Project Overview

The Metropolitan of Skokie is a 62-unit, seven-story condominium building located in Skokie, IL. The façade consists primarily of EIFS and brick masonry. The building hired Berglund to undertake an extensive, $1.8-million façade repair project, which included replacing more than 50 doors and windows throughout 25 different condominium units. Berglund self-performed the window and door replacement scope. The façade repairs included removing and replacing approximately 80 percent of the EIFS on the building, which required the complete removal of the existing cladding system to expose the structural framing assembly. The project was competitively bid as a lump sum project with unit cost components, such as masonry and sealant repairs. All façade work was completed on a combination of exterior pipe scaffolding and swing stages.

Berglund provided construction management services on this project and self-performed approximately 60 percent of all work on the project, including window and door replacement, sealant replacement and masonry repairs.

Project Outcome

Berglund’s original contract value was $1,772,900, and the condominium association stated at the outset that they had a budget of $1,800,000 for the project. Of the original contract, $195,000 was allocated for allowance work that was to be performed on a unit price basis. Throughout the inspection process, we worked with the engineering team to ensure only necessary unit price work was completed. As a result, more than $150,000 was saved and available for use on other repair scopes at the building. This money was used for work like replacing additional doors and windows, replacing EIFS at additional façade locations, and waterproofing areas where the building was experiencing substantial water infiltration. All this work was completed while maintaining the project budget of $1,800,000. One critical schedule management aspect of the project was coordinating the window and door replacements with the unit owners. This scope, which we self-performed, required interior access of the units, which meant coordinating with 25 different unit owners. When dates were set, we had to hit them – these were people who took days off work to be home for our work. We never fell behind our schedule and, as a result, unit owners never wasted a day at home.