Although fixing the roof of the new Butler County office building could cost as much as $50,000, the nearly $12 million project remains under budget.

John Campbell, director of county facilities and operations, said in an interview the project’s roughly $500,000 contingency fund won’t be tapped into because contracts for the work came in under budget and some changes to the scope of work saved money.

The error occurred when steel beams and metal sheets for the building’s roof were fabricated and installed flat instead of sloped to drain rainwater into the gutters.

The county commissioners discussed the problem at their meeting Monday.

“The roof wasn’t sloped properly,” said Commissioner Jim Eckstein.

The problem is being corrected by installing sloped insulation and a new rubber top.

Michael Preston, senior associate of the Butler division of the architectural firm Stantec, said the mistake should have been caught sooner by all the companies involved in the process.

“It’s very embarrassing,” Preston said. “We should have caught it.”

A subcontractor of general contractor Vendrick Construction of Brookfield, Ohio, did the work.

“There was an error in coordination,” Preston said.

Commissioner Bill McCarrier said the county would determine if any party is liable for the alteration’s cost.

“We’ll be looking into that,” McCarrier said.

Although the commissioners are set to vote Wednesday on whether to proceed with the correction, they will not be approving or denying a cost.

The final cost has yet to be negotiated, but Vendrick agreed to the $50,000 maximum.

Campbell said the contractor originally wanted $65,000 to fix the roof, but the price eventually was lowered.

Eckstein said the original estimate would have been higher but less insulation needed replaced on the existing county buildings.

The total project cost includes installing new roofs to the government center and courthouse as well as replacing three air conditioning units on the government center roof.

The South Washington Street building, which has four levels, will house county human services.