Residents grapple with aftermath of rooftop pool leak
Residents whose apartments were flooded by gallons of water that spilled from a rooftop pool in a Dania Beach apartment building on Saturday were allowed back into the building on Tuesday, according to Dania Beach City Commissioner Bill Harris. Harris said power also was restored to all units, except for one.
The rooftop pool leak, which occurred about 11:50 a.m. Saturday at The Place, according to the police, was the second pool leak the building experienced in only a handful of weeks. On Sept. 27, 5,000 gallons of water cascaded through seven floors of the apartment complex, forcing many residents to evacuate the building for days.
The leak on Saturday is reported to be slightly smaller, however many residents and city officials are wondering how it is that the pool could have yet another problem in such a short amount of time.
Figuring out what happened
Harris said there is an open investigation into the incident that will look at the actions on the part of the property management company as well as any other parties who might be responsible for the most recent leak. As of now, Harris said he has no idea what went wrong Saturday and whether there are any structural issues in the building that contributed to the leak or whether the situation is the result of neglect on the part of the property managers or another party. “That will be part of the investigation,” he said.
On Saturday, Ana Garcia, the Dania Beach City Manager, told the Miami Herald that the city would be launching a criminal investigation into the matter. However, a spokeswoman for the Broward Sheriff’s Office said the investigation it is conducting is not criminal in nature. Rather, she said the Sheriff ’s Office would be conducting an “active fact-finding investigation into the circumstances around this incident.”
The spokeswoman said she could not specify who was being investigated and said that the Sheriff’s Office will “follow the facts and see where they lead.”
‘I can’t sleep like that’
Lyliane Rodrigues Silva, whose third-floor apartment flooded on Saturday, said it is true that residents affected by the leak were allowed back in by the building Tuesday.
However, Silva said that her apartment, like many others throughout the building, is full of industrial vacuums and fans installed by the management company to help dry the floor. Silva said the same devices also are in the hallways on various floors.
Silva said that when the first pool leak happened in the building in September, the same vacuums and fans were installed in her apartment and remained there for eight days. The droning humming noise was unbearable. “I can’t sleep like that,” she said.
Silva said that until the devices are no longer needed, she will stay at the nearby hotel she has been staying in since Saturday night, where she is paying out of pocket.
In the meantime, what could have possibly went wrong on Saturday remains unclear to residents, authorities, city officials and everyone in between.
Designing pools for rooftops
Danilo Nanni, a man who is very familiar with the structures of rooftop pools on luxury properties in South Florida, was equally stumped.
Nanni is an associate principal at DeSimone, a structural engineering firm. He said he has played a role in the construction of numerous luxury projects in Miami, including the recently completed Brickell Flatiron — a 65-story residential tower complete with a rooftop pool.
Nanni said that guessing whether there was a structural design flaw in the rooftop pool at The Place is nearly impossible to do without analyzing the specific plans of the building. He said that the choice to place the pool above apartments in the first place also isn’t a necessarily foolish choice.
Nanni said some engineers and architects choose to place pools above parking garages in order to minimize the possibility of a leak that could potentially affect apartments. But there also are plenty of buildings that put pools over apartments.
“It really depends on the architectural intent,” Nanni said.
Nanni said one of his forthcoming projects, the Paramount Miami World Center, will have multiple pools including one over apartments and one over the garage. Theoretically, he said, there is always the possibility of a rooftop pool leaking into apartments below it. However, he said there is also added value in an apartment being closer to the pool.
Nanni said there are numerous ways to protect a pool from flooding, including using steel as a buffer over concrete. However, he said different strategies apply for different buildings.
He said that before each project, it is important that there is an individual study of the building, the climate and other factors in order to determine the best approach.
Plans for The Place were not available Tuesday, and the property management company did not respond to a request for comment.