Time is always of the essence on a construction project. And when it’s a big one, time savings really add up.
That’s exactly what Pitt Meadows Plumbing in British Columbia, Canada, is enjoying, thanks to using Viega MegaPressG fittings, up to 4” in size, on a project that includes four towers – 56, 48, 37 and 30 stories tall – all atop a 1.5-million-square-foot parkade and commercial podium. The multi-tower condo project is being constructed around an existing mall, the City of Lougheed, the second-largest shopping center in Burnaby, British Columbia.
By pressing the fittings, Pitt Meadows didn’t need to bring a welder into each high-rise building to construct the gas riser. Plus, the company saved a ton of time by pressing, rather than welding.
“We chose Viega MegaPress and ProPress at our City of Lougheed project largely due to the ease of installation and the associated labor savings,” said Austin Wilson, Project Manager for Pitt Meadows.
“Using MegaPressG on-site eliminates the need to bring a welder to connect the main gas riser to each floor of each tower, and this saves our crews a ton of time. We can press 10 floors of couplings in the time it would take to weld one floor!”
Enough said.
Throughout the condo towers, Pitt Meadows used steel pipe on the hydronic heating system, ranging from ½” to 4” in size, plus gas lines and copper lines in the same range of diameters.
The hydronic system consists of chillers and a cooling tower, as well as boilers, located on the roof of each tower. Branching off the main gas riser to each distribution zone, crews used MegaPress fittings as well as traditional joining methods for parts that were prefabricated off-site. Branches off the main to each suite used MegaPress fittings as well.
“We have a 4” gas main serving the rooftop mechanical rooms, which we connected with MegaPressG,” Wilson said. “The gas distributes both at the top and bottom of each building. We used MegaPress tees on the riser to supply gas to each suite. We also have some horizontal gas mains, which we pressed together on-site with MegaPress fittings, rather than bringing a welder to the site.”
Such a large project understandably includes a lot of piping and fittings. That’s why the crew has prefabricated as much as possible off-site, and Viega press fittings are the perfect companion for this type of work.
“We prefabricate mostly all pipes with fittings above 2 inches,” said Wilson. “We try to reduce the number of joints made on-site. We love to use Viega on distribution pipe for the on-site connections of steel pipes. The vast majority of the Viega fittings being used are for the in-suite steel hydronic risers, as well as the horizontal distribution mains. This project in total will use well upward of 10,000 Viega fittings!”
Pitt Meadows has been using Viega fittings for some time, and the City of Lougheed project was the first in Canada to use 4” MegaPressG fittings, which was exciting for the company (and for Viega).
Work started on the City of Lougheed project in late 2018. With about 65 Pitt Meadows crew members on-site, the company estimates completion in early 2023.
