The Red and Black

Issue date: 3/16/09 Section: News

Media Credit: ALEX BERRY [Click to enlarge]

Oglethorpe House work orders

Dorm life often means sharing a bathroom with many people, but the residents of Oglethorpe House might consider themselves lucky with their private, suite-shared bathrooms.

But with privacy comes few alternatives when things go awry.

Leaking, flooding, clogging and water damage are just a few problems O-House residents have faced with their private toilets, with some citing their bathroom plumbing as an ongoing annoyance.

In a dorm with just two public restrooms, what happens when your toilet continues to flood?

Students have been dealing with this problem at O-House, where toilets commonly malfunction and it can sometimes take a week before they are fixed.

During December 2007 to February 2009, O-House residents submitted 99 toilet-related work orders to the Housing Department.

Problems include toilets that overflow, clog and sometimes just won't work.

"There's a lot of bad things with the [O-House] toilets," said Nate Liao, a sophomore from Alpharetta and eighth-floor O-House resident, in a phone interview before spring break.

"A toilet actually overflowed into people's rooms."

A work order for room 830, reported Nov. 12, 2008, stated a "resident called to report toilet overflowed flooding rooms 830 and 832. Resident states rooms have about 1" of water on the floor."

Bambi Caudell, co-owner of Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Drain in Athens, said the most common problem with toilets is clogging.

"Other problems would be the toilet running, which now with the water restrictions and everything, that's pretty important. That means something inside mechanically is wrong - the flapper or the hood master," she said in a phone interview Wednesday.

Liao echoed a similar thought, saying his toilet "keeps reusing the toilet water."

"It's got to be pretty inefficient with the water," he said.

Another problem with toilets is water collecting around the base, Caudell said.

She said when this happens that usually means the main sewer line is stopped up.

"But it's hard to know if it is just a toilet leaking or if there is a main sewer line blockage," she said.

A work order from room 824, reported Jan. 14, 2008, stated: "Our toilet leaks around the bottom. This has been worked on/looked at before but it still does it!! It gets our towels and clothes wet toilet to function properly.

110: (reported Dec. 1, 2008) The toilet in our bathroom was running when I returned Saturday night. I don't know how long it's been running. I tried to stop it from running, but couldn't. My stepdad came to town today (Sunday), and stopped by to look at it. He couldn't get it to stop either. He said something about the seal on the plug being worn out. All the water was going out so the tank wouldn't fill up and the toilet can't be flushed. He turned the valve by the toilet and shut the water off so it wouldn't waste anymore water. I put a note on the toilet saying it's out of order, so my suitemates and roommate don't use it. We'll use the bathroom in the basement until it is fixed.

904: (reported Jan. 26, 2009) Our toilet is broken! The flush mechanism is not working and new water is not filling the tank. This has happened several times this week. So far, I've been able to fix it myself but this time I can only get water to very slowly drip into the tank and can't flush at all.

Some of the reported problems, including in rooms 521, 910 and 921, took seven days or more to be fixed.

Many of the work orders mention residents attempting to remedy the problems on their own.

"Our toilet's kind of screwed up, but I just fix it myself," Liao said. "The water doesn't flush all the way, so I've got to take off the top and fix it. It doesn't work like it should."

Liao said he must fix his toilet "at least once every two or three days."

Caudell said if a toilet is continually stopping up, it could just be from too much toilet paper being flushed at one time.

"The majority of the blockages would be too much toilet paper and waste being flushed at one time," Caudell said. "We do find, however, quite a bit of feminine products that have been flushed, and that is a 'no no.' Absolutely none, period, should be flushed - even if [the box] says you can."

Several of the work orders came from students asking for their rooms to be shampooed due to waste covering the floor from an overflowing toilet.

From the work orders:

201: (reported Aug. 25, 2008) Resident requests his room carpet be shampooed. Resident states that his toilet overflowed a short time ago and that his carpets were soaked. He says that thougth (sic) the carpet is now dry, there is still an unplesant (sic) odor.

830: (reported Jan. 8, 2009) The toilet in 830/832 room suites has overflown (sic) for the FOURTH time this academic year. The residents are getting upset because their stuff keeps getting wet. It is an annoyance and thankfully nothing of value has gotten damaged in their rooms. Their carpets have to be cleaned thoroughly when the toilets overflow.



(subhead) Housing's outlook on maintenance trends

Housing does not regularly look for work order or maintenance trends, said Gerard Kowalski, executive director of Housing, in an interview last month with The Red & Black.

"We attempt to be proactive, but at the same time there are regular things that occur in the building that have to do with age of the facility. Longer term plans are to do significant deferred maintenance," Kowalski said.

Keeping track of work order trends could mean increased repairs, which could add up in student rental fees and cause disruptive construction, Kowalski said.

"But how much do we want to charge students and are we in a position to be able to manage that work during the summertime - the only time the halls are closed and students aren't in the room. It would mean a lot of money, high rents for students and a tight time frame and not be able to provide the housing that's in demand," Kowalski said.

Though Housing plans for upcoming projects this summer, the only plans for O-House include updated carpeting and the addition of lofted beds, Kowalski said.



(subhead) Does age play a role?

O-House was built in 1965, but is one of the newer non-East Campus Village dormitories on campus, and has not been renovated.

The age of a toilet and how often it is used might be the cause of an ongoing problem with a toilet, Caudell said.

"If the toilet is old - we're talking 30 or 40 years old, and there are toilets in Athens that old - if they are that old, they can build up calcium in the bowl around the rim jet or scale around the rim jets, which lets water flush out in the bowl. That can be a problem," she said. "And there's really no way to fix it. We would recommend replacing the toilet, especially if it's that old."

But just because a toilet is old doesn't mean it will have problems, she said.

"In the building we're in, built in the 1950s, we still have the original toilets," she said. "It's hard to say how long a toilet will last."

"Depending on how often [a toilet is] used, you may have to replace the handle every couple of years," she said. "You don't have to replace a toilet unless the bowl is cracked. If that's cracked, there's nothing else to do than to replace it."

The cost of fixing or replacing a toilet depends on different plumbers and their labor costs, she said.

"To replace a standard, middle-of-the-road cost toilet, including installation, you're looking at $225 to $250," she said. "We can replace the flapper, fluid master and [charge for service] for under $100. For things like that, it's the labor that's the most expensive."

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