Yucky Floors!

At 8:30 PM on a Friday night two weeks ago, one of our graduate students called me at home and said that his wife had just gone in the ladies room in our office and liquid was coming up from the drain in the floor. I called the university police and asked them to contact FM&O. I left my phone number so they could call me back, but they did not. Around midnight that night they tried to call my boss (because they could not get in our 'cage'). A few hours later they called another person in DCIT who went down there and let them in. Apparently the liquid made it all of the way to the post office!

It turns out it was a sewage leak caused by some drain stoppage in the dining hall above our office. We have had numerous issues with myterious liquids coming from there in the past. One Saturday I sat there catching it in trashcans for hours waiting for help to arrive (because it was dangerously close to student laptops).

They did their best to clean up that Friday night, but by Monday morning there was the smell of mold and mildew and who knows what else in the building. Two of our employees had to move out of their offices because their carpet was still very wet. They put in fans to dry it out. Each day they kept coming back, removing more carpet, trying to make it better - but each day they kept finding more bad stuff under there. There were all kinds of discussions of moving us out. Finally on Friday, they closed us down at 2 PM to remove all carpet and disinfect - with hopes of being open on Monday with no carpet and clean cement floors. It was a 'football Friday' which is usually a pretty slow day.

We kept seeing brown mud looking stuff oozing up under the cement floor (where they removed carpet). I'm no expert - but it looks to me like something not caused by the newest sewage leak - but a long standing problem with something under the cement. The previous occupants had lots of problems too. I think that's why we were given this space - no one wanted to be in there with the problems. The bookstore was the major occupant and they had a lot of problems with flooding in there. It's a shame that as important an operation as laptop support / helpdesk is not given a better space. There are plenty of places that sit around empty a good portion of the time - but we have a steady stream of people all of the time (in addition to a total of 100 people working including students). It's also a shame that so much money was spent on a location that seems to be doomed.

But - to be honest - we have been very greatful to have the large space ever since we have been in there. The previous 'laptop home' was terribly crowded. Our new offices have been conveniently located and provide excellent furniture and technology. The only complaints other than this we would have had would be the bad accoustics (it's hard to concentrate with all of the noise - much of it coming from long distances) and the inconvenient placement of the cage.

We'll see what happens... it's never dull!