Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 2/4/2020
SOUTHWICK – After a survey of municipal buildings in March 2019, Tighe and Bond recommended the Southwick Fire Department replace the shingles on the roof, replace the gutters and repoint the mortar that has been damaged from moisture.
Southwick Fire Chief Russ Anderson said moisture damage has been a problem since the building was built back in 2000.
“This building has had issues with leakage around the gutters with water backing up since day one, it’s been caused by a host of issues,” he said.
Looking at the building, some of the damage is visible through a buildup of white powder along the brick, which indicates moisture behind the wall and the shingles on the roof appear to be grooved, which shows the roof has worn down.
While most of the damage is visible from the outside, Anderson said in some cases there has been some leakage inside.
“In a heavy rainstorm we’ve even had issues where that rain has come into the building,” he said.
The only point of visible damage inside the building is the big round window in the conference room with cracked paint all along the inside of it, which Anderson said also represents moisture damage.
In addition to the leakage issue around the gutters, Anderson said the roof has worn and there is a backup of moisture behind the brick walls.
“When you have a brick wall, you have the brick wall, a slight airspace, and a cinderblock wall,” he said. “And it’s supposed to all vent and it’s not venting.”
Russo Barr, a second company that looked at the building, offered two solutions to repair the roof. “They presented two systems, either replace the shingles with a 30 year regular asphalt shingle, or use a PVC seamless roof, which looks like a metal roof once it’s done,” Anderson said.
While all the survey work has finished, now the select board has to decide on the best course of action on how to replace the roof. Anderson said, “Whichever one they decide then they move forward with a design to get out to bid and to get out a real price before it goes to the annual Town meeting in the spring.”
“We’ve had the issues for 20 years, and we’ve had them repaired a couple times. And it really becomes critical now because the moisture is making the mortar fail,” he said. “If we don’t do something we could end up with bricks falling out or catastrophic failures down the road, and we don’t want that.”