Dining Services plans to re-finish T’s and The View’s kitchen floors over winter break after faulty installation was causing problems for the two on-campus food venues.

Gayle Lamb, Dining Services’ manager of cash operations, said the problems stem from when the Anderson Student Center was first built. The kitchen floors are missing a finishing layer of epoxy which caused the top layer to wear off.

“It’s hard when you have a new structure that you have to go in and re-do things if they weren’t done properly to begin with,” Lamb said.

Freshman Ben Carpenter, a T’s employee, said while problems may not be noticeable to T’s customers, the new floors are a necessity.

“As much as people see the appearance from the outside, they don’t see what is behind the scenes,” Carpenter said. “It’s clearly dirty, and there’s clearly holes and stains all over the place.”

According to Lamb, construction will start Dec. 20 and should be completed by Jan. 6.

St. Thomas and the contractor have been negotiating over the project for more than a year, with the original plan to re-do the floors in December 2012, Lamb said. Ultimately, scheduling did not work out, and both Dining Services and the contractor decided to complete the project when the dining areas could be shut down long enough for renovations.

Lamb said this project will be paid for by the contractor. The same process was completed in the Scooter’s kitchen over the summer, and she said it yielded positive results.

To complete the project, all of the equipment and inventory must be removed from the kitchen areas so that workers can dry the floors and grind up the surface. Then, the floors will have new an epoxy coating poured over them to level the surface and fix the texture.

Students who have a meal plan in January will be allowed to use their meal swipes on Jan. 2 and 3 at Scooter’s. Scooter’s and the Summit Marketplace will be the only dining options open in the student center for the first week of J-term classes.

The Binz and Food For Thought will both be open for regular services starting Jan. 2.

Junior Giselle Garcia Castro said she prefers the options The View offers over Scooter’s, but understands closing down the two establishments for the first two days of J-term because it is the only time to complete this project.

“It would be better to have The View always open. It has more variety, and Scooter’s doesn’t have as much variety,” Garcia Castro said. “But, there are less people during J-term than during the spring and fall—it makes sense.”

Johnnay Leenay can be reached at leen1980@stthomas.edu.