Since condo association members don’t live in the garage, parking garage issues don’t often get to the top of the to-do list. Jim Stoller, architect/developer and president of The Building Group, a Chicago-based condominium association management firm, warns that this oversight can sometimes lead to costly problems and rancor among members, and it can set an association back for years. Luckily, there are now relatively low-cost ways to proactively protect against costs for repairs to structures or member vehicles.

Stoller, whose company currently manages more than 6,000 condo units in Greater Chicago, and who has logged countless hours sitting in on hundreds of condominium board meetings, comments on the scope of the problem, “In many urban condominiums especially, where parking is below residences and the overall site design is tight, garage structures are usually dictated by the structure above and not by the best design for parking or safe navigation. This often means the parking garages are less than ideal, especially if developers cut corners budget-wise by eliminating garage lighting, mirrors, speed bumps or similar expenses. When collisions occur – and they do – it can get quite messy because everyone’s insurance company gets involved and association boards can also get embroiled in legal wrangling, while underlying problems in the garage design remain unresolved.”

Indeed, tight condominium garage spaces are becoming more prevalent in many parts of the country where space comes at a premium. In these condo garages, parking spaces are very tight, squeezed in between columns supporting the building above. Most of the car damages come from a parker hitting the columns while getting into or out of parking spaces. Many condo managers report more problems with such collisions and are searching for solutions to avoid collisions, or at least minimize their impact.

There have been several approaches to minimizing the impact of collisions on garage structures and vehicles. One common approach has been to attach angle iron to square concrete columns in the garage. Or steel bollards are sometimes placed around objects to prevent collisions. These metal devices can help protect condominium buildings from collision impacts, which is no small matter if you consider the costs of roof and building repair that collisions sometimes entail. However, these metal protective devices do nothing to prevent scratches or dents on the vehicles themselves, and in some instances the space they take up makes tight spaces even tighter in crowded garage areas.

Another approach has been to wrap soft materials around parking garage columns and corners in hopes of precluding scratches on cars as they navigate in tight spaces. Rubber has been used, but its success has often been short-lived because rubber materials tend to capture grit and dirt and lose their scratch-prevention potential. Another common homegrown solution has been to wrap carpet around columns. While this may lessen scratches, it does little to prevent dents and does not contribute much if anything to protecting the structural integrity of the building.

In recent years a workable solution has developed, which is the strategic use of energy absorbing molded foam products that are specifically engineered to absorb impacts in parking garage collisions. Unlike the haphazard rubber or cloth protectors that some condominiums have used in the past, these highly engineered plastic foam energy absorbers are able to simultaneously protect vehicles and structures during collisions. These impact-absorbing protectors are clean and easy to install, and are moderately priced, paying for themselves many times over in crowded high-traffic parking garages where collisions can be expected.

Because engineers have pioneered these impact-absorbing materials, it no longer takes much effort to make acrimonious and costly parking garage disputes a thing of the past. Now every association has the choice of managing parking garage issues before they encumber the association with unexpected and unnecessary costs and conflicts.

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Author Name: Jim Ryan

Jim Ryan is general manager of Sentry Protection Products.

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