How to burst through a condominium's penthouse floor, connect it via steel staircase to the apartment below, install a stone floor and a few other high-end amenities without damaging common areas, leaving dust in or around the building, or bad feelings among the residents?
That was Tim Mather's dilemma when he headed into a $600,000 remodel in the 60-unit Westover Condominium in Portland, Ore. To keep the owner and neighbors — who may be only a wall away — happy, Mather, who has worked on remodels in several condominiums, says, “We have a lot of systems in place to keep things clean,” as well as methods to smooth feathers before they ruffle.
Condos are difficult to work in because each individual building has its own house rules. Mather was required to meet with Westover's board, present details of the design, show his credentials, references, and that he was bonded, and a plan on how he was going to approach the job and protect the building.
At Westover, the rules are “fairly commonsensical,” says Bill Blosser, president of the building's condo association. Things like, “We have two elevators, and contractors are not allowed to tie up both. They must put padding in the elevators they use.” Blosser distributes a document called “Procedures for Contractors and Other Service Providers,” which elaborates on guidelines such as work hours, where to enter the building and store materials, and who is ultimately responsible for damage (the unit owner).
To satisfy most condo's “CC and Rs” (codes, covenants, and restrictions), Mather has a “job mobilization check sheet where we check off what we need to have delivered to the jobsite to protect the building and carpet.” Included on that list are plastic sheeting that adheres to carpet; 30 moving blankets to wrap furniture; and rolls of 36-inch-tall cardboard to wrap door jambs.
At Westover, to cut down on dust, Mather says they created negative air pressure in the unit by using fans to pull air through the unit and blow it outside. “When we opened the unit's door into the hallway, we wouldn't blow dust back into the hall,” he says. They vacuumed the hallway at the end of every day. They stacked wood in piles and put their tools in a row. “Many customers don't understand exactly what we're doing on a construction job,” Mather says, “but they do understand if the floor is swept and vacuumed and there is no dangerous wood lying around.”
But cleaning is not enough when a remodel can disrupt so many families at once. Mather keeps everyone in the building informed. He sends the neighbors a “pardon our dust” letter. At Westover, “I met all the neighbors below and on the sides. Anyone that might come in our path when we were doing the work,” he says, “I gave them my business card with my mobile on it and said, ‘I'm the owner of the company. If you have any questions or concerns during the remodel, call me personally.'”
The team informed neighbors the day before about which activities would be coming up, especially loud ones. “In a condo, if you're going to pound on a wall and someone's on the other side drinking coffee, that's a problem.”
All the precautions do change the bottom line. “I had to add a larger allowance in the jobsite cleanup and maintenance,” Mather says of the Westover project. Over the years he's put more money into the clean-up line item. “The majority of people do want a clean job-site and are willing to pay for it.”
Mather cleaned up in more ways than one: Despite higher costs, everyone agreed the job was a great success, and Mather acquired five others in the building.