How A Robotics Sleuth Came To The Rescue

Construction defects aren’t just a new building problem, they can happen anytime a co-op or condo hires someone to take hammer and nail to something. In this episode Akaash Kancharla, CEO of aRoboticsCompany, shares how he used robotic tools to pinpoint leaks in a newly built deck at a 50-unit Astoria co-op, saving the board millions in repair costs. Habitat’s Emily Myers conducts the interview.

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Transcript

Emily Myers: Welcome to Problem Solved, a conversation about challenges facing New York co-op and condo board directors. I'm Emily Myers with Habitat Magazine, and I'm joined by Akaash Kancharla, founder of design and manufacturing firm, aRobotics Company.

Construction defects pose a real headache for co-op and condo boards. If the contractor doesn't come back to address the problems, the board may have to file a lawsuit to get the repairs done. In this situation, evidence needs to be provided. Akaash, you had a 50 unit co-op in Astoria, Queens come to you with this problem.

Can you explain what happened? 

Akaash Kancharla: Yes. Basically this co-op had a deck redone by a contractor. It was a pretty extensive project, pretty large deck of a couple thousand square feet. And about a year after this renovation slash repair of this deck basically the units below were observing water leaks causing ceiling damage, causing furniture damage and obviously a lot of inconvenience to those unlucky units that were below the deck. That was one side of the problem. The other side of the problem was that the deck itself started to effloresce as water was being retained. So what was originally a pretty beautiful space gradually showed a lot of mineralization, a lot of ,mold a lot of just grime that really made it pretty much a pointless exercise.

And then this co-op board was obviously very unhappy with their contractor. Contractor was saying, hey, we did it correctly. This is not our fault. Co-op board was obviously of the opinion no one else worked on this so it is your fault. At which point they they contacted us.

Emily Myers: And how did the defects impact the usability of the deck? 

Akaash Kancharla: So it was usable in the sense that you could put some plants on it, you could sit on it. It was structurally safe for sure. But the units below were obviously experiencing leaks, pretty bad ones depending on the weather, so those units, they had to redo their ceilings more than one time. At which point they, they said enough is enough. We can't keep redoing the ceiling. The deck itself was usable, but because of this water being retained it was definitely very very dirty, had a bit of a health hazard. It needed to be cleaned a lot more often than one would want. So obviously that's a maintenance problem, a maintenance expense. It was just not something that the co-op board was happy about, having spent I believe four-ish million to do this project.

Emily Myers: Goodness. So what was your firm able to do?

Akaash Kancharla: We basically presented them with two options that at their discretion, they could proceed. We first of all did full surveys above the deck, below the deck, looking at the roof of the co-op units below the deck, and then looking at the floor of the deck itself from above. This allowed us to basically map that , because of defects in the way the deck was installed, water was being allowed into the deck. This allowed us to map that. So we showed the co-op board, okay, out of this 2000 and change deck, here are the 300 square feet that are causing these problems. You can fix these. That was the first option that we presented. And the second option was, we presented evidence of, alright, we've identified the water is being allowed in here, and here. The cause of this water infiltration is a material problem in the installation of the membrane.

The contractor did not install the membrane correctly, and we gave them that evidence. So the board ultimately had two choices: they could conduct, on their own expense, a limited repair which is obviously a lot cheaper then a full replacement or an extensive repair. 

 And then option two which is ultimately what they decided to do was connect with the contractor. They did not need to go to court because the evidence we provided was sufficiently obvious that I think the contractor just realized they're not gonna win this. We saved them at least 80% of the cost of a full repair by mapping out the small areas that needed the fix.

Akaash Kancharla: So ultimately the contractor did at their own expense do the fix that we had recommended. They ripped up that 300 square feet. And I think it was more palatable for all sides because the contractor was really fighting that it wasn't their fault. The co-op board was worried they would have to redo the whole deck.

They were worried that they'd have to pay twice for the same job. So we neatly became a pretty high value intermediary saving both sides money and getting to a resolution from start to finish I think within a year, not terribly long.

Emily Myers: Your firm uses a range of robotic systems to perform work on buildings. What tools were you using to do this work? 

Akaash Kancharla: We use a pretty wide range of custom machines, custom robots, custom tools.

This work was frankly, not very complicated by our standard. We were able to finish it up in about three days. We used radar, we used ultrasound, we used thermal imaging. We used multi-spectral imaging to basically get the data, get the scans, get the images that we felt were sufficient to convince the contractor.

Emily Myers: And this evidence was obviously overwhelming. Much more so than perhaps taking photos or videos, obviously. 

Akaash Kancharla: Yes. We try to present data in a very usable format. So even though we are capturing from one day of work, we're capturing hundreds of thousands of images.

We do condense that into a pretty actionable report which I think in this case was only like 25 pages. But still presenting enough clarity and information that people know what they should do. 

Emily Myers: It sounds like the defects was easily accessible and visible. But were there any specific challenges for this project?

Akaash Kancharla: It was certainly challenging to identify the specific areas that needed additional work, just because water leaks were all over the place. There were a dozen or so water leaks that were like 25, 30 feet away from the defective areas. So it was definitely a challenge to trace to exactly where the contractor needed to work.

Once that space was identified no, it was not terribly difficult. I think the contractor took a year just because of the weather. You can't do this work when it's too cold. You can't do it when it's too wet. But I don't think they spent more than a month on the actual job site.

Emily Myers: So what was the cost of this work for the board, your work? 

Akaash Kancharla: Our billing was around 15,000 for this, which is pretty typical for for a situation where we're doing a battery of tests. I feel like we more than added value. A full replacement of that deck would've been a couple of million.

And even if they had done a partial replacement, they would've just been guessing. And I really don't think they could have guessed the correct areas without spending at least that much. 

Emily Myers: And like you said, the co-op's been successful in getting the repairs they needed from the contractor. So that's a huge win. 

Akaash Kancharla: Yeah, in this case and in most cases, in probably the majority we are able to get the contractor on board because the repair scope is much smaller than what they had originally been worried about. So we are able to usually, save the co-ops funds and just have the contractor treat as a warranty claim.

Emily Myers: So what lessons are there here for boards dealing with construction defects or even perhaps construction projects that they're hoping are going to be built to last? 

Akaash Kancharla: I think the big lesson is to quickly notice if anything feels like it was defectively or even just incorrectly executed either from a design or contracting perspective. This co-op board really waited like two years. They'd redid like multiple units, redid their roofs more than one time. I feel like a lot of time and money was wasted. And only when they were almost at the end of the warranty period which was I think three years for this, only when they were almost at the end of the warranty period did they reach out to us.

I think that taking quick detailed scans at the conclusion of work is going to be just critical. There are obviously some good faith actors. There are some bad faith actors, but we do see both intentional shortcuts as well as just accidental errors in work pretty frequently.

Emily Myers: So you suggesting that scans should be taken at the end of work being completed then just as a sort of insurance policy? 

Akaash Kancharla: Yes, I think that above the couple hundred thousand dollars mark it just makes sense to make sure that work is done correctly.

Emily Myers: Great. Akaash, is there anything else you wanna share about the project?

Akaash Kancharla: Honestly, no. It was it was a win-win all around in this case. Sometimes we end up having to go to court and, provide litigation support and in those cases also, I think the board is better off having a thorough full suite of data to use to, to further their case. I always have the attitude of don't buy insurance hoping to use it.

You have insurance just in case. And unfortunately a lot of the times we are called in, it's outside. It's like maybe 10 years later they noticed this defect and the board does have to repair it on their own dime. In which case, yeah, they're saving money, but they could have saved a lot more.

So I would just be careful about waiting too long. If you notice something wrong, something might be wrong. 

Emily Myers: Akaash Kancharla, founder of design and manufacturing firm, aRobotics company. Thanks so much. 

Akaash Kancharla: Thank you. Thank you. Take care then.