Project Overview & Background
California's SB326 requires periodic inspection of elevated exterior elements in multi-family buildings, and this Santa Monica condo's balcony guard did not pass. The original aluminium picket guard had corroded at the base connections where water had been sitting for years.
Replacement work in an occupied condo building is mostly a logistics problem. We could not stage materials in the common corridor, could not start before 9am, and had a single service elevator shared with residents. Glass panels were sized to fit the elevator rather than to minimise panel count — a slightly less elegant layout, but the alternative was craning panels from the street and closing a lane on Ocean Avenue.
Structural Challenge:
The failed base connections had allowed water into the balcony slab edge. We could not simply anchor a new guard into compromised concrete, so the slab edge was repaired and allowed to cure before the new base plates went in.
Engineered Solution:
Slab-edge repair first, then a stainless base-shoe glass guard with panels sized to the service elevator to avoid street craning.
The building barely noticed the work was happening, which our board cared about almost as much as the railing itself.
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