William Allen High School gym floor to be replaced due to water damage

The William Allen High School gymnasium floor will have to be replaced due to water damage sustained while the roof there was being repaired this summer.

The district will have to pay $295,000 for an entirely new floor after heavy rains and winds led to water infiltration through the new roof, ruining the gymnasium floor.

That means sports events and practices will have to be held at other schools, and gym classes will be moved to other portions of the building, said Director of Facilities Services Bob Sperling Jr.

"I think it goes without saying it'll be inconvenient," said Superintendent Russell Mayo. "It's certainly not an ideal situation, but we can accommodate it."

The new floors will not be finished until the end of October.

Water seeped through the roof above the gymnasium when the contractor doing the work there failed to properly shore up the roof in two separate locations, Sperling said.

The boards of the floor now appear wavy, Sperling said, and the damage was so extensive it cannot be repaired without leaving large patches on the floor.

"You can't use it for basketball, and you can't use it for gym," he said. "It would be a safety hazard."

The district will likely have to pay for the new floor, but will then seek reimbursement from the company that had been doing the roofing work: the Philadelphia-based Mike Kobithen Roofing.

That company had been installing a $392,000 new roof above the gymnasium, but the district originally only planned to spend about $50,000 for repairs to the 20-year-old gym floor, officials said.

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William Allen High School gym floor to be replaced due to water damage