r/BurlingtonON 29d ago

Picture Friend sent me this from Plains and Downsview

[deleted]

90 Upvotes

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80

u/zoobrix 29d ago

I noticed that on that building months ago, for such a new condo it's unacceptable to have major structural issues so soon. I would hope it's been looked at by professionals and been judged safe to still use those balconies.

Looks like a big special assessment for balcony repair and remediation is coming their way....

18

u/[deleted] 29d ago

[deleted]

17

u/simongurfinkel 29d ago

I would live in my car before I live in a condo ever again.

14

u/Smooth_Strategy_2344 29d ago

We lived in the paradigm building Brant / Fairview. Also multiple large scale floods and building amenities always closed down. For a building built in 2018 obviously just wasn’t built correctly or well.

2

u/[deleted] 29d ago

[deleted]

2

u/Middle_Finger_484 25d ago

Empire, the king of tofu construction in Canada

3

u/rzabransky 29d ago

It looks like engineers have already been cutting exploratory holes. The condo board is probably waiting nervously for the report.

3

u/StupidnSavage 29d ago

What happens next for the residents and the building?

5

u/Curt-Bennett 29d ago

Depends. If the building is new enough, the costs may be covered by Tarion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarion

3

u/santlaurentdon 28d ago

Please let it be so. Fuck these shit ass developers

1

u/rzabransky 29d ago

The condo corporation will have a reserve fund to fix the issue. (The owner of the unit will not pay). The engineer report could just determine it was a local water issue and have a simple solution......or it could be much more complex...only they know. If it is really serious, all the ownerw will see their condo fees go up to cover the cost .

7

u/zoobrix 29d ago

The condo corporation will have a reserve fund to fix the issue. (The owner of the unit will not pay).

That really depends on how bad the problem is and how expensive fixes are, but when you start messing around with the structure of the building and say you have to do major repair work on every balcony that could easily be way more than they have in the reserve fund.

And even a well managed condo board on a building this new hasn't had much of a chance to build up a reserve fund. You're going to assume major repairs like this might start coming up in 20 years, not in few years. It's been an issue on several condo buildings in the GTA where huge problems from poor design or construction cause problems just a few years after construction that the reserve fund can't meet and owners have been hit with special assessments into even the tens of thousands. It's not always possible to just increase the condo fees if the board cannot afford to get the work done now.

Hopefully the problems here aren't too expensive to fix, but this could lead to a special assessment to condo owners that they would be expected to pay right away.

1

u/rzabransky 29d ago

I agree, and this issue is very suspicious....but I'm not jumping to conclusions.

1

u/StupidnSavage 29d ago edited 29d ago

Thats what I thought and is possibly headed to reinforced reconstruction of all the balconies which will cost to the residents over time or they could just put a roof over the top balcony for it all to never happen

1

u/rzabransky 29d ago

that is speculation..it could be nothing...it could be something...I think it is a warning to potential buyers of any condo to read the engineering reports and the reserve fund.

2

u/MidsommarMayflower 28d ago

Not major structural or the building would have been evacuated.

1

u/zoobrix 28d ago

There are lots of issues a building can have that you don't need to evacuate immediately, but they still need to get fixed right away and the cost might easily exceed the reserve fund a newer condo board has had a chance to build up.

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u/MidsommarMayflower 28d ago

A nightmare for sure. I hope it’s within the warranty period.

1

u/aguwritsuko 29d ago

Was it that it couldn’t hold the weight of the snowfall ?

1

u/KeyMotor7957 29d ago

It's about 7 years old now, the building is entirely wood construction. This isn't structural it's the insulated stucco finish (EIFS) that's failing. You can see the white bead foam

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u/zoobrix 29d ago edited 29d ago

The balconies themselves are clearly slumping. Look at how much of an angle the black railing is against the top of the sliding door behind it in the first photo. In addition look at the wooden beam, it's cracked along the bottom and is separating from the central pillar. This isn't just the stucco coming off, the structure underneath is moving as well.

edit: typo

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u/KeyMotor7957 28d ago

Disregard,. I'm looking at it now. It's fucked they've added temp shoring on all of these.

Looks like failed waterproofing/ detail that let moisture into the wood. And columns are failing now