Hurricane Irma hit Central Florida’s home construction industry in more ways than one.
The headquarters for the region’s leading industry group was damaged early Monday when a tree crashed through the roof of its three-year-old offices on Mayo Avenue, east of U.S. Highway 17-92 in Maitland. Major structural damage was compounded when interior fire-protection sprinklers went off for hours and caused damage throughout the building.
Three weeks into her position as chief operating officer overseeing Greater Orlando Builders Association, Chassity Vega got an early-morning call Monday that the sprinkler alarms had been activated. With post-hurricane curfews in place, no one went to the building immediately. Sprinklers might have run for five hours, she estimated. When Vega and her team arrived, the building had standing water “corner to corner.”
“As we opened the doors to the building, water gushed out everywhere, along with insulation,” she said, adding that almost all the building’s systems needed substantial repair.
Association President Jeff Schnellmann, owner of Silliman CitySide Homes, said about 10 members of the association quickly volunteered by securing the building. A team from ODC Construction took the lead. Within a day, the tree was removed, an engineer checked the structure, workers filled a dumpster with debris and a restoration crew removed most of the moisture.
Buildings with that much damage generally take months to reconstruct.
“My goal is that we are back up and running by the end of September,” Schnellman said.
In the days after the hurricane, the 700-member group has had meetings and used office space at Winter Park Chamber of Commerce.
Power outages and other issues related to the hurricane are expected to put deadline pressures on Orlando-area contractors facing deadlines, said Mark Wylie, president of the Central Florida chapter of Associated Builders & Contractors Inc.
“The storm no doubt created unplanned delays for projects,” Wylie said. “Taking down materials and equipment, storing it, waiting out the storm and then repositioning and resuming all takes hours and days away from production.”
Demand for skilled workers is expected to further tap a tight labor market. Orlando’s unemployment rate for the construction industry in July was 4%, down from 4.7% a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The bureau reported the average hourly construction wage for Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Lake counties was $13.88. The national average wage for that group was $18.22.
“There is certainly a shortage of skilled workers, and the structural damage to the Keys and Southwest Florida will certainly exacerbate that situation,” he added. “Rebuilding Houston will also likely draw construction workers from around the country and Florida as well. It is too early to tell the extent and impact.”
Wylie said he wasn’t aware of any notable flooding at construction sites and added that contractors had not yet complained of significant roof damage. He said it wouldn’t be surprising to hear of some damage to unsecured equipment, such as damaged cranes in Miami.
