Unexpected spring storm causes property damage over the weekend. What do you do?

When: March, Monday Morning

Where: High School

Incident: During a long holiday weekend, storm activity occurred around the state causing blowing snow and freezing temperatures. Staff returned to the building on Monday morning. Custodians noticed some water on the wood gym floor and cleaned up the surface without reporting it.

What was the response?
The building was not checked during the storm over the long weekend. Although the custodial staff discovered water on the gym surface on Monday morning and mopped up the water, no further investigation or mitigation was done. Two weeks later a gym teacher noticed the buckling of the floor. The area was sectioned off and reported to administration. The principal contacted the maintenance director to come take a look. After seeing the damage, the maintenance director reported the damage to CSDSIP. An investigation determined that water had migrated through the surface of the gym floor becoming trapped between the vapor barrier and subfloor. Because the trapped water had nowhere to go, it soaked into the wood of the gym floor, causing significant warping. Because of the focus on maximizing fresh air exchange in buildings this year due to COVID-19, dampers controlling fresh air intake on the air handlers were opening more often, including during the winter storm. As a result, several of these dampers froze open allowing snow to blow into the building and cold air to penetrate further into unconditioned spaces. . The snow that blew in melted and leaked on the gym floor, damaging them severely and requiring full replacement.