Repairs continue to be underway in the Ferris Library of Information, Technology and Education after a water line burst at the beginning of January.
The line burst while HVAC was replacing a heating coil on the first floor of FLITE on Jan. 3. The cause of the burst was a faulty coupler, according to Facilities Management Associate Vice President Joe Haupt.
“It’s a 24-year-old system, and there was a coupler that come loose, that burst which then you know, allowed all the water that was in those lines to drain in the area,” Haupt said. “So my crew the [facility management] crew, sprung into action, was able to isolate the water and isolate I’ll say the power to that space to get it shut down as quickly as we could, but water whenever there’s a leak in the system, water tends to, find its way down to that hole.”
While the facility management crew and HVAC workers were able to isolate the flooding before it spread, there was still some damage. This includes ceiling tiles, drywall, lighting fixtures and carpet on the first and basement floors of FLITE. Some of the furniture was damaged as well, including the printing sign that hung from the ceiling.
Business administration senior Bailey Edison, who works at FLITE, explains some of the damage that affects students.
“It got all over our printers because the water main burst when they were working on it, so the water was pouring down, went all over our printers and our little workstation over there so we don’t have printing at the moment,” Edison said. “So, that’s our biggest challenge right now because we have to send students to the David L. Eisler Center to print because those are the only printers like near here.”
Edison explained that the printers were covered by insurance, however until the repairs are done, students won’t be able to use printers at FLITE. Students can still use the computers to connect to the printers in the D.E.C. while FLITE is still undergoing repairs.
Haupt explained that the damage was not as significant as it could have been, due to the swiftness of those who were working in FLITE. Tarps were placed over the floor to prevent further damage. Items in the Jim Crow Museum were also moved away from where the flooding occurred, and according to Haupt, no items from the museum were damaged.
Haupt has a crew working in the library with plans to complete the project on Feb. 29. They have completed several of their steps in this plan including extracting the water, drying the carpet and demolition.
“We’ve started the restoration activities, where then we went through demoed wherever we had, I’ll say drywall in the ceilings because anything that was wet and a drywall surface or anything or a ceiling tile,” Haupt said. “You know, we wanted to make sure that we got those removed so that there was no potential for any mold growth down the road.”
The crew is currently working on replacing the damaged drywall, with plans to have that completed by Feb. 15, with plans to move on to the final step, painting.