Height of laziness

I admit to cutting a few corners in jobs I've had in the past. By and large I used that tactic to help get a job done more quickly when possible and without compromising the task being done. The building I currently work in is over one hundred years old. It was renovated in 2003 and aesthetically they did a good job. But as with any renovation job where the absolute low bidder gets the contract, there are a few flaws. The basement is a source of concern, as water has leaked through the courses between the bricks in certain spots on more than one occasion. It's a potentially dangerous situation because the water will weaken the aging mortar between the bricks. This resulted in the entire foundation in the front of the building to be excavated and resealed (again).

At the end of 2003 they tore off the roof to replace it. Nobody thought to check out how the water drainage system works in the building, and wound up creating multiple breaks in the century old downspout system where the pipes enter the attic space. Almost every office space on our floor received some sort of water damage whenever it rained. My office still bears the scars of the water leak above my work space. Needless to say the roofing contractor was called back on a number of occasions to fix the leaks. And for a while it looked as if they succeeded--until this morning.

Late this morning one of our faculty members came running down the hall to tell me he had water leaking from the sprinkler head in his office. Naturally, fearing the sprinkler head might burst (also not a first in this building) I hustled to the ultra-safe and structurally sound basement to grab some plastic sheeting we have in storage from the first round of leaks. The physical plant workers were called, and a plumber showed up a short time later. After a quick check up in the attic he announced that the problem wasn't leaky plumbing. It seems that the roofing contractor set a five gallon bucket under one of the broken downspouts and it finally overflowed. I'm assuming that one of the Hispanic workers thought the contractor said "bucket" when he asked about fixing that one downspout.