# Anybody up for a swim?



## g15 (May 25, 2009)

We have a moving pit lift in our theater. Last Thursday, we had a concert. At the end of the show, we started pulling cable because we needed to raise the pit because there were riggers coming in to hang motors for our new line arrays and they were going to use our Genie to drill holes and they needed to be further off the stage. Our TD pulled up one of the cables (that was hanging down in the pit area) and it was kinda wet. I had seen some water spilled on stage earlier and assumed that that's where the water came from. We finished putting everything else away and raised the pit to stage level. Chris (the TD) sticks his head through the curtain on the front of the pit, looking down into the bottom of the pit, says something to the effect of "we have a big f***ing problem. Somehow, it had filled with about 6-7 inches of water, completely submerging the conduit with the power for the lift motors. we immediately dropped it back down to house level (not actually sure why...probably would have been smarter to leave it where it was...) and contacted buildings and grounds. it was late so we basically decided to deal with it the next day. We then spent all day Friday pumping out the water. When I left there was still about an inch of water in the. We have no idea where the water is coming from but we think it's ground water. It's very cold, odorless and tastes like water...Can't wait to get back in there tomorrow morning and see if there's more water in it...very strange as we were just underneath it a few weeks ago.


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## Les (May 25, 2009)

I would be the one to call you out on this, but you tasted the water? Wow, you're braver than I am! 

If I were you I'd cross my fingers for a broken water line somewhere in the area. At least then there's a chance to fix it rather than always dealing with seepage from the water table. How old is your building?


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## seanandkate (May 25, 2009)

I'm with Les: You TASTED THE WATER ?!?!? Was this some sort of freakish dare? Or initiation right?


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## gafftapegreenia (May 26, 2009)

I mean even if it is water, it's in the PIT man, with no clue how it got there.


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## g15 (May 26, 2009)

I didn't taste it intentionally! Probably should have mentioned that...while moving one of the pumps I splashed a good amount of it into my face, some of which landed in my mouth...


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## renegadeblack (May 26, 2009)

I'd assume that it's probably not ground water because it would have happened before? I know that we have alot of ventilation stuff right by our pit, could it possibly be from the air conditioner?


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## Sony (May 26, 2009)

^^^ +1

Air Conditioners have a drain to drain condensation from the coils. Sometimes the drain tube gets clogged and the condensation overflows into the area surrounding the condenser unit. It's actually a fairly common problem...If you have a large condenser unit then it could be sucking a lot of water/humidity out of the air and dumping it in the pit. 

If not then you may have a water leak, I would suggest getting down there with flashlights once it's pumped out and then looking for the source of the problem. If you don't find the source then there is nothing to say it wont happen again. You could have a busted pipe or a crack in the foundation that is letting groundwater in, ether one is a serious problem.


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## lighthouse (May 26, 2009)

We once showed up @ call only to find 8+ inches of water in our pit. Turns out the sump pump failed the night before, the alarm went off but security didn't see the problem & ignored it.

After killing power in the pit, we could still see 1 flashing indicator wedged under a drape, but couldn't quite tell what it was (& nobody was about to wade in). Once we were able to free it, a small rubber duck with a blinking LED floated out.

Curtain was delayed 30 minutes, but the show did go on!


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## g15 (May 26, 2009)

This just gets better and better. While in the theatre at lunch, there were Buildings and Grounds guys in there vacuuming the rest of the water out with a shop vac. when the shop vac filled with water, they would dump it into a big garbage can with a pump that was pumping into the sink in our shop. About half way through lunch, one of my friends pointed out that we need a plunger because the sink was backed up and over flowing ALL OVER THE SHOP. I immediately shut the pump off and we plunged the sink...

so now the shop floor is covered in water...

once the majority of the water is out we're going to get down there and look and see if we can figure out where it came from.


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## jwl868 (May 26, 2009)

I know this is obvious, but are there any building drawings, particularly the plumbing drawings, available? It might help in tracking down potential sources. 

(I didn't think many buildings in New Jersey had basements and sub floors because of the high water table. Or is it deeper in the your part of the state?

Joe


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## Van (May 26, 2009)

Hey! You could do _*Metamorphoses*_ next season !


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## Sony (May 26, 2009)

Hahaha, so funny thing happened today, I was at work today doing Electrics for Trinity Repertory Company and the Master Electrician was telling me stories about stuff that has happened over the years. Well...you think your 7" to 8" of water in the pit is bad. I guess about 8 years ago the water main to the entire Trinity Rep Co. building burst on a Saturday evening when no one was around. They came in the next morning on Sunday to do a show, only to find that the bottom about 13' (About 1.5 floors) of the building was filled with water. They quite obviously had to cancel the show for the night in order to pump out all the water from the basement and sub basement, as well as replace all the electrical mains and the two massive boilers that heat the building in the winter that were destroyed in the flood. Also the bottom two floors of the building are used for small prop storage and many of their props were damaged.


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## willbb123 (May 27, 2009)

Sony said:


> Hahaha, so funny thing happened today, I was at work today doing Electrics for Trinity Repertory Company and the Master Electrician was telling me stories about stuff that has happened over the years. Well...you think your 7" to 8" of water in the pit is bad. I guess about 8 years ago the water main to the entire Trinity Rep Co. building burst on a Saturday evening when no one was around. They came in the next morning on Sunday to do a show, only to find that the bottom about 13' (About 1.5 floors) of the building was filled with water. They quite obviously had to cancel the show for the night in order to pump out all the water from the basement and sub basement, as well as replace all the electrical mains and the two massive boilers that heat the building in the winter that were destroyed in the flood. Also the bottom two floors of the building are used for small prop storage and many of their props were damaged.



Thats worse then our story. A water main broke in the street, and flooded our front basement. The front basement is our storage. Damaged a bunch of old posters, and stuff. Luckally the server was far enough off the ground. 

I also work in the electrical department at a hardware store. In the middle of the department we have an emergency exit, that leaks. Every time it rains water comes in. Its been doing this since the store opened a few years ago. You think at a hardware store it would be easy to fix a bad door seal... But the real problem is the sidewalk outside the door slopes down, so all the water in the area runs down hill.


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## chris325 (May 29, 2009)

lighthouse said:


> We once showed up @ call only to find 8+ inches of water in our pit. Turns out the sump pump failed the night before, the alarm went off but security didn't see the problem & ignored it.
> 
> After killing power in the pit, we could still see 1 flashing indicator wedged under a drape, but couldn't quite tell what it was (& nobody was about to wade in). Once we were able to free it, a small rubber duck with a blinking LED floated out.
> 
> Curtain was delayed 30 minutes, but the show did go on!



Sump pump failure is what I would probably expect in your case. Has your facility previously had problems with water seepage?


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## g15 (May 30, 2009)

We think we figured it out. We went under it last night now that it's fairly dry and it looks like it's coming up from where the lift mechanism is bolted into the ground. There's rust all around the base and it's wet as well. We're going to continually check it, especially after heavy rain. (or any rain for that matter)


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## Sparkinium (May 31, 2009)

g15 said:


> it looks like it's coming up from where the lift mechanism is bolted into the ground. There's rust all around the base



This seems like it's going to be a nasty problem for you.  Good luck. Hopefully that rust doesn't come back to bite you!

Gotta love water coming up through the floor, huh?


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