Musical chairs while roof repairs continue
Nine council staff are spending four months yo-yoing between offices under a leaky ‘‘beehive’’ roof and a drier station 4 kilometres away.
Repairs at the Marlborough District Council’s Seymour St office have forced some staff working beneath the ‘‘sagging’’ roof to split their time between their desks and the Emergency Operation Centre, on Wither Rd, until repairs end in May. No other staff will be relocated.
Investigators found in 2018 that the existing roof’s ‘‘membrane’’ was in poor condition, and that a lack of support and substantial thickness had caused it to sag in places, letting water leak through. This had damaged walls, ceilings, carpet and lighting in the building’s top floor.
Work started on a $750,000 ceiling replacement in February, after it became too expensive to continue patching up the 46-year-old roof.
Council quality systems manager Marianne Aitken said the council decided not to replace the old roof, as it would mean removing staff from the building for an extended time.
Building plans showed some staff offices, the mayor’s office and the council chambers were all clustered within the ‘‘beehive’’ structure.
Aitken said the roof was ‘‘on track’’ to meet its $750,000 budget, which included painting costs, and its completion date of May 22.
The council had decided to build a new timber and steel roof structure and membrane on top of the current timber-framed roof, using the old structure to support the new one. It would also move services like airconditioning into more ‘‘logical’’ locations and repair water-damaged walls in the council’s cafeteria, on the second floor of the building.
The roof had been split into 12 trapezoid sections, to fit with the ceiling’s circular shape, with the first section almost completed.
T&D Construction health and safety staffer Hadley Morgan said the first section was all ‘‘smooth sailing’’, despite being a ‘‘test’’.
‘‘We’ve had no complaints of leaking. The design is working well.’’
The new roof had been built at a slope and would be covered with a substance ‘‘almost like vinyl’’ to keep water from leaking into the build.
Morgan said the job was more ‘‘complex’’ than most, as there were multiple services on the roof that needed to be maintained, like air-con, and tradespeople were unsure what repairs would uncover.
Asbestos had already been found in the building, but the asbestos claddings in the walls had since been removed and disposed of.
Morgan said repairers had been provided a schedule for council meetings which were not relocated, despite the overhaul, and tried to work on low-volume jobs during those times. A council spokeswoman previously said full council and committee meetings would continue in the council chambers until works ended.
Last August, the roof replacement was estimated at about $400,000, but this figure had since doubled due to window replacements, asbestos removal and the complexity of the job.
The council announced a tender last August, requesting information and pricing on replacing the roof, after it was issued a building consent to undertake repairs last May. It received three responses.