Balconies

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

8. We send staged images of the works/process so you can ensure proper adherement to the process.

A little sample of our detail and the quality of our finishing.

BEFORE

AFTER / Crown doing the right job

With all the above complete each and every balcony project completed by Crown carries a 5 year warrantee we full and proper accountability. 

For any inquiries and detailed cost please email info@crown-fm.com 

WoW Well what a Season that was

Sunday 7th April see's the end of the 2012 / 2013 winter season and as if by some wonderfully poetic manipulation of the universe, It also see's the start of a new dawn for the St John Village complex with us finally taking just and rightful possession of the block keys to St John Hill. As we all know, a long and difficult year has just past and all really for no good, nor justifiable reason. But thanks to the dogged determination and shear hard work of the Owners Association and Hill comity along side our partners UBB, Justice has been served and finally we can get back to the work of turning the complex around and setting it back on the path we all wish for it, and all owners can freely enjoy un-encumbered there hard earn't investment.

A major and heart felt thank you from Yana, Chantal, my self and all the Crown FM team for all the support, encouragement and loyalty extended to us during this period and we can promise you all, our every endeavour to create, much brighter days from here on in and in to the future.    

This seasons weather was almost the perfect wave, with plenty of great snow nearly all season and wonderful ski conditions up top on the slops, whilst down in the town we only had one week of sub -10 Deg conditions and only lost the operation of one apartment for a week during the whole season, whilst the loss of use of any apartments is not great, given where we are on our road to recovery with the complex, we where very happy with our winter watch management procedures and hope to have no apartments un--operational for next year with the implementation of the next phase of planned remedial activities.

Occupation levels at the Complex have been fantastic, even given the unwarranted disruptive issues that where ever present and it has kept Yana, me and the whole team fully occupied to say the least and i feel everyone enjoyed both the complex and all the new and old favourites Bansko has to offer, and as a resort i really feel its taken huge steeps forward at every level. Yes there are problems but its still a young resort and given the world economic climate, its done remarkably well, even managing to attract new and not insignificant investment.

Yes the Gondola queues particular during the Christmas and New Year period where bad some times horrendous, and during these periods we provided guest alternative transportation up the mountain which worked very well. The rest of the season however things where manageable. What must be remembered is unlike most other western European resorts, once you are up top getting around is marvellous.

Everyone knows we need another Gondola and additional slops to unlock the full potential of the resort, and no one more than Ulen who have pushed at every political and ecological level to achieve this and finally on 19 February 2013 it was approved at Government and European level, being announced across the media as such, unfortunately as all to often happens politics has got in the way, and the CEZ (electrical company) scandal that has brought the government down has meant this along with everything else in the country has been put on ice until the new elections May 12th 2013 are concluded.

The latest we have is that who ever makes up that government will have to pass the approval again, however knowing Ceko Minev (owner of Ulen, Kempinski and a hell of a lot more) i suspect he is canvassing every political persuasion in order to make it happen, i personally believe bye season 2014/15 latest 2016 a new Gondola and slops will be here.  

And so to the Summer we are very excited here, i personally love the summer and believe its the real undiscovered future for the resort as a whole and with the complex back under rightful and proper management, we are set and ready to get under way and full range of idea's and opportunities for all owners, friends and guests.

On our next post which will be very soon all the information for these and so much more will be detailed along with lots of other exciting stuff thats going on.

Hope to see you soon.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Dam nearly at the end of January 2013, what a great start to the New Year and 2012/2013 season it seams like only yesterday when we where celebrating bring in the New Year with our friends and owners at the Hill and Park, St John Village, at the Euphoria New Year bash, Huge thanks to those that came and Euphoria for a great night, all agree we must do this ever year and bigger and better each time.

And a Dam fine time was had by ALL

Ment to do this post much earlier but as the title of this post tells you it is wonderfully busy at the complex and this despite all the unwarranted and unjust issues going down, but as i think we have proved we at Crown along side the Owners Association and owners are a resilient bunch and do not succumb to any form of intimidation nor tolerate any actions nor behaviour meant to, or intended to undermine all the good work achieved to date on our journey to getting the complex as a whole back to where it should be and as you all know major and significant mile stones both legally and morally have been achived in partnership with UBB this year and please rest assured that we will neither deviate nor falter in our resolve to see truth and justice prevail. 

New Years day is always very interesting here in Bansko and this year was no exception, the Kukeri where out to scare and drive away all the bad and evil spirits, from the year just past (they did a special pass via the complex for us :) as the chief Kukeri is a good, good friend) the out fits are made from the hair and skin of a special breed of Goat, and are of a considerable value and highly prized.

Scary or what

smile

better looking than me or not :)

to the beat of a gypsy drum

Here is a short movie of the action that i put together not James Cameron yet:

Snowing again today and heavily, up top conditions are great and feed back is that slop preparation and conditions have been good and numbers skiing just on the limit of comfitable bring more and more pressure to bare on the relevant parties to approve and kick of the next Gondola. below are some links to recent articals regarding the subject, my personal view is that its coming, airport would not kick off if these investors had not had the nod and to many players in town spending good money, we have the word on a number of new options for the gondola and very interesting, so watch this space    

Mayor of Bulgaria's Bansko Seeks Expansion of Ski Zone

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=146192

Bansko Residents Rally again for Resort Expansion

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=146846

Bulgarian PM Endorses 2nd Gondola Lift in Bansko

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=146908

So to sign out and say to all owners on there way, see you soon, and those not planned to as yet get out here soon and enjoy.