News from the Board of Directors

Silver Sands Homeowners

Over the past year the Maintenance Committee, with the concurrence of the Board, has been investigating the condition of all the roofs in the entire complex. The Board was presented with the results of this inspection at the August 19th meeting. This resulted in the Maintenance Committee doing a thorough inspection by reviewing the work of several different roofing contractors, review by a roofing consultant, and discussions with other HOA's that have roofs with similar ages to ours. The inspections on each roof examined the various roof penetrations for venting and plumbing vents, tile and underlayment condition, and blocking for pests. Our roofs are currently 27 to 33 years old and either exceeding or fast approaching the useful life of the underlayment.  

Based on the recommendations and analysis from roofers, consultants, and the Maintenance Committee, the Board has decided to enter into preliminary negations with a roofing contractor to reset our tile and replace all of our roof underlayment with two layers of 40# felt and new metal flashing. The flat roofs will be replaced in year 10 of the contract. If we go forward, this will bring our roofs into compliance with the new building codes and extend the life of the roofs well into the future and hopefully eliminate leaking problems other communities have been experiencing. The cost for this program, excluding the 10 or so roofs already replaced, will be approximately $200,000. per year over a 10 year period and represents the most favorable competitive bids obtained with fixed pricing for the term of the contract. This contract also makes provisions for servicing roofs that may experience leaks prior to their replacement sequence on very favorable terms to the Association.

As part of our comprehensive reserve analysis, the finance committee is working out the details to determine if and how we need to supplement our existing roofing reserves to pay for these needed upgrades. The finance committee will be making funding recommendations to the Board as part of this year's reserve analysis.

As a corollary to this issue, a few owners have indicated an interest in exploring solar panels. It is probably a good idea to defer any decision until the new roof is installed. An annual schedule of roof replacement will be available after the first of the year.

The Board of Directors