You must see this!

See post #1. Flat roofs are not flat, and if they drain properly they don't collapse.

Worked full and part time for a shopping mall for roughly 17 years. It had tremenous (90+ acres) of flat roof structure. It had several hundred 6" roof drains all around the edges and many strategically located in the middle that drained into special stormwater system put in place beofre the mall itself was built. You are 100% right, the roof is not exactly flat. It is always slightly sloped towards the drains. Once a month we would always go up and clean out from around the drains to ensure proper runoff. We would also go up and check during hard downpours just to ensure things were going well. There were also slotted caps over the openings to prevent large items of debris from getting into the pipes and clogging things up. "Flat" roofs are great if well maintained. The only bad thing with a so-called flat roof is snow accumulations during very rare heavy winter storms

3 1/2 inches of rain and and the passage of time caused the roof to collapse. This roof withstood Hurricane Hugo. It is probably time that the roof should have been replaced.

The results are almost never inevitable. How many roofs collapse in a year out of how many buildings exist? It usually happens when a (maybe low) bidder builds a roof to faulty engineered drawings and a government inspector hasn't done their job.

In my experience, construction error is almost always to blame in these cases - no way to know about this particular case from what is in this article though.

Everything is being pushed to go faster and cheaper, so I don't necessarily have more confidence in new construction vs older buildings either.

Fokjoudoos,

please if you don't understand the construction process keep your thoughts to yourself. Being low bid has nothing to do with the construction. Even low bidder has to follow plans and specs and meet building codes which are inspected by the local municipaliites.

If the design was flawed well then the Architect has some questions to answer. If the inspectors missed construction flaws then they need to answer as well. It isn't always the contractors fault.

Yes i'm a contractor of 38 years and have been low bid many times and my projects are all still standing.

Odds are very good the roof drains were clogged or the piping system was undersized and incapable of handling the volume of water that is the only thing that would allow enough water to accumulate to collapse the roof

Truthhurts402, I own a construction company and we do great work. I would never hire Union workers. Union workers do not work hard, but suck off the teet of the American people.

Can I have the name of your company so I can avoid you?

mj, not in your lifetime. We do great work and are solicited as the sole sub to bid for out specialty.

I work as a Underwriter in insurance and set the price on Commercial Contractors. I usually decline Union business as they are a pain in the 'A' and think they know it all, if I do give them a price it is + 15% for pain and suffering. On a 100K account that is 15 thousand.

I'll stick with the raleigh dolly accounts all day long as family business is better run and a pleasure to work with. And Dolly you get a 25% discount :)

raleigh dolly,

You go girl! I have been employed in the construction industry all of my adult life. I was in the union for two years of that career. I left them because (1) they could never negotiate a better deal for me than I could get for myself, and (2) I was told not to work so hard because it made the others look bad. I credit the unions with raising the standards for all workers long ago, but my personal experience was that they now exist only to protect the weaker members from the stronger ones.

IXLR8 and Denver Bill 2, I appreciate your views and support for my opinion! I started my company in 08/2009 during the greatest recession most Americans have ever seen. I sunk most of my savings into the company after I was laid off from a major corporation. I did this to make sure my son would have a job to support his family. This year things are looking a little better, so maybe I can get some of my investment back. God bless you both!

Dolly, All my contractors have made the turn this year and things are picking up. If you toughed it out in this time you earned your stripes and will go far. The winners are those that pick the right long term employees, treat them right, and have a faith like yours :)

Have a great weekend!

IXLR8, you have a great weekend too! I appreciate your support. So many people in our country do not understand what hard work is all about, and how hard it is for small business to succeed.

IMO a job is more then just making a living. Being happy in your job goes farther then most people think. I also worked union and non union jobs. I put my all into my job and expect everyone else to do the same. Unfortunately the union job I had, quite a few people just did not care. They were there only for the paycheck, and they definately were not happy.

I applaud you all, you are the backbone of this country.

There was a time for Unions but that time has pass, but we have to acknowledge they did make a great difference, but we still have to be aware that things are changing and here in this economic disaster we have seen some changes like the attempts to reverse wages back to minimum wage and if the GOP get their way we will back at a buck fifty so be careful what you wish for you may just get more than you bargained for.

Spent a lot of time at this mall, working part-time at Dillard's when I was in college. It was a nice mall and a nice area. I sure miss the Carolinas!

The electrical and carpenters unions are few of the unions that set the standards,

Both trades do craftsman work and do not skip on quality work or materials.

I worked both as a non union and union electrican and there was a difference.

The non union contractor bought substandard made in china materials while the union shop bought high quality and tested to standard materials from USA and Canada.

union workers would bring shoddy building design and practices to the attention of inspectors, (without the fear of being fired) thats why contractors like non union workers.

Truth, all our work has always passed inspection. We pay our workers (not scabs or wet backs, you fool) far more than minimum wage, so we do not need unions to interfere. NC is a right to work state; you are a moron.

Would you get over the Union crap.

Dolly, I have seen many of these incidents, and there is a discrepency between the drawings and what was built almost 100% of the time. The subsequent arguments usually revolve around who should have been responsible for correcting the errors, and which error caused which portion of the damage.

yea, at least they are getting some rain, the rest of the country is burning up. literally

Dumbest comment ever.

Truthhurts402, you are a troll. OSHA has been to our job sites many times; no one scatters and we have received no OSHA violations. Employee safety is paramount to my company. Where do you live NY or NJ or some other place up north?

i feel sorry for your worker's...

raleigh dolly, I agree 100% with everything you are saying but please lay off the NJ stuff. We're not all bad up here. Thanks.

Grannie, why do you want a union worker? There are many qualified workers who would charge you a lot less than a union worker and do a better job.

you totally miss the point...them bottom feeders may run out of food stamps but they'll never run out of work attitude...we have a union company redoing some bottom feeder's work...you get what you pay for...

The unions are the reason I will NEVER buy another GM or FORD vehicle. Coming from a diehard union auto town, I grew thinking the union was king. When I got smart and realized that the only people making money in a union is the union itself. In Flint, the UAW auto workers could not be fired for any reason. They would come in drunk and high from lunch and nobody could or would do anything about it. They would also clock their buddies in at the shop for them. This was back in the late 80's but I am sure nothing much has changed. There is a reason now that many auto shops are setting up factories in the south.

I will not use union workers. I will also not use illegal workers. I just had a house built with all American NON union workers. All subs that worked on the site could only bring in legal workers. I used a lot of small american companies to do the work.

Unions are a dinosaur. I believe in 20 years, the auto industry will be comprised of all non union workers as they migrate out of Michigan.

I have seen many sub par union done jobs in my day. Assuming that a union worker is going to give you a better quality job is just like assuming the Obama was going to give this country change.

Either one has a chance, but likely will not happen.

Southpark mall is older, yet you still have people trying to say it collapsed because Unions didn't build it or why didn't someone clean the drains. Well, things happen to old buildings in storms.

I read locally though that the area of the mall got 3.5 inches in one hour! That's a lot of rain for any flat roof to handle, especially with its age.

Another off-the-wall comment. So do you know who built Southpark mall and what materials and labor were used? Do you have the specs or drawings?

Why yes I do jdmb03. I worked on the building of the mall dick-head!