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Heat Loss Solutions

AS YOU leave Metro Toronto heading north, the condominium corporations become smaller in height and fewer in number of units. The first condominium corporations in Simcoe County were registered in the early 1970s, the majority of them townhouses. Not only did they age over the 30 plus years, the building code has changed several times, too. With little insulation and ventilation the townhouses became less and less energy efficient.

Many condominiums that have been allocating only 10% to their reserve funds (as was required by the old Act) found themselves in a very tight spot financially. They were unable to upgrade their energy effi-ciency unless they special assessed the owners or turned to lenders. In the last couple of years however, new op-portunities became available to these aging condominium corporations.

■CaseStudy

As an example I would like to present Simcoe Condominium Cor-

ByJoannaTomaszewski,RCM

AGING Condos

for Older Condos North of Toronto

SCC #29 in Orillia, ON discovered new roof venting options to counteract their ice damming buildup and heat loss. Photo: Prelude Photography

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this was a drop in the bucket in efforts to resolve heat loss and ice buildup on their roofs. Every year the owners, directors and manage-ment dealt with ice buildups that resulted in water leaks into the units.

A few years ago Bayshore’s prop-erty managers and some condomin-ium corporations’ directors became involved with several retrofit proj-ects on different condominium cor-porations and became more and more aware of available government grants and incentives to help make the older buildings more energy effi-cient. This brings me back to the ag-ing townhouse condominiums each year facing a large amount of snow in Simcoe County. The manager and board of directors of SCC #11 were first to discover new roof venting options coming from a Quebec com-pany, Ventilation-Maximum Ltée, and energy retrofit grants from the federal and provincial governments. SCC #29 followed in the footsteps of SCC #11 and added additional up-grades to the energy retrofit.

The secret was to spray foam in the top of the outer walls in the attic,

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SCC #11 in Barrie, ON had enough in the reserve fund to pay the initial retrofit costs and with the grants then turned over by the owners to the corporation built it right back avoiding obtaining additional loans or assessing the owners. Photo: Prelude Photography

poration No. 11 and No. 29, both registered in the late 1970s. SCC #11 known as Kidd’s Creek Condomini-um is located in Barrie and consists of 82 townhouses; SCC #29 known as Village Green is located in Oril-lia and consists of 111 townhous-es. For the past several years both corporations have been managed by Bayshore Property Management Inc. Both complexes were dealing

with excessive ice damming build-ups and heat loss. Over the years upgrades included conversions from baseboard electric heating to gas furnaces, installation of whirlybirds on the roofs, blown in insulation in the attics and new windows and doors. Engineers, roofers and other contractors were consulted suggest-ing different solutions, some of them out-of-reach financially. However,

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adding high R value where needed to prevent heat loss at the point where ice damming begins. Then additional cellulose insulation to R50 was added in the attics. With effective ventila-tion and minimum heat loss the attics should be about the same tempera-ture as the outside of the building and no ice will form. Walls were filled to R15 by drilling between each stud and filling with cellulose. Holes were patched and painted.

■FirstSteps:ProjectPlanning

The board and management be-gan with meeting and interviewing contractors and reviewing the finan-cial options to complete the project. Once it was established that the cor-porations could afford the retrofit it was very important to hire the right project manager. Kidd’s Creek Con-dominium and Village Green being similar complexes decided to hire the same project manager for both corporations.

We started with an energy au-dit on a couple units. Once the re-ports were completed we knew what could be upgraded and how high the provincial and federal grants would be. Next step was to obtain quotes for the retrofits from insulation and venting contractors. When all the pricing was in the project manager presented to the board and manage-ment the comparison of all the costs and grants. It was decided that the condominium corporations would pay all the initial costs associated with the audits and retrofits and be-cause the government will only deal with the unit owner we had to set up agreements between the unit owners and the condominium corporations to ensure that the owners turn over the grants once they receive them.

SCC #11’s reserve fund was not sufficient to cover all initial costs for the audits and retrofits, therefore the board decided to obtain a line of credit. An owners’ meeting was called to approve a borrowing by-law and to explain the benefits and the process to the owners. This was a very interesting concept that the board and the management came up with; the line of credit was used to pay the ongoing costs of the audits

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Simcoe Condominium Corporation No. 29 CONTRACT COST REBATE NET COST

Initial Energy Audit $300.00 $150.00 $150.00Final Energy Audit $120.00 $120.00Total Audits $420.00 $150.00 $270.00Attic

Foam insulation $825.00 $825.00Attic Insulation to R50 with existing insulation >R12

To include: Installation of 4” insulated exhaust fan duct & seal existing fanInstallation and securing of cardboard moore ventsFill in cavity around PVC plumbing exhaust with celluloseBlow R50 cellulose into wall cavity between adjacent firewallsCrib attic hatch and insulate with R40.

$572.00 $750.00 -$178.00

Remove turbine, add 2 “Maximum” roof vents and bath vent stack

$500.00

Total Attics and Roof Vents $1,897.00 $750.00 $1,147.00WallsAdd insulation to R14 Interior Unit 1st and 2nd

floors $1,258.00 -$383.00

Add insulation to R14 End Unit 1st and 2nd floors $2,161.00 -$439.00Add insulation to floor over garage $300.00 $380.00 -$80.00Total Cost Interior Unit Net Cost to SCC #29 $3,875.00 $954.00Total Cost End Unit Net Cost to SCC #29 $4,778.00 $898.00Total for 71 Interior Units $67,734.00Total for 40 End Units $35,920.00Sub Total $103,654.00GSTTotal $126,966.25

Average Cost per Unit $1,143.84

Table 1: An example of the breakdown of the costs and rebates for SCC#29.

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and retrofits and then as the owners were receiving the grants and turn-ing them over to the corporation the line of credit was being paid off leaving the corporation with a small balance to be paid over the next couple years.

SCC #29 on the other hand, had enough in the reserve fund to pay the initial costs and with the grants then turned over by the owners to the corporation built it right back avoiding obtaining additional loans or assessing the owners.

Luckily, all initial energy audits and registrations have been complet-ed prior to the government shutting down the rebate program and there-fore allowing these corporations to complete the retrofits.

To recap what was done and what the cost was I will use the example of SCC #29 as prepared by the Project Manager Jim Perrin and shown in Table 1.

The numbers in the table are es-timated as the project is still ongo-ing; however the actual numbers are coming close to the estimates. The

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first rebate cheques for both corpo-rations have already been received and continue to arrive daily. Major-ity of work has been completed prior to July 1, 2010 avoiding the impact of HST.

As I mentioned at the beginning not only did these corporations age but the building code in the ‘70s was different and as such SCC #29’s units did not have a bathroom vent except for a window. Therefore, for a very minor cost in addition to the roof venting, attic and wall insulation the owners decided to add bathroom vents at the same time, making these townhomes energy efficient and con-forming to current building code.

It has been almost two years since the first time Bayshore and

the boards discussed the possibility of energy retrofits for SCC #11 and SCC #29. An incredible amount of work by management, the board of directors and the project manager had to be put forward before such a project could be successfully com-pleted. With all the necessary sched-uling and coordinating with each individual unit owner and often in addition with tenants, makes select-ing the right project manager the key to success.

■Summary

These were wonderful projects to be involved with. It is a great feeling to know that the residents of Kidd’s Creek Condominium and Village Green will enjoy cozy warm

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winters with no fear of water drip-ping into their bedrooms or icicles falling down on their heads. The shingles will not be damaged by ice and therefore will last longer allowing the reserve funds to build up. And last but not least, residents’ heating and cooling costs will come down considerably plus the resale value of the units will increase.

For the sake of other aging con-dominium corporation that have not yet completed energy retrofits, I hope that the government will reac-tivate the energy rebate program. ■

Joanna Tomaszewski, RCM is Re-gional Manager of Bayshore Prop-erty Management Inc. located in Barrie, Ontario.