The cost of replacing the roof on Ecole St. Mary School will be higher than expected, PA Catholic School Division Chief Financial Officer Greg McEwen reported on Monday.
McEwen told school board trustees the cost would increase by around $77,000 after contractors removed the existing roofing material and identified a layer of fibreboard under the vapour barrier, which was adhered ot the school’s roofdeck. McEwen made the update during Monday’s regular school board meeting.
“All this means is we are going to go with the Preventative Maintenance and Renewal (PMR) program funding model,” Education Director Lorel Trumier said. “It means we just push some of the less essential … projects back. What we did is reassess that and we will be able to manage financing the cost of that project.”
Project consultant Prakash Consulting determined that it was necessary to remove the fibreboard in order to make the existing concrete deck viable for the new vapour barrier to be attached. A failure to take this action would void the warranty of the new roofing materials for the project.
Prakash consulting was selected as the project’s engineering firm at the board’s March meeting.
The requirement to remove existing fibreboard was not in the original project specifications from Prakash and a Change Order was needed for the contractor.
“We always try to mitigate the cost but sometimes it is more than we had anticipated so that was one of those times where that had come to the table,” Trumier said.
The increase in cost will be funded through the PMR.
Administration made the decision to defer previously planned PMR projects in the Catholic Education Centre to a time when when sufficient PMR funds are available for the project.
