Dealing with Rotten Wood

REASONS AND RISKS

Replacing rotten wood throughout a painting project is a common process, especially on large scale residential strata repaints. This needs to be planned and accounted for through the planning stage to ensure that ideally all rotten wood is replaced through the process.

Under any normal circumstances, painters should never be instructed to paint rotten wood for several reasons.

• If the rotten wood is painted, it becomes hidden. In the event the strata doesn’t have the contingency set aside to address rotten wood, and the painting contractor is instructed to caulk and paint it, it then becomes hidden, and continues to spread. To go back and find it at a later date can be challenging, if not impossible to the naked eye. It can take a few years, in the case of mild rot or rot that is just beginning to bloom, for the paint on top to fail, meaning a later wood rot replacement project would be incomplete.
• The contractors warranty is based on material and workmanship. For their sake, if they are instructed by the client strata to paint rotten wood, they should seek an exclusion from the warranty for these items, and specifically state where it is located to prevent warranty call backs for the coating failure.
• Wood rot is cancerous. It will spread from piece to piece over time. This means wood rot on the surface can begin to affect the structural wood behind, eventually causing potential structural issues on the building. For this reason alone, owners should ensure that all wood rot is accounted for and addressed on a regular basis, or during the course of related projects such as full repaints.

PLANNING AND DISCOVERY

In the planning stage, the client should be aware and know that there will be carpentry repairs required through the project. It is important to keep in mind that only a percentage of the rotten wood on any given property will be visible before the project starts. Once the crews get on site, more rotten wood will be found through the pressure washing and preparation stages of the project. Often, even after pressure washing, rot can still hide until a painter begins to scrape a failing area to discover more rot hiding under what appears to be solid paint. For this reason, the contingency should always have a significant cushion to allow for these situations, and council should be prepared for multiple change orders to account for rotten wood as it is found.

CONTRACT AND CONTINGENCY ALLOWANCE

When writing and signing the contract, it is important for the contractor to clearly state their hourly rate for carpentry repairs, and include language that alludes to the requirement for change orders as rotten wood is found.

For the client, it is critical that there is language in the contract that does not simply give the contractor a blank cheque to address everything and invoice a bulk amount at the end of the project. This can lead to unpleasant surprises on both sides.

Contracts should clearly state that any carpentry repairs be quoted and approved by the client before work begins. This can become tricky in situations where additional rot is found behind what is visible, and the contractor then requires additional budget to repair. This is where communication and quick decision making become extremely important. Delay in this situation can end up costing both the contractor and the client additional money, so a mechanism should be in place to allow for this speedy communication and approval process.

OVERSIGHT

Where the process usually falls down is when there is not enough eyes on a project to ensure everyone is aware of the requirements. The workers on the crew should be clearly instructed to have a way to mark rotten wood as it is found, and report it to the foreman or Project Manager. This can be done with a can of high visibility spray paint, high visibility markers, or different coloured painters tape.

Often, painters that are given a task will simply produce that task and get into a rhythm of application. If the painters on a crew are not diligent about checking wood for rot as they go, the project’s foreman or lead hand needs to be cognizant of the limitations of the workers on the crew. The leadership, including the Project Manager should be checking the work at regular intervals to ensure that rotten wood is found, identified, marked, quoted, replaced and painted as required in the specification or contract documents.

If the project is not being inspected by a qualified consultant or inspector, it then falls to the resident or strata council to provide a second or third set of eyes on the work to ensure that no rotten wood is left in place, painted, and therefore hidden to be rediscovered at a later date.

If the rotten wood is painted, then found down the road, the contractor can claim that it was not present at the time of painting, therefore not a warrantable item. In that case it becomes virtually impossible to prove that is was or was not existing at the time of painting.

Ideally, a 3rd party consulting or inspection firm can be involved in the project to help both parties to ensure that wood rot is accounted for, replaced and the buildings are protected, and that the contractor is sufficiently funded to conduct the required repairs and are paid fairly for the work produced.