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Francis Howell North: monitors, smoke tests and rooftop vent redesign planned to stop sewer‑gas odors
Summary
Contractors and district staff reported progress identifying plumbing breaks and installing air monitors at Francis Howell North and said they will relocate rooftop plumbing vents and complete repairs before school starts to prevent sewer‑gas odor from re‑entering the building.
Contractors and district staff reported steps this month to find and fix sources of a persistent noxious odor at Francis Howell North, including installation of continuous air monitors, smoke testing to locate plumbing breaks, and a planned rooftop vent redesign to keep sewer gas from being drawn back into air handlers.
Kevin Roberts, the consultant responsible for air monitoring, told the board the district has installed 10 telemetry monitors that take readings every second and reported “no detections of hydrogen sulfide” and no readings above lower‑explosive‑limit thresholds; brief elevated volatile organic compound readings were attributed to floor‑stripping and waxing activities and to propane‑powered machines, Roberts said. "Oxygen has remained constant at 20.9 percent," he reported.
Construction and engineering contractors described a targeted campaign of pipe inspections and repairs after a focused smoke test of the plumbing system. Matt Frank (construction consultant) said intensive smoke testing uncovered several masonry‑era plumbing breaks — including a cracked vent pipe in the 2400 corridor and a cracking behind a coach’s shower room — that have been repaired or are scheduled for repair. He said the testing included a high volume of smoke (hundreds of smoke pellets) and camera inspections behind masonry walls to locate hard‑to‑find openings.
Frank and the engineering team said their primary remedy this summer is to relocate and extend roof plumbing vents away from rooftop HVAC intakes and to raise vent terminations approximately 10–15 feet above the roofline so prevailing winds carry odors away from air‑handler intakes. McClure Engineering is preparing final drawings; Haberberger Plumbing is scheduled to install the revised vent routing and the work is planned to be completed before students and staff return for the fall term. The team also installed manometers on several vents to log pressure differentials and will retest the building after repairs.
Board members asked about biological sampling (mold, fungal spores) and were told staff will perform biological tests if odors are present at the time of a complaint; no biological sampling has yet been completed because attempts to capture samples coincided with dissipated complaints. The contractors said they will repeat smoke testing after repairs and continue continuous monitoring; they described the discovered plumbing openings as “minor contributors” but said relocating rooftop vents should address the primary pathway by which sewer gas was getting into the HVAC system.
Why this matters: district administrators said finding and fixing plumbing breaks, preventing rooftop vent exhaust from being entrained into rooftop air handlers, and continued monitoring will reduce the risk that building occupants encounter noxious sewer‑gas odors when school resumes.
No formal board vote was required for the repairs; the board received the update and contractors reported a timeline and follow‑up testing and monitoring plan.
