Daily Herald; March 29, 2002; Section 1 , Page 1

Renters seek answers on why their ceilings fell

A_____ R_____ was asleep Saturday morning when she heard a noise she thought was her cat knocking things off the TV stand.
"But then it kept going and going," she said.
The __-year-old financial analyst opened the bedroom door and looked upon a nightmare. From front door to balcony, the living room ceiling had fallen down, burying the room beneath 4-by-8-foot segments of drywall and insulation.
As best friend and next-door neighbor S_______ M_______ helped her remove clothes and other necessities, M_______ wondered about the sagging ceilings in her own living room, bedroom and son's room; the ones about which she'd told the management of Tanglewood Apartments earlier in the month.
Not wanting to take a chance despite the wooden beams shoring up the ceilings in all three rooms, M_______, __, her husband J___, __, and their _-year-old son, J_______, joined R_____ in staying at a Rolling Meadows hotel.
Then on Tuesday, when no one was home, the M_______'s living room ceiling collapsed as well.
Since then, the women said Wednesday, they've yet to get a phone call, an apology or even sympathy from EPT Management, which oversees the 30-year-old, 838-unit complex for owner TVO Realty Partners.
They're staying at the hotel on their own dimes, and aren't sure how the repairs will affect their rent payments.
Moreover, M_______ doesn't want to go home again until the bedroom ceilings have been replaced. After all, what if the ceiling had fallen on her and her husband while they slept, she asked.
Arlington Heights building inspectors have barred R_____ and the M________ from their $1,100 per month apartments at 2175 S. Tonne Drive until the ceilings have been repaired.
That work was well under way on Wednesday in the M________' apartment, where new drywall coated most of the ceiling in the living room.
In R_____'s unit, debris had been cleared away, but the ceiling was wide open, and roof shingle nails were clearly visible.
Piecing together what happened around 7 a.m. Saturday is proving easier than piecing together why it happened, however.
H____ G________, Tanglewood's property manager, on Monday said that the damage was weather-related and caused by last week's strong winds - a theory village inspectors don't discount.
D_____ R____, a structural engineer hired by M_______ and R_____, disagreed.
The real problem, he said, was in the roof trusses, where it appears that new insulation was sprayed on top of old, and covered the bottom cord of the trusses.
That might have allowed the trusses to move with seasonal temperature changes, which in turn, would have pulled them up and away from the nails and glue attached to the ceiling's drywall panels, he added.
Combine that factor with rusty, inadequate nails and dried glue, and weather played a minimal, if any role, according to R___, of Elk Grove Village-based KRW Consulting Group.
"If the wind is able to do it, that means the ceiling is way under-designed," R___ said.
Several phone calls Wednesday and Thursday to G________ were not returned.
R____ F__, building and zoning director for the village of Arlington Heights, said village inspectors are awaiting R___'s final report and already are looking at all the second floor units at the 2175 S. Tonne Drive building.
What those inspections find "will determine what else we need to do," F__ said.
As the M_______'s and R_____ await permission to move back home, they wonder aloud about the future, and whether they'll stay once their leases run out.
"We don't know what we're going to do," M_______ said.
For now, R_____ added, "I just want my house back. I don't like being at the hotel."

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Engineer: Wind not why roofs collapsed

Ceiling collapses in two Arlington Heights apartments last month were caused by age, poor initial construction and the weight of new insulation added on top of old, according to a structural engineer's report.
The findings contradict the assertion of EPT Management, which manages the Tanglewood Apartments in southern Arlington Heights, that high winds caused the March 23 and 25 incidents on two second-floor apartments at 2175 S. Tonne Drive.
The April 1 report by D__ R___, a structural engineer hired by residents, concludes the collapses were not "an act of God," but of man.
"Wind forces were well within the limits of any building code. The fasteners are clearly substandard," he said. Moreover, he added, the same problems might exist in more of Tanglewood's 838 apartments.
H____ G________, Tanglewood's property manager, could not be reached Thursday for comment. She has said the damage was weather related, and caused by strong winds.
R___ said the main problem lies in the way the roof trusses were covered with insulation during their 30-year life. In large triangles, the bottom leg, or chord, was covered by a combination of old and new insulation, he said.
That caused them to flex with seasonal temperature differences, which in turn would have pulled away the nails and screws holding up the 4-by-8 sheets of drywall, he added.
Moreover, he said, when the ceilings were built, too few nails were installed to properly hold the weight of drywall and two layers of attic insulation.
All of Tanglewood's second-floor apartments should be inspected, and additional fasteners installed, if necessary, he said.
R____ F__, Arlington Heights' director of building and zoning, said inspectors agreed. But debate remains about what caused the collapses.
"Everybody that's looked at it has a totally different idea as to why it happened. No two reports have the same result," F__ said.
Village inspectors examined all second-floor units in the 2175 S. Tonne Drive building, and are requiring Tanglewood's management to add fasteners in 14 of them, he said.

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