Understandably, multiple residents have inquired about recent water shut offs. After service outages last year which were necessary for scheduled projects, there is heightened awareness and concern anytime work is done requiring a shutdown.

Fortunately, the vast majority of shutdowns over the past 60 days have been related to Unit Owner remodeling. THE GOOD NEWS is, we have more unit remodeling going on now than at any other single time period in the past decade. That’s great for residents and great for property values. The more money invested in improvements, the better.

THE BAD NEWS is, besides noise and other side effects of remodeling, kitchen and bathroom remodels mean “branchline” work may be needed. And when we work on branchlines, in more cases than not the water to that tier needs to be shut down.

(Branchlines are the pipes which branch off the main risers, and provide water to all faucets, showers and toilets.)

A couple recent service outages were related to building issues. For instance, this past weekend a timer failed on hot water pumps which serve the 30th to 55th floors. Until we identified the problem and repaired it some units from the upper half of the building lost hot water service.

Beginning Monday March 14, we are conducting the Riser Replacement Project for the ’06/’07 tier, from the 3rd to 29th Floor. This will require hot water shutdowns for all ’06 and ’07 units on those floors from March 14th to April 1st (except weekends).

Two other risers will be done later this year, and the office has continued to see an influx of remodeling requests. We expect service outages will be necessary if the work calls for shutting down the water. But we want to assure Owners and residents, shut downs will only be scheduled if absolutely necessary. Their duration will be as short as possible to minimize the inconvenience. And barring unforeseen circumstances or emergencies, planned service outages will only be scheduled Monday through Friday between businesses hours.

At any time you have any questions or concerns about this or other plumbing or maintenance issues, do not hesitate to contact the office.