The Cycle Continues
It’s time for sidewalk sheds and scaffolding, again. February 21, 2020 marks the beginning of the 9th cycle of façade inspections for all NYC buildings. The Façade Inspection Safety Program (FISP) was formerly known and still often referred to as Local Law 11. Building owners and managers have four years to complete the inspection and make the necessary repairs.
Local Law 11 was the response to a 1979 tragedy when a piece of masonry fell from a building and killed a college student. The law is designed to keep New Yorker’s safe from crumbling building façade parts falling onto the sidewalks.
The law requires buildings that are six stories or taller to have their facades inspected no less than every five years. Building owners must hire a professional to inspect the façade. The inspectors are approved by the Department of Buildings (DoB) to perform inspections and then submit their reports to the DoB. They are most often licensed engineers or architects.
Façade inspection reports are public and available on the DoB NOW under “Safety.” This is where you can also find reports on elevators and boilers.
There are three FISP classifications:
SAFE – Nothing to repair, the scaffolding can be taken down
UNSAFE - Owners must repair the issue(s) within 90 days of the report being filed
SWARMP - Safe with a Repair and Maintenance Program: not an active risk to the public, but they do have defects that requires repairs. SWARMP repairs need to be resolved as part of the next FISP cycle.
A recent Habitat Magazine article Facade Inspections: Proposed Rules Could Blast Budgets discusses the proposed changes to the law which are estimated to make façade inspections more expensive. Gene Ferrara, president of JMA Consultants, says that “a qualified inspector would earn $8,000 to examine a 15-story building. Under the new rules, he predicts, this would jump to between $20,000 and $30,000. It's going to cost too much money and the people are going to be broke doing repairs.”
City Councilman Ben Kallos has been involved in getting scaffolding laws and procedures changed for years. According to Crains NY, “The councilman has filed several bills in the past four years to rein in sidewalk sheds, which darken about 300 miles of city sidewalks in front of unsafe buildings and construction zones.” The councilman recently proposed that the DOB allow façade inspections to be performed by drones. He was quoted by the New York Post as saying that “We need to study using drone technology and innovative solutions to get sidewalk sheds down while keeping New Yorkers safe.”
We have spoken with several engineers actively advocating for the use of drones for these inspections. The arguments for drone inspections are many and include that inspections would be quicker and less cost prohibitive for buildings.
We tend to take the view of Brick Underground: “It may be cold comfort, but remember that this law is in place for the safety of all New Yorkers.”
Have an upcoming project that the building’s engineer or property manager is getting bids for? Get a second opinion on the cost of the project so that you don’t have to assess your coop or condo owners. We welcome any size project, but large and frequent savings are for façade inspection safety programs (FISP) and elevator replacements. Set up a strategy call to hear more about this.