Page 14 - CooperatorNews March 2022

14 COOPERATORNEWS —
MARCH 2022
COOPERATORNEWS.COM
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spokesperson for the New York Depart-
ment of Buildings (DOB), these inspec-
tions, previously known as Local Law 11 may trigger certain disclosure requirements
inspections, are now referred to as the Fa-
çade Inspection & Safety Program—FISP cial statements. If you can keep the report
for short—and must be performed every in a draft form, it would have the same in-
fi ve years on all buildings over six storeys, formative value, [but] would possibly avoid
which amounts to nearly 15,000 buildings a disclosure that could prove problematic
citywide. Th e resulting report must be fi led down the road.”
with the DOB by a Qualifi ed Exterior Wall
Inspector (QEWI)—a New York State-li-
censed professional engineer (PE) or regis-
tered architect (RA)—who is privately con-
tracted by the building owner, which in the On Pro Aerial Inspections based in Howell,
case of a co-op or condo is the board.
Finkelstein explains that there were ing for a New York property management
changes to FISP requirements in the current fi rm and experiencing the frustrations and
Cycle 9, which started in February 2020. “In costs associated with façade inspections for
response to concerns about the accuracy of his clients. He says they were racking up
some of the prior reporting,” he says, “the change orders that sometimes drove costs
City determined that more physical, hands-
on inspections were necessary. And that aft er repair crews got to work and discov-
requires putting up scaff olding and doing ered that the visual inspections had failed to
drops”—which Finkelstein explains is the see the true scope of façade issues. So Tynan
process of using cranes, hoists, and other thought, “Why not use drones, which can
suspension equipment against the building get you up close easier and faster?”
façade to allow inspectors to get up close to
the bricks and assess and photograph their cameras that detect variations in tempera-
condition, as the new code requires. “All of ture on a given surface, Tynan’s drones can
this again leads to added costs,” he says. “It locate areas of moisture penetration on fa-
would be great if engineers were like Spi-
derman and could just climb up the build-
ing façade—but they’re not.”
Pain Reduction
Absent superhero abilities, one way to visual cameras, or RGBs, to show inspec-
potentially mitigate the costs and unwel-
come surprises related to a mandatory fa-
çade inspection is to do some voluntary Tynan, “What benefi ts co-ops and condo
“pre-inspecting” by commissioning a pro-
fessional envelope specialist to perform an we can provide a review of the building
exploratory evaluation. Eric Churchill, ex-
ecutive vice president of Schernecker Prop-
erty Services (SPS), which provides build-
ing envelope solutions for condominium gives you a certain advantage: we can look
communities throughout New England, straight down, with the camera at a 90-de-
explains how the process diff ers from a re-
serve study or technical report: “When we you see the issue better.”
talk about an exploratory evaluation,” he
says, “we’re talking about actually taking
siding off , removing roof shingles, remov-
ing trim, exploring around windows, and with noise, dust, and vibrations—not to
then educating the board on what we fi nd, mention the scaff olds, sidewalk bridges,
to start with. So if you fi nd deterioration and netting that are required to keep pedes-
under the siding, if there’s rotten plywood trians safe, but are oft en seen as an eyesore
or rotting framing, the question is ‘why?’—
and the education starts there.”
Arming the board and property manag-
er with the facts on the structure’s existing property managers and boards, this resi-
conditions enables the association to plan dent buy-in can be extremely diffi cult to
proactively for maintenance and repairs. get.
Rather than waiting for a building inspector
to tell you your roof is deteriorating—and of Regency Management Group, also in
then fi ne you for it—an exploratory evalua-
tion allows a condo or co-op community to ing this Step 1 as soon as an association or
evaluate the cause and degree of the dete-
rioration and then take the steps to improve inspection coming up. She says that in the
that condition. Come offi cial inspection Garden State, the Department of Com-
day, you’ll be more likely to get that prover-
bial gold star.
One caveat that Finkelstein points out is
that “you may also want to speak to your
accountant to determine whether you want
to fi nalize [the resultant] report, because it
that would have to be made in your fi nan-
Another way to simplify—and possibly
reduce the cost of—an exterior inspection
is to make use of drone technology. Mi-
chael Tynan, managing partner of Drone
New Jersey, started his company aft er work-
400% above the original contracted fi gures
Equipped with sensitive thermographic
çades and roofs; assess the energy perfor-
mance of windows, doors, and balconies;
and even identify water line breakage below
ground. Th e drones are also equipped with
tors and engineers on the ground what’s
going on in hard-to-access areas. Says
associations by using these drones is that
quicker, cheaper, and with better accuracy
[than a visual inspection]. Also, when you
put a thermographic camera on a drone, it
gree angle, which takes away refl ectance, so
Interiors
While exterior inspections have the po-
tential to cause disruption to people’s lives
by residents—interior inspections can be
even more intrusive, and require building-
wide participation and cooperation. For
Th at’s why Elaine Warga-Murray, CEO
Howell, New Jersey, recommends mak-
corporation knows they have an interior
BUILDING...
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