Reply To: Tile envy over balcony refurbs

Hi Andy,

The 4 balconies that were refurbished were only done so necessarily as the water proofing had failed on all of them and was causing water leaks to all parts of the buildings.  The apartments lost tenants for 5+months and received no compensation for the loss rent. This owner’s request is for purely cosmetic reasons, the waterproof membrane has been inspected and deemed sound ( no leakage below ). So why tear up tiles that will need a new membrane for some stained tiles caused by pot plants sitting in place for too long ( a manager had noticed these stains prior ).  There is a good outcome. I sent photos of some balconies with a painted treatment and they were surprised at how good the finish was and accepted this method. We as an OC will pay for the tile paint treatment as some staining may have been attributable to leaking from above.  We were not however, going to pay for replacing an entire balcony due to stained tiles as this could open up a pandora’s box of balcony refurb requests because the tiles are stained.