They just finished replacing all our condo decks this past month. Big project. The deck itself is smaller than this picture makes it look and I don’t use it all that much, but it’s nice that it’s there.
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Alex Good 
Who are ‘they’?
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Oh the company they contracted to replace the decks. Can’t remember their name now. Local outfit.
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I meant the ‘they’ who put the contract out, not the ones that did the work. Was thinking you owned your gaff so why wouldn’t you sort it out yourself?
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Things outside the walls of your condo are maintained by the condo corporation. It’s what your condo fees pay for. So things like the roof or windows or garage doors or decks. The condo board decides what work needs to be done/what needs to be replaced and then they pick a company to do it.
Not sure if that helps. Condo living usually means private ownership of individual units and shared ownership of “common areas.”
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Ah right. Have to say the new decking doesn’t look very new.
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In a couple of years it will be weathered so it looks as grey as the couple of original corner posts they kept. It looks better in real life. And some of the old boards were getting pretty rotten.
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Should get a table and comfy chair on it, sit in the evening with a glass of water/wine/beer/wotever and contemplate the universe.
🤣
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I know all the people who live here and use of decks is pretty much half and half. Meaning half the units get a lot of use out of their decks and the other half never set foot on them. I only take a chair out and read every now and then. I don’t use it much.
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So did your usual condo fees cover this, or did you have to have a special assessment to cover the work?
and it looks almost like untreated wood. Is it? Or will they be staining or sealing it up in some way to make it last longer?
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No special assessment. Our reserve fund is in really good shape. There are tougher regulations now for condo finances that are causing problems in old high-rise buildings (especially in Florida) where the costs of maintenance are more than the building is worth. We don’t have that problem, but we’re required to keep a massive balance in the reserve fund anyway.
The wood is pressure treated but not stained. Like I said to Fraggle, in a couple of years it will weather to a grey colour anyway. Apparently the previous decks were stained and people were put off because it really didn’t do anything.
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Nice. I wish our condo assoc would be more proactive in regards to cash reserves. The problem is that most of our residents are lower income and while they are owners and have the place paid off, they are still living paycheck to paycheck or social security check to social security check.
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Yeah, and that gets you into trouble. That condo collapse in Florida was a telling example of the problem. What do you do if there are repairs that are necessary but they’re going to cost a huge amount? People aren’t going to vote to spend more money. They’re just going to put things off, kick the can down the road, figuring that they’ll either die or move out before everything falls apart. I’m lucky because I don’t live in an older high rise. This is a small condo association (20 units) that are townhouses and they’re well maintained. We have a big reserve fund but really there’s not a lot of work that needs to be done. Windows in five or ten years but that’s it.
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I’ve got about 3 years to pay off ours. Then we can decide how long we want to stay. At some point we’ll have to move, as no elevators and us on the third floor isn’t going to work for us long term.
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Yeah, I had a good friend who had one on the fifth or sixth floor of a place with no elevator. But that was years ago and we were all young. Even remember carrying a sofa up to it when he was moving in. But after a while you realize you don’t want that anymore.
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