UNM didn’t ask Vernon Tile for any past work experience or qualifications before the company completed the tile work at Johnson’s Olympic pool, said Robert Notary, Johnson pool project manager.
The tiles around Johnson’s Olympic pool are already coming up and cracking, and the pool remodel was completed in March.
Notary said qualifications from Vernon Tile weren’t required because the pool deck tiling was a small project in the renovation. The tiles surrounding the pool cost $114,600 of the $5,667,000 renovation.
“The tile contractor was a lesser amount of work than what we considered we needed to have a pre-qualification on,” Notary said.
“Hindsight is 20/20. Certainly at this point I wish we would have pre-qualified the tile installer.”
Representatives from Vernon Tile declined to comment.
Notary said UNM required qualifications and past experience from three other companies who completed 90 percent of the remodeling.
UNM chose K. L. House Construction to oversee the full remodel, and Vernon Tile works under K. L. House as a subcontractor.
K. L. House was the least expensive of the three companies that applied to do the renovation. However, Vernon Tile, selected by K.L. House, offered the most expensive quote for the tile project, according to documents provided the UNM Purchasing Department.
President of K. L. House, Michael Brogdon, said Vernon Tile is a reputable company.
“Vernon tile has been around for many, many years,” Brogdon said. “They’re very qualified to do this. I’ve worked with them before and we haven’t had an issue.”
Brogdon said his company still isn’t sure what is making the tiles crack and come up, even though they’ve been trying to fix the tiles for several months.
K. L. House is set to repair all tile damages over winter break from Dec. 19 through Jan. 4.
“We know that people walking on it with just their bare feet can’t be breaking the tile,” Brogdon said. “We’re just trying to determine why this tile is shattering the way it is.”
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Notary said K. L. House promised UNM all construction will be finished before students come back for the spring semester.
“I have asked repeatedly and talked to them,” he said. “They assured me they will have enough staff to complete it during that time period.”
Kenneth Lucas, UNM aquatics manager, said the pool would normally be open Dec. 21 through 23, but it will be closed because of the construction.
The tile issues are costing K. L. House a large amount of money, Brogdon said.
“It costs us. It costs the University. It costs everybody, what’s occurring here,” he said. “It’s expensive for us to keep going back, but we’ve got to make it right. None of us want to leave it the way it is.”
Notary said the current tile issues aren’t costing UNM any money because K. L. House’s work is under warrantee for a year.
“We’re not paying the architect or contractor any additional money, unless you consider my time valuable, which I do,” Notary said.
Notary said K. L. House is extending the warrantee for another year to make sure their repair work holds up.
He said K. L. House also built the last Johnson Olympic pool, which had to be completely remodeled this year because of water leakage. However, Notary said the architecture firm is responsible for the water leakage.
“It was having major problems,” he said. “It was leaking considerably. I want to say half a million gallons a year.”
Tom Weeks, associate director of the UNM Purchasing Department, said the current tile problems could be indicative of larger structural problems.
“Because of the size of the pool and the weight of water, it could be causing the bucking of tiles,” he said. “It’s not like your backyard swimming pool. It could just be physics.”
Notary and Brogdon denied any possible problems with pool structure.
