It can happen to any of us, and it finally did to me.\u00a0 I was tyrannized by the obvious when investigating the cause of flooding in a large, three story building.<\/p>\n
A building renovator called me after water was seen on the furnace room floor by staff of a veterinary practice.\u00a0 They had gone to the room where materials were stored and saw a few millimetres of water on the floor.\u00a0 Not a lot but still.<\/p>\n
The renovator said the building which was erected in the 1960s was on a concrete, ground-floor slab, on low land and near a lake.\u00a0 The furnace room was enclosed by concrete block walls.\u00a0 The flood water had pooled on the slab.\u00a0 He\u00a0estimated that the concrete floor slab was about five feet above the nearby lake surface.<\/p>\n
When i went to examine the site I saw that the five feet was about right and that the furnace room was an estimated 50 feet from the lake shore.\u00a0 I was also told that the lake level was higher than normal due to a lot of rain this spring.<\/p>\n
The grounds around the building sloped down slightly to the lake shore.\u00a0 The front and right side of the building were paved.\u00a0 There was a lawn at the back and an old paved boat ramp on the left.\u00a0 The surface of the boat ramp was bumpy after many years.<\/p>\n
The corners of the furnace room were still wet where the concrete block walls rested on the concrete floor.<\/p>\n
I had a good look around then walked across the floors of the different rooms in the practice.\u00a0 They were a little uneven which wasn’t so unusual for an old building.\u00a0 But my look around wasn’t as good as it might have been and I neglected to look in the small room adjacent the furnace room.<\/p>\n
My examination complete I met with the owner and the renovator.\u00a0 I noted how the water rises in a lake during frequent rain storms.\u00a0 It also rises in dug wells.\u00a0 The water in a well is the water table. The surface of the water table in the ground near a lake shore is usually higher than the lake.\u00a0 There is also water in the soil above the water table due to capillary action – this is when water rises in the small voids in the soil above the water table (Check high school physics)<\/p>\n
This higher water table plus some surface water runoff across the asphalt at the side of the building could explain the presence of the water in the furnace room.\u00a0 It was obvious.\u00a0 I mean, the building was so close to the lake with high water levels not seen in recent years and the furnace room floor was near the lake surface and the water table.<\/p>\n
The irregular boat ramp was typical of frost heave due to water in the ground – a high water table and capillary action during wet springs over the years – and would back up this obvious conclusion further.<\/p>\n
I talked about different ways of preventing water getting into the furnace room.\u00a0 These included the obvious – terrible word – better perimeter footing drains and\/or a sump pump.in the furnace room.\u00a0 A sump pump is a pump in a depression or hole in the ground – a sump.<\/p>\n
The sump pump was decided on as the least expensive and one that could be constructed several feet below the water table to draw it down below the furnace floor.\u00a0 That decision was left with the building renovator.<\/p>\n
I left the site after about an hour – an efficient examination and consultation, or a\u00a0 hurried one?<\/p>\n
A few hours later the renovator called to explain that a staff member had gone in the wash room – the one room I hadn’t gone in – adjacent the furnace room and found a burst water pipe, the real cause of the flood in the furnace room.<\/p>\n
I was tyrannized by the obvious and guilty of expectation bias.\u00a0\u00a0The moral of the story?\u00a0 If it’s obvious, keep on truckin’ and do more investigation.<\/p>\n
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It can happen to any of us, and it finally did to me.\u00a0 I was tyrannized by the obvious when investigating the cause of flooding in a large, three story building. A building renovator called me after water was seen … Continue reading