Temporary Repairs for commercial leaking roof
Hello everyone,
My company's internal audit is soon due to arrive, and we have a dilemma. We need our roof fixed in Mutiple areas throughout the facility, but repairs are not within budget.
We are looking into any possible ideas y'all might have in coming up with a temporary fix for the roof leaks without having to move or rearrange things or patch up the roof.
Using leak kits to contain the water along with routine environmental swabbing until the leak can be fully repaired is best practice. Any time the water becomes uncontrolled, like it overflowing the containment kit, environmental swabbing and sanitation should occur to ensure the area is not contaminated.
If this is affecting food contact areas you should consider
- Discarding any product run on the line where the leak is active
- Install containment/ diverter kit like those found in this link https://www.grainger.../leak-diverters
- Fully clean equipment and affected area
- Swab for environmental pathogens (wait 2 hours after cleaning to allow time for bacteria to grow back if present)
- Restart production but keep product on hold until environmental results are received. You can then discard/release appropriately.
- Repeat this process each time a leak is not controlled.
You should at least get a quote for the repairs to show inspectors and auditors that you have an action plan.
Thanks a lot Kara S.! I had no idea of those measures, amazing! I've always thought of this type of situations as desperate, no solution. One of my clients used to have an old plant building with leaking roof and other holes all over the place, like swiss cheese. The roof repairs were useless as the building itself was 100-year old and kind of spongy - so, the only measures they had were buckets placed in strategic locations:) Terrible memories...
By the way, this is for a warehouse where all product is in cardboard boxes and internal contents are held within an internal package. Therefore, two barriers of protection are available in order to avoid outside contaminants.
I would suggest you also install these
https://www.absorben...r-for-roofs.htm
You need to add them to your daily inspection record to ensure they are clean and functioning as they should
Thanks a lot Kara S.! I had no idea of those measures, amazing! I've always thought of this type of situations as desperate, no solution. One of my clients used to have an old plant building with leaking roof and other holes all over the place, like swiss cheese. The roof repairs were useless as the building itself was 100-year old and kind of spongy - so, the only measures they had were buckets placed in strategic locations:) Terrible memories...
Glad it helped shine some light on some other control measures!
Having an uncontrolled water event plan is becoming more popular. It considers events like roof leaks, floods, condensation, pipe leaks. You can then have different controls based on where the leak is. Happy to help you write a policy if needed!
By the way, this is for a warehouse where all product is in cardboard boxes and internal contents are held within an internal package. Therefore, two barriers of protection are available in order to avoid outside contaminants.
For the warehouse - I would still buy some diverters to control where the water is going and dependent on your material and personnel flows I would clean and swab if you think environmental pathogens could travel to higher risk areas from wheels and shoes. Feel free to message me personally if you need more assistance with these programs and controls.
Whatever way you end up addressing the temporary repair, make sure it is documented. Often times if you've previously identified a problem and implemented a solution, even a temporary one while waiting for a big budget repair, you can avoid taking a hit during your official audit. You'll need to make sure you address the food safety risks and have a plan if the temporary fix doesn't hold, but I've gotten out of a handful of jams over the years by showing an auditor I found the problem before they did and had a temporary fix with a bigger repair in the works.