Written by Kenzie James//Graphic by Matthew Kiptoo
A pipe burst last week in men’s dormitory Keller Hall, flooding part of the building and displacing students from their rooms.
Physical Resources construction manager Ryan Carter said they received the call about a burst pipe on the third floor of Keller’s north wing around 1:50 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 20. Public Safety immediately responded to the call from the dormitory and called Physical Resources after identifying the issue. A pipe in room 312 was found to have a three-fourths inch opening that leaked water into the hallway and floors below.
Carter said Physical Resources arrived at the scene around 30 minutes after they were notified, and Metro Disaster Specialists arrived around 3:30 p.m. The company brought industrial fans and shop vacuums and cleared out the water by 8 p.m. Thursday. The flooding severely affected six to eight rooms directly around and under the burst pipe.
“Right there in the center, it’s the worst, and then it fades away to where it’s only a little bit of water that got in the front door of the rooms,” Carter said. “First floor had very minimal [flooding], there was a little bit in the lobby, and the manager’s apartment had a bit of water in three spaces, but it was pretty minimal.”
Sophomore Peyton Penick, in Keller 215, said his roommate first saw the water on their bathroom wall and informed their suite. Water also seeped through the base of the wall between their closets and bedroom floor.
“It sounded like someone’s now taking a shower behind our mirror in the wall, because there’s so much water coming out from that pipe,” Penick said.
Physical Resources director of maintenance Dana McMillion said many of the students in the dorm had good attitudes about the flooding and helped the workers clean up the water. After the standing water was cleaned up, affected students were offered the option to stay in rooms in the Heritage Inn because of the noise of the machines and the workers moving in and out of the rooms. Penick and his suitemates chose to stay with friends or the Heritage for a few days before moving back into their suite Tuesday, Feb. 25.
The pipe burst was influenced by the winter weather that closed the University on Feb. 19-20; faulty insulation may also have contributed to the failure. Carter said that insulation settles over time from when it was installed. This creates air pockets in the walls, making it easier for pipes to freeze. Carter and McMillion said it may have also been caused by the pipe degrading, fluctuations in pressure or the age of the pipes.
“Some pipes are compression fittings that are not really screwed together,” McMillion said. “They’re clamped and the pressure changes are different… It might last for 40 years and one day just blows out.”
Keller Hall was built from 1965-1966 during the “Decade of Development” to replace a temporary residence hall and add more housing for male students. The dormitory was remodeled in 2006 to replace the communal bathrooms with private bathrooms in each suite. Room 312 is where a communal bathroom was formerly located, so the piping after the remodel for the room is like the previous piping. The floor plans from 1965 show the pipes from the communal bathrooms on the third floor went into the wall between the bathrooms and hallway, where it went down to the first floor and out of the building. The Bison was not able to access the plumbing plans from 2006, but renovation plans showed most of the piping was installed similarly and connects inside of the building, not the exterior. This was also consistent with the path of the water during the flooding and which rooms it affected.
