An occupied 12-story commercial building – plus the need to replace nearly all the pipe and fittings – could only call for one thing. Viega ProPress.
A crew from Green Team Services Corporation was brought in to update a large commercial office building in downtown Miami that was full of old galvanized pipe. James Terry, Founder and President of Green Team, said they replaced “every single piece of water pipe in that building,” which includes a restaurant on the first floor.
Built in 1970, much of the mechanical equipment in the 140,000-square-foot building needed an upgrade. The company that had recently purchased the building decided to put in new chillers and replace the domestic water system. But because the building was fully occupied, it made things trickier, meaning Viega was even more attractive as the solution.
Work took about a month and a half in total. There were multiple phases to the job – changing over galvanized pipe to copper and installing new ball valves on each floor. There were multiple low- and high-pressure mains into the building, plus the team put in a new pump skid.
The first phase included running all new 4″ piping in the mechanical room which was in the basement. Terry said his crew spent about three weeks installing new water mains and then came back for a large overnight shutdown.
“We had 11 plumbers for 12 hours, overnight, from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. It was a real marathon!” he said. “It would have been impossible without ProPress. The planning and the logistics that go along with an overnight project like this are huge, and it’s much more efficient to do with Viega.
“There are no surprises with ProPress. You know you have everything you need. I would never have done this job without being able to press. You’re talking over 100 joints in one night. You couldn’t solder that or do it any other way.”
Terry said using ProPress, particularly on the overnight portion of the job, kept the budget down for the client by having labor as low as possible. It also helped the team get the job done efficiently while having as little of an impact on the building’s occupants as possible.
Green Team bid the job with ProPress specified. Terry said they’ve been using Viega for the past decade and can’t imagine using another method.
“It’s the simplest form. I wouldn’t make a domestic water repair that was copper [without ProPress],” he said. “We have so much experience using Viega, and we’re so comfortable with it. The ease of use and the installation process is great – you just go get a couple of boxes of fittings, the press gun, and you’re ready to go.”
Green Team has multiple bins of “emergency” Viega fittings in the most popular types and sizes in its warehouse so that if they have an unexpected shutdown in the middle of the night, they don’t have to depend on their suppliers when it’s 3 a.m. However, Terry noted that Lehman Pipe in Miami has twice been kind enough to open in the middle of the night for the Green Team when they needed some unique parts that weren’t already on hand.
“We work on all kinds of buildings – offices, healthcare, education and hospitality type – and none of them want to wait to have their water on,” Terry said. “For me, Viega means you can get to the next job quicker because you’re getting the job done right the first time, and you know there aren’t going to be any issues.”
