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  • Flooded, and becoming disreputable

    Our office flooded yesterday.

    We've had problems before. Part of the bulding has 3 floors with a sloping roof, but there's a middle section which is only 1 floor with a flat roof. The plus is that the middle of the building can get natural light from the skylights. The minus is that the gutter gets stuffed full of leaves and water rises (over 2 feet on the worst occassion) and then floods through to the lowest level.

    Since our wonderful and insane cleaner was stopped from going out to sweep leaves from the roof the building management company have been meant to do it. Apparently they didn't.

    So yesterday we get a sudden very heavy rain storm. I share my office with 1 colleague. She has the window (and I have the shelves - she chose first) and she started to panic. I told her there was nothing to panic about.

    Then the water reached the top of the gutter, and we called downstairs to talk to the deputy managers.

    They rushed up and decided the gutters needed checking for leaves. But the deputy wouldn't go out because his shoes would get wet (!) and the next most senior person was arguing he should go out as he was male and more senior and, er, she didn't want to get wet either.

    As I wear big boots, and everyone always thinks I'm weird because I like rain, I went out. It seemed better than listening to them arguing. I got rubber gloves and a bin bag. The deputies stood indoors with an umbrella.

    Unfortunately I don't know the gutters. I couldn't see any blockages because they were so blocked you couldn't even see where the drains were.

    Luckily as I walked down the room I got to the other end of our building's roof and Luke, our immigration specialist, looked out of his window and saw me. He came out and knew where the drains were and cleared them really quickly.

    So we all came back from the roof, dripping slightly but feeling pleased with ourselves, when more people from downstairs came rushing up. The whole thing must have taken 5 minutes but there was water pouring through downstairs.

    It came through the electricals in the customer toilet, and in the back office. Someone had to jump into action and move the photocopier because that was getting soaked. The back office (and the manager's office off it) stink off damp. The corridor at the back was soaked through. Only a very small amount of paperwork was affected, and the ceiling hasn't fallen in this time.

    The management company have been out today looking very unhappy.

    On the plus side I am becoming more disreputable. On top of taking cigarette breaks when I don't smoke we are now eating lunch everyday (well - the 3 days this week) in the pub over the road, despite not drinking. Very nice cheap sandwiches, 2 minutes from work, very quite at lunch time with huge tables to sit at and gossip. We're all sitting over there drinking coca cola and enjoying girly chat (5 of us on Monday, 3 of the same plus 1 other on Tuesday, and 2 of us with 1 other on Wednesday - but so far it has been all the women of the office only).

    What other nice things am I missing out on because of a general lack of vice ?

    Victoria J

  • #2
    That sounds like what happened to the mall I worked at when Katrina hit. As it happened, that mall was on "high ground" (read : only slightly below sea level), and took very little water in from flooding at all. The worst was maybe ten feet in from one set of glass doors, in a section where the nearest shop/kiosk was 30 feet from the doors.

    There was just one slight problem. The mall had been paying a certain maintenance company to keep the roof drains and A/C units cleaned and clog-free for years. We found out -- the hard way -- that this service had seldom, if ever been performed. The downpour from the storm most of the roof units to overflow. Resulting in the ceiling in most of the mall getting evaporated by way of a torrential downpour INSIDE the structure. Our shop, which had just been upgraded after literally 15 years of obsolescent cash wraps, had to be totally gutted by the HAZMAT guys and rebuilt from scratch. Many other shops suffered the same fate.

    Net result: a mall which could have been safely re-opened a WEEK after the storm, had the maintenance work been done properly, could not be used again until Thanksgiving, nearly three MONTHS later.
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    • #3
      Last spring we found out that the landlord was not making sure that they were keeping the roof drains clear in the plaza one of our nearby stores was in. We had several days of heavy rain. Late at night it was pouring and very few customers int he store due the weather.

      One of the deli closers notices water running down the side of one of the exhaust fans. They call the MOD. Mod comes sees small leak and removes ceiling tile to allow water to hit the floor and go down a drain. As they are putting the ladder back they hear running water. The look around the back room, go to some of the mechanical spaces hidden in the store nothing.

      All of a sudden a frantic page come over the PA, "Mr. MOD to Aisle XX immideatley!." Water is pouring down from the ceiling and several tiles had fallen out. Literally hundreds of gallons of water had poured into the store, destroying the fans and stuff in some of the dairy coolers. It was a late night for management and repair crews.

      The next morning we discovered the other place that water leaked, but much slower. The freezer. It leaked on top of the insulated panels and found its way into the freezer via the penetration for the fire sprinklers. It was slow enough to freeze and not flood out from the door. However if froze to 6-8 inches of ice on the floor in spots and completely covered a pallet in ice.

      The land lord tried to blame us for not cleaning the roof drains which are their responsibility and/or not telling them. Well a month or so prior one of our IT people was on the roof fixing a sat dish and noticed the problem. The MOD FAXED the land lord and called them, they faxed back with a work order ticket.

      Nice try. Eventually the land lord was forced to pay for the damage in our store including the reefer trailer and fuel we had for three days while we deiced and fixed the freezer.

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      • #4
        Quoth EricKei View Post
        We found out -- the hard way -- that this service had seldom, if ever been performed.
        Our landlord has really shot themselves in the foot.

        They are meant to clear the roof weekly.

        I last saw them maybe 1 and a half to 2 months ago. They use the window in our room for access so I normally do see them.

        They last signed the sheet to say they'd done it in January !

        And we still have heating/evaporating things running, a smell of damp, and some electricals that haven't been OK yet. Our ceiling seems safe THIS time.

        Victoria J

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