Guarding the angels—and more—with a vibration monitor

The antique finishes, the crown moulding, the hand-painted frescoes, the ornate wood carvings, these are some of the iconic finishes that we—faculty, students, staff and alumni—love so much in Flavelle House.

And these are the very things that the soon-to-be-installed vibration monitor will help protect, says Eastern’s project manager Dean Walker.

“We’ll have a computerized monitoring system set up in the basement of Flavelle, to measure the impact of vibrations, and any particle movement. The assessment will determine the zone of influence, and there will be monitoring within that zone.”

How it works: the system will send an email to the crew any time the vibrations fall in that zone range. The crew will then assess and determine an appropriate course of action to reduce the impact.

“We would investigate what’s going on specifically to cause that alert. It could be a beam coming down, a one-time occurrence, and set off the monitor. The threshold is set below the allowable limit,” says Walker. “We do not want to negatively affect the building’s history, crack any structural supports, or architectural finishes, mouldings or plaster.”

In Flavelle House, the largest vibration-creating activity will be the structural demolition of the building.

“It’s a straight forward demolition job. It’s more like surgery, as it will be taken down in small sections. So we’ll be monitoring the demolition and the start of the structural framework and caissons. Subsequently, there will be very little vibration-work impact.”