By Amanda Smith//
Broken pipes damaged Hood College’s Hodson Technology Center on Christmas Day.
During the days leading up to Dec. 25, the temperatures plummeted to single digits which would eventually cause the pipes to freeze and break. According to Robert Klinedinst, the vice president for Finance and Treasurer at Hood College, he received word on Christmas Day that an alarm had gone off in the building.
“That’s the first sign we got that there was a problem,” Klinedinst said. “The alarm was triggered because the sprinkler system started to activate. We learned that it was not a false alarm, and it was not a fire, but we had a water problem because pipes froze.”
The building is heated by air handlers which distribute heated air through the ducts in the building along with perimeter hot water heating systems, according to Klinedinst. The air handlers are programmed to shut down when temperatures drop to levels that could damage the heating system.
“The majority of the heat supplying the building stopped because of that programmed safety feature,” Klinedinst said.
Once the building had reached below freezing temperatures, the water in the sprinkler pipes froze and eventually caused the pipes to crack and burst.
“That’s when the water started flowing through the building,” Klinedinst said. “It was a mess in there. We have an inventory of the spaces that were affected; there were classrooms and laboratories and offices.”
Other parts of the building suffered damage as well. The three-story atrium in the main part of the building had drywall that needed to be removed in order to repair hidden broken pipes. Additionally, the faculty wing suffered floor damage.
“The recovery process went through different phases,” Klinedinst said. “After we had assessed what had happened and understood the problem, a bunch of things started in parallel. One was to extract the water and get the water out of there.”
According to Klinedinst, it was a difficult process to get the water removed because flooding conditions had been present all over Frederick County due to the extreme temperatures. The college also had to contact companies that specialized in water damage recovery to repair the sprinkler pipes, drywall, wood, carpet and tile.
“The challenge was the first day of classes after break,” Klinedinst said. “A bunch of us worked together to prioritize all the spaces and look at the classroom schedules to determine the priority construction spaces that we had to have for the first day of classes.”
The college worked closely together with contractors to inform them of which classrooms needed to be repaired first to prepare for the return of students and faculty after winter break. The most important instructional spaces were ready for use on Jan. 24, and many of the labs weren’t actually needed until the following week.
“We are taking measures so that it doesn’t happen again,” Klinedinst said. “Campus Facilities is adding a layer to the HVAC system so that when the air handlers shut down for any reason, certain people will be notified via text or email.”
Hodson Technology Center consists of four different interconnected buildings, some of which are significantly older than others. The college is currently exploring what needs to be done to the original building, which is where most of the damage took place, in order to add insulation to retain heat for longer.
Now, most of the repairs are complete. However, the contractor is waiting on ceiling tiles, a few light fixtures, and some flooring and woodwork.
“We’re back up and running for now, doing what we can to prevent it from happening again,” Klinedinst said. “But there are some things that are out of our control in terms of knowing when a system is going to fail.”
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