Sick buildings, sick kids: facilities construction and management take on illness prevention

University Business, July, 2005 by Rebecca Sausner

Many other mold infestations begin when a leaky roof is undetected, saturating layers of the building with moisture. Another common cause stems from excess moisture in the building materials as it was being built, says engineer Brian Runde, vice president at Michigan-based Peter Basso Associates.

THE REMEDIES

There was mow all over the science building on the Brandon campus of Florida's Hillsborough Community College in the fall of 2003. It was growing on classroom walls, dinging to file cabinets in faculty offices, and just about everywhere in-between. Some faculty members raised concerns about breathing issues, says Gary Golf, vice president of administration and CFO of the school

When it became apparent that the mold was reaching crises levels, Goff and his administration took a three-pronged approach to solving the problem. First, they brought in air quality analysts to evaluate whether the mold caused a health hazard. Next, they hired mechanical engineers to determine the cause of the infestation. Finally, they put cleaning crews to work to rid the building of at[ visible signs of mold.

The results of the air quality testing were surprising: there was no danger to the people working in the building, and the mold spore count was lower inside the building than it was outside. The engineers found the mold stemmed from an improperly installed air conditioning unit on the roof. The unit had no drip pan, creating a holding area for water on the roof that eventually seeped into the building, Golf says.

Before long, the facilities team took a look behind the sheetrock and found the walls were full of mold. Over spring break, they demolished the affected areas down to the metal studs, cleaned them with an anti-fungal solution, and re-built and re-carpeted the classrooms and offices. The last step was replacing the HVAC system on the roof, at a cost of $75,000.

"I spent over $140,000 cleaning it up," Goff says.

PREVENTION

After using his school's emergency procurement process to pay for the cleanup, Goff and his team wanted to make sure they wouldn't find themselves surrounded by mow again. They put in place some preventative measures that engineers say make sense for all campuses. Among these were mold and humidity sensors in all buildings.

An internal survey of the IHE's 1.3 million square feet of facilities found that three buildings had faulty HVAC controls that needed to be replaced. They also installed louvers on their roof-mounted AC units in an effort to prevent horizontal rain from entering the system.

And last year, when Florida was bashed by hurricanes, Hillsborough took some extraordinary measures to prevent mold. They sandbagged around low-lying facilities to try to keep the water out. And when one building experienced minor flooding they tore the carpet out and replaced the bottom three feet of wallboard that got wet.

"In the past, chances are we probably would have just dried it out," Goff says. "After the mold experience we decided to take action immediately instead of waiting to see whether mold was going to grow."