The most recently renovated building on campus, the Carpenter Academic Center, suffered water damage in three rooms from leaks that started just weeks after its renovations were finished.
The leaks were found in three rooms of the Carpenter Academic Center in early October. Rooms 106, 302, and the lower level men’s restroom were affected.
Dr. Melissa McEuen, whose office was room 106 before the leak was found, declined to comment for this story.
The source of the leaks was determined to be the downspouts. A downspout is a pipe on the side of the building that connects to the rain gutter and carries the water away from the building. Two downspouts had a tear in the back side, which allowed water to leak into rooms 106 and 302. This caused members of the academy to go to site in order to get a professional in to help with the issue.
Darrell Banks, the director of Facilities Management and the University Construction Manager, thought at first that the water leak in room 106 could possibly be a result of the extensive renovations Carpenter underwent last year, which concluded in April 2018. But after investigating further, Banks does not believe any of the leaks were related to remodeling.
The damaged downspout has been replaced, along with the downspout on the northeast corner of Carpenter, which Banks said contributed to the leak found in the men’s room. The downspouts were holdovers from Haupt, as Carpenter was previously known, and were not a part of the Carpenter remodel.
Banks and his team will be replacing all of the downspouts in Carpenter as a precautionary measure, while closely monitoring the water infiltration problem and perhaps installing gutter guards as seen on sites like www.mastershieldatl.com, so gutter maintenance won’t have to be conducted as often and damages can be reduced. Banks said that once he is certain the problem has been solved, Physical Plant will begin to repair the damage to the interior.
