Ceiling Touch-up Should be Easy

ROOF LEAKS HAPPEN, despite a roofer’s best efforts. For example, due to sun exposure, the daily expansion-and-contraction of our school building’s flat roof will eventually push up its roofing nails. When that happens (if it’s before the routine maintenance work pounds those nails back down again), rainwater can find its way in—around a loosened nail or two.

So it’s not surprising that yellowish water stains will show up on a ceiling occasionally. Unfortunately, although staining is a predictable eventuality, we did not seem to be well prepared for it. Even so, things seemed to have worked out, as this post relates.…

Masking or Not in the Sanctuary

WEARING A FACE MASK in our sanctuary is currently optional. So as we decide individually whether and when to retain our masks, what factors should we take into account? This post briefly discusses four of them…

Adventures in Hunting Foul Odor(s)

JEROME GROOPMAN, MD, author of the bestseller How Doctors Think, points out that even smart minds can easily be led astray by well-known cognitive biases. He teaches that during a diagnosis process, it's important to ask three procedural questions:

• What else could it be?
• Could two things be going on to explain the symptoms?
• Is there any relevant evidence that seems not to fit with the working diagnosis?

This post applies such questions to diagnosing (and treating) a mysterious stench in our school building. 

Upon probing, it seems our building’s denizens have actually been enduring at least 2 odors at the same time.…

“By the Way, That Pipe Is About to Burst.”

IT’S USUALLY WORTHWHILE for a facilities manager to be on hand while a licensed contractor is working on the premises (or even just evaluating a bid request). Often such a vendor will point out something important that had previously escaped our notice.

Which is what happened last week, when a plumber came to deal with a clogged toilet, and I stopped by to check in.… 

Safety Improvement Made This Week

BACK IN DECEMBER, the board had voted to approve the installation of 2 seismic gas shut-off valves: one for the school, and the other for the sanctuary. I’m pleased to announce that the first one was installed today! (Hopefully the second one will be done tomorrow.) This is a capital improvement, in that it has resulted in a betterment to the facility: a safer synagogue. Thus it’s to be paid for from our Capital Improvements Fund.

The new inlet pipe downstream from the meter
features a bright red earthquake valve.

This post treats the history of this issue and its resolution.…

The Most Urgent Maintenance and Capital Improvement Expenditures

OUR LIST OF SPECIAL PROJECTS is growing: non-routine maintenance-related or restoration-related expenses that are warranted in the near term. This post is intended to inform the board, the membership, and prospective donors about those needs, so that we can now work together to raise the necessary funds. (These tasks are not among the restoration projects that the board has previously approved, conditional on the availability of funds.)