EVERETT — Tests are now under way to find the cause of white mineral drops that stained cars at the new $28 million parking garage at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett.
The deposits have hit about 200 cars, parked in the below-ground levels of the garage that are reserved for employees, said Dave Brooks, the hospital’s chief executive.
So far, no one parked on the public levels of the garage have complained of car paint problems, he said.
Although it’s not unusual to have some spotting from minerals, such as calcium salts, in open-air garages, “the extent of this is absolutely unprecedented,” said Scott Anderson, the hospital’s vice president of construction.
“We’ve been talking to a bunch of experts,” he said. “Nobody has seen it to this extent.”
The firm that designed the parking garage, Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects in Seattle, has designed three other garages in the Seattle and Portland, Ore., areas that are nearly identical, Anderson said, but there were no similar problems at the other sites.
While the initial white stain washes off, “the issue is whether it leaves a permanent stain,” Brooks said. “When you wash it off, it leaves a shadow … almost like a fuzziness in the clear coat of paint.”
Lab results are expected this week on what may be causing the problem, Anderson said.
“Right now, we don’t know why this is happening to the extent it is,” he said.
Meanwhile cracks in the garage’s concrete are being sealed, he said.
The hospital’s parking garage, which has space for 1,000 cars, opened in August. It was built by Mortenson Construction of Seattle.
The company also built the $29 million parking garage for Snohomish County that opened in 2004. Drivers complained of white spots and streaks left on hoods, roofs and fenders of vehicles parked in that garage, too. That problem was blamed on lime, a key ingredient in concrete.
Damage claims filed with the county because of lime damage to vehicles totaled about $25,000.
Michael Harder, a construction executive for Mortenson, said Monday that he wasn’t familiar with the problem at the county garage and couldn’t comment on how similar the two problems were.
Mortenson is working with the hospital “to find out what the problems are and find a solution,” he said.
Harder said he thought December’s harsh weather, which included snowstorms and unusually low temperatures, may have triggered the problem.
“A lot of extra moisture was brought into the building,” he said, and cold temperatures probably also played a role in the problem occurring in the garage’s below-ground level.
The problem was first reported on Dec. 18, a day of heavy snowfall, and has continued for the last several weeks, Brooks said.
Brooks said he and other staff helped wash employee cars while the vehicles were still in the garage the first day the problem was reported.
“On every car I washed off, I put a note on their windshield to make sure that they knew that we washed the car and to see if there was any permanent damage,” Brooks said.
Stained cars were given a certificate for a free car wash, he said. Cars with more stubborn stains were sent to a detailer to try to remove the stains.
So far, no requests have been made for sections of cars to be repainted, he said.
“The priority is making sure that all the vehicles in that garage are safe from this,” Brooks said. “Everybody is working very hard to figure out why this is happening.”
Reporter Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.
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