Challenge
On Side Restoration was called to operate in a collaborative effort to mitigate structure and contents loss due to a punctured water main, while sustaining a functional library of over 800,000 books. For two days On Side worked in emergency water mitigation mode with special attention given to help protect their extensive library. The biggest challenge was to locate a temporary home for 800,000 books. Not only did we need to catalogue each book and move them, they all had to be set up again for the University Librarian’s to function within, and serve the students as soon as possible; it needed to be business as usual. The library covers 60,000 square feet.
Equipment & Approach
On Side’s Project Manager, Dean Duff, received the call and within 40 minutes had crews ready and in action at the University. The team removed carpet and worked hard to dry out the structure despite no power. On Side promptly brought in generators and HVAC equipment to purge water and decrease humidity as quickly as possible. On Side also quickly deployed back-up equipment and crew from their BC and AB locations, bringing in 2 tractor trailers of specialty equipment which began with over 400 pieces of equipment immediately in use at the job site.
Results
When On Side crews arrived, the building was at 89% humidity but within 24 hours our team was able to bring this down to 60%. This was an important first step to mitigate the University’s loss, especially for their valuable library and art collection.
Download PDF version of this case study.
