Some of the University of Idaho’s mechanical engineering students have been displaced after a water coil in the Gauss-Johnson Engineering Laboratory burst Tuesday and flooded several rooms in the building.
The custodial staff discovered the flood early Tuesday morning and facilities suspect the coil, located in the air handler in the top of the building, froze when Moscow was hit by severely cold weather and wind over the weekend, said Mark LaBolle, director of facilities. When the pipe thawed, it leaked through the center of the building all the way down to the basement.

“Hot water leaks from the top and goes all the way to the bottom,” he said.
ServiceMaster, a specialty cleaning company, is contracted with UI to clean up the flood and try to prevent any water damage, LaBolle said.
“We’re worried a little about the potential for mold,” he said. “We have to make sure that we get the carpet dry and the walls and Sheetrock. … If we can’t, we’ll have to tear them out and replace them.”

Most of the eight rooms that were affected had concrete or tile floors and will be easier clean up, he said. However, three of the rooms were graduate student offices that had carpet flooring that will have to be examined for mold. A storage area in the basement was also flooded and had to be emptied.
The two labs that flooded were the mechanical engineering department’s machine shop and the design suite located on the first floor. Master machinist Russ Porter, who is in charge of the machine shop, said there was about an inch of water on the floor of the two rooms, but thankfully none of the machining equipment appears to have been damaged.
“We were very fortunate in that regard,” Porter said.

The shop has been closed for the week so it can be cleaned, but Porter said he hopes to re-open the room Monday.
Students are still able to work in the design suite, he said, although the baseboards have been removed in an attempt to dry out the walls.
Costs to repair the flood damage will not be known until the university can assess what flooring, walls and other items will have to be replaced, LaBolle said.

“We looking with the department and risk management to identify things other than the building that may have gotten wet,” he said.

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