Sooner or later, every resident living in a condo, HOA or co-op community will have to deal with the inconvenience of living through a major capital improvement project—a roof replacement, an elevator rehab, serious exterior work, or something of that nature. No matter how carefully the project is scheduled, inevitably it will be disturbing someone. But with strategic planning and constant communication between board members, residents, management and the project crew, the hassle of the project can be significantly reduced.
Those Pesky Projects
All capital improvement projects have their major inconveniences but industry professionals note that some are definitely more disruptive than others, namely a roof or façade replacement, or even a road repair.
“The most disruptive projects are the ones that obviously are going to interrupt daily routines of those residents,” says Russ Zwergel, senior manager at Cambridge Property Management in Totowa. “For example, a roofing project where residents' routine is going to be interrupted because of access to the premises.”
Exterior projects such as repaving the parking lot have also proven to require tip top organizational skills from management. “The milling up of old pavement, preparation of the underlayment and then actually repaving the lot, you have to keep people off that surface for a couple of days. When you to take people away from where they are accustomed to parking, you have to make sure that everything is moved so the project can go off,” says Scott Dalley, senior vice president at Access Property Management in Flemington. “Those kinds of projects are typically the most difficult in terms of how they affect the residents.”
Although some projects can be done without interfering with the lives of the residents, the noise, dust, disruption and general hassle can sometimes be unavoidable.
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