Situation
As the office building was in the final stages of being completed, cold weather temperatures struck across the US. While having a water event at any point in a project is less than desirable, the frigid conditions added another layer of potential issues waiting to occur during this renovation.
When the project was 50 percent complete, sensors were deployed by an Insight Risk loss control specialist throughout the building in key identified areas determined by Insight Risk’s proprietary process and hundreds of job sites analyzed.
Technology Saves - From the Basement to the Roof
The first alert was pushed on December 7 that moisture had been detected in the basement. The GC was on site at the time and got to the identified area within five minutes of receiving an email alert; the GC also had access to an app that sent a push notification.
Water was found and promptly cleaned up; because of the quick response time, no damage was caused to the building or anything located nearby.
On December 11 at 3am when no scheduled activity was to be happening on the renovation, the third-floor stairwell sensor started alerting to low temperatures and moisture. Continued monitoring showed that as temperatures dropped outside, the building’s interior temperature followed suit, getting down to 45 degrees F near the sensor’s location.
Upon investigation, a roof access hatch was discovered open in the stairwell – as it had rained that evening, water and the cold air both had entered the stairwell. A water riser was also located beside the roof hatch – a freezing risk as well. The issue was remedied within hours, leading to no damage in the building – averting a second loss.
Result
Because water damage was not an issue on the renovation site, the project was not impacted by delays due to damage – critical for a remodeling project. As an added bonus, the GC also noted that outside of the two critical saves, the sensors also provided insightful info into areas of the building more impacted by the cold temperatures.
"This technology was great for peace of mind. I could leave the site knowing if anything
was to happen off-hours, we would get an alert and could resolve the issue before it worsened," shared Eric, the Project Superintendent.
Project Details
Devices deployed: 17 leak detection and temperature monitoring sensors with 2 network gateways.
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