Mold Invades Another University

Orange County, FL – The University of Central Florida is spending almost $19 million on a new building for their engineering department but the project has apparently turned into a mold nightmare.

The building was supposed to be the ‘piece de resistance’ of the engineering division; an $18.9 million, 75,000 square foot bastion. One member of staff, who didn’t want to be identified, said it’s not a healthy environment. “There’s quite a few employees sick, runny nose, one guy out two weeks with sinuses, one guy has eyes swollen shut.”

Evergreen Construction is the contractor for the new engineering building. An employee admitted they jumped the gun.  “Sometimes with the schedule they give you nowadays, you gotta take chances and we took a chance and lost,” the employee said. Normally, drywall is not put into a project until it has been dried in or the roof has been put up. But because they are so far behind schedule, they put the drywall up and now it has to come back down.  “The university is not paying for that, it’s not our problem, it’s their problem,” said UCF planner Peter Newman.

Due to the mold, most of the dry wall is being ripped out, further holding up a building that was supposed to open in 15 days. Even with the visible mold removed, will this building ever be mold-free?  “It’s everywhere. They need to start over,” Newman said.

UCF says the building was going to be used for fall classes, but the mold problem will setback the engineering department.  Due to the severe health hazards that some indoor molds can cause, the university has no other alternative but to resort to these actions and correct the problem accordingly.

Author: Carolyn Willbanks