Weaver, Amber
From: Jacob Patterson < [email protected]>
Sent: Friday, January 24, 2025 2:09 PM
To: City Clerk
Cc: Whippy, Isaac
Subject: Public Comment -- 1/27/25 CC Mtg., Item No. 5C, City Hall Flooring City Council,
I have a couple of concerns about this contract but the product is nice.
Section 12.19 declares that all leftover material is surplus property and will be retained by the contractor. I think he City should keep a small supply of any surplus flooring in case we need to make repairs. This product is ir blank form and individual pieces can be replaced. Most flooring projects end up with some leftover material-a least all of mine have--and it is a prudent practice to keep a few spare parts like extra tiles or floor planks so we can match any damaged areas without having to pay for new material or replace the whole floor if the product is discontinued. This should be amended prior to approval.
The Materials Included and the Exclusions sections (page 74 of 79 in the PDF) in the Bid Proposal lists the wood base as excluded and include quarter round. I am not sure what wood base is. If it is baseboards, this shouldn't be excluded unless the product can be installed securely right up to the baseboards without leaving a gap or requiring additional quarter round trim. When you install flooring well, it involves the removal of baseboards and replacement of the baseboards over the new flooring, not slapping a bandaid over the new flooring by adding quarter round. This doesn't appear to be the approach here. I am not sure what is proposed but adding additional trim on top of the existing baseboards is problematic because it is lower-quality work--at this price we shouldn't be getting a low-quality install using quarter round--but also because the quarter round can interfere with furniture placement due to the extra space out from the wall surface. That makes it difficult to attach tall furniture to the walls for safety purposes. The City may be exposing staff and visitors to avoidable risk in the case of an earthquake because the contractor is taking a shortcut and using additional quarter round trim when better techniques are available and common, We should make sure the product will not involve additional trim pieces rather than the superior method of only having existing baseboards and trim even if they have to be removed and reinstalled. If not, we should consider having PW remove any necessary trim prior to the contractors doing the work. This should be amended prior to approval.
Best,
--Jacob