'We're stuck here:' Seniors ask for quieter construction at downtown building

Residents at a downtown Windsor seniors' complex say noisy construction made life in the building practically unlivable this year, but the building's owner says the retrofits are "a little bit of pain for a better gain."

The residents are asking that the schedule and means of construction be more amenable for the seniors living in the building next year. 

"It just reverberates so loud," resident Wayne Craig said. 

"That's the sound and it goes on and on and on and on, all day every day for the last four or five months."

The 20-storey, 300-unit Raymond Desmarais Manor is located at 255 Riverside Drive. It provides subsidized and rent-to-income geared apartments for seniors. 

The building was built nearly 50 years ago has been undergoing a retrofit over the past few years to modernize it and make it more energy efficient.

Jeff Belanger, the chief housing infrastructure officer for Windsor Essex Community Housing Corporation (CHC), said it would have cost $45 million to build a new building, but the retrofit cost is predicted to be about one third of that.

Work to install new windows, new elevators and a new mechanical system have already been done. The focus of the work is now on the exterior retrofit — it's the largest component of the project and is adding insulation and protective cladding to outside of the building while refurbishing the balconies.

"This preserves the building for another 50 years, so we're looking at it as a long-term solution," Belanger said.

"There's a certain amount of understanding that you have to have that noise, you can't finish the job without that."

But several residents of the building told CBC News that the constant work on the building has not been conducive to senior living as noisy drilling, they said, took place nearly every day through the summer and fall months including on holidays like Remembrance Day and Thanksgiving.

Craig said the noise would often drown out his television set and he would often have to take to the streets on some of the hottest days of the summer to escape the constant droning of drills, he said.

"Where are you going to go during the day," he said. 

"This is a building of seniors. This is people that are not working through the day who can leave. We're stuck here and then, this is what we have to put up with."