MISSOULA — The sub-zero temperatures that western Montana saw earlier this month have had some long-lasting effects on homeowners and commercial buildings.
Clean-up efforts are underway at Zootown Church after a piece of their sprinkler system froze, broke off, and caused its office building to flood.
“Woke up at about 6 a.m. to a text from a friend of mine who was driving through our parking lot who said there was water coming through out front door,” said Zootown Church executive pastor Thaiv Armerding.
"It was coming out and then pooling all along the side of the building, and then coming under that garage door and then saturating the carpet down here and then going back out the front doors toward the parking lot," Armerding said.
Armerding is used to managing the day–to–day operations at the church, but during a cold snap in Missoula on January 12, he was shocked to learn he would be managing a flood in the church’s office.
Thousands of gallons of water filled the office and seeped into the entryway of the main building’s lobby in about 90 minutes, Armerding confirmed through surveillance footage.
So, what caused this water to pour into the room?
“The main line that feeds their fire suppression system had broken,” said Five Valleys Restoration and Cleaning president Matt Cavanaugh.
Cavanaugh is in the process of repairing water damage at Zootown Church. He says companies like his are busiest in the winter due to the effects of cold temperatures.
“There’s just not enough insulation in some of these spaces," said Cavanaugh. "And when it freezes, at 30 and 40 below, it freezes very quickly and it takes just the slightest bit of warm air going back into those spaces to thaw it out, and that’s when those breaks happen.”
The best way to prevent frozen pipes and pipe pieces is to keep your heat on and at least at 55°, according to Cavanaugh. But sometimes it’s just too cold, he says.
"Even just standard broken pipes in someone's home, if you have a pipe running on the exterior of the home and that exterior wall is 25° on the outside and even if it's only 60° on the inside, it could still freeze up on that cold air," Cavanaugh explained. "And it just takes a small amount of cold air to freeze it. Once they break, they're just going to go and go and go until they get the water shut off."
A piece of the water suppression system at Zootown Chuch still froze despite Armerding's efforts to prevent any property damages that could result from freezing temperatures.
“I think we took all the steps we could think of to mitigate the problem and even not experience it," Armerding said. “We knew that going into the weekend it was going to be a really cold weekend, so I’d intentionally set the heat to 70 throughout the building, which isn't normally where we leave it, but I figured that was a good preventative measure."
"I opened the door to our fire sprinkler room, just to allow the air to circulate in that air," Armerding continued. "We had a box heater in the room for supplemental heat as well - trying to think of all the things we could do to avoid an issue.”
Armerding said he used his knowledge and experience in real estate sales and property management to keep flood damages to a minimum.
“The best thing you can do in any situation like that is to stop the flow of water, so I was able to get into our fire sprinkler room and turn off the valve and solve that problem,” Armerding said.
Armerding told MTN News he's grateful the water didn’t rise high enough to reach the sanctuary or other important areas of the church.
The finishing date for the water damage repairs is unknown at this time and church leaders are currently working in available spaces outside of the church's office.
Armerding said his belief provides strength to move forward in times of uncertainty as the church makes progress with unrelated reconstruction plans on top of the weather-related damages.
"Faith for me is more of a lifestyle than anything else, so taking the things that come along and utilizing your faith to work through those is a big part of that," Armerding said. "With Christ as my example personally, I watch examples of him interacting with the things that happen around him in society or just in his life and processing through those with an element of grace and compassion and love."
"Also, I think you run into situations like this, that overall, no one really enjoys, but you can choose to let that sabotage your entire day or week or whatever long," Armerding continued "Or, you can try to laugh off the parts that you can laugh off and work through the parts that need to be worked through and resolved and find a solution and go from there."
