They’re going to be highly motivated to piecing around things like electrical conduits, Interview with ORB
County Commissioner Fritz Sobanja, a builder by trade, spent the weekend preceding the August 30 county board meeting measuring bolts, inspecting insulation, examining blueprints and engineering specs, making phone calls, and not sleeping. He had stopped at the site of the Grand Marais Public Library addition late in the week before and found some construction problems that needed to be addressed.
“Incredibly bad work” was being done on the library addition, he told the board on August 30. “It’s a mess.” He had documented his concerns on over nine pages of single-spaced type. Some things on his list were minor, he said, and not integral to the soundness or longevity of the building. Some involved arbitrary decisions on methods or materials, decisions that he would have made differently if he had been doing the building. Some issues were “questionable,” he said, which the construction manager overseeing the project on behalf of the county—Tom Weaver of ORB Management— should have asked the architect or design engineer about. Sobanja indicated that some things were just not done right by any standard.
County Commissioner Fritz Sobanja raised questions with his fellow commissioners at an August 30 county board meeting about some construction issues at the site of the Grand Marais Public Library addition. (L) Sobanja points out the need for careful positioning of insulation in order to maximize energy efficiency and the importance of extra framing around windows to anchor window coverings. (Above) Sobanja wrote notes in red marker where he saw things that he believed needed to be changed. This one says, “What good is this shim when there is no cripple underneath to support 2×6 sill?” ORB Management met with Sobanja and Commissioner Jim Johnson to address the county board’s concerns.
“We want an energy-efficient, quality building,” he said. Some of the problems included insulation that had been cut too narrow, leaving gaps beside studs in the walls, bolts anchoring the walls to the concrete floor that were spaced too far apart and undersized, and single sills around the windows that should have had “blocking,” or extra studs, to act as anchors for future window coverings. He expressed concern that the contractor was trying to save money by skimping on materials. “This is major shoddy work,” Sobanja said.
The contractor is supposed to follow the directions provided in the blueprint and in a narrative that goes with it. Some of those directions were overlooked, according to Sobanja. Sobanja contacted ORB Management over the weekend and discovered that Weaver had left the job site before the carpentry crew had left on Friday.
Sobanja told the board that he had concerns regarding the general carpentry contractor, T.L. Construction out of Floodwood (the only company to bid on this part of the project), and the oversight the county was counting on ORB Management to provide. While ORB representatives did not agree on everything Sobanja thought should have been done differently, they were very responsive to his concerns. They re-installed the insulation, replaced the undersized bolts and installed additional bolts, and put more wood around the windows. They also talked with Tom Weaver, who has worked for ORB for six years, Sobanja said, about his oversight of the project. Weaver “came with good recommendations,” Sobanja said.
We need corrective action at no cost to us, said Commissioner Sue Hakes, and we need to know the project will proceed according to specifications and to know this won’t happen again so “we can get the building we ordered.”
“We hired ORB to make sure they do exactly what you have been doing,” Commissioner Jim Johnson said to Sobanja. Commissioner Johnson agreed to be at the job site with Sobanja to meet with ORB representatives later that day.
“Who is ORB really working for?” Sobanja said.
“Us,” replied Commissioner Jan Hall.
“The whole reason we went with ORB was to prevent what we see,” said Commissioner Bruce Martinson.
“I think we can make the point today that our expectations have not been fulfilled,” said Johnson.
“If they’re who we think they are,” said Commissioner Sue Hakes, “they will be very responsive to figuring this out. fix this.”
Meeting with ORB
On site to meet with the commissioners were Senior Project Manager Wade Cole, Assistant Project Manager and Project Coordinator Rob Barse, and Construction Manager Tom Weaver.
“We’re working for Cook County’s interests,” Cole said.
The group looked at the insulation, the anchor bolts, and the window framing, and most of the issues Sobanja had noted had been corrected. Some “interpretation” of the specifications had gone on, Cole said, and installing extra studs around the window was a detail that had simply been missed. When Commissioner Johnson said they should go back to the architect when the specs are ambiguous, he agreed.
Sobanja pointed out how some of the window boards would bow from expansion of the foam insulation. “We’re in the process of installing,” said Cole, “so that’s not the end product.”
Sobanja pointed to some narrow gaps between the fiberglass insulation and the studs. “Those gaps are what kill your heating bill,” he said. A lot of the insulation problems had been related to cutting and however, he said.
“The intent is to have the full cavity tight with insulation,” Cole agreed.
Sobanja pointed out a nail that had been pounded in from outside the building but missed the stud. This can conduct moisture and condense inside the walls, Sobanja explained in a subsequent interview. “It’s the subcontractor’s role to make sure they hit the stud,” he told the group at the site, “but it’s the management’s role to find out if they didn’t.”
Sobanja said to Johnson, “This is 100 percent better than it was on Friday.”
“We certainly are listening,” said Cole. ORB’s relationship with the county is a partnership, he said, and they are addressing the issues Sobanja pointed out to them.
Commissioner Johnson noted that ORB had already addressed vital challenges in the building process, such as getting the new addition to join up with the original building, which had not been level.
After the meeting, Wade Cole spoke with the Cook County News-Herald. He said that last week, Tom Weaver had made a decision to leave the job site several hours before the T.L. Construction carpenters left so that he could pick up some masonry materials in St. Cloud and bring them to the job site on Monday instead of having to wait until mid-week for delivery. When he left, they were insulating the south wall and getting it ready to drywall. In hindsight, both Weaver and Cole realized leaving the job site early was a mistake.
ORB is not known for shoddy workmanship, Cole indicated. “We typically get more work because of our reputation,” he said. ORB has no incentive to look the other way and not deal with quality issues, he said. He apologized to Sobanja that things had gotten missed. “I have the utmost confidence in Tom Weaver,” he said, adding that he has worked with Weaver on projects much larger than this.
How does ORB walk the line between keeping costs down and quality up? Cole said that their budget projections always include a contingency to cover the unexpected. They always use industry best practices, he said, and their goal is to address problems as efficiently and effectively as possible.
“We appreciate very much our relationship with Cook County and the fact that we were hired to be construction manager for the library project,” Cole said. “We don’t take that privilege lightly. Cook County has our assurance that we will always make decisions in the best interest of Cook County. We have no reason to do otherwise.”
ORB is currently working with two other Minnesota counties as well as other clients. “We have our reputation to uphold,” Cole said, “and our performance is going to be stellar from here on out.”
Lots and lots of details go into the process of constructing a building, Cole said, and mistakes, unfortunately, are part of the process. Construction managers have a lot of details to oversee, and little problems need to get worked out. Cole said he was the construction manager for Lakewood Health System, a $42 million hospital and clinic in Staples. ORB had no callbacks when the project was over.
“We are committed to performing at a top level of service in all levels of construction,” Cole said. “We appreciate Commissioner Sobanja’s input. Two heads are better than one.” He said he invited Sobanja to walk through the project every week to inspect what had been done.
Sobanja’s thoughts a day later
“They did clean up and rectify some of the things that were discrepancies,” Sobanja said in a phone interview on August 31. Some changes still needed to be done, and some were pending consultation with the design engineer at DSGW, the architectural firm.
Sobanja was certain that ORB had had a serious talk with Tom Weaver about his oversight of the project. He wondered how experienced T.L. Construction’s small young crew was, and he had some compassion for them. “Those young guys created an abomination,” Sobanja said. “Those poor kids.”
Sobanja stuck by his original concerns. “The insulation quality and the structural integrity of the building were compromised by the work that had been done,” he said.
Mistakes happen. Things can be missed up and down the chain of command. With ORB’s reputation on the line as owner’s rep for the county’s numerous 1 percent sales and use tax capital improvement projects, it might be safe to assume that a lot of attention to detail will be paid from here on in.
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