14 Apr Case Study: Water Woes

Issue

We received an after-hours call from a property manager whose property we didn’t service. The manager explained that they had a large flood occurring that appeared to be coming from the boiler room and had made its way down to the lobby. The manager had called the plumber contractor on record for their Corporation, but the contractor was not answering or returning any calls.

Discovery

The on-call plumber was dispatched to the property, when he arrived, he found every property manager’s worst nightmare:

1. 1. Water was all over the mechanical room floor. Pouring through cracks and openings for electrical and plumbing, the floor didn’t have a protective membrane surface, so any cracks in the floor allowed water to seep into the suites below.
   2. Resident corridors had water leaking thru the ceiling tiles. The panels became so saturated that they eventually fell to the floor.
   3. Building residents had extensive water damage to their suites. As all managers know, water will travel in many different locations till it finds an outlet to make its presence known, sometimes even skipping a floor or a suite.
   4. The building elevators had stopped working, and the alarms on the fire panel were sounding. Our techs discovered that the heat exchanger, a system used to transfer heat between two or more fluids used in the heating and cooling process, was severely leaking due to a crack. Heat exchangers can prematurely fail due to poor installation or inadequate maintenance.

The main water supply to the building was shut off to stop the flood, which meant that residents no longer had access to water for an undetermined amount of time. Once the building water was off, the technician shut off all valve connections to isolate the exchanger. With the valves now isolated, the techs could turn the water supply to the building back on, but there would be no hot water available; the heat exchanger heats the water for the building. Our techs informed the manager that the 3-year-old heat exchanger needed replacement, and the hot water could not be turned back on till a new heat exchanger was installed.

Solution

Heat exchangers are expensive equipment to repair or replace; therefore, suppliers don’t have them readily at hand. A replacement heat exchanger costs approximately $30,000 and takes on average 8-10 weeks to come once ordered, and with COVID supply delays, it can take up to 16-weeks. Knowing that our manager needed a new heat exchanger immediately, our team called all suppliers in the GTHA to locate one, not an easy task on the weekend! The following day, our team found a heat exchanger in Stoney Creek and made plans to pick it up and install it all that same day.

Result

The installation of a heat exchanger is not a quick and easy process. Still, through the superior knowledge of our highly trained technicians, the equipment was installed and tested to ensure everything was fully operational. The issue was resolved before the end of the weekend, and the hot water was restored to the building. In total, residents experienced twenty-six hours of downtime compared to the 8-10 weeks they could have experienced.

Managers need to ensure that vendors they work with are completing the services they are hired for by regularly checking the technicians’ worksheets, reviewing maintenance tags/logs, walking around the building to see if deficiencies have been addressed, and having review meetings with their technician or Operations Manager.

Not just any mechanical partner can achieve what Naylor did with this experience. With Naylor as your mechanical HVAC contractor, you are working with one of Ontario’s largest and most reputable service, installation, and maintenance providers.