The atmospheric weather that caused extensive flooding and devastation throughout B.C. in recent years has taken its toll on the Langley Lodge, too.
Scaffolding has gone up around the exterior of Langley's long-term care home on 204th Street in recent days, while contractors await for a building permit to start work on an extensive retrofit to the east side of the building, explained Aly Devji, CEO for the Lodge.
"There is a little bit of action happening at the Lodge as you can see," he said. "This is something that needs to be done."
The aging structure suffered extensive damage to the outer walls or building envelope during a series of floods in B.C. in November 2021, and since then the building has been leaking during heavy rains, Devji said.
"Unfortunately, this is a result of the severe weather we have faced the last few years and our building envelope needed to be fortified in order to better manage moisture," he said.
"The extreme shifts in weather, coupled with the deficiencies in our building envelope, resulted in water seeping behind the brick and stucco facade resulted in some cracking of grout, bricks, and stucco on the affected portion of the building due to formation and melting of ice behind the facade," Devji elaborated.
He noted it only affects a small portion of the building which was added in 2001 to the original care home. Specifically, it's a section about 30 feet by 70 feet, on each of the six storeys on the east side where the elevators, lounges, and activity rooms are situated.
"We are bolstering the building envelope so as to better manage against the inclement weather we have experienced in recent years, while also repairing the building facade that had deteriorated," he said.
"Thankfully there is little to no impact on residents and staff other than the noise from the workmen and some limitations on parking for the next two months."
Some of the repair work actually began last summer, with a $400,000 replacement of the roof. Phase 2 of the work, he hopes will start within days and expects this latest job will take six to eight weeks to complete – well before the fall rains hit again.
"There are some costs to be absorbed, which we have budgeted, although any support from the community would help our organization immensely, especially as we celebrate our 50th anniversary year," Devji said, unable to know costs for sure, until workers can more accurately gauge the extend of damage.
Langley Lodge was first constructed in 1974. Then in 2001, the Lodge went through the addition of the elevators, activity rooms, and lounges (the area effected by the recent work). Finally, 10 years ago, the west tower was added with larger rooms, ensuite showers and balconies, and a complete reno of the existing building to convert the lodge to single-room residence.
The Lodge now has 139 residents.
