For boards
The First Six Things to Do
In order. Written for a board that received a report this week and has a membership asking questions.
We will turn it into a buildable scope, a phasing plan and a realistic range — so the board can decide with numbers rather than adjectives.
In this order
None of these is construction, and getting them right determines how the whole project goes.
- Read the report with your engineer present, and ask them to translate it into priority order.
- Speak to the association attorney about notices, access obligations and member communication.
- Establish whether anything in the report is urgent enough to require immediate action.
- Get the scope priced by two or three contractors on the engineer's specification.
- Work out the funding route with your attorney and accountant before the member meeting.
- Communicate early and plainly. An informed membership approves; a surprised one does not.
What not to do
Each of these is common and each makes things worse.
- Do not hire a contractor to tell you what the report means. That is the engineer's job.
- Do not accept a fixed price on concrete restoration before the structure has been sounded.
- Do not let the board reorder the engineer's priorities to suit what is easier to explain.
- Do not defer envelope work while doing concrete. You will repeat the concrete.
- Do not publish a schedule before the parking and access questions are solved.
The thing boards most often get right too late
Telling the membership honestly and early. A board that explains the report, the options and the likely cost while it is still deciding gets a very different meeting from one that arrives with a finished plan and an assessment number.
We will come and explain the construction side at a member meeting if that helps. It usually does, because most of the anxiety is about the unknown rather than the amount.
FAQ
Common questions
- Is our building unsafe?
- Ask your engineer, not a contractor. Phase 2 usually means further investigation is needed, not that a building is unsafe.
- How fast do we have to act?
- Your engineer and attorney determine that. Anything genuinely urgent will be identified as such.
- Should we get several prices?
- Yes, on the engineer's specification so they are comparable.
- Will you attend a board meeting?
- Yes, and a member meeting if it helps. Most anxiety is about the unknown.
Next step
Find out what is actually wrong with it.
An inspection, photographs of what we found, and a written scope. If the honest answer is that it can wait another season, that is the answer you will get.