After suffering flooding that closed the north side of the building for weeks, Patrick F. Taylor Hall, despite its ongoing repairs, has been quickly pieced back together, and a sense of normalcy has returned to the home of LSU’s College of Engineering.
Since then, more has been learned about the cause of the Jan. 17 inundation and how the award-winning building plans complete its recovery.
The Cause and its Mystery
The root of the flooding has been traced to a burst HVAC coil located in a penthouse mechanical suite on the PFT roof. The coil burst from freezing temperatures and began to leak once temperatures normalized.
“There’s a system in place for the HVAC units on the fourth floor that should prevent this from happening in the case of a freeze,” said Assistant Director of Facility Services Geral Sansoni. “But I know Facilities Services is looking into whether all those processes, the computerized processes went through, and I’ve not heard a final report if they figured out why that didn’t happen this time.”
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Unlike most residential air conditioning units that use refrigerants to cool air, LSU houses a central plant with chillers that create chilled water. This chilled water is then flowed through underground pipes, which then go into HVAC units around campus to chill air.
“In our cooling capacity, it is more efficient,” Sansoni said.
During freezes, facility services maintain a freeze protocol where the temperature of the chilled water is slightly elevated by a few degrees, water valves are completely opened up to allow for the flow of water, and outside air dampers are completely closed to reduce outside air intake and instead recirculate air inside the building, which is warmer.
“The goal is to prevent that freezing air coming in, going over the coils and causing damage,” Sansoni said. “That particular unit also had something called a freeze stat on it, which when the temperature drops below a certain point it stops the motor from trying to pull air over the coils.”
What exactly caused the HVAC coil at PFT to freeze is still unknown, however, every safety measure put in place shows no sign of failure. The freeze protocol was in effect throughout the entire campus and, aside from PFT, allowed students to start their spring semester without any burst pipes.
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Currently the HVAC unit is circulating air, but it does not have the ability to cool air without a coil. Once a new coil arrives the old coil can be removed and replaced.
“Once that coil comes out that’ll give us a better look and help piece maybe some of the rest of the pieces of the puzzle together,” Sansoni said.
The Recovery
Once water was shut off from the HVAC coil, custodial workers used wet vacuums to remove as much water as possible before LSU’s third-party contractor Lemoine Disaster Mitigation stepped in. LDM called in Stanley Steemer to finish water extraction, then began the dehumidifying process.
College of Engineering Dean Karsten Thompson gave credit to Facility Services for its expertise when it came to handling the situation.
“The fact that the professionals were in here quickly is the key part,” Thompson said. “You don’t want to try to deal with that kind of problem with people that aren’t trained to do it.”
Thompson was also impressed by the Office of University Registrar’s ability to relocate classes just hours after being notified of the flooded classrooms. This meant classes were able to continue without a prolonged interruption.
During the dehumidifying process the baseboards were removed from the affected areas and holes were drilled into the walls, allowing air to circulate behind the drywall into insulated areas. Visqueen was also placed along hallways to create a sealed environment that air could be circulated through.
Some carpet was also removed because of its rubber backing. There was no way to verify if there was any water trapped underneath the rubber, so those tiles of carpet were removed. Other parts of carpet without rubber backing were left in place because they could be dried, cleaned and sanitized.
“The third-party disaster contractor is perfectly fine with the drying of the rolled goods. LSU’s Environmental Health and Safety was also consulted and said, yes, this is the right plan and the right way to go for both of these carpets,” Sansoni said. “So, Facility Services had consultation from two independent parties.”
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New carpet for PFT will either match the old carpet or be a fitting replacement. After the carpet is in place, baseboards can be replaced which will cover the holes drilled into the drywall. Then, any drywall in a state of disrepair can be replaced where needed. Otherwise, the existing drywall can be repainted.
PFT’s flooding created a surprising start to LSU’s spring semester, but it was the work of LSU’s faculty, Facility Services and Registrar’s Office that turned what could have been a major disruption to a manageable inconvenience.
