Board member Lee Berman has provided a few more details about the emergency repair of the laundry room in building 4.
Apparently the first sign of trouble was raw sewage leaking into the pump room. The leak was traced back to pipes underneath the laundry room. After excavation was started, it was revealed that leaking sewage had washed away some of the sand and earth supporting the laundry room’s reinforced concrete floor, necessitating its replacement.
According to Lee, the board was recently informed that the cost of repair will be north of $200,000.
So far unknown is whether sewer pipes under any of the other three buildings are suffering from the same problem.
When sewer pipes enter their seventh decade of use, this is what they look like.
A view of the inside of building 4’s laundry room.
The question is now, can preventative maintenance in the other three buildings save money in the long run? Or is sitting back and waiting for another sink hole to open up our only real option?
Because if the sewer pipes look like this under building 4, they probably don’t look much different under buildings 1, 2, and 3.
Who’s next?
The strategy at East River for years has been to keep maintenance as low as possible. That’s an admirable goal, keeping this corner of Manhattan livable and affordable for families old and new. The cost of major upgrades and repairs — like the boiler room and local law 11 facade work — has been added to our underlying mortgage through interest-only loans in order to protect current cooperators from higher monthly fees and assessments. (This is a not uncommon strategy.)
Recently it was revealed that the coop is seeking a $5 million line of credit for anticipated repairs and maintenance, so there’s no indication that the current board has any interest in changing course.
The coop also maintains no reserve fund for unanticipated repairs, and has not conducted any study of the costs of future repairs and maintenance. Which means it should not actually be a surprise when the 60-year-old laundry room turns into a money pit.
Earlier this week, management emailed an update to cooperators in building 4 with apologies for the inconvenience, closing with: “This job has been very difficult and very hard to estimate because we did not know what we would find when we started digging.”
Here’s an update from management on the mess in building 4:
May 11, 2015
TO: EAST RIVER HOUSING COOPERATORS
BUILDING 4
473/475/477 FDR DRIVE
K / L / M – SECTIONS
FROM: HAROLD JACOB, GENERAL MANAGER
RE: DRAIN LINE REPAIR UPDATE
Dear East River Cooperators:
Unfortunately the job is not going as fast as I had wished. We were supposed to start pouring concrete tomorrow and finish it by Wednesday, but we have found another piece of concrete floor cracked, four feet by eight feet.
Therefore, we have to take out that piece of concrete floor, which will be done tomorrow and Wednesday.
I am hoping to pour new concrete on Thursday and Friday. Then we will have to wait for the concrete to dry before we put down new tiles. Only when they dry we will be able to re-connect the washing machines.
I believe that the most optimistic time for the laundry room to be re-open is the weekend of May 22-24.
This job has been very difficult and very hard to estimate because we did not know what we would find when we started digging.
Earlier this week, the laundry room in building 4 (sections K, L, and M) was closed due to an underground leak. A notice said that cooperators should expect the room to be closed for the week. This afternoon, management sent an email to cooperators in building 4 to say that the work needed is more extensive than originally anticipated:
April 30, 2015
FROM: HAROLD JACOB, GENERAL MANAGER
RE: LAUNDRY ROOM SHUTDOWN UPDATE
WATER SHUTDOWN NEEDED ON 5/5/15
Dear East River Cooperators:
Last week I sent out a memo in which I notified you that the laundry will be closed for one week because the main 15″ drain line was cracked inside and outside the building. When we dug up the line inside the building we found that all six drain lines in the laundry room and in the floor drains were broken.
These lines are connected to the washing machines and the sinks of the apartments above, so we had to dig up the entire laundry room to replace all of them. In the meantime, you can use the laundry rooms in other buildings. The job went from one leak to nine leaks. These pipes are around 60 years old.
Unfortunately, we will not be able to reopen the laundry room for at least another two weeks because after having repaired the pipes we must replace all the sand, pour the concrete and wait for the concrete to dry.
The building will also need a full water shutdown on Tuesday, May 5, from 8:30A.M. to 8:30P.M., because we must empty the drain lines before we replace them.
I am sorry for this major inconvenience but I could have not anticipated what the problem would be until we exposed each of the lines. I want to make sure that we will not have to revisit the issue. Therefore, all the underground lines must be replaced.
Again, I am truly sorry.
If I may add just a bit of editorializing:
A burst pipe is no one’s fault, and it’s not uncommon, in the course of fixing one problem, to uncover more problems that need to be addressed. But to say that no one could have anticipated the nature of the problem is odd when the problem was just identified two paragraphs above: “These pipes are around 60 years old.”
The coop’s annual financial report routinely includes a note by the auditors that East River has not conducted any study of the costs of future repairs and replacements. When asked specifically at last year’s annual meeting about the buildings’ elevators and roofs (which are beyond their expected lifecycle already) and the 60-year-old plumbing, General Manager Harold Jacob answered that he anticipated nothing beyond normal upkeep over the next 10 years.
TO: All Residents
FROM: SHULIE WOLLMAN
RE: Laundry Rooms Closed
Due to problem this morning in the boiler room, we are forced to close our laundry rooms in the entire complex. We are workling on the problem and will advise as soon as possible.
We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your understanding.
At 5:45 this morning, management sent out the following email:
Please be advised that the Boiler Room is having and electrical problem with the boilers. The crews are in and working on this problem.
We apologize for this inconvenience.
Less than an hour later, this update:
We have repaired the electrical problem in the Boiler Room and the steam and hot water is starting to flow everybody should have heat and hot water by 8:30.
Again we apologize for this inconvenience.
And then another update at 8:15:
As said in my prior email everything has been completed and we are pushing the steam slowly so we do not overload the system. We will then be pushing out the hot water. By 11:00 we will be in full operation with the steam and hot water.
TO: East River Housing Corporation
453 – 455 – 457 FDR Drive (A/B/C-Sections)
573 – 575 – 577 Grand Street (D/E/F-Sections)
FROM: Harold Jacob, General Manager
RE: WATER SHUTDOWN TOMORROW
As we notified you earlier, there will be a water shutdown TOMORROW, October 23, 2014, from 9 a.m. till 4 p.m. due to the installation of backflow preventers, which is an NYC requirement.
We will keep you updated.
Sorry for this inconvenience and thank you for your understanding.
Does your shower have lousy pressure? Do you have a hard time washing your dishes with the slow flow in your kitchen? There may not be anything maintenance can do about it, no matter how many times you submit a request. But you can probably fix the problem all by yourself.
Most modern fixtures have an aerator — a tiny screen — in the faucet or showerhead that can get clogged up with rust and other sediment that flows through our old pipes. In particular, any time the water in your line is shut down for any part of a day, when it comes back on it’s likely to bring a lot of junk up with it.
Before
After
You can usually remove the head with a simple groove-joint pliers, though it’s a good idea to first wrap some masking tape around the fixture so you don’t scratch it. Inside you’ll find a screen, possibly housed with an O-ring. Pop this stuff out with a paperclip and try not to bend the screen at all. You can clean the screen by pushing water through it the opposite way, or brushing with an old toothbrush. Put the parts back just the way you found them, and you’ll feel like you just bought yourself a new faucet!
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the courtyard …
Dear East River Residents,
As you may have seen, we are digging up the park between Building’s 3 & 4. This is to repair a series of leaks within our return condensate line as it is affecting our overall system efficiency.
Therefore, as a part of the Boiler Room upgrade we will replace these condensate lines, which returns water from the steam lines to the Boiler Room. This work will take a number of weeks, and we have started now in order to complete the project in time for spring planting.
TO: East River Housing Cooperators Buildings 1 & 2
FROM: Shulie Wollman
RE: Local Law 11 Project
PLEASE BE ADVISED, work on your buildings (1 & 2) detailing the Local Law 11 Project has begun. The park between these buildings will remain open until further notice. Cooperators are advised to keep their windows closed and shades drawn during the day when work is underway. Cooperators with terraces or balconies are asked to move any furniture or plants away from the railings on the exposed side.
We will continue to keep you updated as work proceeds.
Thank you for your understanding.
Do you have any good pictures of ongoing Local Law 11 work? Please share below.
