TURNBERRY ISLE SOUTH

Roofing Contractor: Best Roofing
Square Footage of Job: 22,381 Square Feet
Building Height: 275' +/-

About the Project
Tucked away on 300 lush tropical acres in Aventura, a city between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, the condos of Turnberry Isle South are the epitome of luxury living in South Florida. Rising 30 stories above the gleaming waters of Turnberry Isles' exclusive Marina, Turnberry Isle South offers its residents breathtaking views of the cityscape at all times of the day. Constructed in 1980, the 260 unit luxury condominium is managed by First Service Residential (formally Continental Property Management Group). The condominium had undergone two previous roof replacements and at the time had a gravel surfaced cold tar pitch roof over 3.5" of insulation that had surpassed its serviceable life.

In January 2010, Jonathan Schepps, the Property Manager, and John Belardo, the Facility Engineer at Turnberry Isle South, attended Commercial Roofing 101, a 2-hour educational class focused on the principles of roofing and its relationship to property management. After the class, Jonathan and John invited Best Roofing to inspect their property to address concerns about their roof. Their concerns were confirmed, revealing that the roof needed replacement due to excessive moisture trapped beneath its surface.

Enough money had not been set aside to cover the cost of the roof replacement so Best Roofing provided a replacement cost budget and action plan on how to keep the building dry until such time as the association was in a financial position to replace the roof.

Project Outline
A major challenge facing the board of directors and property manager was how to coordinate the replacement of the common area roofs in conjunction with the replacement of the three rooftop penthouse roof systems. Jonathan was faced with how to get all four stakeholders (three penthouse owners and the Board of Directors) to agree on what products to use, design considerations, who would be the roofing contractor and how would they handle the various other related trades such as plumbing, electrical, mechanical, doors, etc. that were impacted with the roofing replacement project. The Board of Directors hired Spec Engineering to write the roofing project specification.

After collecting the bids and interviewing numerous roofing contractors, the Board of Directors selected the solution provided by Best Roofing for the roof replacement project. According to property manager Jonathan Schepps, "We felt most confident and comfortable with the team from Best Roofing because of the way they connected with all three roof top tenants and the Board of Directors. Best Roofing's staff appeared to be the most capable project management team for dealing with a difficult roofing project as well as with the complicated political environment that happens when you have four independent stakeholders involved in the decision process".

Logistics
Logistics are always an issue on projects like this where there is not an open area efficient for construction staging. One of the challenges Best Roofing faced was where they could place a sizable crane required to remove the old roof and deliver the new roofing materials. After significant evaluation, Best Roofing chose to locate the hoisting equipment on the roof vs. on the ground so that the limited staging area could be used for material storage and trash disposal roll-off containers. This was further complicated by the fact that the only area for on the ground staging was the delivery area for the condominium and that needed to remain operational for normal daily deliveries.

Turnberry Isle South is 80% occupied with seasonal owners who spend their winters in Florida. The Board of Directors wanted to hold off on the roof replacement until after the majority of the residents traveled north for the summer - which put the project start date right in the middle of rainy season. Replacing a roof during the weather patterns typically encountered during the summers in South Florida is very risky. From June- November is hurricane season and during the summer months it rains every day in some part of South Florida.

The process started as planned. Daily progress reports with job site pictures were provided to all the stakeholders in the project by Best Roofing. Each week everyone involved and all trade contractors would meet and review the progress and discuss next week's plan. Best Roofing's team updated the master plan coordinating all the various activities and inspections as required by all governing entities.

When the project was finally started, all the stakeholders were on guard for change orders for unforeseen conditions as many projects like this encounter. Schepps commented that: "Best Roofing's attention to detail and their daily online project management tool kept everyone informed on how the project was progressing. The daily communication allowed us to get quick answers and decisions so as not to delay the project. Best Roofing kept us informed of the majority of possible additional cost considerations prior to starting the project. They had built into the base contract pre negotiated unit prices to handle any possible additional costs. Upon completion of the project, the amount of additional costs associated with completion of the project was insignificant."

Norman Schieber one of the roof top tenants said: "Best Roofing finally put an end to our constant roof leak issues in our penthouse unit. The men doing the work and the quality of the end product is exactly what we expected".