This is the OKC Church building in Norman, Oklahoma.
During 2002 and in the heat of the "black mold hysteria craze", our sister church in Oklahoma City became infested with black mold. I became involved when I was asked to go to the OKC Church building and asses the problem. The issue I was checking out was about $240K worth of invoices for filter machine rentals with HEPA filters operating to clean the air. Please see figures 1a and 1b (1) below.
I found a textbook worthy case of black mold in the basement of the OKC Church. I found filter units in the ground level hallways recirculating the contaminated air in the basement. These filter units which, were approved by the insurance company were just filtering and not lowering the humidity. Black mold and other molds don't do very well in environments which have less than 55% humidity. The filters were pulled from the building and the invoices were arbitrated to around $70K. The air cleaning phase was accomplished with the installation of a 10 ton split refrigeration system outfitted with HEPA filters. Temporary duct work was installed to every corner of the basement and the unit dried the air as it filtered the air. Please see the figures 2a & 2b (1) below. When we were finished with the 10 ton split system it was sold to our sister Church in Houston to replace a malfunctioning unit they had. This unit was installed by A Good AC Company owned by Clint Mosley.
The cause of the problem was the practice of robbing parts from the basement HVAC unit to keep the other units in operation. The environment went out of control and when the sump pumps failed the basement flooded and no one knew about the problem because the alarms were neglected and malfunctioning. Air cleaning and drying along with draining the swamp became the order of business. Temporary sump pumps were installed in each of the three sumps and a temporary indicator panel was installed in the front door to insure pump operation while repairs were being accomplished. The three sumps were the rainwater, the elevator, and the sewer. Please see the temporary indicator panel in figure 3 (1) below. This design appealed to those who had to keep an eye on the project while I was out of town.
An elevator was never installed in the elevator shaft. It was un-intentionally converted to two story death trap storage unit. The upper floor was dry and was full of furniture. The furniture was removed and the locks on the door were changed to prevent further use. The upper floor was left in place in the event of an unauthorized visit which could result in a nasty fall. The lower floor had collapsed into several feet of standing water under the load of furniture, books, and more books. A temporary sump pump was gingerly lowered into the sump and the water was transferred to the rain water sump. After draining the elevator shaft, it was discovered that the elevator shaft was actually a shallow well that produces about 4 gallons/minute between rain storms. Please see the pictures figures 4a & 4b (1) below.
After removing the collapsed flooring, it was discovered that the floor in the bottom of the elevator shaft was sloping away from the sump. A concrete wedge was poured into the bottom of the elevator shaft which was about 8" thick at the thickest and tapered down to 1.5" at the sump. Water in the elevator shaft was focused into the sump. A set of steps was installed to allow for easy inspection of the pumps and the sump. The new pumps were hooked up to a new alarm panel located in an upstairs office. The panel can also be seen from the parking lot for a quick check. Please see pictures in figures 5a & 5b (2) below.
The rain water sump and the sanitary sump pumps were replaced and placed on the alarm system that was mentioned above. All of the sumps have been setup so that the main pumping is done with one pump. The backup pump is set up to kick on when the primary pump is overcome and can't keep up or if the primary pump fails to come on. The alarm panel has event counters for each of the sumps that are tied to the secondary pumps. If the secondary pumps activate, the counters will increment. While checking the alarm panel, noting that the counters are not incrementing indicates that all is well. An incrementing counter means that there are possible problems. Please see figures 6a & 6b (2) below. The final sewer sump and rain water sump installation can be seen in figure 7 (2) below.
The climate control issues were accomplished with the installation of a 25 ton package unit installed using the existing roof jack that was occupied by the old cannibalized unit. Please see the pictures in figures 8a, 8b, & 8c (2) below. Clint Mosley gave his permission to have his picture used.
The basement was then demolished to the concrete walls by Midwest Wrecking. The basement was then washed with bleach and a detergent. All of the demolished materials were disposed of properly by Midwest Wrecking. Please see figure 9 (3) below.
Figures 10a & 10b (3) below depict the mold captured in the finished basement in the right dish. The control dish from outside the church building is on the left. The completed basement was indeed cleaned up.
