An often underestimated cost condominium and homeowner’s associations face are the costs for carports.
Nowadays carports have composite roofs, which is comprised of two layers of aluminum with a minimum of 3” styro foam in between, therefore also called “sandwich panel”. The thickness of the aluminum can vary but most often the companies use 3” to 4” with an aluminum panel of .032/.032 on both sides.
The new sandwich panel roofs have a smooth surface and will not catch any debris; the old style roofs with 3” risers caught all the debris and moisture and were high maintenance.
Carports have to be built up to code, therefore the thickness can vary as well as the choice of either columns or post and beams. For this blog I received some great information from the company Absolute Aluminum and its special blog site Condo Carports. If you have some more questions, visit their site, which has an abundance of information about carports.
Below are some photos with pricing to give you an idea of price per car.
With calculating 200 SF space per car, the square footage price is $21 for Carport A and a little over $16 for carport B.
Carports do cost a lot, and the condominium association should make sure, that this item is included in the site improvements. One of the newer requirements from some insurance companies is to itemize each carport, meaning the appraiser cannot lump sum the carports anymore. A list with each carport’s size and applied cost/SF needs to be included in the site improvement valuation.
As a project manager for one of the leading carport builders in SWFL I must say this a very accurate piece of information. Prices have gone up a bit since 2011, but overall a valuable article for any board members entertaining or budgeting for carports.