NEWS: "Soap Test," Subdivision and Rotten Risers: Update on Gas Service to 122

Following up on the most recent update, the H line passed the integrity test yesterday, and to my knowledge gas service has been restored to those apartments.

As of Monday morning, there were a few remaining apartments in the G and E lines where branch pipes were not removed from the risers.

As a sidenote -- although our co-op rules stipulate that construction noise can't begin earlier than 8:30am, the plumbers have been beginning almost exactly at 8am.

Although Management has improved in sending notice to residents about this situation, they have not reliably notified us about what to expect regarding noise and access to apartments.

As it happens, removing the pipe is a fairly noisy process which takes nearly a half-hour -- which came as a huge surprise to me on Tuesday morning, as I had worked past 3am the night before.

And, per Marv's comment, Management was not only unavailable as of 10am that morning; they were completely unaware of the plumbers' actions.

I spoke to Mike Urena later that day, and he assured me that better notice would be given. I haven't seen any signs posted about the hours plumbers will work, but he tells me that he is providing information by calling residents personally.

So by Tuesday afternoon, all units' branch pipes had been removed and the risers in both the E and G apartments were tested. And both failed.

Before condemning the risers, which would force their replacement, Management and Stellmar wanted to perform a "soap test."

As previously described, the test involves filling the risers with 3.5 lbs of air pressure and holding for an hour. If the pressure drops, there is a leak either in the riser or branch pipes -- but there may also be a leak in the "Tee" joint which connects the branch to the riser.

So Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning, the plumbers pressurized the risers and put a soapy film around the Tee joint in each apartment. The soap would reveal any leaks around the joint.

Unfortunately, it didn't.

So now we have to deal with the removal and replacement of a portion of the riser.

Although the plumbers had told me earlier this week that the entire riser might have to be replaced, Mike Urena and Stellmar have come up with a way to minimize disruption.

Since, most likely, only a portion of each riser has gone bad, it should be possible to isolate those portions by dividing and further subdividing the risers.

Today, Stellmar sealed off the G riser at the 8th floor and pressurized the upper and lower half of the riser. The lower half passed the test; the upper half did not.

Tomorrow, they are sealing off the G riser at the 12th floor and are again going to pressurize the upper and lower halves of the pipe separately. This will tell us if the leak is between the 8th and 12th floors, or the 12th and 16th floors.

And they will continue dividing the pipe until they are able to isolate the rotten pipe to a single level or two.

Needless to say, replacing the pipe at that level will be a horrible process for the units involved, but at least most other residents will be spared.

I don't know the exact status of the E line, but I believe that things are progressing similarly there.

The below notice was placed on E line doors:

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Wednesday - 10/3/07

Gas service to the E line has not been restored. We did successfully access all apartments requiring inspections.

Regrettably we must now begin the next phase of exploration.

This next phase involves subdividing the line and testing to determine initially if the leak exists between the lobby and the 8th floor or between the 8th floor and the 16th floor.

As soon as we discover which half of the building has the leak, we will proceed to subdivide once more and then conclude to determine the precise location of the leaking section of pipe.

It is our aim to complete this phase of exploration by tomorrow evening so that pipe replacement can occur afterwards.