As a realtor, I remember being apart of all the real estate forums, where agents, new and old, would bounce advice back and forth about how everyone approaches the business. To me, some of the discussions involving post tension cables was some of the most interesting. As a lifelong student of construction, I get a tad perplexed at the opinions of those judging the quality or risk of a building based on past construction practices. If you looking for "what are post tension cables", our friend Amie at River Life Real Estate has a wonderful article about it here.
The why is simple, if there is a failure (which I will say, there have been), it can actually be quite dangerous and potentially compromise the integrity of the building. Seems sketchy right? The odds of that happening would suggest otherwise. Based on the amount of reviews we see on an annually basis, would suggest your more likely to have a significant assessment as a result of some other failure, water line risers, building envelope compromise, flood event, or even elevator equipment replacements.
Who am I to say you shouldn't be all that concerned? Well, as a graduate of SAIT Civil Engineering Technologist diploma, I actually designed structural elements. I still have my structural steel and concrete design handbooks that are over 700 pages each ( a pretty dry read if I say so myself though). When buildings are designed structurally, they are designed to fail under catastrophic loads. This means that the engineer is adding anywhere around 50% to 100% in contingencies and factors of safety. In other words, if a strand fails, the buildings not coming down folks. The concrete slabs are designed as such to essentially depreciate in strength over time, and must be monitored. These post tension cables in their essence, are an additional maintenance cost, that allow larger spans without pillars, and thinner concrete slab (and less concrete). Yes it is an old residential practice from the 70's and 80's, and eventually was phased out, but when we look at WHY these fail, we can see that simply keeping an eye on them, and making adjustments as needed is the easiest remedy.
These cables are under stress, and what does steel HATE. Water and Salt. Good news, we don't use salt in Alberta for road maintenance (suck it Ontario). Bad news, you do need to have appropriate water proofing around and above these concrete slabs to deter corrosion, which is quite literally post tension kryptonite. Rust will eat through cables and create those failures. The flip side is that if you stay on top of inspections and make adequate preparations for eventual replacements (all cables do need replacements eventually). Does this increase the cost of your condo fee? Yep. But how much? Depends on how many there are, and the size of the complex. In reality we are talking about MAYBE 20-30$/month.
I will say, there is always a risk with PTC, but lets be honest with ourselves, there is a risk with ANY condo purchase. That's the point of our due diligence, and my shameless promotion of getting a condo document review done to see if those risks are being reasonably mitigated.
In the last 365 days, I have reviewed over 50 Post tension buildings. of those 50+, there were TWO, that had what I would consider significant PTC work needed, that are likely going to cause financial heart ache. We are talking about 4% or less of those building having these issues. And its not hard to spot. Post tension inspections are usually between 2-5 years apart, and ALWAYS apart of the disclosure package we receive. I'm no engineer (technically), but when an inspection report starts using terms like "significant structural concerns", or quotes in excess hundreds of thousands of dollars, it doesn't take rocket science to come to a conclusion.
What about early indicators? Well, we definitely want to see recent inspections, and the history of inspections that will indicate a history or slow or fast deterioration. In almost all cases, the same engineer has been doing these inspections for years and will write about progress. There are also contingencies in Reserve Fund Plans and Studies that assist with funding repairs where needed.
Funding + Inspections + Maintenance = Risk Mitigation.
Not to mention that PTC construction is STILL BEING USED today. Personally I worked on one at the Grant MacEwan Center for Arts and Culture, built in 2016. And look at RJC, one of Calgary's leading engineer and design outfits, have a catalogue of past and present PTC projects.
PTC are just like ever other building, we assess the risks with the product provided. Whether its leaky water lines, elevator failures, flooding, we take the risk, add context, and analyze. Sometimes it not worth it, but sometimes its not as bad as it sounds. That's what we do at Condodocs.com.
Comentarios