repairs: 3400 block west broadway
I see that they’ve started taking down the tarps and scaffolding on the 3400 block of west broadway. The owners and neighbors must be breathing a sigh of relief, I believe the whole south side of the street has been covered for more than a year. How long does the average leaky condo rainscreen repair take in Vancouver? It seems like a lot of buildings are covered for a extensive amount of time.
Have we made it through the majority of leaky condo repairs in Vancouver yet? It seems like the vast landscape of tarps have started to recede somewhat from the fairview and cambie neighborhoods.
On a side note: if you have pictures of tarp covered condo repairs in the lower mainland I’d love to see them*. Email them to me with the address and any other info you may have and I’ll post them. Ideally I’ll build up a searchable database of condo repair photos that may or may not be useful when condo-shopping in Vancouver.
*clearly I am a freak.
RSS 2.0 comments feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
November 23rd, 2006 at 12:14 pm
There’s still the “Gardenia Villas” at Broadway and Nanaimo that need to be dealt with. It’s a huge sprawling complex that takes up pretty much the entire block, and the whole thing is rotten. My wife and I took a look at one of the units last November when we were shopping around. There were numberous warning signs, fortunately: far too many units listed for sale, a notice in the elevator about the upcoming meeting for the engineer’s report, and minutes from the previous meeting about tenants skipping out on their strata fees (and the strata association being hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt as a result).
If one is still thinking about buying a condo (though with the market right now, I don’t know why you would be), get Ed Witzke as a building inspector. He hates leaky condos, knows how to spot them, and also has tons of pictures on his website: http://www.edwitzke.com/
It’s a bit hard on the eyes at times, but keep looking, and he’s got good info there.
We hired him to check out our duplex when we bought it, and I was very satisfied. Lots of pictures, lots of details. We have been renovating our home extensively, and so far haven’t found anything that he hadn’t pointed out or predicted.
November 23rd, 2006 at 11:51 am
Just like new construction, speed of leaky condo repair depend on availability of construction labour. Given current shortage of construction workers, it’s no surprise that leaky condo repair take forever to complete.
November 23rd, 2006 at 10:48 am
You’re not a freak. I’ve been looking for a list forever! I can’t believe there isn’t one for buyers and renters. There is another site that has been promising to reissue their list since I started looking at condos in the spring. I wonder why they took it down in the first place? Pressure from on high? Leaky condos are such a big problem in Vancouver. Please do the list. Why are ‘they’ so afraid of an informed buyer/renter?
November 22nd, 2006 at 11:10 pm
If we run out of condo’s to repair then what will happen to all those jobs? That wouldn’t be good for the economy at all.
Good question, interesting implications … no jobs, workers leave town, renting market opens up, condo-specuvestors lose tenants to shuffle, specuvestors get desperate and list for sale, surplus of condos, market crash.
All because of leaky condos! Nah, I’m just dreaming again …
November 22nd, 2006 at 10:47 pm
Hey mk-kids: If you go by there with digital camera snap a picture and send it into me. That goes for everyone else too. Just snap a shot of any tarp covered condos and send me the picture and address and I’ll add it to the database.
November 22nd, 2006 at 10:32 pm
hey, i think i too suggested this at vhb when i was a newbie so many months ago… it is a great idea. there is a building at the corner of pacific & drake, it’s been covered with tarps for some time and those poor folks have to deal with skytrain construction mayhem too.
November 22nd, 2006 at 4:38 pm
Regarding a leaky condo database for condo-shopping. Great idea.
November 22nd, 2006 at 1:33 pm
If we run out of condo’s to repair then what will happen to all those jobs? That wouldn’t be good for the economy at all.