- Kitchen RemodelingPete Fowler Construction was hired by the attorney, who worked for the insurance carrier, for the synthetic and natural stone installer. There were minor problems with the stone countertops throughout the home... but the deck was a bloodbath.
- Bathroom Remodeling
- FlooringThe project is a private high school constructed by a Design-Build Contractor working for the Owner (the school). The building is approximately 33,000 square feet (SF) total, with slab-on-grade and concrete tilt-up construction. Approximately 15,000 SF of the building is a gymnasium with wood flooring placed on the slab-on-grade, which is 2-feet lower in elevation than the remainder of the building, and directly adjacent to and at the bottom of a sloped hillside. The Concrete Subcontractor contracted with the Design-Builder for the concrete (tilt-up) walls, slabs and foundations, including a 5-inch (specified 2,000 PSI) slab over 2-inches of sand over sheet plastic, for approximately $400,000. After construction, a traditional construction defect litigation case ensued with many defect allegations, including roof and wall leaks, moisture damaged gym wood flooring, and paint adhesion problems, with a $1.8 million cost to repair estimate from the Owner's experts. The allocation of responsibility to the Concrete Subcontractor was $1.5 million.
- Door Installation/ReplacementThis project was a 132-unit multifamily community in the Pacific Northwest, constructed in 1977 as apartments and converted to condominiums in 1981. There are six 16-unit buildings, one 24-unit building, one 8-unit building, one 4-unit building, and one clubhouse. The 4-unit building and the clubhouse are single story, the remaining are two-story, and all are wood-framed structures on slab foundations. All upper floor units have wood-framed decks and landings with wood stair treads at the entries. All buildings were clad with Masonite siding and painted wood trim. Sliding glass doors and windows were a mix of flanged aluminum and unflanged vinyl (replacement windows). The units are designed in a back-to-back style so the front and back elevations are similar.
- DrywallsThis project concerns a commercial building leased by the owner to a tortilla production site from 1998 to 2014. When the lease was terminated, the owner alleged that the tenants failed to repair $145K worth of damage to the property. Claiming damage to the drywall and overhead doors, water damage, staining from a rodent problem, and more, the owner (plaintiff) sought reimbursement from their former tenant (defendant).
- FramingThe problem was the deck waterproofing. In the process of designing the grand, open deck for entertaining that was over living space (meaning the deck was also a roof), the specifications were neglected. The plans and specs for an assembly like this should be thoughtful and intricately detailed; these plans were not. To add insult to injury, instead of requesting further information from the architect, the general and trade contractors had a quick huddle on-site and decided how to execute the work on their own. So, hundreds of thousands of dollars in wood framing, waterproofing, sheetmetal flashing, stucco building walls, doors, plumbing, electrical, a built-in BBQ, exterior paint, ornate synthetic stone, and more, were pieced together as they went, rather than engineered and planned thoughtfully.
- Tile InstallationThis project was a custom single family home perched on a cliff over a beach, purchased 23 years ago for almost $10,000,000 by the current Owners, our client. Recently the Owners added a pool and remodeled a cabana and guest house. The homeowners were sad and frustrated about the pool because the custom glass mosaic tiles were falling off, efflorescence was weeping at the grout joints, and the overall poor workmanship of the tile installation looked terrible.
- Staircases
- New ConstructionWe have an engineered, step-by-step solution for managing new construction and building maintenance, repairs or improvements, that saves more money than it costs and is the closest thing you can get to a real guarantee of quality. We call our interconnected suite of building and construction services "Building Life-Cycle Management (BLM)."
- DemolitionThe project is a large, 22 floor hotel and casino in Las Vegas with two towers that connect on the fifth floor pool level. The pool was undergoing demolition for renovations when the contractor initiated preparation for an expected rainstorm by sandbagging, providing structural support to the visqueen, and creating a path for the water to travel as it accumulated during the storm. While the precautionary steps the contractor took to prepare for the storm were reasonable for typical storms, no one anticipated this to be an 100-year storm with concurrent extreme weather. Water from the rainstorm flooded from the fifth floor demolition area down through the fourth floor equipment areas. It then traveled to floor three by means of an interstitial space above the conference rooms. The leak advanced to the second floor, which contained the casino’s “Eye In the Sky,” legacy surveillance catwalk, before finally leaking into the casino’s first floor. In its path, the water was chemically altered from category 1 (rain and drinking water), to category 2 (drain water), and category 3 (sewage and asbestos laden water). The contaminated water (CW) affected many areas of the hotel and casino, including: surveillance, conference areas, portions of the casino, and various electrical, mechanical, and lighting systems.
- Foundation Installation
- DrivewaysThe project was a shopping center under construction with two anchor stores already open for business. The injured Plaintiff lived a block away from the project, and regularly visited the operational stores. He would walk along a public sidewalk, then short-cut through the parking lot on the vehicular driveway, rather than walk the slightly longer pedestrian path. On the night of the incident, a vehicle approached while he was on the driveway, near the construction area; to avoid the oncoming car, he stepped up onto the curb, lost his balance, stepped down into the planter area, then fell to the ground. He claimed, and supplied contemporaneous photographs, that he was forced to use the vehicular entrance because our client neglected to provide a pedestrian walkway, and that the vehicular entrance was poorly maintained because it was sandy, and therefore slippery.
- Retaining WallsThe famous Design-Builder was being sued by the Owner for $1.2 million in defective construction including 45 discrete issues. The most expensive issues related to leakage and damage at both the front elevation decorative cast stone (precast concrete) porte-cochère and back elevation deck; and poor performance of the extensive retaining walls that were a mix of cast-in-place concrete and concrete masonry unit (CMU) construction.
- WalkwaysPete Fowler Construction was hired by the attorney for the General Contractor to investigate the claims. According to testimony from the grocery store's director and the contractor's staff, multiple pedestrian walkways had been accessible since the store first opened. This fact was verified by the City's Building Department, who had issued a Certificate of Occupancy to the two stores that were open, and would not have done so if a separate entrance for both pedestrians and vehicles was not available.
- Window Installation/ReplacementThe project was a 13,500 square foot educational facility in the Pacific Northwest designed as a "Net Zero" building, meaning it generates as much energy as it consumes. It was certified LEED Platinum (the highest level) and won numerous design awards. The walls and roof were built using structural insulated panels (SIPs), which consist of an insulating foam core sandwiched between two structural facings, typically (and in this case) oriented strand board (OSB). The exterior envelope was dominated by storefront windows and doors, metal panels, aluminum curtain wall, brick, built-up roofing, and standing seam metal roof. The original project cost $7.2 million ($533/SF which is about double the national average) and was completed in 2011.
- DecksWe attended opposing party's expert's water testing at the roof and conducted a thorough visual inspection of the interior of the unit, the first floor, the exterior of the building, and a brief inspection of the neighboring unit, all on the same day. This included 349 inspection photographs and 18 pages of interview, inspection & testing notes, and diagrams. We then composed an "Issues List" (sometimes called a Defect List) with corresponding Discussion-Responses; this is an abbreviated report format that we call an "Issues-Discussion Matrix." We then prepared an "Estimate Summary" of the estimates we received from the Owner that were composed by others. We composed our own "Scope of Work" and "Repair Estimate" to replace the roofing and roof top decks that included the design and coordination of this complicated work, which totaled $163,000. We summarized all of the work and documented our expert opinions in an "Opinion Letter with Recommendations." Near the end of this contentious matter we delivered sworn testimony in an expert deposition. Soon thereafter, the case settled favorably for our client and they paid our $16,500 bills in full.
- GuttersPete Fowler Construction was hired by the previous owners to review and rebut the cost to repair. We collected, organized, and analyzed a tremendous volume of project information. We created an issues list, and provided recommendations for geotechnical and structural engineering co-experts. We performed on site investigations with the co-experts to asses the issues and damages to the property. Based on our investigation, we felt that the opposing expert had considerably overestimated the cost of some items, like repairing the foundation, gutters, and grading. We then created a complete Scope of Work for the repairs and a detailed cost-to-repair estimate that totaled $275,000, which was $585,000 dollars lower than the owner's original estimate! The matter was settled favorably for our clients, and they were very pleased with our efforts.
- SidingA 52 unit, 11 building condominium project in the Pacific Northwest had some window and building wall leaks. The project was built in the 1970s as apartments and had been converted to condos 13 years ago. They hired two different building consultants to evaluate the leakage and make recommendations and both told the owners that they needed to remove and replace all the siding and to re-flash 100% of the windows and that it would cost $1 million. The problem was... they didn't have a million bucks.
- Residential Roof RepairPFCS represented the trade contractor who installed the membrane roofing system in the area that was damaged and being replaced. PFCS prepared a preliminary report in January 2017 and a final report in May 2017. We concluded that the damage was caused by a handful of primary failures including...
- Residential Roof Replacement/InstallationThe project was a 3-level, 4-unit, 15 year old condominium building, near the beach. The building had a low slope roof plus roof-top deck areas. Our client was the owner of a top-floor unit. The Homeowners Association (HOA) coordinated for roof replacement work, and roof-top deck repairs, to be performed by an unlicensed roofer, in the winter. There was dramatic leakage into our client's unit, and some into the neighboring unit, as well as leakage down into the garage, during a 100-year storm, due to the removal of the old roof and lack of protection during the rains. The unlicensed contractor was uninsured and the HOA refused to assume responsibility for the damages so our client sued the HOA for the damages caused by the leaks. Prior to our having been hired, the Client had procured interior damage repair estimates for approximately $100,000.
- PaintingOnce we collected and analyzed all of the information, including leak maps, we composed our plan. As always, there was more work than just re-piping. The electrical systems were grounded to the steel pipes that were being replaced and the buildings were full of asbestos. The system replacement also required interior painting, exterior painting, and drywall work. We needed to find an appropriate piping manufacturer with a family of products that would give us a warranty, and then find contractors who were capable of meeting requirements for that warranty and also interested in bidding this job.
- InsulationWe used cost data from an estimating publication for a unit cost for repairs that were excessive, reviewed the floor plans, and calculated the approximate square footage of total drywall and insulation at the property. The total square footage's were then used to determine a more reasonable cost for excessive repairs.
- Masonry
- CaulkingWe were hired by the attorney and insurance company for the Concrete Subcontractor to evaluate the allegations, investigate the project performance, draw conclusions, and allocate responsibility. During the document analysis portion of the investigation we found that the Concrete Subcontractor tried to exclude caulking of the wall panel joints, but it was hand-written back into the contract by the Design-Builder and initialed by all. We found that the Concrete Subcontractor subcontracted with a "Sub-Subcontractor" to perform this caulking (wall panel-to-panel sealant joints) as well as the "sack & patch" (smoothing of the concrete walls) in preparation for paint.