​City balconies inspected

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City balconies inspected, repaired 6 months after improved building safety codes take effect

http://www.dailycal.org/2016/01/28/city-balconies-inspected-repaired-6-months-improved-building-safety-codes-take-effect/

BY ALEXANDRA YOON-HENDRICKS AND HARINI SHYAMSUNDAR

ix months after Berkeley City Council adopted improved building safety codes in response to a balcony collapse that killed six in June, balconies across the city have been inspected for structural integrity and dry rot.

The Exterior Elevated Elements Inspection Program, or E3 program, stipulates that all city balconies must be evaluated and certified by Jan. 14 after it passed in July. The ordinances affected about 6,000 buildings in Berkeley, according to the city planning and development department.

Since July, the city has sent thousands of letters to all properties believed to have elevated platforms such as balconies or decks, according to city spokesperson Matthai Chakko. Chakko said the city has received thousands of responses from property owners, which city staff are tracking with a database.

“We as a city want to make sure that properties in Berkeley are as safe as can be,” Chakko said. “We now have the strictest standards for exterior structures in the state.”

Mary Oram, a broker and property manager at ERI Property Management, said the company had about 25 buildings inspected in the past six months. Three evaluated properties needed repairs, including rebuilding five balconies, Oram said. ERI has already filed a report with the city detailing the results of their inspections.

The inspections, which cost ERI nothing and were a small cost to property owners, were a “good thing to spend money on,” Oram said.

“I’m very appreciative of the E3 program,” Oram said. “Although it’s unfortunate that it was brought to light in such tragic way.”

In addition to having balconies and decks inspected within six months, property owners must have inspectors certify the property’s safety once every three years in compliance with the new ordinances.

Ray Kirby, a consultant of the failure-analysis firm Childress Engineering Services, said stricter building codes beyond what states require will often come from local jurisdictions. According to Kirby, municipal code stipulations on evaluating balconies can range anywhere from annual reviews to inspections once every five years.

“The fact that (Berkeley is) having an inspection program that’s ongoing can help,” Kirby said, adding that the frequency of inspections depends on “whatever the jurisdiction decides is needed and … what the community will accept.”

A task force of engineers, architects and city officials was also created by City Council in July, providing the council with general structural recommendations, according to Kate Stillwell, president of a local structural engineering association.

“We were very impressed with the diligence and the speed that the council took on this matter,” Stillwell said.

City Council sent a letter to the California Building Standards Commission in July urging the commission to revise California Building Standards Code to require steel reinforcements on all new balcony designs, after experts determined dry rot was the cause of the balcony collapse. State building codes are revised once every three years; new standards will be published this summer.

Many students on campus have had their apartments inspected as a result of the ordinance. UC Berkeley sophomore Joyce Kunishima said she received an email from her property manager shortly before her apartment’s balcony was inspected.

Kunishima was not home when the inspection took place, but said she later noticed holes drilled into the bottom of the balcony above hers. Though slightly intrusive, Kunishima said she’s glad the property managers are being proactive in light of the balcony collapse last year.

“I’m glad they’re taking preventative measures rather than doing nothing,” Kunishima said.

On Feb. 10, the city will publish a comprehensive report that will include the results of the new building safety codes and recommendations from the task force to present to City Council, Chakko said.

Contact Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks and Harini Shyamsundar at newsdesk@dailycal.org.

 

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No charges over balcony collapse that killed Irish students

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/republic-of-ireland/no-charges-over-balcony-collapse-that-killed-irish-students-34582220.html

No criminal proceedings will be brought over the balcony collapse that killed five Irish students on working holidays in the US last summer, it has been revealed.

After a nine-month investigation, Nancy O'Malley, District Attorney in Alameda County, near San Francisco, California, found there was insufficient evidence for a manslaughter case.

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The DA's office said it could not take a case against any one individual or company.

"This is not a decision that I came to lightly," Ms O'Malley said.

"It is the culmination of months of consultation with my team of attorneys. It follows extensive review of reports, both legal and factual, and numerous meetings with investigators and experts."

In the early hours of June 16 2015 six students died. Another seven sustained serious injuries.

The five Irish students who died were all from south Dublin - medical students and friends Lorcan Miller and Eimear Walsh; Olivia Burke, who went to school with Eimear; Niccolai Schuster, who was at the same college as Lorcan and Eimear, and his friend from school Eoghan Culligan.

Irish-American Ashley Donohoe, who lived in California and was a cousin of Olivia's, also died.

The students were on J1 working visas for the summer and were among 40 people attending a birthday party when the balcony collapsed.

Ms O'Malley said: "Not a day has passed since the tragedy of June 16 that I have not thought of the victims and their families.

"I am keenly aware of the devastation and injuries each victim and each family suffered and continues to confront. Friends, families and entire communities both in California and in Ireland have been affected by the horror of that day."

Ireland's Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan said his thoughts were with the families and friends of the those who died.

"My department will carefully consider the details of the District Attorney's findings," he said.

"While the District Attorney's investigation did not find sufficient proof to take separate criminal proceedings, it has shone a vital light on the circumstances and factors that contributed directly and indirectly to the collapse of the balcony.

"This investigation is an important step in a process, the ultimate objective of which is to ensure that a tragedy such as Berkeley never occurs again."

The DA's office made contact with the families of the dead before announcing the decision.

The tragedy struck a 21st birthday party with all the dead and some of the injured having connections to south Dublin.

Initial examinations of the remnants of the balcony showed rot had set into heavy wooden beams.

The DA's office said forensic reports and expert analysis showed water had been trapped in the deck during construction, " leading to eventual and extensive dry rot damage".

"There appear to be many contributory causes of this encapsulation, including the types of material that were used (none of which are prohibited by building code) and the very wet weather Berkeley experienced during the months of construction," it said.

"The responsibility for this failure likely extends to many of the parties involved in the construction or maintenance of the building."

But it cautioned that in order to bring a manslaughter case the DA would have to be satisfied there was " gross or reckless conduct akin to a disregard for human life"

The DA's office said it will support any action against the construction firms by the California Contractors State License Board.

It also said it will collaborate with industry leaders and lawmakers to consider amending building codes and inspection oversight laws so that tragedies like this never occur again.

The balcony collapsed from the fifth storey of the Library Gardens complex in Berkeley.

About 40 people had been in the party in the apartment when the tragedy struck.

Another balcony at the apartment complex was deemed "structurally unsafe" and a "collapse hazard" in the wake of the incident and the owners of the building were ordered to demolish it.

Segue Construction, which built the complex, said at the time it would co-operate fully with any inquiry and expressed condolences to the families and friends of those who died or were injured.

Lawyers representing families affected by the tragedy said they are continuing to pursue lawsuits over the disaster.

"The civil justice system and the criminal justice system operate independently, and the District Attorney's decision which was announced today in no way hinders or negatively affects the probability of success in the ongoing civil litigation," said Michael Kelly, of Walkup, Melodia, Kelly and Schoenberger in San Francisco.

The lawyer also said it had been widely expected that no criminal action would be launched.

He said complicating factors included the potential for a number of people or companies being responsible over a ten-year period.

"The families and students are grateful to the District Attorney for the time, effort and expense invested in the process of evaluation," Mr Kelly said.

He said the DA's inquiry was thorough and careful.

"Much of the information generated, the facts developed, the witnesses identified and the evidence collected in the criminal investigation will benefit the bereaved families and the injured students as they now prosecute the civil actions that have been filed," he said.

"The prosecution of the civil cases will permit our clients to achieve their primary goals: uncovering the truth, publicly identifying the wrongdoers, and holding accountable those responsible for the damage, loss and suffering they have caused, and bringing about changes to residential construction industry practices that will prevent such a needless tragedy from recurring in the future."

 

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This wasn't unexpected but made the headlines in today's print edition of our local newspaper.

BERKELEY -- Five contractors who worked on a downtown apartment building where six people died in a balcony collapse last year could lose their state licenses for failing to follow construction guidelines, a state watchdog agency announced Friday afternoon.

The Contractors State License Board found that "poor workmanship" in the waterproofing of the balcony resulted in water damage that caused it to rot and eventually collapse.

"They didn't do the work (on the balcony) to trade standards," said Dave Fogt, the board's chief of enforcement, in a phone interview Friday. The collapse was caused "definitely by water incursion that caused dry rot."

The companies include the project's main contractor, Segue Construction of Pleasanton, said Rick Lopes, a spokesman for the license board.

The others are Etter and Sons Construction in Dana Point, R. Brothers Waterproofing in San Jose, North State Plastering in Fairfield and The Energy Store of California in Sacramento. A person who answered the phone Friday at R. Brothers declined to comment. Calls and emails to the other companies were not returned.

The contracting board will now forward the results of its long investigation to the state Justice Department for prosecution in state Administrative Court. Penalties range from a license suspension to outright revocation.

Last month, Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley announced that she would not file criminal charges against the contractors. She said an investigation by her office found that water proofing applied to wood supporting the balcony 10 years ago had an unintended and tragic consequence: The material had been soaked by heavy rain, and water was sealed inside it with no way out, setting off a slow process of rotting. ¹

There are three legal and separate systems in the law, the license board handles administrative law, the DA criminal law, and private attorneys civil law. We now know who is going to receive administrative sanctions, there will be no criminal actions, and the big dollar ones will be the civil lawsuits from the damaged parties.

Segue was a B or General Contractor with the prime contract.

Etter was also a B that was the framing subcontractor, to comply with the law Etter had to take on two or more specialty trades in addition to carpentry.

North State Plastering was both the lathing and plastering contractor, they have always been a good company having plastered several buildings for me without significant problems, they had also done all of my former foreman's homes in the Napa Valley in the $5 to $30 million range, his homes are all plastered in the interiors as well as 4-coat stucco exteriors where there is not rock. They bid but did not get the last home I built, they were very through during pre-bid telling me that they would not bid if any spray foam was being used, they were currently named in two lawsuits on homes they had stuccoed that had spray foam, when they came to the jobsite they questioned 8 - 4' cantilevered steel WF ridge beams, I was tack welding expanded metal lath directly to the steel and they were concerned about potential condensation on the steel. In thinking of what they may have done wrong, I would bet that since it's industry practice to have the lathing contractor install vents that they are being held responsible for not installing the venting under the balconies, I do agree that they should have at least called it to the attention of the prime contractor and obtained a release but the primary liability here should be on the back of the architect for not detailing the venting.

The Energy Store is licensed as a B, C20 HVAC, and C9 drywall contractor, I don't know how they fit into the liability framework, under their B they may have undertaken any number of specialties, under their C20 'maybe' they undertook some flashing.

R Brothers Waterproofing, this depends upon the evidence, the architect specified Bituthene as the membrane under concrete, that complied with WR Grace's specifications at the time the architect specified it but by the time of actual construction Grace had withdrawn that approval, seems like the architect should have notified all involved that the approvals had been changed and designed a different waterproofing system and extra orders issued.

I haven't heard if the State Division of Architects is taking any action, it seems to me that the design without venting and a waterproofing membrane that was no-longer acceptable were the main culprits from what we've seen so far, of course the civil attorneys probably have much more evidence.

¹ http://www.eastbaytimes.com/breaking-news/ci_29743132/berkeley-balcony-collapse-state-investigation-finds-contractor-broke

 

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CSLB TO TAKE ACTION

Five companies involved in the construction of a Berkeley apartment building where six college students were killed when a balcony collapsed performed inferior work that led to the accident last year, the board that licenses California building contractors concluded Friday.

The firms implicated by the California State Contractor's Licensing Board include the general contractor on the Library Gardens project, the subcontractors that did framing, plastering and waterproofing work, and a supplier of ventilation equipment, The East Bay Times reported.

The board's nine-month investigation found that poor workmanship allowed water to seep under the balcony's concrete floor and eventually rot the wooden beams that held it up, Enforcement Chief Dave Fogt said.

"They didn't do the work to trade standards," Fogt, told the Times.

The students, six of them Irish citizens working in the San Francisco Bay Area for the summer, were thrown 50 feet to the ground when the balcony gave way during a late night birthday party last June. Another seven students were seriously injured.

An administrative hearing will be held to determine if the companies should have their licenses revoked. California law allows the state to suspend or revoke the licenses of builders that knowingly depart from approved architectural plans or do substandard work, according to the board.

The five companies are: general contractor Segue Construction, Etter and Sons Construction, North State Plastering, R. Brothers Waterproofing and The Energy Store of California in Sacramento.

In November, families of those killed and injured filed lawsuits seeking unspecified damages from dozens of companies, including the same five cited by the state board and the building's owner.

Local prosecutors spent months doing their own investigation and found that the dry rot that caused the balcony failure resulted from the materials used and inadequate efforts to safeguard them from rain when Library Gardens was built nine years ago.

Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley said last week that she had decided not to pursue criminal charges in the fatal collapse and that responsibility likely extended to parties involved in both the building's construction and maintenance.

 

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Now people witnessing the failure are bringing a civil action:

According to the lawsuit, witnessing the carnage resulted in the three physically uninjured roommates suffering from "severe mental and emotional harm when they were endangered by and forced to bear witness to the horrific accident that killed and disabled their closest friends."

The roommates' suit alleges that mistakes were made by contractors as early as October 2005, when Segue Construction and its subcontractors began framing and building the balcony. The approved design plans called for plywood installed on top of the wooden joists; however, the contractors "purposefully disregarded" the plan's specifications and installed three layers of the cheaper oriented strand board, a type of compressed particle board. OSB is more susceptible to water damage and infiltration than plywood.

After using the wrong material, the contractors waited months to waterproof the balcony despite industry best practices to do so immediately. At the earliest, the balcony was waterproofed in January 2006, the suit claims.

Between the framing and the waterproofing, the "uncompleted balcony was exposed to harsh and wet conditions, including extensive rainfall," the women allege. From Nov. 1, 2005, to Dec. 31, 2005, while the deck sat unprotected, Berkeley experienced 21 days of rain and more than 13 inches of precipitation, they claim.

Despite the soggy wood, the contractors waterproofed it, creating a "concealed and hidden trap," the roommates' lawsuit alleges. The women claim the contractors didn't make the changes because it would have delayed completion of the building.¹

Anyone using OSB should be sued, we call it "flakeboard" in the trades, why do codes allow crap like this?

¹ http://www.eastbaytimes.com/breaking-news/ci_29752810/berkeley-balcony-lawsuit-from-three-who-stepped-off