Opinion: One Member’s Insight on Crawl Space Improvements

This year, after GHI Members voted to approve asbestos remediation in frame homes, contractors began that work alongside the crawl space improvements already scheduled through the Homes Improvement Program (HIP). These two projects are different and are being carried out by two separate contracting companies. While the asbestos remediation is ahead of schedule, the crawl space improvements have fallen months behind schedule. As a result, many courts will have their insulation removed because of the asbestos remediation, but the insulation WILL NOT BE REPLACED UNTIL SPRING 2019. GHI Members without crawl space insulation will endure winter with colder homes and/or higher electricity bills.

 

Crawl space work began in my court on October 24, 2018. We were not given prior notice of the impending work nor what it would entail. The first step of the asbestos removal was cleaning which resulted in extremely loud noises, shaking, and odors within our unit. We reached out to Tim Goins, the now-departed GHI employee in charge of this project, and were told this was normal and to be expected; expected for him, but not for us nor other Members as we were never given notification before work started. Mr. Goins then explained that the asbestos remediation project was a 3-step process. Cleaning was the first step and entailed removing old vapor barrier, insulation, trash, and other debris. The second step would be the asbestos removal. The third and final step would be part of the crawl space improvement project and included encapsulating the asbestos, installing the vapor barrier, and installing the insulation. Mr. Goins told me this process would last three weeks and was scheduled to be completed the week of Thanksgiving. After reaching out to Joe Wiehagan, Director of HIP, we were told this information was incorrect and that the crawl space insulation crew was so far behind schedule that we would not have insulation installed until mid-February 2019 at the earliest.