Library Breaks the Silence to Fix the Leaky Roof : Construction: With bangs and thumps, the first chapter of repairs begins at the Thousand Oaks facility.

Under the pounding rhythm of hammers and the staccato thuds of stomping work boots, 16-year-old Julie Vick quietly shelved books at the Thousand Oaks Library.

“It has been pretty loud,” she said Monday, glancing at the noisy workers marching on top of the large stucco and glass building. “It sounds like they’re playing basketball on the roof.”

Since construction began last week to replace the library’s leaky roof, employees and visitors alike have grumbled at the constant noise.

But if pounding and thumping will repair years of drippy ceilings and soggy floors, then library patrons said they are willing to grin and bear it.

“It is temporary and most people are able to deal with that,” library employee Brian Cruse said. “We’ve had very few complaints.”

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Elementary school librarian Sue Robertson said she had tuned out the hammering, but added: “If I was trying to sleep instead of study, I couldn’t sleep.” Flipping through the pages of a magazine, Simi Valley resident Daryl Rule said the repairs were loud, but badly needed.

“You notice the pounding, but it’s pretty understandable,” he said. “I think you would have to be pretty cranky to complain.”

The exterior roof of the library has leaked every rainy season since the building opened in 1982. Last month, after three years of negotiations with the building’s architect, construction manager and subcontractors, the city reached a $1.28-million settlement agreement to repair the roof.

Construction workers will add slopes to the roof so water will no longer collect in pools around the skylights, and they will install larger drainage pipes to remove rainwater. The project is expected to be completed by November.

“It’s a lot of work to do in 13 weeks,” site superintendent Mike Hart said, adding that people have been patient with the disturbance. “Everybody has been really understanding.” Demolition of the existing roof began last week when crews started removing stucco and aluminum panels--the noisiest phase of the project, Hart said.

But the roof construction is only the beginning of several months of repairs at the Thousand Oaks Library.

Once the roof is complete, engineers will begin work on the library’s interior, which sustained $2 million in damage during the Northridge earthquake.

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The library is expected to be closed for two to four weeks this winter for interior repairs, such as installing new lightweight ceiling tiles. Those repairs will be paid for with a combination of insurance and federal disaster relief funds, city finance director Bob Biery said.

Additionally, more than $64,000 has been raised by the Library Restoration Committee to replace books damaged during the quake.

But until all the repairs are completed, employees and visitors used to the peaceful serenity of a quiet library are having to make do.

“Everybody kind of jokes about it, saying, ‘Isn’t a library supposed to be quiet?’ ” said senior library assistant Doris Lucas, who has worked at the Thousand Oaks Library for 14 years. “We’re telling them that this is the first step in the repairs.”

Watching a workman casually walk past an overhead skylight, Lucas chuckled and said: “You get used to it and go on.”