The cause of this whole miserable story was the hidden, waterlogged steel expansion
tank that was concealed above the sheet rock. It appears the tank had been installed
incorrectly ever since the boiler was replaced.
The relief valve would constantly
dump water onto the floor every
time the boiler fired. He was tired of
mopping up the water and built the
“drainage system” that emptied into
a floor drain. When the boiler turned
off, the pressure in the system would
drop. This caused the PRV to feed
gallons of make-up water back into
the system. Unfortunately after a
few of these cycles, the minerals
from the raw make-up water came
out of solution and gathered on the
PRV’s seat, causing it to become
plugged and then fail. Next came
numerous phone calls to the management
company from the upper
floor tenants complaining of being
too cold. Of course, where there is
no water, there is no heat! To solve
this problem, the janitor would then
replace the “old” pressure-reducing
valve with a brand new one. This
continued throughout the entire
heating season.
The cause of this whole miserable
story was the hidden, waterlogged
steel expansion tank that was
concealed above the sheet rock. It
appears the tank had been installed
incorrectly ever since the boiler was
replaced. The janitor had access to
the tank and he would just drain it
down every time it became waterlogged.
Once the new ceiling went
up and covered the tank, the problems
multiplied. Instead of solving
the real issue of why the tank was
waterlogging in the first place, the
janitor just did what he could, which
was to build a “drainage system.”
Both of these problems shouldn’t
have happened. The information is
readily available; just take the time
to ask! ICM
If you have any questions or comments,
e-mail gcarey@fiainc.com, call
me at (800) 423-7187 or follow me on
Twitter at @Ask_Gcarey.
ICM/November/December 2017 15