Busted water pipe wrecks Sequoia’s gym floor

“We’re already pulling the floor up,” said Rick Gebin, Sequoia Union High School District press information officer. “We’re kind of gutting out the rooms that are there, so as of right now, we really don’t know … the full extent of the damage, so we don’t know the cost.”

According to Gebin, the rupture in a domestic water pipe located in the ceiling was discovered Saturday when passersby, taking a walk through the Redwood City campus, noticed water leaking from the exterior door of the gymnasium. One of them notified the SUHSD facilities office, and a crew was dispatched later that day to assess the damage.

A good amount of water from the ruptured ceiling pipe had already flooded the gym. Had the district not been notified Saturday, the flooding would likely not have been discovered until Monday.

“That Saturday, within an hour, we were already on site,” Gebin said. “Steps were taken to turn off the water … so, really, that could have been a lot worse if that had gone on throughout the weekend.”

Sequoia boys’ basketball coach Fine Lauese said the timetable for replacing the gym floor is uncertain, but that repairs could extend into 2023. The gym will almost certainly not be ready for use when the fall sports season begins in August.

“I don’t think it’s going to be ready for volleyball,” Lauese said. “They’re going to have to move over to our old gym. … It’s going to be interesting to see.”

Lauese said Sequoia is fortunate in that the school houses three gymnasiums on campus. The auxiliary gym, across the concourse to the north of the main gym, used to serve as the school’s primary gym until the new main facility opened in 2010. The third gym features a non-regulation sized basketball court.

Sequoia’s summer basketball league will now be forced to finish its season in the auxiliary gym. There is one more week remaining on the summer league’s schedule, with junior-varsity play closing next Tuesday, and varsity play closing next Wednesday. The league includes teams from Serra, Sacred Heart Prep, Menlo-Atherton, Hillsdale, Aragon, Half Moon Bay, Palo Alto and Woodside Priory.

The auxiliary gym has adequate space to host events that would otherwise take place in the main gym. The problem, currently, is the bleacher area is lacking. One of the bleacher concourses was removed from the auxiliary gym in 2010.

“It’s still a good full-sized gym,” Lauese said.

The ruptured pipe has been repaired, and there are no other signs of plumbing damamge, Gebin said. SUHSD has yet to contract a flooring company to carry out the repairs.

While the damage was discovered Saturday, it is not known precisely how long the ruptured pipe was leaking.

“We don’t know when it occurred, when it happened,” Gebin said.