as part of El Manati archaeological project.
Olmeca cultures that inhabited the Gulf of Mexico vicinity used tar to protect soil, terracotta or wooden constructions, floor and wall covering, boat sealant, as well as glue.
According to University of Pennsylvania archaeologist Carl Wendt investigations, Olmeca people collected tar directly from deposits, many of them concentrated at Eastern Veracruz, between Coatzacoalcos and Choapa rivers.
Once collected, it was transported to the dwelling areas, where it was warmed up and combined with other materials like sand and vegetal elements to harden it.
Contemporary inhabitants of the Gulf coast vicinity still use tar to flatten the entrance of their houses, patios, floors and highways, but mainly to fix boats, as their ancestors did more than two thousand years ago.
In December 2007, in the right margin of Coatzacoalcos River, two Cayucos were found.
This finding represented archaeological confirmation regarding the use of tar, or chapopote, as waterproofing and sealant material, which is at least 2,500 years old. Although the wood has disappeared, the tar coating remains.
Alfredo Delgado, man in charge of INAH archaeological project, explained that the ships' vestiges confirm that the use of a waterproofing and sealing is a millenary technique.Cayucos' rests consist of several thin tar layers that vary among 1 and 7 mm depth. (ANI)

San Diego Union Tribune Has Article on the True Costs of Deferred Maintenance on HOA's

Postponed repair work catching up with condos
by Laurie Weisberg
Dilapidated stairways, rickety decks, leaky roofs, moldy walls and corroded sewer pipes. These are the sort of structural headaches confronting scores of homeowner associations as costly repairs to older complexes drain their communal treasuries.

After years of deferred maintenance, compounded by tightfisted members' unwillingness to pay higher monthly fees, condominium associations are facing a looming financial crisis, condo experts say.

“In order to maintain the assets, you have to have long-term thinking, but what we've seen is short-term people not planning for long-term futures,” said Karen Conlon, president of the California Association of Community Managers.

When repeated Band-Aid fixes no longer suffice, condominium owners find themselves on the hook for hefty special assessments, sometimes in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Increasingly, homeowner groups are having to take out loans to soften the blow of high levies.

“Deferred and unfunded maintenance is a ticking time bomb because so many homeowner associations are unprepared for it,” longtime condo attorney Erik Basil said. “What sometimes happens is association members don't want to contemplate having to write a $1,000 or $5,000 check, so they pretend there's nothing wrong, and that's what has occurred for the last 10 years.”

The problems associated with stalled repairs have worried Conlon's association for some time and are being complicated by the slide in home values and the credit meltdown.

Read the rest of the Story by Clicking Here

Here's my comments/opinion...
As if we didn't already know this...condo's suffer from a lack of funding for their reserve accounts for replacement and repairs to the common area's-roofs, painting, wood replacement, DECKS, asphalt etc. Wow what a surprise! Boards refuse to fund their reserve accounts, because they don't want to raise dues...and that's why they ran, so that dues won't go up! Well guess what...costs rise over time, and Boards refuse to maintain properly, allowing components to degrade so that they now need to be replaced.

Replacement of components is not cheaper than simply maintaining them to achieve their maximum life span. Consider...a typical 10' x 8' deck, all of 80 square feet, when properly built and waterproofed, with normal maintenance every 3 years, would cost around $3.00 per square foot to power wash, maybe make a few small repairs, and then apply a new top coat of pigmented sealer to continue protecting the waterproofing from UV degradation. That's $240.00 total for maintenance. Over a 36 month period, that comes out to about $6.67 per month that should be saved in reserves for the future maintenance that the Board/Manager/Association knows needs to be done to that deck and every other deck in the complex.
So $240.00 every 3 years (we're not adjusting for inflation in this example, but a reserve study provider would) means the deck would be resealed 10 times over the 30 year lifespan. That's $2,400.00 in today's dollars for maintenance.

Now take a deck the same size, leave it out in the sun exposed to UV for 5-10 years, don't maintain it, don't inspect it, just keep your head in the sand...and when you pull your head out of the sand, voila, one degraded, rotted deck is ready for replacement!

What does that cost? Well in my experience it comes out like this...demo old deck and framing, rebuild deck framing as required, apply new plywood to deck, re-stucco or install new siding, about $5,000. Then add the deck guy's work-new flashing,new deck coatings, whatever else might be needed-drains/scuppers etc. Add around $1200 or so for this work... TOTAL REPLACEMENT COSTS each deck-$6,200.00. Giving the benefit of doubt, we'll take the deck out to 10 years before it's being replaced...that's a total of $51.67 per month pro-rated over 120 months.

Seems it's cheaper to maintain...but that's just my opinion...

Pli-Dek to Raise Prices September 1st

Pli-Dek became the third manufacturer in the last week to announce a price increase recently in their wholesale prices to distributors.

Pressure from increasing costs of materials, delivery and raw goods is the cause...

Buy now and save!

Deferred Maintenance on HOA Draws a $27,500 Special Assessment

A Nevada HOA has passed an Special Assessment for $27,500.00 per unit...defrred maintenance dontcha know... View the TV report on video at Channel 4's website by clicking our headine to go to TV 4's site.

Residents of a Reno housing complex are upset over being hit with $27,500 assessment bills from their Home Owner's Association with little help from the courts.

The Housing Association hit 32 property owners at the Riverside Terrace condominiums with a $27,500 a piece assessment bill even though records show a majority of the home owners voted against the assessment.

"The lady next door, she's single," Elmer Morgan said, Riverside Terrace resident. He says it's a hardship on everyone he has spoken to in the community.

Morgan says the association has refused to do basic preventative maintenance, such as roof repair, for years and that's why he says the complex is in its current bad shape.

The property assessment reports that "maintenance has either been inadequate, deferred or both."

After years of seeming neglect, now the association wants to perform a million dollar upgrade at the residents' expense.

Another one bites the dust...another one bits the dust...and another one gone and another one gone...

No it's not Queen and Freddie Mercury rising again, it's the sound of falling developers...and their developments going up for auction.

In an areas less than a mile apart, are 4 very different developments-3 of which are in trouble or closed down. Dove Creek, currently owned by Centex, still has breath left in it, but Southside Condo's on El Camino Real is closed down and now Las Lomas, with RW Hertel and Tri-Mark Pacific owning various lots are kicking off. Hertel apparently is in big financial trouble on this project, with some houses and lots set to be auctioned next month. Tri-Mark has problems, but has sold all their homes except for 4, which are worth less than what they owe on to the bank.

In retrospect, I am glad some of these jobs, which I had bid on a couple years ago, were jobs I didn't get. Hopefully the subs have got paid...

Read the article below from the Tribune


From the Tribune's Biz Buzz section...
Las Lomas, a large housing subdivision started in 2003 in south Atascadero, has come to a stop and is in financial trouble. Only 60 or so of the 279 projected homes have been built and occupied, and part of the 100-acre-plus tract is in foreclosure.

Part of the tract is owned by developer Ronald W. Hertel, operating under Atascadero Ventures LLC, and the rest is owned by Trimark Pacific Homes of Westlake Village near Los Angeles.

County records show that Hertel’s firm owes more than $21 million to two real estate lenders: Point Center Financial of Orange County and De Witte Mortgage Investors Fund of Santa Barbara.

Currently 21 lots on Via Cielo, Azor Lane and Monte Verde are scheduled for public auction next month. About half of the to-be-auctioned lots have newly-built, high-end, 3,000-square-foot homes that were on the market—but did not sell — for between $800,000 to $1 million. The rest are vacant.

Hertel and other company representatives could not be reached for comment.

Trimark Pacific bought a portion of Las Lomas from Hertel in 2005. That portion of the project has also stopped, said Kirk Chittick, Trimark Pacific’s vice president of sales and marketing.

Of the 19 homes that his firm has already built, he said four remain to be sold at asking prices around $700,000.

Trimark has stopped building because it “owes the bank more than the houses are worth,” Chittick said.

READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE BY CLICKING ON OUR HEADLINE...(note, this link will only be good for a few days, then the Trib will want $ to read their article.