Replacing risers
Has anyone gone through this?
We have a new Reserve Fund Study. The engineering company gave us three studies to review:
• Draft One The Board had issues with it so we asked for;
• Draft Two The Board had different issues with that one so the engineers sent us;
• Draft Three.
All three studies had errors in them but when the engineering company wanted more money to address these new concerns, the Board did not reply.
The 2011 Reserve Fund Study, the 2014 one, the 2016 one and all three 2019 drafts called for the corporation to replace the hot risers first and then replace the cold water risers a few years later.
The condo is a 47-years-old 12-storey tower. The water pipes are original. The interior walls are plaster on lath with steel studs.
I have a few of questions.
Has anyone reading this have any experiences replacing old copper water pipes? Aside from the finances, is there any good reason to break holes in the walls, replace the hot water pipes, repair the plaster walls and then return eight years later to make new holes in the walls to replace the cold water pipes?
How much damage was done to the tile and/or marble walls when this work was done? Do you have any photos that you can share?
Should the Board tell the owners—especially those who are planning renovations in their bathrooms and kitchens—that their hot water risers are going to be replaced two years from now?
Reply #1
Hi, how are you;
My condo has replaced many copper hot water risers, sometimes the entire length of the building of 22 storeys.
THERE IS an order-of-operation to it, I think I recall that the lower floors get pin-hole leaks more frequently but don't quote me—also the EAST side of buildings seem to need pin-hole replacement first (don't ask me why, but senior commercial plumbers will know.)
It was NOT a big deal, but boy, compare prices! Prices for one riser could be $10,000 difference
Replacing drywall and repainting the entire wall is easy and the plumbers tend to do a good clean job so the contractor can just go in and re-patch the drywall and paint - the only pain is getting matching paint for each unit, it's a waste—but we had no problems because people were so upset about getting leaked on from above
MAKE SURE YOU HAVE AN EXCELLENT GENERAL CONTRACTOR WHO FOLLOWS THE PLUMBERS, A FEW DAYS AFTER THE RISERS ARE CHANGED (Something could go wrong so you don't want to seal the wall until you're sure)
If you're cutting into tile (almost no chance of that), then you have to replace the entire wall of tile to match the rest of the tile in the room.
After we replaced the risers in about 1/3 of the building, there were no more pin-holes for years, in fact, I don't think there has been a pin-hole since.
We never replaced the cold water pipes—why? Our condo was about 30 years old.
Have you got clean-outs when the kitchen stacks are back to back with another kitchen?
Clean-outs are hugely important when you have back-to-back kitchens, and they're disgusting.
Reply #2
Been there done that. We replaced the hot water pipes because of the excessive pin-hole leaks. We have not replaced cold water. Our leaks have been in the laundry drains.
Your declaration will state the from the drywall out it is the owner's responsibility to repair the damage—however caused.
We repainted the walls after the repair, taking a sample out to the paint store for getting an exact colour match.
There are also companies that will reline the pipes with resin, but not sure how long that lasts.
You know people don’t want facts and truth, they just want reason to not spend money.
PS: When they started to open walls to fix the pipes, the found out that the pipes were not actually where they were supposed to be!