Flooded Dorm

What happens when you combine college kids tossing a football with a sprinkler system located in their dorm?  Four flooded floors, hundreds of students displaced from their dorm rooms, and a late night Emergency Services Call to PHC Restoration.

Technical Director Josh Smith received the after hours call just before midnight on February 18, 2013.  When he arrived on site with an emergency services crew, they found standing water on each of the four floors and many students still asleep in their rooms unaware of the water flowing down the walls flooding their floors and personal belongings.

Mitigation and Pack Out

Crews worked into the early morning hours extracting water and setting up drying equipment.  Later that morning, Josh met with College officials to set up a restoration plan.  All personal property belonging to the students in the affected rooms had to be removed immediately so the drying could be completed and any demolition and repairs could be made.  While the students were removing their belongings, PHC started the task of labeling the coordinating room number on every piece of furniture located in each of the affected rooms.  Furniture was then disassembled and moved to a storage location across campus where containment was set up and the furniture was dried and cleaned.

Restoration

Crews worked in shifts around the clock for the first few days removing wet building material in addition to setting up and moving drying equipment.  The drying time and amount of damage varied in each room.  All repairs and painting were completed in a room before moving to the next room.  This allowed contents to be returned and rooms to be available for student occupancy on a continual basis.

Housing

Temporary housing was secured for the displaced students in a local hotel.  Because the college was paying for the housing, it was imperative that the water mitigation and repairs be completed quickly.  A two week time frame was given to have the structure dried, all repairs complete and the students moved back into their rooms.

Results

As the restoration progressed, unseen damage was detected requiring additional repairs to be made.  All repairs were completed on schedule and the University was able to save money by moving students out of the hotel and back into their dorm rooms on a constant basis.