31 Tons of Water Drained from Roof
By Sandy Vondrasek Cooch

Two weeks ago, as a frigid snap gave way to warmer temperatures, maintenance workers at Randolph Union High School turned their attention to what has become an annual spring rite: Getting tens of thousands of pounds of melting snow off the RUHS roof before it all leaks into the building.

RUHS/RTCC Building and Grounds Director Mike Lonergan reported this week that two sump pumps pulled an estimated 7440 gallons of snow melt off the roof in four hours on March 15.

That's 62,800 pounds of water.

The pumping is just one of multiple efforts that Lonergan and his staff undertake each winter and spring to keep ahead of problems caused by the aged and patchwork roofing atop the high school.

A new roof with tapered insulation, pitched to direct water to drains, is a major component in a proposed $10-million school construction project.

Voters in Braintree, Brookfield, and Randolph will be asked to approve bonding for the project later this spring, although a vote has not yet been scheduled.

For Lonergan and his crew, the annual effort to keep the school clean and dry is a multi-pronged one, involving sump pumps, shovels, barrels, tubing, and—when all else fails—mops, rags, and shop vacs capable of sucking gallons of water from the school’s tiled floors.

Lonergan has invested in several specialty ceiling tiles, fitted with a drain hole and tubing, that can be put in place wherever leaks appear. Students have become accustomed to seeing the apparatus—complete with big plastic barrels to collect the run-off—set up in a second-floor corridor each year. This year there have also been leaks along a stairwell wall, and several into second-floor classrooms.

Worst Leak

Lonergan said the worst leak occurred Saturday, Jan. 6, when he walked into the school to find Brian Rainville’s social studies classroom flooded. Gallons of water had to be sucked off the floor, sodden pink insulation and ceiling tiles were removed and discarded, and the room had to be wiped down.

The essential problem, Lonergan said, is that the entire high school roof has but one drain, and most of the roof pitches away from it.

Over the past several years, Lonergan has taken steps during the summer months to ameliorate the problem. His low-cost fixes have included the installation of "scuppers"—drainage channels that are chiseled into the roof—and metal flashing installed at critical junctures.

In order to reduce the total weight on the roof and keep it within safe levels, Lonergan has had to remove some of the ballast—material spread on the old roof membrane to keep it down—originally placed on the roof.

Lonergan is a member of the building committee that has been planning the $10-million repair project for the school.

The proposed new roof, he said, would have an improved membrane, with no ballast required. It would be designed so that water would readily drain off. The new roof would also improve insulation, as a high quality roof-top insulation would replace the roll insulation that now rests on top of ceiling tiles.

Or doesn’t.

Over the years, a quantity of the insulation has had to be removed, due to the leakage problem, Lonergan noted.

Despite the extra work and costs of tending the deteriorating roof, Lonergan and his maintenance crew have steadily made improvements to the school over the past five years, including re-tiling and painting, year by year, another wing on the school.

This week Supt. Kay expressed "huge kudos" to the RUHS/RTCC maintenance department for the "very substantial" improvements made to the school, all done "within budget."

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