Facts about the balconies of Aquarius

It seems the questions about the need to replace the Aquarius Condo keep popping up.

Not the recent reports from ACG, Baptista and Hillman seem good enough. It is also important to point out that since 2009 we have had several other studies all point out the need to immediate address the balconies. This is just a sample of studies, evaluations, and professional opinions. The Aquarius Condominium pays for all this but it fails to act.

Click here for ACG 2014 report. The cover letter is a fair warning.

Click here for Gregorio Batista Structural Report 2015-2016. Many areas require immediate attention. * seen note on bottom

Click here for Hillman report 2016  – please be patient comprehensive report downloads slowly.

Click here for Concrete Compression Resistance Test of 26 balconies

Click here for original specifications of Aquarius Building construction of 1972 with a letter from Property Manager to Owner challenging facts. Facts about the Aquarius Balconies.

It is also of value to review the 2015 balconies repair effort. A contract with the total value of about $90.000 (nine thousand dollars) had been signed in late 2014. The scope was to repair about 36 balconies that required urgent attention. After some of the target for repair had to be totally replaced the work was suspended by the 2015 Board.  Bottom line: of the 36 balconies only 4 were fixed, some of them completely replaced and the Aquarius Condo had spent half of the budgeted allowance for this contract.

Should we travel the same road again? When the original concrete resistance should be of 4000 psi and 25 out 26 balconies show a resistance of under 1900 psi?

Another interesting question is: Why spend money on partial repairs joining 44 years old decrepit concrete with new concrete? The resistance of the old concrete is bellow code. Even if it is apparently good there is no guarantee that in two or three-year it will require attention again.

The time to act is now. Without your support nothing will be done.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.                      Albert Einstein
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