December 2021 - Structural Safety
December 18, 2021 Las Olas Beach Club Association
We are starting a new monthly newsletter, and have already had 108 people join from the sign-up link in our Facebook post!
If you didn't already sign up and would like to continue receiving our newsletters, please head on over to our newsletter sign-up form by clicking here. Then plan on only hearing from us once a month so we don't overload your inbox. ;)
To kick us off, we would like to address a popular concern: structural safety.
Miami Condo Collapse
This past summer, a condominium partially collapsed in south Florida, resulting in tremendous loss of life, and prompting calls from guests about engineering certifications and proof of safety.
At this point, though likely due to be enhanced, the State only requires we file a form every three years called the Division of Hotels and Restaurants Certificate of Balcony Inspection.
Las Olas Beach Club Inspections
As you see, that form is concerned with loose/weak railings leading to failure and falls. We were due for inspection and hired an engineer to perform the service. Subsequent to the event down south, the engineer would not sign any form about balcony railings without observing the condition of building as a whole. He looked at rails, decks, walls and floors of the entire resort. He noted about a dozen non-structural items (i.e., cracks to caulk to prevent water intrusion, etc.) but nothing that jeopardizes the structure of the building nor the safety of the people therein.
The State does not inspect condominiums for soundness – that falls upon the owners and their governing bodies and managers they supervise.
Barring an extreme event such as a sinkhole or earthquake, only design flaws or neglected corrosion would cause a building structure to fail - and corrosion should be visible. A recent report about the collapsed building concluded that the amount of corrosion was “astronomical.” It should have been seen and addressed, perhaps years ago.
What Does This Mean for Las Olas?
Our buildings are made of concrete and steel, with steel post tension cables to compress the slabs spanning the poured walls between the units.
40-year-old buildings in our corrosive environment are subject to salt mist onslaught, and we continuously monitor and repair them.
The only portions of our buildings that ever exhibited corrosion in need of thorough repair were the oceanfront balconies, so we sawed them off and replaced them entirely. We did the north building in 2005 and the south in 2009. We used new formulated steel, poured denser concrete, and installed new protected post tension cables superior to the materials that had lasted almost 25 years.

Balconies are looking beautiful (but more importantly, they're safe and sturdy)!
Since those replacements, we examined each and every horizontal tension slab for signs of corrosion and found all to be in excellent shape. The roofs were stripped down to the concrete as part of a $1 million roof job in 2019. We were pleasantly surprised to find less than a few feet of exposed steel (not laid deep enough in the concrete) out of 20,000 square foot of roof surface and that was still silver and not rusted!
Other Improvements
In 2020 during the Covid closure, we lifted up all the front landing coatings and tiles to expose the concrete slabs for signs of corrosion. Again, we found minimal steel close to the surface needing only minimal repair. The inside of the units are examined every few years down to the slab when we re-carpet and when we tiled the halls, baths, and kitchens.
We found a patch of rust on a support wall this fall – about 4 square feet. Upon excavation, it took two jack hammers several hours on each side to expose the rusted steel and several thousand dollars to restore it. We try to do any noisy repairs on Saturdays during turnover hours, although sometimes they must occur at other times.
In conclusion, we are pleased with our building overall health, we constantly note areas of concern, and….we work on the bottom floors so we have a vested interest!
Conclusion
Thanks again for checking out our newsletter. We have some exciting topics planned for the upcoming months, including:
- The evolution to outdoor activities & owner-organized events
- Parking, registration, & security
- Why is Las Olas below average in maintenance costs, yet above average in collections, ratings, and atmosphere?
- Resales and inventory management
And that's just a taste!
If you have any topics you would like to hear about, please feel free to
reach out. We would love your feedback and value your suggestions.
Once again, if you did not already sign up for our newsletters but would like to receive them by email in the future, please sign up
here.
Sincerely,

Tim Nolan
Las Olas Beach Clubs
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