random, gross work related question

[pamela]

Say the bathroom floods (frequently) into a carpeted work area. How quickly is the carpet replaced? Now what if it floods a storage closet? Who cleans it? General employees, custodial staff or hire professional restoration/recovery people?

We just opened our storage closet after this morning's latest bathroom flood concerned it may have gotten in there and my nose is still burning 10 minutes later. We had boxes of original documentation stacked on the floor and the boxes have stains a few inches up so we know the papers are going to be nasty.

Ugh. I know the company isn't going to shell out for professionals and I don't think it's the job of our custodial to go through our files. Damn my boss for his insistance on keeping EVERYTHING from the last 25 years.

[ijack]

so gross

[ondaflipside]

Yikes.

[pamela]

And does anyone know if OSHA has rules about this? It's seriously getting ridiculous for the guy whose office always floods first (who still has CARPET).

[livinitup]

What does the custodial contract say? Do they have the equipment/expertise to clean the rugs? Most custodial contracts cover these issues. They are not going to do extra work for free, so there will probably be a negotiated bonus involved. So it's an issue between management and the staff. Outside services are usually used in major issues, especially if covered by insurance. And if the rug is beyond repair, then it gets replaced, but I've noticed that rarely happens.

As for the files, they need to be thrown away. And even though it's a dirty job, somebody in authority needs to determine what stays and goes, and track what's missing - and what to do about it.

ETA: Does the company own the building? Because if they don't, it really falls to the landlord to make the necessary repairs to the bathroom and to the floors. It won't cost your cheap company anything, but they do have to hassle them to do it.

[womet]

Our toilet overflowed into our hallway, and got on about 4" of our carpet. We were told that any water from the toilet contained fecal matter. And if it touched carpet, that carpet needed to be replaced.

I'm not sure if there are OSHA standards about that. But there should be.

[agnes]

I can't imagine! I've only delt with rain leakage. This would be awful.

[pamela]

Yes, company owned building. No idea about what the custodial contracts says. They came in with a wet vac, but that did just about nothing.

Somehow before the papers/videos/etc are trashed, we have to ensure they are in permanent electronic records. No way around that legally. Code of Federal regulations doesn't have an out for fecal matter.

[spunkarella]

Oct 29, 2012 15:56:52 GMT -5 pamela said:

Yes, company owned building. No idea about what the custodial contracts says. They came in with a wet vac, but that did just about nothing.

Somehow before the papers/videos/etc are trashed, we have to ensure they are in permanent electronic records. No way around that legally. Code of Federal regulations doesn't have an out for fecal matter.

Eww. I would say at the very least, the carpet needs to be professionally restored/cleaned by a company that specializes in that type of thing.

Can you spread the papers out (outside, maybe?) and take pictures instead of having to run them through a scanner?

[6fsn]

My anecdotal experience: I was working on an asbestos abatement project in the basement of a papermill. There was a pump that pumped water from the men's locker room to the city water treatment plant. Or at least the pump was supposed to, instead it was spraying black water at the entrance to my abatement area. Since the pump was in a closed portion of the mill nobody wanted to claim it so it became mine.

We used a plumber to fix the problem and our own custodial staff for the cleanup. There were no documents or carpet, but because the staff generally cleaned toilets they were allowed to do this cleanup. It was all concrete though.

That was kind of a low point in my career.