We are pleased to announce that we have been selected by a large HOA in Santa Ana to perform their balcony inspections under SB326 requirements.
With over 100 EEEs to inspect the visual instruction will take apx 3 days of time to do, with 50+ 2nd & 3rd floor decks, numerous walkways and stair cases, the association knew it needed to select an independent unbiased inspector with the qualifications they required- no contractors allowed to bid, years of experience and a guaranteed structural engineer who actually is on site doing the structural inspections.
Numerous 2nd & 3rd floor decks will be accessed by ladder, minimizing disruption to the residents. Numerous stairs with wood stringers are required to be inspected under SB326.
We are transparent and open to being questioned about our means and methods, our experience performing inspections and our ethics. We don’t bid on repairs that an HOA needs, we assist HOAs in getting specifications written and three bids from independent contractors who don’t do balcony inspections.
Contact us today for your free EEE evaluation and proposal for balcony inspections. Call 805-801-2380 ask for Bill.
Balcony Inspectors Should Not Bid on Repairs at HOAs They Inspect
Please support our petition and sign it asking CLAC to ban deck inspectors from bidding on repairs at HOAs they inspect under SB326. Use your phone to scan the QR code and sign today! Thank you.
A client we are working with on a balcony inspection proposal walked us through their underground garage to get to the other side of the building so we could count the decks. As we walked through the garage I mentioned that that were a lot of leak areas and I saw that there was some crumbling concrete as well.
They said oh we are getting the leaks fixed, we have two bids and we are going to hire X company to do the waterproofing on the podium deck above. I said that’s good because you have some problems here… What are they doing? It was then they showed me the two scopes of work that the contractors had proposed to do.
This scope of work mentions nothing about using any particular brand or specific material. It is poorly written and leaves out many important steps that this job requires. Poorly written as well, this scope of work is ambiguous and like the first scope, has no mention of any brand names or warranty.
We initiated a conversation with the client and discussed these proposals and corresponding scopes of work. The client believed that the work they were ready to award to a contractor was going to fix their problems. Several issues they had were a failing coating on the podium deck, leaks into the building and severe degradation of the structural concrete deck.
Under the podium deck is significant deterioration. If you see these symptoms in your concrete, you have 99 problems but a waterproof deck ain’t one. Hidden behind a pan on the ceiling to catch water, hidden structural damage.Up above on the deck, failing coatings are dangerous to bare feet and they leak into the deck below.Failing coating at the pool deck coping. A very clogged up downspout is causing water to back up and causing leaking into the building.
We gave the Association a proposal to consult and perform non destructive percussion testing of their concrete deck and the coating on top. The engineer we partner with and I inspected the deck and as seen above, found some serious damage to the concrete and rebar inside. We found that nearly all of the coating on the top of the deck was delaminated and failing. We found that there was stress on the walls that the pool was set into.
This all added up to the conclusion that simply recoating the deck was not the answer. This Association needs structural concrete repair work done, removal of the coating on the deck, all new flashings around the perimeter, shot-blasting to provide a profiled surface for new coatings to bond to the existing, sloping to drains, cleaning out the drain pipes and a new non slip waterproof coating applied after all prep work was completed.
The job will cost them more than 181k. However, they will receive in return a lot more for their money. They have a consultant on their side that will get responsible contractors to bid on repairs, with quality assurance monitoring to watch over the contractors work and a written warranty from a quality manufacturer.
The Association now knows that they were going to lose 181k of their money and get little in return for it. The two bids were from supposed quality contractors, but we won’t be asking these two companies to bid this project. They should know better than to throw these bids out to their client, but IMO they don’t care about the client and that’s why we won’t ever use them to bid our jobs that we are consulting on.
Reach out today to discuss how we can help your association with your Waterproofing project. Call me, Bill Leys at 805-801-2380 direct or use the contact us box to send us an email. We can get you on the path to completing a successful project that will bring value to your property.
A high wind event that hit Grover Beach in San Luis Obispo county on Wednesday shows us why inspections of decks are so important.
Improper connections of wood panels with glazing in them to the framing & Extensive Dry-rot at posts.
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The apartment building on Grand Ave has a walkway on the second floor, and at some point someone added large panes of acrylic sheets or glass in wood frames to help block the near constant wind that comes through.
The high winds exposed the significant dry-rot that was present in the framing and posts, along with exposing the weak connections. Unfortunately due to the structural damage several residents are not able to access their homes and are living in a motel temporarily.
Because of the damage residents could not return to their homes.
Landlords and HOAs can avoid the liability and potential injuries to residents and guests by having their EEEs inspected by the experts at William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC.
We can do your SB721 and SB326 balcony inspections for you and get you into compliance. Do not expose yourself to unnecessary liability by failing to get inspected.
Reach out today for a free EEE evaluation and proposal.
As a balcony inspector performing #SB326 inspections on condos in California, I often hear the complaints about costs of these inspections. Stage 1 visual inspections are costly, and if the Structural Engineer determines that further Stage 2 destructive testing is necessary, it can get very expensive very quickly.
However, Stage 2 inspections are very important. When I’m doing my inspection of the waterproofing elements, I often find signs of water intrusion into the framing. My engineer and I confer and I explain what I’m seeing, what I think is the cause and we generally agree that a Stage 2 inspection ( destructive testing inspection) is necessary.
Recently we performed Stage 1 inspections in a condo building near Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. We determined that there was evidence of water intrusion into the framing and called for a Stage 2 inspection. Working with a team from Whitestone Construction, we had Whitestone remove stucco and masonite siding on 5 decks that are on the 3rd floor of the building. These decks are covered with 1″+ of concrete on them, and after the crew from Whitestone removed stucco and masonite siding, we discovered significant structural damage that was so alarming we immediately closed the decks to use.
The concrete decking and stucco siding hid serious damage that presented immediate life safety concerns to us. This meant the decks were unsafe to be occupied until repairs are made.
While looking at the damage, the Berkeley balcony tragedy came to mind. Here, as in Berkeley, students used the decks to hang out on, perhaps leaning on the railings to talk to friends below. A person in these balconies could have fallen from a railing giving way because the framing it was secured to was so rotted out wouldn’t hold.
The horrors of Berkeley can never happen again. Thirteen students in Berkeley fell 40′ to a concrete sidewalk. Seven died and six are left with serious life long debilitating injuries and the mental pain of that terrible evening.
Berkeley is why we inspect, and Berkeley is why I have become a warrior in the battle against bad contractors doing bad work that gets people killed. SB 326 needs some fine tuning, but overall it is saving lives. My peers in the industry and I stand up for keeping buildings and decks safe.
Independent inspectors, free from conflicts of interest, are your Associations best defense against another Berkeley tragedy from happening again. Yes inspections aren’t cheap, but a lifetime of being haunted by nightmares of people dying in a fall from a balcony and the costs of a lawsuit for negligence will quickly outrun the costs of doing inspections.
Reach out today to get started on your balcony inspections and get your association compliant now. Don’t delay thinking the deadline will be extended ( it might be) and even if it is, dry-rot is working on weakening your decks, putting people’s lives at risk.
Don’t delay your balcony inspection! The life you save could be your own.
We are excited to announce that we’ve partnered with a local non profit to assist them with their waterproofing needs on a to be built low income community in Santa Barbara county. This new community will provide housing for seniors with limited incomes that will give them a safe warm place to live in a very expensive area of the country.
William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC will review the Waterproofing details on the plans, provide comments and suggestions to improve the weather resistance of the building at an economical cost, as well as specify a low slope roof system for the mechanical/HVAC systems that will provide a long term solution to keep the building dry and free of water intrusion.
We are excited to start this new project and work with one of the top architectural firms on the Central Coast.
Once construction starts, William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC will also provide Quality Assurance Observation services to ensure the Waterproofing systems are installed correctly to the manufacturers specifications so that the building will receive the warranty from the manufacturers of the waterproofing products.
We are pleased to announce that we have been selected by a 40 unit HOA in Cayucos on the Central Coast of California to inspect their balconies stairs and landings to bring them into compliance with SB326.
This Association sits near the ocean and enjoys great views down the coast. While residents enjoy the views from their decks, we want to be sure they can do so safely. With over 40 SB326 inspections under our belt and the fact that we’ve been inspecting decks since 2007, the Association found our experience to be just what they were looking for.
If your Associations decks need to be inspected under SB 326, reach out for a free quote today. We visit your property, we determine how many EEEs need to be inspected and we determine the best method of access to the EEEs. Then we can give you a fixed quote for your Stage 1 inspection.
Find out why managers trust us to be their authoritative source for balcony inspections and get started now! Call us direct at 805-801-2380 or use the contact us box on the left side of the page.
We are pleased to announce that we have been retained to investigate leaks on a new addition on an Avila Beach residence by the owners of the property.
The owners of the property had hired a local contractor, who with a team of subcontractors built a dining room with a deck above to expand the living space and take advantage of the views that they have. The contractor completed the project shortly before last winter’s rains started up and the owners quickly realized that there were leak problems in several areas of the new construction.
We have performed visual inspections as well as rudimentary water testing that has found several areas of concern that will need to be further investigated via destructive testing.
Water testing a window in the search for leaks
If you’re building is leaking reach out to us today for assistance in investigating the cause and devising a solution to repair the problem. The longer you wait the worse the damage can become with water intrusion issues into structural elements.
William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC recently completed an SB326 inspection in Simi Valley at an older condo complex. The association has numerous styles of decks and stairs and landings serving the upper units.
As experts in waterproofing and investigating decks we had our suspicions about the integrity of the decks and stair landings. Using our trusty moisture meter, our instincts proved to be correct in our inspection.
Unfortunately (or fortunately) we discovered many stair landings have hidden dry-rot issues that we uncovered. We also found numerous decks with dry-rot around the deck drains where water had intruded into the plywood substrate and framing. While these problems won’t be inexpensive to fix, the association is fortunate we discovered them early, before a landing rotted out and collapsed or someone’s foot went through a dry rotted deck.
Hidden dry-rot at stair landing. More hidden dry-rot High moisture reading in a stucco covered support column Deteriorated steel stairs. Dangerous railing is loose and unable to prevent someone from falling off if they leaned on it.
Experience matters when it comes to performing deck inspections. We’ve been doing inspections of decks and stairs since 2005, and have investigated and fixed thousands of decks as a waterproofing contractor since 2003. As balcony inspectors, we partner with an award winning structural engineer to provide the highest quality inspections that we can.
Contact us today to get started on your deck inspection project. The deadline isn’t that far away. Call Bill Leys direct at 805-801-2380 or use the contact us box on the left side of the page today!
SB 326 Deck Inspections & Building Envelope & Waterproofing Experts
SB 326 Deck Inspection Specialists * Building Waterproofing Consultants * Construction Defect Investigations By Bill Leys The Deck Expert 