Sterling School springs a leak

By Anna Mitchell  

FEBRUARY 11, 2010 9:58 a.m. (0)

The water dripping down the brick walls at Sterling School is not from a leaky roof – a problem the Greenville County school district is accustomed to dealing with.

This moisture is coming from the bricks themselves, or rather the mortar holding them together. The Greenville construction firm Yeargin Potter Shackelford had agreed when building the school about two years ago to mix a sealant into the mortar.

They didn’t.

“Water is pouring in every time it rains,” said Bryan Morris, the district’s executive director of construction. “We’ve got to go back as soon as we have some dry weather, and we will have to seal that brick.”

Sterling School’s principal, David Johnstone, said walls that face east for some reason are most susceptible to the problem – and only when the wind is blowing hard from the west and carrying larger than normal amounts of rain.

Moisture seeps through the bricks and trickles down any point where the brick comes into contact with metal, Johnstone said. This moisture eventually makes its way into classrooms, dripping through ceiling tiles. So far, the gym, music room, an after-school room, some hallways and a resource room have been affected.

“We are watching it closely to make sure the carpets stay dry,” Johnstone said.

The lack of sealant never emerged as a problem during Sterling’s first year of classes at its new location on John McCarroll Way because the region was in a drought. A heavy rainfall in November gave Johnstone his first clue something was wrong.

“We’ve had a 48-year rain cycle,” he said. “It’s extraordinary.”

The Greenville area got more than two inches of rain this past Friday – from the west – and Sterling School pulled out buckets, trashcans, wet vacs and dehumidifiers to get through the day.

Morris said the district’s contract with the builder was clear about adding the sealant, so the extra layer of sealant that will have to be painted onto the bricks won’t come out of taxpayers’ pockets.

“The mortar didn’t adhere to our specifications,” Morris said. “We had to send it off to test it and found the sealant wasn’t in there.”

Johnstone said the project manager from Yeargin Potter Shackelford, whose last official day on the project was a year ago, visited yesterday to inspect the school and has been corresponding daily by email. Meanwhile, the district has kept heating units going to keep the school dry. He said the contractor and the district’s response has been “phenomenal.”

“I’m glad this happened now while those  guys are still around,” Johnstone said of the contractors.

Morris said he doesn’t know of any other new buildings that have had similar problems with leaking, though an old gymnasium wall at Chandler Creek Elementary in Greer will have to be sealed.

Had the sealant been mixed into the mortar, the brick wall would have remained waterproof for 15 to 20 years, Morris said. The painted-on sealant will last about half that time, meaning the contractor will likely have to pay to seal the walls again in the future.

“We are talking to the contractor about getting what we would normally get,” he said.

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