The Current Hotel at Rocky Point – EIFS Overcladding Project

Title: The Current Hotel at Rocky Point – EIFS Overcladding Project

Award Category: Exterior Wall

Project Address/Location

2545 N Rocky Point Dr

Tampa, Florida 33607
United States

Submitted By: Mitchell Wright

Company Info

Ivy Group Consultants, Inc.

1137 Breeze Drive

Largo, Florida 33770
United States

941-238-8929

[email protected]

Project Description and Background: The Current Hotel at Rocky Point is an Autograph Collection, luxury waterfront hotel constructed in 2018 on the southernmost tip of Rocky Point on Old Tampa Bay. The hotel is 11 stories, containing 180 guestrooms, restaurants, bars, an elevated pool deck and a private beach surrounded by mangroves and the waters of Old Tampa Bay. The ground floor podium areas are constructed using concrete and CMU, with the guestroom tower constructed of a concrete super structure with infill frame walls, exterior gypsum sheathing, a traditional 3-coat Portland cement stucco system over paperbacked metal lath and water resistive barrier. Vinyl stucco reveal accessories provided joints in the cladding breaking the wall areas into multiple panels. Since opening, the hotel has been plagued by ongoing leakage through the exterior walls resulting in interior damages to guestrooms and other interior spaces. Forensic testing and evaluation determined that the leakage was primarily attributed to deficiencies in the installation of the stucco reveal accessories, combined with poor application of the water resistive barrier and associated flashings, and an inability of the wall system to drain due to the omission of weep flashings. Before Ivy Group was retained, the building owner had attempted numerous options to eliminate the leakage typically involving coating systems over the existing wall areas. These attempts did not resolve the leakage, and in many cases worsened the conditions by further allowing water to accumulate in the wall cavity without any provisions for weepage or drainage. An obvious solution may have been to completely remove and reinstall the exterior cladding system. However, this would have resulted in a great disturbance to the operations of the newly commissioned hotel, affecting both current and future business. Therefore, an alternative approach to resolving the leakage and ongoing damages was desired by the ownership group.

Scope: Before Ivy Group was retained, the building owner had attempted numerous options to eliminate the leakage typically involving coating systems over the existing wall areas. These attempts did not resolve the leakage, and in many cases worsened the conditions by further allowing water to accumulate in the wall cavity and behind the new coatings. It was becoming obvious that treating the exterior stucco clad walls as a barrier system was not achieving the goal of preventing the ongoing leakage and damages to the hotel. Guest rooms were repeatedly being taken offline for repairs to interior finishes, resulting in remediation expenses and lost income from not being able to use the affected guestrooms. As mentioned above, an obvious solution may have been to completely remove and reinstall the exterior cladding system. However, this would have resulted in a great disturbance to the operations of the newly commissioned hotel, affecting both current and future business. An alternative approach to resolving the leakage and ongoing damages was desired by the ownership group. Ivy Group was retained in 2022 to evaluate alternative options to restore the integrity of the building enclosure system. Destructive testing was performed, creating exploratory openings in various sections of the stucco over frame wall areas of the guest tower. The initial purpose of the exploratory openings was to assess how the water resistive barrier (WRB) system and associated flashings were installed. Numerous voids and openings in the WRB were discovered behind the cladding system which were associated with known interior leakage. Furthermore, inconsistencies in the installation of the stucco reveal accessories were identified and also linked back to the interior leakage. These deficiencies were allowing water to accumulate in the wall cavity areas, and the combination of this with the lack of weep flashings was determined to be the primary cause of the ongoing leakage and interior damages. Ivy Group then commissioned water leakage testing per AAMA 501.2 at numerous storefront window openings in the guestrooms. The purpose of this testing was to determine if the windows, or the openings were contributing to the leakage. Through multiple rounds of testing both isolated and non-isolated windows and openings, we determined that the windows were performing and not contributing to the leakage. With this knowledge, we were ready to propose a solution that would both solve the ongoing leakage, and reduce the downtime of hotel operations that would otherwise be associated with complete removal and replacement of the cladding system. The solution was reached by collaboration with an international Manufacturer and subsequent design by Ivy Group of an EIFS Overcladding system over the existing stucco clad wall areas of the guestrom tower. The new EIFS Overcladding system would effectively abandon the current painted stucco cladding and defective reveals, providing the building with a new drainable cladding system over a new fluid applied WRB system with proper weep flashings at each floor level, at the roof to wall conditions, over window openings and at other key enclosure conditions.

Solution: The building owner had attempted numerous options prior to our involvement to eliminate the leakage. These typically involved coating systems over the existing wall areas. These attempts did not resolve the leakage, and in many cases worsened the conditions by further allowing water to accumulate in the wall cavity and behind the new coatings. Ivy Group’s solutions in collaboration the Manufacturer was to essentially abandon the existing exterior wall cladding system. This was determined after forensic evaluation of the various building enclosure systems indicated to us that the windows were not contributing to the leakage. The solution therefore was to Overclad the existing exterior stucco clad walls of the guestroom tower with a drainable EIFS system over a new fluid applied WRB system and new flashings. Ivy Group subsequently produced a complete set of Drawings loaded with custom details, a full Project Manual containing technical Specifications, and managed bidding to six local qualified General Contractors familiar with and certified to install the Design Basis EIFS system. The existing stucco clad walls had to be intricately prepared prior to installation of the new EIFS system. This included stucco crack repairs, installation of a flexible flashing tape system over all horizontal and vertical stucco reveals, installation of new head flashings over all storefront punched window openings, installation of a new sill flashing apron extension below the existing window sill flashings to accommodate the additional thickness from the new 1-1/2” EIFS, floor level flashings at each floor, and finally installation of a new fluid applied WRB over the entire surface of the guestroom tower walls. We now had a clean canvas properly prepared and ready to receive the new drainable EIFS system. XPS foam panels were installed, with a running bond pattern designed to prevent foam panel joints from occurring in line with window jambs to prevent telegraphed cracking. Due to the location being right on Old Tampa Bay, rasping of the foam panels was done in the hotels lower parking garage to prevent foam debris from polluting the Bay. This was easier said than done and a continued effort to keep the waters clear was a priority during the project. Decorative joints to match the look of the original stucco reveals were cut into the 1-1/2” XPS foam panels with a hot knife. This eliminated unnecessary breaches in the new cladding system while still maintaining the general look of the exterior walls. During the project, Ivy Group (Architect of Record and Building Enclosure Consultant) performed exhaustive site visits to review mockups and the subsequent work though the successful completion of the project in early 2024. The entire project team was extremely satisfied with the results and performance of the solution. Follow-up water testing, as well as numerous heavy rains through the spring and summer of 2024 have provided a harsh testing ground for the new EIFS system. The lack of any leakage at the property had clearly demonstrated the effective performance of the EIFS Overcladding system used in this application.

Value: Ivy Group acted as the Architect of Record, as well as the Building Enclosure Consultant for this amazing project. Before Ivy Group was retained, the building owner had attempted numerous options to eliminate the leakage typically involving coating systems over the existing wall areas. These attempts did not resolve the leakage, and in many cases worsened the conditions by further allowing water to accumulate in the wall cavity and behind the new coatings. It was becoming obvious that treating the exterior stucco clad walls as a barrier system was not achieving the goal of preventing the ongoing leakage and damages to the hotel. Though our relationship with the Manufacturer of the new EIFS system, and experience on past similar projects, Ivy Group provided a very effective alternate to complete removal and replacement of the exterior cladding systems. The later would have severely affected hotel operations, likely resulting in entire stacks of guestrooms being taken offline reducing income to the hotel. The noise alone associated with removal of stucco would have certainly made it into online review posts, discouraging other guests from staying at the pristine location in exchange for other accommodations. This, along with a leak-free building were the primary objectives desired by the owners. We successfully achieved this as virtually no guest rooms were taken offline during the project, and as mentioned above the performance of the new EIFS system has been proven multiple times throughout this extraordinarily wet spring and summer we’ve had in Tampa Bay and surrounding areas. Through forensic analysis, and working behind the scenes to develop the Drawings, Details and Specifications with the Manufacturer, controlling the Bidding, Award, and Contract Negotiation processes, and providing exhaustive Construction Administration services throughout the project, Ivy Group contributed greatly to the overall success of the project. In doing so, we have also developed deeper relationships with the Owner, The Contractor and the Manufacturer and can only hope to be fortunate enough to be involved with similar projects in the future.

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Additional Info: Owner: Caspers Company Architect and Building Enclosure Consultant: Ivy Group Consultants, Inc. General Contractor: WKM Restoration Group Cladding Subcontractor: Commercial Plastering, Inc. Roofing Contractor: Roof Smith of Tampa Bay (for new roof copings) Manufacturer: Sto Corp. System: Sto Therm CI EIFS system

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