What a parking garage restoration costs an Ontario condo

Every board gets to the same meeting eventually. The reserve fund study says the garage needs work, there is a number attached, and nobody around the table is sure whether that number is real.

It is real, but it is a range, and the range is wide for a reason worth understanding before you tender.

Why nobody can give you a fixed price

Concrete deterioration happens inside the slab. Road salt carries chloride into the concrete, the chloride reaches the reinforcing steel, and the steel corrodes and expands. That expansion cracks the concrete from within.

From above, the deck looks fine. From below you might see staining, or nothing. The only way to know how much concrete is compromised is to sound it, and the only way to know for certain is to open it up.

What drives the number up

• Repair quantity. The single biggest factor. Delaminated area is measured in square feet, and the rate for full-depth repair is several times the rate for partial-depth.
• Access and phasing. A garage that can close entirely is cheaper than one where you protect resident parking through six phases. Phasing is the right call, but it costs.
• Shoring. Full-depth repairs need the slab supported from below, which means the level underneath comes out of service too.
• Waiting. The most expensive variable. Deterioration compounds, so a deferred repair is not the same repair three years later. It is a bigger one.

How to read a unit-priced tender

Restoration is tendered on unit rates because fixed pricing on unknown quantities would either bankrupt the contractor or gouge the corporation. Your tender should show a rate per square foot of partial-depth repair, a rate for full-depth, a rate per linear foot of crack routing and joint replacement, plus lump sums for coatings, mobilization and line painting.

The contract value then moves with the quantities actually installed. That is normal. What is not normal is learning about it at the end.

What to do before you tender

• Engage a restoration engineer for a condition survey. It pays for itself in better pricing and fewer disputes.
• Tender over the winter. Concrete and coating work is seasonal in Ontario, and boards that award early get better rates and better schedule position.
• Insist on comparable submissions, so you are comparing rates rather than assumptions.
• Budget a contingency against quantity overruns. Your engineer can tell you a sensible percentage for the condition of your structure.

If your garage is flagged in the next reserve fund cycle, it is worth getting real numbers early, while you still have the option of doing it on your schedule rather than the structure's.