Suit and countersuit wait for October court date
The construction defects which left the new Wake Forest Town Hall with leaking windows, roof and foundation have been repaired, and the cleanup from the repair work is almost complete.
“The building doesn’t leak anymore, most of the landscaping has been replaced, the windows are being washed inside and out and drywall patching has been completed,” Deputy Town Manager Roe O’Donnell said this week.
He added that the cost for that work plus the extensive repairs will be added to the town’s claim against Hannover Insurance, the performance bond company for Heaton Construction, the company which was the low bidder for the new town hall on Brooks Street.
Exterior Diagnostic Services won the contract to make the repairs. It was a lump sum contract for $494,139 with an approved change order for $11,140 and a second change order that has not been approved for about $15,000. O’Donnell did not provide the figures for the drywall patching, window washing and landscape replacement.
He did say that the suit by Heaton and the town’s countersuit are expected to be heard in court Oct. 27.
The town hall project was plagued by problems – a fire on the roof, delays due to rain and bad weather – that kept pushing back the completion date. Groundbreaking took place in May 2008, and town officials expected to be in the building in 2009, the town’s centennial year. The final target date for completion was December of 2009, but the building was not complete until six months later. The cost for the project, including land, personnel, construction, professional services and equipment, was $16 million.
Problems surfaced as soon as the town staff moved in. The windows began leaking when there was a rainstorm but in apparently random fashion. “It was not every time it rained and not in the same places each time,” O’Donnell said. “It would rain in my office, Mark’s office, the mayor’s office. There was no rhyme or reason.” The leaks did seem to occur in different locations depending on the intensity, direction and speed of the wind during rainstorms.
The town told Heaton about the leaks and other problems during the first year and then decided to bring in an expert to determine the causes.
There were more than 30 subcontractors on the project.
The town hired Stafford Consulting Engineers headquartered in Charlotte with a Raleigh office. The firm is one of the few engineering firms in the country devoted exclusively to roofing, building envelope and waterproofing systems.
Stafford’s engineers found that the subcontractor hired to install the windows did not put flashing between the windows and the walls and also failed to put in deflector dams that channel water away from the building’s interior.
While the defects in the building were being discovered and investigated, the builder, Heaton Construction, sued the town, its architect for the building, Little Diversified, and the engineering firm, CLH Design in early 2011, claiming the town had not paid them for all the work they had performed and that they were owed for early completion.
The town countersued Heaton and later, in 2012, added Hanover Insurance Company, a performance bond company as a defendant. Hanover had guaranteed Heaton’s work on the project would be satisfactory and any hidden defects found within a year would be repaired.
Also in 2012 Heaton amended its suit to add three subcontractors: Raleigh Glass & Mirror Company, Triangle Caulking & Waterproofing and ETC Concrete Construction.
