CoatingsPro Magazine • November 2023 • Building Envelope Exposure

As a prime location for urban living, Madison Downtown Condominium Association, Inc. represents a luxurious high-rise complex for its residents. Known for its two 17- and 22-story towers, the Miami community features amenities such as a pool, Jacuzzi, private security guards, and specialized courts for basketball and beach volleyball, along with a clubhouse featuring a billiard room. Numerous high-end restaurants and shopping stores are within walking distance, too.

Yet, for the people who live there, all of those bells and whistles couldn’t offset the impacts of water leaking into the facility and various individual units. After decades of exposure to the elements since the original construction of the towers in the 1980s, that’s exactly what had begun to happen in recent years.

“Both towers were pretty much plagued with water intrusion for a good 10 to 12 years before they finally got around to actually trying to fix the building the correct way,” said Lenny Loscalzo, president of regional contractor Platinum Structural Restoration, Inc. (PSR). The company was brought on by the client’s structural engineer.

“They had spent a great deal of time, effort, and money on band-aiding the building,” Loscalzo recalled. “They were doing some miscellaneous patch work, along with a lot of caulking, to try and resolve the water intrusion. Finally, they came to the conclusion that it [needed] to be fixed the correct way, one time, and that would alleviate their issues.”

According to Loscalzo, that emphasis on doing it right led to his company’s selection for the job. While he recalls five or six contractors being involved in the bidding process, PSR’s extensive portfolio gave it the upper hand.

“We did a pretty good presentation,” Loscalzo said. “Cost is always a factor, but [the client’s engineers] were very, very happy with the history of our company and the projects that we completed. We were not the cheapest, and we typically are not, but our prices are always competitive. Ultimately, you get what you pay for in the concrete restoration industry, like any construction-related project, and they wanted to go with us.”

Once selected, the PSR crew knew the client had a sense of urgency to stop its leaks, which were made worse during South Florida’s frequent thunderstorms and rainy seasons. As it turned out, though, those same dynamics challenged the proposed solution.

The project’s initial scope consisted of remediating the delaminated stucco and sheathing on all façades of both towers — ending at the top of each parapet wall — followed by sealing each area with a multi-layer acrylic coating system and embedded fiberglass mesh. It would cover 100,000 square feet (9,290.3 m2) of stucco. But the building had some distinct issues, which were complicated by the area’s climate.

“The building is kind of unique in terms of the construction assembly that was used during the initial construction,” Loscalzo said. “Typically, in this area in South Florida, you’ll have cementitious, block-width boards and slabs. This building was poured-in-place concrete slabs, and then steel framing and sheathing to create the exterior walls.”

“That added a level of difficulty,” Loscalzo added. “Typically, we’d be able to remove exterior stucco that’s delaminated and just patch it back. Here, when we went to remove the sheathing, you’re already into the actual wall system itself. So, pretty much on a daily basis, we had to juggle beating the weather and being able to complete the repairs in a timely manner … to not leave anything exposed. So, it was a little difficult in that aspect. But we did it with good success, and they didn’t have any issues with water coming in during the project.”

Locations with known water intrusion were prioritized during drier forecast periods with a goal of sequencing and repairing those as quickly as possible. If caught in a bind, though, the PSR crew did have underlayments on hand.

“Tarps wouldn’t work because we were on the exterior of the building, and when it’s rainy, it’s typically windy also,” Loscalzo said. “We used a peel-and-stick roofing membrane, which will withstand a bit of water. We always had a couple of little options that we could throw in at the last minute, if we needed protection.”

To make up for any lost time from rainy conditions, PSR’s 12-to-16-person crew worked early mornings, nights, and weekends, as needed. It also helped that there were no major hurricanes or tropical weather systems to hit that area during the job scope, which ran for about 18 months from late 2021 until early 2023.

“Dodging raindrops is pretty much what we do,” Loscalzo said. “In South Florida, it can rain within five minutes without any kind of notice or any kind of indications on the radar. It can be raining on one side of the street and clear on the other. The weather is definitely tricky to deal with, and we just do the best we can.”

Given the project’s height and its exposure to the elements, keeping those crew members safe was of the utmost importance. Beyond monitoring weather forecasts, this meant having proper plans for access and personal protective equipment (PPE), along with additional steps that needed to be taken to protect residents and the surrounding urban area.

PPE used across the various phases of the job included hard hats, canister respirators and/or dust masks, safety glasses, gloves, ear plugs, reflective safety vests, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)- approved fall protection harnesses with lanyards, and OSHA-approved lifeline rope grabs. Dust extraction equipment was used in tandem with various tools to minimize airborne dust.

PSR also employs its own in-house training instructor, who is certified by OSHA, and that person trains field personnel. “I have a director of safety, and he takes care of certifying all of our workers for scaffolding usage as well as their equipment,” Loscalzo said. “He’s responsible for maintaining the safety of the building and scaffolding as well as rigging and things like that. We really go through a good amount of training with our employees to keep them up to speed … to make sure everybody knows what they’re doing before we send them up there.”

Suspension, swing-stage scaffolding was installed to work at heights, and PSR’s system featured overhead pedestrian protection to protect the Miami condominium’s residents. To apply coatings, crew members used rollers, rather than spray equipment, due to overspray concerns.

It helps that PSR typically uses much of the same equipment from one project to the next, which gives crew workers a greater familiarity with the products. “I try to buy everything uniform throughout the company,” Loscalzo said. “This way, it’s easier for us to know what repair parts we need and things like that.”

Working “from the top down,” as Loscalzo recalled, and giving special priority to areas of known water intrusion, PSR’s crews methodically worked their way around the two towers. Work near areas of high value to residents, such as the pool, was completed during off-peak seasons.

“We provide the association with basically a dropsequence plan,” Loscalzo said. “That’s a color-coded plan looking from the top of the building and also from the side, or the façade view. We do it pretty much by line. This one, I think each building was broken into five separate phases. We’re utilizing this swing-stage system to access from the exterior, and then working our way around the building. We’re working pretty much by elevation around the whole façade, and working from the top all the way down.”

As part of that type of process, Loscalzo gets involved on a personal level. “I actually get on the scaffolds and check my guys’ work to make sure everything is going the right way. I’m really big on that. My name is tagged to it, as well as my reputation, so I try to go above and beyond the norm to ensure that we’re producing quality work. We do have a site supervisor as well as a project manager to ensure day-to-day communication. But I am the main point of contact for the association, the board members, and the property management, so I need to be heavily involved.”

Section by section, the crew focused on the initial priority for each working area: surface preparation. “It’s typical power washing where you’re using a turbo tip, which kind of spins at the end of the power washer to remove any loose or delaminated material,” Loscalzo said.

Using 3,400 psi (23.4 MPa) DEWALT pressure washers, the crew removed loose and flaking paint and wall surface contaminants, and 4.5-inch (11.4 cm) Bosch angle grinders and Ingersoll Rand pneumatic chipping guns were used to remove the existing delaminated stucco. Pneumatic tools were powered by a 185 cfm 314.3 m3/hr Ingersoll Rand air compressor, and an IDS Georadar C-thrue ground penetrating radar (GPR) helped locate voids and post-tension cables.

After prepping each area, crew members began the application phase by laying down Sto Stucco Mesh at 1/8 inch (0.3 cm) to bridge cracks and assist in bonding stucco to the substrate. The tri-directional weave, flexible treated fiberglass mesh is intended for use in vertical above-grade wall construction projects, and it can assist with bonding properties and impact resistance.

With the mesh in place, they installed the StoPowerwall system at 3/4 to 1 inch (1.9–2.5 cm) combined thickness, with a scratch coat applied directly over the mesh followed by a finish coat. According to the manufacturer, the stucco wall assembly offers a continuous air and moisture barrier and assists with moisture drainage. The design combines the strength and durability of traditional stucco with a wide range of appearance options and protection features.

“Depending on the severity of the delamination, we sometimes had to reapply new sheathing,” Loscalzo said. “There were a lot of areas where the sheathing itself needed to be completely removed due to the extended water intrusion over the years. We would patch on top of that with StoPowerwall Stucco, and then we would come back [to coat] the following day.”

Using hand trowels, crew members applied two coats of the Sto RFP acrylic-based plaster at about 3/16 inch (0.5 cm) of combined thickness to smoothen walls and seal the substrate. “Because the buildings are so tall and subject to wind, we had to roll,” Loscalzo said. The fiber-reinforced product comes as a ready-mixed, acrylic-based plaster material.

“For me, the RFP product is key,” Loscalzo said. “It stops a lot of problems and not just the water intrusion. When you’re doing patch work of stucco, which is very common, you’ll always see that no matter how good of a hand you have on it, you’ll always see that patch work. It’s impossible to blend existing stucco into new … to the point where you won’t be able to see it. With this, you’re putting a uniform coat around the exterior of the building, and it hides all those patches. It makes the building look brand new and not like it’s been patched.”

To ensure a uniform finish, PSR leans on a handful of specialists within its crews. Generally speaking, the RFP can be recoated after having about six to eight hours to dry.

“As far as our crews, we have several guys that specialize just in applying the RFP,” Loscalzo said. “The majority of our guys know how to do stucco repairs and concrete restoration.

So, we would move through in that manner. We’d do repairs with certain guys, followed behind by the stucco crew, and then the RFP applicators. By keeping the same applicators, that’s how you get that nice, uniform finish throughout the building.” Mesh was embedded into the first RFP coating layer while wet.

“We cut the mesh to size, and then embedded it into the wet first coat of RFP … starting from the center of the mesh and working outward to the perimeter,” Loscalzo said. “This method ensures the mesh doesn’t wrinkle, which would affect the finish on the final coat.”

To finish all exterior masonry surfaces, crew members applied the Sto Primer at an average of 6 mils (152.4 microns) wet film thickness (WFT) using 9-inch (22.9 cm) Wooster rollers. This was followed by two coats of the StoColor Acryl Plus topcoat at an average of 40 mils (1,016.0 microns) WFT, combined. The acrylic-based, high-performance coating is designed to protect against weather, salts, and environmental pollutants.

Ultimately, the client was pleased with the contractor’s diligent work in downtown Miami. But in this case, PSR didn’t even need to hear or read words of praise. Instead, it was the awarding of a second contract that made the owner’s assessment clear.

“We’re working on phase two of the project now, which consists of structural restoration of the balconies,” Loscalzo said. “That includes railing replacement and waterproofing the balcony slab surfaces.”

Perhaps most importantly, it wasn’t just client executives who noted the project’s success. It was also the residents of the towers, who had found it improved their quality of life.

“The [condominium] board is very happy with everything, obviously, because they did move forward with us for another phase,” Loscalzo said. “But during the project, the residents were extremely happy, too. They actually came down to the manager’s office and said that for the first time in 10-plus years, there was no mold or wet smell inside the units. So, it really did solve a lot of problems, and the residents are very happy and satisfied with the work we did.”

At long last, residents of the Miami condo complex are only being exposed to rain where it’s intended to be: Outside!

JOB AT A GLANCE

» Some units had severe water intrusion during rains; those areas had to be sequenced and repaired quickly so that nothing was left exposed.

» Peel-and-stick membrane underlayments were applied, as needed, when rain showers arrived on short notice.

» The crew often worked early mornings, nights, and weekends to make up for any lost time due to rainstorms, which are common in South Florida.

» Removed existing delaminated stucco using 4.5-inch Bosch angle grinders and Ingersoll Rand pneumatic chipping guns

» Applied a scratch coat of StoPowerwall Stucco wall assembly over the mesh followed by a finish coat, with a total thickness of 0.75–1.0 inch

» Hand-troweled two coats of Sto RFP acrylic-based plaster at combined 3/16 inch, with mesh embedded into first layer while wet

» Roller-applied Sto Primer at an average of 6 mils WFT to all exterior masonry surfaces as an adhesive followed by two coats of StoColor Acryl Plus topcoat at an average of 40 mils WFT

» Wore PPE (e.g., hard hats, canister respirators, dust masks, safety glasses, gloves, ear plugs, safety vests, harnesses, and rope grabs)

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