Frozen gutters cause water damage at Cox Building

A combination of multiple days of below zero temperatures, ice and snow accumulation and frozen gutters have caused problems at Maysville's Cox Building.

On Monday, Tourism Director Suzie Pratt entered the lobby of the building, only to discover water on the floor. When she arrived in her second floor office, she found more water, both on the office floor and dripping from the ceiling. Her next stop was the building's third floor grand ballroom, which also had water accumulated on the hardwood floor and dripping from several spots on the ceiling.

City employees are unsure when the leaks began, since there were no special events scheduled at the building over the weekend.

The cause of the problem, according to City Manager Ray Young and David Hord, project coordinator for the city, is the building's box gutters at the roof line. From the exterior box gutters appear to be on the outside of the building, when in reality, the guttering system is on the inside between the brick facade and the walls of the building. Box gutters have always been on the Cox Building since its construction in 1886 and were part of the $10 million restoration of the building after a fire in 2010.

Young said because of the accumulation of ice and snow in the gutters and continuous days of freezing temperatures, the ice/water backed up into the gutters. The result has been for the water to find its way into the walls of the building because of the inability to drain through the frozen gutters.

"Our main focus is to get the water out of the drains," Young said Thursday during a walk-through of the building. To accomplish that, the Maysville Fire Department has been on site two days with its ladder truck to reach the gutters and break up the ice and snow. Snow accumulation on the building's slate roof has been removed, as well as around the turret on the northwest corner. The purpose has been to keep more snow from accumulating into the gutters and to prevent it from falling onto the sidewalk below, which could cause a safety hazard to pedestrians.

Since the discovery of the water on Monday, industrial size fans and dehumidifiers have been running full-time in the ballroom and office to dry out the walls and ceilings. Pockets of water accumulation on the ceiling have been drained and the damage so far has been limited. The signature Masonic Mural on the eastern wall of the ballroom was not damaged. Damage appears to be kept mainly to the northern side of the building, which gets limited sunshine.

Young said an event scheduled for the ballroom for Feb. 28 has been moved to the Maysville Conference Center.

Young said the city will get two estimates to fix the ceilings, walls and hardwood floors, which have buckled and there is damage to the finish. It is hoped the buckling of the floors will correct itself as the floors dry out.

To remedy the problem in the future, Young said the estimates will include the installation of heat strips for the box gutters. Young said although the winter of 2014 included snow and freezing temperatures, the gutters worked fine because there weren't continuous days of below freezing temperatures like there has been this year.

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Frozen gutters cause water damage at Cox Building