A construction crew recently installed a patch on the roof of the Gabelli School of Business (GSB) to deal with a chronic leak. Though a temporary fix, one university official said it is costing the school $8,000. 

William Seymour, assistant vice president of facilities and capital projects, hopes a complete replacement of the 20-year-old roof will happen this summer. The project has a projected cost of $160,000.

Over the past year, numerous leaks in the GSB roof have been repaired. While minor, they have resulted in damaged interior finishes, such as hanging ceiling tiles in the third floor offices and hallways.  

All roofs require periodic repair and replacement. The university has also completed a repair on the roof of the School of Architecture, Art and Historic Preservation. 

Seymour said there used to be a leak in the architecture building in Classroom 132. While they didn’t use a patch to fix it, a partial roof replacement was completed by Weisman Roofing. 

Estimator and Project Manager of Weisman Roofing Jordan Botelho said they were still on site. Botelho said they should have been done by Feb. 12, weather permitting. 

Both buildings will have full roof replacements soon. There has also been some asphalt shingle loss on various Stonewall roofs, which Facilities is monitoring. 

Seymour said Facilities has an annual budget (CAPEX) of $473,000 a year just for repairing buildings. They spent another $6 million every year on capital projects, which includes major renovations of buildings. 

“There is money in CAPEX to the tune of $500,000 to do a full roof replacement,” Seymour said. 

The CAPEX process for the coming summer construction season isn’t completed yet, so it is uncertain when exactly the School of Architecture and GSB roofs will be replaced this summer. However, Seymour and other Facilities staff members are hopeful. 

“That roof doesn’t owe us any money,” Seymour said, “It’s 20 years old. It was a rolled asphalt material that’s not used anymore for that purpose and it is due to be replaced.” 

Seymour said some of the buildings were built in an economical way, where it was inexpensive and very fast. Although he didn’t want to label those buildings, he did say the Almeida Apartments require a good deal of attention. 

Roof replacements are not unusual to other capital improvements, which include things like repaving Lot C across from the tennis courts. All repairs are about the same order of magnitude as it relates to cost. 

Everyday, the Facilities staff addresses maintenance and repair requirements that include boilers, chillers, compressors, pumps and pipes. This also typically includes quick, unexpected situations.

Jim Finn, associate director of maintenance services, said offices in Commons flooded on Feb. 5. It’s the drain from the dish room that goes down through the offices into the basement. 

“It’s not that old,” Finn said. “It shouldn’t have happened.”