From: Thomas McSwiggan

Subject: Sigma Chi – Eta Iota – Summer 2014 house renovations

Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2014

Brothers,

By now you should all have been emailed a copy of my initial house inspection I performed in March. James presented the report at the House Corporation meeting for the brothers in attendance. This report is an update of some of the findings and work that has been completed since then, as well as, a plan for work that will be done this summer.

Taking into account the findings from the inspection, I feel that the money budgeted this summer would better serve us if it were spent on the structure & mechanicals of the house. These items are, an asbestos survey, an engineering report of the house columns and asbestos and mold abatement. Another concern is the removal, routing and replacement of the rotted galvanized plumbing. The HVAC system on the second floor is also broken and mold ridden and must be replaced. These items are not a surprise; they were identified in the initial inspection.

Some projects have been completed or are in the works since the last report. Paul Prizmonte of Pro Air Monitor Inc. has performed the asbestos survey. Materials samples have been taken throughout the house to identify asbestos and we now have a formal report. An electrician has looked at the pool and pool pump for proper wiring. A pool specialist has confirmed my belief that the pool skimmer & filter system is incorrectly plumbed, which I will explain in detail later. Another project that has been completed is all new light housing with efficient LED bulbs fully illuminating the rear parking area.

I have also been working with the city of Daytona Beach to cleanup the neighborhood. As a developer, if you don’t like your neighborhood, change the neighborhood. As I explained to the city fathers, we are not going to create a compound and wall ourselves in. We are going to work with them to change the area. I gave them a detailed list of things that we needed them to do, such as, new neighborhood watch signs, replace burned out street lights, clean up illegally dumped refuse on Segrave as well as more police patrols at all hours. To their credit, they began working on it right away! Now by the same token, we aren’t fools, although we aren’t going to wall ourselves in, I do believe that the house was too easy a target for the locals. My understanding is that many lawnmowers & weed-whackers have been stolen from the pump room and clothes from the laundry room. For this reason, we are installing doors on the pump room and laundry room; along with a security gate in front pass through by the kitchen.

I have made a list of the work to be done this summer and put some numbers to it. The list of work takes into consideration a 20-30K summer budget.

THE SUMMER PLAN- Repair house and repurpose rooms

This summer I plan to remove the galvanized pipe “above the slab” from the main house: At the same time I will install new copper pipe while rearranging the water flow so that the hot water works correctly. The closet in back of the library -the old brothers room- will be turned into a closet specifically for the new air handler. The room that the air handler is currently in is an old bathroom, this will be returned to it’s original purpose except it will be a common bathroom for the house with its door in the second floor hallway. This common bathroom is needed in the house. The current library is the old brothers office and it will be returning to the brothers’ office. The current brothers office “the closet” will go back to being a rentable bedroom. The current Executive room will be a new combined library, study and exec room. I have found the undergrads don’t have a decent study room setup in the house. I have seen Grady and other brothers studying in odd corners of the house. I think it will benefit them immensely when the new study / library is set up.

Asbestos survey – Completed

An asbestos survey is performed before any work on old houses is performed. It is the initial step in telling us what building material contains asbestos.  Asbestos was used in over 3000 building products in the U.S. from the early 1900’s to the mid 1970’s. This was VERY important to know because of the health risks involved. Asbestos is not all the same. Asbestos is one of 6 naturally occurring silicate minerals that have great insulating properties. The type of asbestos used in 90% of America’s building applications was Canadian Chrysotile, more benign than the blue asbestos that came from the mines of New Zealand and Africa. To be clear, none of it is good to breath. Asbestos has very rigid sharp fibers that when inhaled lodge in the lungs and cause mesothelioma or cancer, years later.

People have asked if having the asbestos survey done is going to open up a can of worms for us and the answer is NO.  The reason the survey was completed was to let us know what building products contain asbestos in the house. We actually found out that there was much less in the house than previously thought. On the other hand, if we remodel, sell or raze the house, it needed to be done. Furthermore, it is my understanding that it has been difficult to get some of the contractors to work in the attics because of the asbestos stigma, so now is a good time to remove it, this will let us have proper maintenance work done in the attics from now on. It is also wrapped around pipes that need to be removed for this summers project and that cannot happen without the removal of the asbestos wrap. It is important to know that the company that does the asbestos survey and manages air quality during the abatement must be different from the company that performs the actual asbestos abatement. This method is a check and balances to make sure fly-by-night contractors are not going to cause more harm than good.

There is no need for the brothers to move out of their rooms while the abatement is in process.

Asbestos survey results just in: After testing all building materials in the house, the pipe wrap was the only product found to contain asbestos. I can’t overstress how great this result is. This is much less asbestos than anyone had anticipated.

• Survey cost     $ 1800

 Asbestos abatement (removal)

We have received two estimates of $4500 to remove the asbestos pipe wrap from the house, which is a pittance of what it originally could have been. My suggestion for this year is to completely remove all asbestos from the house to remove the health hazards and general stigma that is caused by asbestos.

I just want to explain that the cost differential between the pipe wrap containing asbestos and needing abatement versus what the cost could have been if the insulation and popcorn ceilings needed abatement is tens of thousands of dollars or higher. This is the equivalent of winning the lottery.

• (est. included)  complete abatement $ 4500

Engineering report

An engineering report is needed for the columns on the front of the house. The 16′ tall square wood boxes that are visible are not actually supporting the roof above. Inside those boxes are 16’x 4″ round steel columns that are the support for the roof. The bottoms of the wood boxes are rotted so I removed some of the material so that an engineer can see the inner steel tubes. It appears that 2 of the tubes are in good condition, one acceptable and one questionable. With the amount of weight on the columns, it is important to know the columns’ integrity. Work on the columns can be done later but I want to get the engineer in now so we can plan for it. If the columns are going to be worked on in the future, the building department is going to want a Florida engineers seal on it.

* I would like to see if we could get a Sigma Chi – Florida Licensed structural engineer to volunteer to inspect the columns.

• Sigma Chi engineer – Gratis  ?

Galvanized pipe replacement / removal- above slab

Galvanized pipes are actually steel pipes with a zinc coating on the inside, outside or both. They were used extensively for years until the late 60’s and early 70’s when copper became the norm; today we use copper or pvc. Galvanized pipes are tricky because they rot from the inside out. Depending on the thickness of the zinc and the mineral content of the water, Galvanized pipe’s normal life span is about 40-50 years- At this point their functional life is over. The telltale sign of galvanized pipes rotting from the inside is lack of pressure and flow as is witnessed in many of the brother’s bathroom sinks. Sometimes the telltale warning never comes and the first indication of a problem is a sudden burst.

The galvanized pipe that is in the house ranges in size from 1/2″ to 2″.  Needless to say, the bigger the pipe and the more pressure the worse the potential damage. Much of the galvanized plumbing inside the house has been changed over to copper pipe but there is still a significant amount left to replace. At some time, the easiest pipes to access were changed but as expected the harder to replace pipes remain. The pipes that remain to be changed in the house are hidden behind walls wrapped with asbestos or embedded under the concrete slab.

From experience and examination, I have an idea how the plumbing schematic runs but it is impossible to say for sure until I open a couple of walls and send a camera through the pipes under the floor. The plumbing in the house has been pieced together over time and it is not always done correctly or logically, for this reason, the plumbing must be done on a time and material basis (well material anyway:-). something that I do know is that there are not many shut-offs to isolate waterlines incase of a burst, so I will be installing isolation valves in the new plumbing so the whole house doesn’t need to be shut down for a leak.

I have removed approximately 100 feet of 3/4″ galvanized to date. There are corresponding photos attached.

• Priced in plumbing below

Plumbing – Hot water piping, recirculator system, etc.

As stated in my report, the Rheem commercial water heater is 22 years old. We should make a plan to replace it in the future but not this year. The cost of the unit alone is approximately $8200 (no labor incl.) Since the unit is isolated in the laundry room and can’t do too much damage if it leaks, I would rather concentrate our efforts this year on removing the asbestos, and improving the mechanicals inside the house. One of the undergrads chief complaints is that they have to leave their showers running for half an hour before it turns hot. This is a tremendous waste of water. There are two main causes of the hot water being cold; the hot water heater line runs down the exterior of the house and up the exterior wall and then through the attics cooling down the whole way. The other is that the hot water sits in the attic pipes and cools overnight because it has no way to recirculate back to the water heater. The first remedy is to open up the wall inside the house and install a new 2″ copper feed directly into the interior of the house from the laundry / hot water heater room, negating the exterior hot water pipes.

To resolve the second issue, there is a brand new product on the market that will be installed to recirculate the water to keep it warm in the pipes; as a result, the brothers should have hot water as soon as they turn on their showers. This system has a timer that can start up an hour or so before the brothers wake up. Between this new inexpensive system and the rerouting of the plumbing, I think it will resolve the hot water issue and save us money on both water and sewer bills- remember, the city charges for water used and basically again on the way out for a sewer charge.

A new toilet hub flange is needed on the second floor, this will be installed too.

New Recirculation system

Move Hot water line

Replace toilet hub

• Total plumbing              $ 4200

* Important plumbing note: Initially I had thought that we would remove all galvanized plumbing from the house but before that happens the asbestos must be removed. After doing some preliminary exploratory work, it seems that some of the galvanized “main feed lines” are under the concrete slab and probably have branch lines off of them. Taking into account money and time, I want to postpone replacing just the portion under the slab until next year.  I do want to send a pipe camera through the pipes under the slab so that there are no surprises next year.

• (sublet) pipe camera budget       $ 750

HVAC (heating, ventilation and air cond.)

In my original inspection report, I had noted that the second floor HVAC unit was bad and needed to be replaced. It consists of the interior air handler and outside compressor. This unit was originally installed in 2001 and uses R-22 refrigerant which is costly and being phased out. It seems that this unit was never installed properly whether in the attic or the bathroom where it was installed in 2013. The bathroom/closet that the unit is in was not designed to house HVAC equipment and has created mold problems, in turn; the mold spores are spread throughout the house by way of the A/C ductwork. The new room for the new air handler will be in the closet at the back of the old brothers office and will be designed correctly to avoid mold problems. The filter on the new air handler will be 4″ wide, which allows for six months of operation before a change as opposed to the 1″ filters that are currently in all the machines. This way they can be changed between semesters.

All the filters on all the air handlers will eventually be changed over to the larger style for practical and functional purposes.

All the thermostats will eventually be changed to models that have a 68-degree lower limit on the temperature setting to make sure that nobody can lower the temp and freeze the coils, which damages the units.

All exterior lines will be covered with aluminum capping and sealed correctly so that rodents cannot enter the attic again.

To do the HVAC work, I have received estimates between approximately $6- 9K.

• (est. included)  HVAC Approx. $ 7200

Duct cleaning

The second floor ducts are very dirty and have had mold spores blowing through them. It is important to clean all the ducts for health reasons and to prevent contaminating the new equipment. The duct cleaning will include a microbial spray to remove mold, mildew & other contaminants.

• Cleaning   $ 700

Pool filter & pool plumbing

As some of you know, Blue Ribbon Pools (as opposed to Blue Water Pools who was the prior servicer) has been maintaining the pool; this means both the cleaning and mechanical maintenance. As far as the cleaning of the pool, they seem to show up and keep a log of when they are there. They bill a steady rate for that service. On the other hand, I think their mechanical maintenance has been very questionable & problematic. An example of the questionable service is that they had installed a new pool pump a few months back that the bearings went bad on, squealing like crazy! Although Blue Ribbon was at the house cleaning the pool every week, they never said a word until I said, “Hey that motor you installed is bad.” There was also a leaking PVC line that they overlooked in the pump room as well. After speaking to Maurice the owner about the pool loosing water, he said, “We can fix it for $275 from the top or $800 if we have to break concrete”. Well, they didn’t break concrete and billed us $800. When confronted Maurice said, he would correct the bill to $275 and again it came in wrong at $400. They corrected it to $275 when confronted once again.

Another issue, the pool equipment froze and cracked this winter because of freezing weather. It wrecked the pump and split the filter tank. Do you think they suggested making sure the pump room was kept warm in the winter???

The last problem that put me over the edge with them was when I realized the skimmers on the pool weren’t working- they were turned off. I had mentioned this to Blue Ribbon many times but to no avail. I looked at the system and realized that there was no filter on the skimmer lines and it was sucking in and recirculating crap into the pool meanwhile destroying pumps and that is why the skimmers were shut off.

Through a contractor friend, I got a referral that is supposed to be the best in Daytona who looked at the system and confirmed that indeed, there was a filter missing and that it was plumbed incorrectly. He also told me that the pump motor is too large for the pump. It is a 3hp that runs 24hrs per day!

What makes this story so interesting is that Jimmy Eden’s (the pool expert) dad Cal maintained the pool for 26 years for us without a problem until someone (nobody seems to know who made this decision) decided they wanted to maintain the pool themselves to save a few bucks. Cal said he showed the undergrads how to do it and hasn’t heard from us in years. Cal knows the complete history of the pool and confirmed that indeed someone removed the big filter tank for the skimmers that was once in the corner of the pump room.

Furthermore, someone has cut the ground wire to the ladder and there is no GFI circuit breaker on the pump or pool deck lights to protect against electrocution.

Now, is there any wonder why the pool is costly?

* Note I don’t want to do anything besides the electrical updates on the pool this summer.  We will wait until the cooler weather to install the skimmer filter; in the meantime, we will get more estimates.

• Estimates in future

Pump & Laundry doors / new locks

As I mentioned previously, the masonry is done and the doors are installed. The purpose is so we can secure tools and laundry but also maintain some heat in both rooms as they both have a significant amount of plumbing in them that can be damaged by freezing weather. The cost of the doors is attached to the spring 2014 receipts. We need to install 2 mechanical punch code locks on the new doors. There are many different lock options and prices but the mechanical punch code locks that will work are about $300 each.

• Two locks  $ 600

Electrical

Some electrical work will be needed in the new air handler room including wiring the unit from the fuse box to the new equipment as well as a new outlet and a light.

Some wiring work will be needed in the old bathroom to return it to a common bathroom- this is the room that the air handler is currently in. A fan / light, vanity light, GFI outlet will be installed.

We are having GFI breakers installed on the pool pump and pool deck lights to protect the brothers from electrocution.

Repair the pool ladder grounding.

New bathroom fan in Room 6 and 15.

• Approx. electrical cost $ 2150

Safety gate

There is a new gate designed for the pass-through from the front to back that will have a punch code lock on it.

• gate    $ 1100
• lock    $ 300

Miscellaneous building material

Two new doors (upper hallway), one for the new air handler room and the other for the new bathroom. Sheetrock, 2×4’s, tape, compound, primer, paint, tape, screws, quikcrete, Pex tubing and fittings, plumbing supplies, vanity & toilet, doors, knobs & trim for new bathroom and air handler room. We will need some flooring too.

• bldg. material $ 2000

Doors for wing bedrooms

There are a few doors on the wings that have broken doorjambs. These are the older style in-swing doors and should be replaced with outswing doors this summer. We should do at least 3, maybe 4 this summer. There are 10 doors in total that will need to be replaced over time.

•  door allowance  $ 900

Summary

I am asking for permission to spend up to $26,200 this summer for needed repairs and updates. I am also asking for a reserve fund of $2000 incase I want to hire sublet labor. I am not asking for any labor costs for myself.

INVITATION TO ALL ALUMNI – Josh Chancey set up an Evite

I will be back down at the house for the whole month of July maybe the first week of August as well. Any alumni that want to help or just come down to visit would be welcomed. There will be no shortage of things to do. Come on down even if you don’t know much about construction, but want to help or learn. Someone can man the BBQ. I would like this to be fun and you might set an example for the undergrads 😉

Tasks that alumni can help with:

1. sheetrock, taping, sanding
2. priming & painting – interior and exterior
3. rehang fans
4. hang doors
5. flooring
6. power wash exterior
7. yard work
8. running to Home Depot or Ace hardware – “Gofer”
9. fundraising

Report prepared by:

Thomas McSwiggan

203-788-1669

tgmcswiggan@hotmail.com

Feel free to contact me with questions and / or comments.