St JOHN VILLAGE Bansko Complex Management blog from Crown FM: August 2013

We all know they need some urgent attention.

A side from the obvious, that is zero care and attention for the last 5 years +, the primary issue's with the balconies at both the Hill & Park is the initial inappropriate selection of timber for the works by the builder that is white pine (this is generally used as a construction timber not a finishing timber, it can be used for finishing works but in this type application its critical, that its properly dried, treated and then maintained), as well as this the initial poor, basic and insufficient application of all the essential treatment requirements for delivering, properly on an external wood solution that is impregnation, primer, colour and top coat with weather and UV protection, all compounded by a general poor installation and finishing, has lead us to where we find our selves now.

Current Balcony condition

You see where the wood is blackened here it is dead already, and any measure of protection has completely failed

In this condition damp and moisture enters the core of the wood and it rot's from the inside out.

When it rots internally and the wood dies it looses its ability to hold its fixings as the wood fibbers no longer have any structural retentive properties, and as above the sections no longer hold together and any integrity of the installation is lost and becomes potentially dangerous.

Close up, if you remember when you knock a nail in to wood the timber fibbers grip it and remove is difficult, at the stage the timber has got to above it has lost its ability to do this, and thus must be replaced.

Here at the Park is a balcony where you see it is obvious the timber was never dried at all so totally inappropriate for such use, you see the sap is / has worked its way out the wood as its dried in-situ, this means any initial treatment is completely useless as is this section of wood.

Dilapidation is all over the complex Hill and Park worst areas are blocks A, B and K Hill plus A, D and rear B Park but its every where and to a certain extent a little bit of a lottery as quality of the timber, wood treatment and workmanship was totally hap-hazard, also over the years and depending of aspect of the apartment deterioration has varied, some apartment in what you might think where low risk area's have proved also to be in condition where wood section needed replacement. And the full extent is not know until sections have been dismantled.

After a hell of a lot of experimentation, time and effort we have arrived at what we believe to be the perfect solution, in respect to process, procedures, materials and finishes all coming together to essentially bring a tired at best, neglected and poorly sourced / selected wood back to life, fully repaired, looking beautiful and ready to serve and survive the next 5 years.

Currently we have a significant program of Balcony refurbishment work for owners well underway and all looking great, thus slowly but surly we are collectively lifting the face of the complex back to where it should be.

Here is a selection of some of the internal wood damage we have come across

Where the wood has split water penetrates and the obvious damage ensues

Bad here as you see

Not possible to see this internal damage with out disassembly total replacement needed, zero integrity to the section

rot right through

And again

Here you see the variations in deterioration and as the sections have been formed out of the clue-lam process that is sticking smaller sections of timber together to form a larger section, when failure sets in and the glues used cheep if not internal type the elements come apart, water ingress occurs and rot happens.

Not possible to either see the full extent of this rot with out demounting and certainly not possible to properly treat or repair.

This is a small up right and you see water has attacked it through the failure of the timber section above, any fixing not possible and at some point this will just fall out.

Rotten to the core

Another small upright section

Here you see an existing section that has failed and the sections of timber that make it up coming apart from each other, not repairable, if you want both surety of any additional life with in the balcony as a whole and a warrantee of 5 years. Next to existing section is our replacement element your see its one piece and totally dry Please also notice we section sections and wood with as few knots as possible.

As most owners already know of us we are very passionate about the St John Village complex and our work here, as such we have put together what we feel is the right and proper works specification for the balcony repair program and consequently are able to offer a meaningful 5 year Guarantee against the works done on each balcony project. And this its a proper and meaningful warrantee as we are here and there is no escaping our responsibility nor our accountable to both the Owners Association and each and every owner.

To dismount and repair or repair in-situ

There has been a lot of discussion on this subject, Crown for one given our on site experience to date, as seen above, and with the timber in general by our assessment being far beyond a simple rub down and lick of stain, a side from obvious issues in respect to damage, an in situ solution would not provide any measure of longevity, as access to facilitate the works is not appropriate, a by hand job would not allow proper remove of the dead wood element for this you need to take the timber down at least 3 to 5mm if this is not removed, it doesn't matter what impregnation, primer of finish we specify the results will potentially be as you see below.

Here owners have been sold or instructed an in-situ job and as you see the dead wood remains, it is unable to absorb properly any treatment applied and the latent discolouration will show through, and any on going protection limited as rot will continue internally and eventual failure inevitable.

With the best will and endeavours in the world at best a patchy finish is achieved and the stain colour will not be true to the manufactures literature

Additionally the constant visuals we are looking to achieve are not meet, and whist a measure of additional life is gained the over look is all most worst than the untreated look of the existing timber.

Not a bad in situ job here but still your see the colour differential and the dark dead areas of wood showing through.

Our Works Offer & Proposals

Below we set out what Our Offer for repair and re-instatement of Hill and Park Balconies entails and show example’s of the problems we have faced and over come, plus the various stages of these works ending up at the finished product.

Given the poor selection of woods, poor initial installation, complete lack of on going maintenance and the high levels of wood rot to date we have uncovered we strongly recommend that in order to ensure, first and foremost a safe balcony, & the surety of no further deterioration plus protect the on going visual integrity of the complex the balconies have to be completely demounted in order to first fully understand the complete extent of the problems / deterioration of the wood and secondly properly facilitate the refurbishment and on going integrity of the wood thus guarantee it for the 5 years that we provide.

For the Owners Association and all owners we have derived a Linear Meter Rate for the balconies including any Juliet’s and a separate Linear Meter Rate for the weather boards. If a number off owners wish to get together for such works as a collective we have also advised the OA a % discount rate for groups of 15, 30 and 60 owners, please contact Stewart Burn’s for details.

Included in our offer:

Works stages, process and inclusions in our offer.

1. Complete remove of all balcony sections from the apartment to our factory.

2. Complete disassembly of all elements

*All sections that make up each balcony are completely disassembled

3. Completely machine sanding down each off the elements back to the live wood surface of the timber. Where the wood has been left so long untreated and originally so poorly treated, the external circa 3 to 5 mm of the timber has died, this is why is looks gray, and when it rains turns black, this part of the wood will never now accept treatment and is beyond hand repair. This is why we disassemble and those sections where rot has not set in remove complete this part of the wood (as below).

BEFORE

AFTER

4. Included with in our linear meter rate there s a 20% allowance for the replacement of any rotten sections that we might come across. We have selected and stored quantity lengths of pre finished timber, all tested for dryness, ready to be cut to size and incorporated into the finished balcony project.

All replacement balcony sections are one piece taken from well dried and tested wood source, even for the Hill where header sections are 150 mm x 100 mm

5. Once all wood elements have been properly plained and sanded back to live wood plus those elements needed replacement have been remade. We re-assemble the panels (with all new screws and fixings) as they make up the balcony from which they came. These sections/elements are then hung/suspend with in our paint shop area and fully spray finish first with the impregnator, two coats primer and then two coats finishing (as per the OA specification derived buy our selves on behalf the owners and OA). We choose to spray finish, one as the wood better absorbs the treatment and finishes this way, second the finish is far more durable and thirdly the over all look is vastly superior and consistent.

Now ready for treatment.

Thats what I call a proper job.

To get the best and most complete finish assembled sections are hung for spraying and treatment

Half way through the process, and starting to look the part

6. With everything properly dried, all elements are inspected for constancy of cover and finish then released to the site installation team to re-install and finish the works

Ready for re-installation.

7. Full making good of the areas where the timber connects with the fabric of the building are all made good is facilitated and finished back to their original status, if not better where original finishing and workmanship was lacking.

And the finished job is we feel Bloody great and slowly but surely change the face of the complex for the better and the future