Should I be concerned with CRACKS on condo building outside walls? (Chicago: lawyer, construction)

[ChiCityChiCity]

I'm very close on closing a condo in downtown Chicago. The inspection went well but that was for the interior of the condo. I just walked by the condo building yesterday and noticed there are a lot of cracks on the building outside wall. The building was built in 2005 so it is relatively new for Chicago. I have already asked my agent to ask the management of the building about the cracks and plan/budget to fix them. Before this, my lawyer has checked the financial of the HOA, there has been no special assessment in the past and there won't be any in the next 2 years at least. They have $380k in fund reserve for about 100 units in the building.

Should I be concerned about this? Does that mean the building will have problems in the future?

[chet everett]

There are many relatively new building constructed of inappropriate materials / built to lax standards that will costly nightmares of NEVER being "quite right".

Recent thread touched on similar issues -- //www.city-data.com/forum/chica...-cracking.html

[Carson9]

Hopefully your building isn't made out of dryvit/EIFES.

If it's made out of regular brick, etc. sounds like it's just in need of regular tuck pointing maintenance. My inspectors always look at exterior of condo buildings as well (roof, balconies, tuck pointing, etc) to ensure everything is addressed during the inspection period.

You and your attorney should also get all the condo docs which hopefully lays out past and future maintenance schedules. If it's not called out there, I would ask for them to confirm if tuck pointing issues will be addressed or if it's on the HOA's "to do" list at some point. Reserves sound pretty healthy so hopefully it's not a big deal.

[ChiCityChiCity]

I think the building is made out of Concrete, definitely not masonery . I'm not sure what dryvit/EIFES is but you sound like it's bad. Is it a form of concrete?

The cracks look to me a bit more like some kind of acid dripped down and ate into the exterior facade. The cracks have like orange/yellowish hue to them. I remember there is like a circle subsided crack (then may not be a crack, how can a crack be a circle). I will find out more info next week about the cracks. I will go there again to take some photos.

[Carson9]

Just google dryvit Chicago and you'll get some useful info.

But I feel by this point, you would know if the building was made of dryvit by now, so hopefully it's not. It's basically a man made "stucco" product that a lot of developers were using in the early-mid 2000s. Many of the buildings now are finding lots of exterior and interior (moisture) issues due to this product. I think a lot of it has to do with people not maintaining it properly and now are dealing with consequences.

But again, if you have a good agent and inspector, you prob would know by know if it's dryvit. Hopefully it's not. Not the end of the world if it is, but can definitely complicate a sale.

[ChiCityChiCity]

I found out the details:

Structural material
steel
concrete

Facade material
concrete

Facade system
exposed structure

Architectural style
postmodernism

[ChiCityChiCity]

I took some photos of the cracks around the building. What do you guys think?

https://app.box.com/s/wf5nyb9l4fb2del4dby9

[chet everett]

...those are CRACKS. DEEP ones, that have been "filled" with some kind of "patching material".

I am not expert but the circles reminds of some kind of pattern from either "cast in place" system has forms may have been used during the construction of this building OR (more likely in my not professional opinion) some kind of "fastener system" that was used to attach precast concrete panels to the super structure.

It does not look right -- think too is that sometimes things like these are crazy expensive to fix. 20 years ago the tower that is now Aon's HQ on East Randolph was clad in marble. The marble was prone to cracking and at huge expense was all removed and replace with granite. I don't know the details of the building shown but if that sort of thing is a possibility I cannot imagine how costly this might be...

[Chicago Carol]

Before you buy, you should get the exterior of the building inspected, pull the meeting minutes, and talk to your neighbors. Sometimes people do not get the inspection of the exterior done because the cost can be upwards of $1200. Let me tell you that it will be money well spent. Sometimes when you ask to see minutes, you will be told that are no meeting minutes. This is a lie. There are always meeting minutes and if they are reported correctly, it should tell you when the last work on the exterior was done. If it is properly maintained there will be work on the exterior every year in some capacity. That is maintenance. Also, if you can, try to talk to the neighbors, though this may not be entirely possible to get their take on the cracks. If those leaks get bigger in any way or if people begin experiencing leak issues in their unit from those cracks, this will be a nightmare that you wished you stayed far away from and it will be extremely costly.