H&D solves leaking ceilings at Brown

By Rafael Butiong     10/7/14 5:29pm

Brown College’s fourth floor of the tower had persistent leaks two weeks ago from the ceiling in front of its elevator areas that lasted three days, according to Brown College fourth-floor representative Alex Cerda.

According to Cerda, fourth-floor residents placed trash cans under the drips as a temporary solution because they thought the leaks were due to the rain. Cerda said because the dripping continued for two more days and both the trash bins and the large recycling bins were filling up quickly, fourth floor residents decided to contact Housing and Dining.

Housing and Dining responded to the work orders and eliminated the leaks within one day, according to Cerda.

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“They responded right away; they saw it and they came and fixed it up, nice and fast,” Cerda said. “I think H&D did a good job once we contacted them.” 

According to H&D Senior Operations Manager David Brown, the source of the leaks was condensation from the air conditioning unit. Brown said these condensate drips can be caused by wear and tear of the air conditioning unit’s insulation.

“We try to do our best [to] maintain these things, but that’s something that is really unpredictable,” Brown said. “There are certain things that we can do, like change the insulation.” 

Brown said insulating material on the air conditioning units may only last for long but will function effectively for 10 years after replacement. The college is scheduled for maintenance activities during the summer of 2015, according to Brown.

However, the air conditioning leak was not the only problem that fourth floor had that day, according to junior exchange student Kimiko Nakajima.

“The sinks were not draining at all,” Nakajima, a Brown College resident, said. “It was draining so slowly, you could actually see the whole thing getting filled up with water. You can’t really use it, because it’s almost going to be overflowing. The fact that they repaired [the clogged sinks] a year ago and it happened again means that they might [need] to make more serious repairs.”

According to Cerda, the two events appear to be unrelated, as the leakage turned out to be a problem in the air conditioning unit and not in the plumbing.  This is not the first time that similar plumbing issues have occurred. Last year, the men’s bathroom of the fourth floor had similar problems when the sinks filled up with stagnant water. 

“A lot of the problems we’re having are a result of a bunch of things stacking up on top of each other rather than just one big problem,” Cerda said. “I don’t think that extensive repairs need to be done, but I do think that over the summer or winter break, [H&D] should just gloss through everything.” 

Facilities, Engineering and Planning Manager of Communications Susann Glenn said she considers these events to be isolated cases.

“With weather changes and with other factors, you never know what could happen,” Glenn said. “I would stress though that if [the students] have concerns, they can bring them to the student maintenance representative, who has authority to help fix things and facilitate the process faster.” 

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