To fix a decades-old leaky piping system in Seattle’s King County Jail, Auburn Mechanical used Aquatherm’s polypropylene-random (PP-R) pipe systems to combat the aggressive water degrading the existing pipes. Aquatherm’s products not only provided an ideal solution but also cut installation time and cost when compared with copper piping.
The King County Jail houses over 1,000 inmates and employs over 350 people in downtown Seattle. With three towers, each with 20’-high floors, the 385,274-square-foot facility is equivalent to a 17-story building. Built in the mid-1980s, the jail used copper for the distribution system, with 4” and 6” galvanized steel mains distributing water in the sixth floor mechanical rooms. After roughly 11 years, however, the building’s domestic water piping system began leaking.
Stephen Swinburne, architect and project manager for King County’s Facilities Management Division, said the county had been “band-aiding and selectively fixing leaking sections of pipe since the early 1990s.” In 2004, it was clear that a repipe was necessary, but the bids came in too high, and the project was shelved.
‘Hostile’ Water Takes its Toll
In 2009, pipe samples revealed that the hot water recirculating system was in the worst condition, followed by the hot water and cold water, respectively. The county embarked on a massive renovation project that included $3.6 million for repiping. Engineering tests found that the failures in the copper piping stemmed from aggressive water, high water velocity, and potential installation problems. So the ideal pipe system would be rust-, scale-, and corrosion-proof—and easy to install. Relatively new to North America, German-manufactured Aquatherm has been used in plumbing and HVAC applications in more than 70 countries for nearly four decades. Aquatherm’s heat fusion process involves no flames and is virtually leak-proof. The pipe and desired fitting are simply inserted onto an Aquatherm welding device and heated for a specified time (typically only seconds for the smaller sizes), then joined together. At the time of installation, copper prices were at all-time highs, so the PP-R pipe system cost less than soldered or press-fit copper.
The county selected Aquatherm for the project and Auburn Mechanical of Auburn, WA, to install the piping. Founded in 1975, Auburn provides a full range of preconstruction, mechanical, and building services. The firm was well suited to handle the live change-over job where the majority of water lines had to remain active and security was paramount.
Getting Up to Speed on the Job
Auburn’s field foreman, Brent Delvecchio, oversaw the Aquatherm installation, which began in June 2011. Delvecchio specializes in high-rise mechanical installations (typically using galvanized steel and copper), and he knew working with Aquatherm would be a learning experience.
Delvecchio and his staff completed the initial half-day Aquatherm factory-certified training, which is a prerequisite to offering the company’s 10-year, multimillion dollar insurance policy covering product liability, labor, personal injury, and property damage. The Auburn staff then gradually became adept with the fusion process, installing 6” and 8” Aquatherm Greenpipe® cold water mains and 4” hot water mains with 3” risers to all water closets and 1-1/2” to 3/4” branches for supply lines running to the individual cells.
“[Installation] has sped up over the time that we’ve been working with it. You’ve got to learn to work with it. It’s a lot like gas pipe (HDPE), and you can’t work yourself into a corner. You’ve got to plan ahead and learn the tricks,” Delvecchio said.
One such trick for connections in tight spaces is leaving the fitting on the welding iron longer than the pipe, which allows the fitting and pipe to be handled separately. The Auburn staff created some onsite Aquatherm-specific prefabrication stations, which also increased installation speed.
Facing Challenging Conditions
With all work occurring between 7 p.m. and 6:30 a.m., the Auburn staff had to adjust to working in a jail— and always had to be within sight of a jail officer escort. In the confined spaces, there were instances where making the heat fusion connections was challenging. “Working in the jail is like crawling into an attic and going down a long corridor, since the floors are 20’ slab-to-slab, and then you have to cut the ceiling out. You’re completely blocked, and it’s a totally tight space,” said Delvecchio.
“There have been four big water shutdowns on this job,” Delvecchio continued. “The flushometers on the toilets get stuck if you do a big shutdown, and even a 20-second shutdown would foul 80–150 flush valves, because the flakes in the galvanized steel would clog things up considerably. And you don’t want to go into 500 to 600 jail cells to fix all those stuck valves,” Delvecchio said.
Aquatherm Products Preferred
Swinburne said that despite the difficulty of fusing pipe in tight spaces, he is recommending Aquatherm for other county jobs on a case-by-case basis. “It has many benefits over copper and other alternatives,” he noted.
The construction team and county officials have been pleased with the project. Auburn Mechanical Principal Kim Johnson said, “My favorite thing about [Aquatherm] is that if you have a leak, it is not typically going to be a catastrophic leak. It will not completely blow apart because of the way it’s connected. That’s not the case with other types of pipe. We have had only three leaks on this whole project—and they have been because guys didn’t fuse it correctly, but for the most part that doesn’t happen.”
Asked about the pros and cons of Aquatherm, Delvecchio concluded, “It is far superior to other plastic products on the market for water distribution. This is going to revolutionize the commercial industry as we know it.”
For more information, visit www.aquatherm.com.
