Mould risk at Olympic Village?

Little posted a link to this Province newspaper story over the weekend. Subcontractors at the Vancouver Olympic Village are accused of taking shortcuts in its construction, including not insulating all in wall pipes.  This brings a risk of mould problems 3 or 4 years down the road:

During the meeting, Loftus says, Jasper was shown photos of the uninsulated pipes in various buildings on the site and said he would get back to the insulators union, but Loftus said he’s still waiting. A second visit to the site weeks after the meeting found the drywall still in place with the pipes now hidden behind it.

“I don’t think they can fix it on time,” Loftus said. “They would have to take the walls down, inspect all the piping and then do it right. It would certainly be cheaper to do it now rather than later, but I’m guessing it would cost millions.

“And if they found mould, it would be even worse.”

Ballem said she wasn’t told about any specific problems with the construction of the Olympic Village, only that a union had some concerns about quality control.

“This is the first I’ve heard of this,” Ballem said when contacted by The Province. “If the concerns are true — and I have no evidence of whether they are or not — and they not being paid attention to, that’s a concern for the city.”

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Anonymous

realpaul=Troll

In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response[1] or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion

realpaul

…bdk..:

#53 Sorry but hiding behind the tired rant of 'fascist' calling doesn't make a braindead opinion any more correct. You name calling morons-deniers just don't get the big picture. The deniers contingents remind me of the forest monkey's who beat their chests, throw grass, twigs and dirt in the air when they get frustrated. You won't win an argument with me through misdirection. These are some pretty weany comebacks, actually serving to prove my point. Boo Hoo.

...bdk..

realpaul this is a vancouver condo blog.

your right wing rants are cute and all but go find some fascist right wing bush loving blog.

Obviosuly the original real paul and this dufus are two different people. run along now troll. the original realpaul talked about real estate. this one is just a tool

realpaul

read on:

#50, the official number is 800 Million ++, look it up straggler. If the truth hurts you, too bad. trying to justify living in 'Shitside' by avoiding the facts is just plain stupid. If you are that concerned about your property value you should be screaming at the 'Shitty Council', not me. Living in ignorance is not the answer.

#51, If the truth hurts, too bad.

Can't hide from the facts chumbo.

dboy

realpaul:

Only person polluting Vancouver is you. You are certainly full of more shit than any of the waters around vancouver.

read on

rp – (46)

a billion eh?

realpaul

Anonymous: #48 , I'm glad to have brought the ravers, hiders and deniers out of the closet on the cop issue. The Socratic method is meant to be abrasive and thought provoking. It continues to surprise me ( not) that everyone doesn't realise that everything that happens in our society relates back to real estate. it's called 'The Big Picture' If we regress into a dictatorship of baton wielding nazi's free-wheeling through the streets killing citizens at random as in some other countries then what does that do to the sanctity of real estate prices in the long term? You have to think a little bigger picture dude. If our communities are no longer safe from EVERYONE including the police force then we have nothing!!!!! We have to understand that all of these 'values' we hold dear have been hard… Read more »

Anonymous

#46

The original Realpaul had thoughts on real estate and was half intelligent.

This new realpaul is an imposter that rants about poop and cops.

read on

can someone tell me why a union needs a business manager? what business have they to manage?

realpaul

Anonymous:

#42 , it doesn't make any sense at all to want to live anywhere near the cesspool called False Creek at any address. There are 26 sewage outfalls lining the walls of False Creek from both sides.

Everybody in Yaletown that just took a shit or flushed their infected needles down the toilet just flushed it straight into False Creek. And this is your 'upscale' neighborhood? Shitside?

You're right on one thing, only an idiot would choose to live there. What kind of delerium do you have to be in to not pay attention to ONE BILLION LITERS PER DAY OF RAW HUMAN EXCREMENT IN YOUR PLAYPEN?

...bdk...

#44. it is true gastown has some restaurants.

Bayshore Drive has Denman if you want to go bohemian or ethnic.

Carderos, Lift, Crime Lab, Market at Shangri La if you want to go upscale.

Robson if you want to be with the tourists.

False Creek North has the suppliers whereas gastown has the end users.

Even $1700 seems high for having to step over crack pipes and needles to get into your building and you wouldn't want your girlfriend walking around after 5pm

Time will tell I think Woodwawrds is going to define the condo bust in Vancouver

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la

Vancondobear

Actually #42 – to be honest I might have to disagree with you on your alternate choices.

I currently live in one of those waterfront False Creek North condos and I just find the neighbourhood too cheesy for my liking. A LOT of wannabes.

As per Bayshore Drive, I guess it is ok but nothing to do around there really. Plus A LOT of empty condos doesn't help the neighbourhood feeling.

In gastown there are some decent restaurants (Boneta, Salt, etc…)now and a feeling of a city starting. But you are right – bordering on the edge of scarytown. Worth $1700/month in my opinion. 2 bedroom that is…

Just my 2 cents.

Suguar

RennieWhereRU?: It is hardly a whisper…two weeks ago it was headlines online.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/British-Airways-ask

Anonymous

#14

"Who in their right mind would pay $1.5MM for something they can rent for $2500/month???"

Who would pay $2,500 to live in the DTES when $2,500 gets you a nice suite in False Creek North or Bayshore Drive?

Seriously you'd have to be on crack (and have a reasonable income) to choose the poorest postal code in Canada over the nicest waterfront areas in Vancouver.

Anonymous

Dave admitted he's a troll and has also pretended to be illiterate.

He gave out all the names he'd used. Ignore it.

asalvari1

Dave:

Dave, I fell revealed that you are not running this city. Its bad now, but man, you would bring totally new levels here..

asalvari1

Dave:

Dave, is that your professional opinion on close inspection of the picture?

Or you just play smart-ass after reading the text – its clearly spelled how this happened.

LordHuggington

I'm not sure I'd want to touch a condo in this city with a barge pole given the horrendous track record they've had over here. First the leaky condos fiasco, now all sorts of murmurs of sub par construction quality from possible defective drywall, a continued stream of buildings going under envelopes for repairs, and now this. It just makes it near impossible to trust the quality of construction in this region. If I were in the market for a condo, I'd be worried how many of these places are ticking time bombs for a major assessment because there's something wrong with it that could have been nipped in the bud when it was first going up.

Denialisrampant

Chilled:

#34 Seriously Dude, Every bodies smoking dope on the worksites. It's the union guys with the steady work who are growing the dope in their basements to sell to the casuals.

Meanwhile the bad news can't be hidden. The economy continues to shink for the 9th straight month. More unemployment coming in waves as the lay off settlements and EI run out.

patriotzed

rp: Sure, but that’s not paying off any debt and as their position deteriorates the rates will go up. Yes it is paying off debt, that's what "amortized" means. And what do you think "long term" means? And the CoV's most valuable assets are not the properties it owns outright but all the real estate within its limits. The CoV can tax at any rate it wants which makes it in effect the ultimate owner of all property in the city. And the CoV's tax rates are lower than many other metro Vancouver judisditions, never mind many other Canadian cities. And let's not hear any nonsense about people abandoning houses if tax rates up – property taxes are vastly lower than ownership costs and rental value and would still be so even if taxes doubled. Higher taxes would simply push… Read more »

HorsDevors

Dave: "More credible than the architect, the engineer, the owner or the city inspector?"

I guess it depends on who's doing the work of wrapping those pipes (or not doing the work as the case may be). Is it the architect? the engineer? or the mechanical insulators? And of course it depends on how thorough the inspectors are. We're renovating our office right now, and I can tell you that city inspectors are a thorn in the side on some issues, but completely overlook others. They're only human.

Chilled

I've been on enough construction sites in Vancouver to state that the people you see toking up in the morning and on the job ARE NOT union tradesmen. Probably general labourers and the like. Not that it makes a difference, really, but most of the journeymen electricians, plumbers, drywallers, elevator mechanics, heat and frost workers, etc are more 'professional' than the professional people many of you dudes deal with daily.

Sure there are exceptions, deal with it, but please don't slag all 'unions' and attribute drug use to the construction industry in general.

http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/

HorsDevors

Yeah, the 'stoned workers' problem is nothing new – I remember a post on this site from a few years back about that:

http://vancouvercondo.info/2007/08/everybody-must

Dave

rp:

The City of Van has a LOT of assets. They own a lot of land and can either sell or better utilize it to generate shortfalls in revenue, if needed.

rp

patriotzed: CoV can borrow long term right now for about 4%. That’s an annual debt service of $18 mil on $450 mil or about $40/year per capita amortized. Sure, but that's not paying off any debt and as their position deteriorates the rates will go up. They are facing large shortfalls now, while collecting $300M/year in developer fees? See page 10 & 11 of: http://vancouver.ca/fs/budgetServices/pdf/FI2008…. You are correct that this is not a disaster *now*, however to me it looks like a disaster waiting to happen. If new development stalls they will have a gaping hole in the budget. Their credit has already been downgraded. If that happens again or interest rates go up, double whammy. Given how this has already unfolded, I don't think the city will sort out a mouldy condo mess in any kind of cost effective… Read more »