The story of a coastal, self-managed community and their triumphant journey to worry-free living
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"The SPS Savings Blueprint isn't a document, it's a concept."
-Chris Greene, Board President
Whitehall Farm Condominium was built in the late 1980s like many other communities in New England. Located in Middletown, Rhode Island, the community has 120 homes sprawled over 65 acres of land. This quaint, quiet, coastal self-managed community had immense pride and a legacy of ownership.
Facts: Pervasive sheathing rot behind siding and at the roof to wall transitions due to improper flashing installation methods.
Options: Phased building envelope replacement, phased component replacement, and funding with reserve funds, special assessment, and/or a loan.
Path Forward: SPS30 Full building envelope restoration project funded with a 30-year loan.
The association board vetted and hired SPS for routine exterior paint cycle projects in 2011. At the time, the community’s approach to maintenance included routine paint cycles and as-needed rot repairs that were handled by a Middletown native carpenter. After many years of painting, the relationship with SPS grew to an interest in a larger rot repair project. Unaware of the existing or underlying conditions, SPS recommended a comprehensive building envelope inspection as a first step. The board agreed they didn’t want to waste money on the wrong project and decided to embark on the Savings Blueprint planning process.
The results of the inspection were alarming. The materials and installation methods dating back to original construction created imperfections in the building envelope where water intruded at several locations, causing severe rot within the frame of the buildings. The board was not prepared to face such severe problems, and the community at large was even less prepared.
They were met with many objections:
"We don’t have a problem."
"Our problems can be solved with isolated rot repairs."
Once the board informed the entire community of the true exterior conditions, panic set in and the notion that a large restoration project was being considered created a unified front of resistance. Not only was the board challenged with navigating what to do next, they were also challenged by their neighbors to do the right thing.
The revolt caused the board to hit pause on planning their long-term solution and explore a quicker and cheaper solution. They eventually hired a local contractor to replace select elevations based on visual need and/or water penetration to the interior.
The board knew the right thing was to restore the integrity of their exteriors in order to maintain the sense of pride that once universally invigorated the community. They leveraged SPS’ experience to persistently and patiently create understanding among homeowners, and eventually they were able to ease the community’s concerns and gain a consensus that something needed to be done.
Board Member and Maintenance Director, Jim Cawley, started to monitor their repairs more closely. The underlying rot repair cost was not being included in the local contractor's quotes. The quoted cost vs. the total cost were drastically different. Additionally, after some of the repairs on select walls were completed, leaks were still occurring.
“We repaired the same area 8 times. This was the approach that was getting us into trouble.”
-Jim Cawley, Maintenance Director
After a year and a half of tracking inflated costs that were not solving the problems, Jim Cawley made a case to bring SPS back to the table. And the community agreed.
Three years after their initial invasive inspection, a building envelope restoration project was finally planned.
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