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Infrastructure In Decline

In comparison to the rest of the world, most American buildings are really not that old.  Even in our earliest Eastern coastal cities like New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, the overwhelming majority of our commercial office buildings were constructed post World War Two.

Not until the invention of steel beams and elevators in the late 1850s did many structures ever reach beyond seven floors.  CFC based air conditioning, which finally introduced comfort to the workplace, only started being installed at high rise office buildings and other commercial properties in the early 1950s.

According to various New York City real estate authorities, the average Midtown-North commercial office building is just 70 years old.  The average Midtown-South office building is far older at 105, and for Downtown, the average age is 76 years.

• Former Standards

Without question, our older structures have held up exceptionally well over time.  In terms of piping alone, the much higher quality and inherent corrosion resistance of older pipe, heavier pipe schedules, superior joining methods, more effective corrosion control, and the overall greater durability common to earlier building design and construction, has allowed such “senior” properties to easily reach this day.

For older buildings, sanitary waste, vent, and storm drain pipe was almost exclusively extra heavy bell and socket cast iron or extra heavy galvanized steel.  Condenser water pipe was welded extra heavy ASTM seamless A53 carbon steel, with many systems constructed using nearly indestructible ASTM A72 wrought iron.  Highest quality pipe from Bethlehem Steel or Youngstown virtually guaranteed extended service.

Domestic water service at 1920s buildings in America’s Capitol, New York City, and Philadelphia was often provided by no longer manufactured TP – a superior quality threadless copper pipe silver soldered together.  Older galvanized steel pipe had such a heavy layer of zinc protection that it could actually be carved using a sharp blade.  High quality red brass served the rest and would easily last over a century.

All steam and steam condensate service was extra heavy; commonly installed using superior wrought iron.  Fire sprinkler pipe was often extra heavy where installed using wrought iron, or at the very least standard or schedule 40. Galvanized steel pipe was commonly used for fire service due to its reputation for longevity.

• Inevitable Deterioration

Yet as we are all too well aware, age always takes its toll.  As America’s roads, bridges, tunnels, and underground piping infrastructure age, so have the many piping systems critical to all building operations.

For those individuals tasked with operating and maintaining a commercial property, the deterioration of its piping systems is generally understood to be inevitable.  But for many others within the industry, and especially newer workers, the realization that one or more piping systems have reached the natural end of their useful service life always arrives as a major, unexpected shock.

Even for properties of 75 years of age and older, news that the sanitary waste lines, storm drains, fire sprinkler, domestic water lines, or HVAC related pipe require replacement is difficult for many to grasp.  That pipe should last forever remains a surprising yet common misunderstanding for many within the building industry.

• No Future Guarantee

But what if building piping systems didn’t last as long? Suppose sanitary waste pipe lasted only 20 years instead of 85, or if condenser water systems provided 15 years of service rather than 60? What if replacing pipe that lasted 70 years again failed in just 20, and if pipe replacement were a constantly recurring event?

In fact, multiple issues, not widely known but which we have well documented through our 29 years of ultrasonic based piping investigations, are already having a major negative impact to the building industry.  Issues such as:

• Lower Pipe Quality
• Inaccurate Corrosion Monitoring
• Heavily Recycled Pipe
• Pipe Manufactured Undersized
• Foreign Produced Pipe
• Greater Corrosion Susceptibility
• ERW Rather Than Seamless Pipe
• Poor Quality Galvanized Pipe
• Thinner Pipe Schedules
• Less Effective Corrosion Control
• Piping Designs Favoring Corrosion
• “Green” Demands

While each individual issue has been shown to reduce system service life, it is typically the combination of multiple elements of change which produce the most devastating losses.  And of all such factors, the much lower quality and greater corrosion susceptibility of all piping materials has produced the most significant negative impact.

• Declining Service

Our ultrasonic investigations routinely provide not only evidence to the superior quality of older pipe, but a clear warning to newer building property owners and operators of changes in the industry they have yet to experience.

Consistently throughout hundreds of ultrasonic investigation where new and older pipe co-exist within the same system, we have identified substantially higher corrosion levels and lower service life for any newer pipe.  For example:

• Inaccurate Forecasting

Today, any due diligence engineering assessment of a building, either for acquisition, to define its status, or to plan future budgets, is likely to be based upon published service life estimates.  This includes everything from chillers to fan units, starter panels to motors and pumps, and of course – piping.

Unlike motors, where years of service will have occurred under more or less uniform conditions, the life span of building services pipe fluctuates widely, and will vary dependent upon many unknown factors.  For that reason, most formally recognized “life cycle estimates” for pipe are out of touch with reality and substantially in error.

Service life estimates for piping systems do not address its maintenance history or lack thereof, corrosion control effectiveness, design vulnerabilities, filtration, methods of construction, pipe schedule, and especially – the quality of pipe itself.  Just a brief absence of chemical water treatment, as many property owners are now realizing after a year or even a few months of Covid hysteria induced building dormancy, can be disastrous.  The inherent gross inaccuracy of corrosion coupons, “the standard of the industry” upon which the health of all piping systems are evaluated, prove to be even more worthless as buildings age.

For some anxious clients having been informed that one or more piping systems required replacement based upon their MEP life cycle assessment, our ultrasonic investigations have proven decades of additional life.  Yet to others assured that their new building acquisition was sound based upon coupon results and the same due diligence reports, multiple failures and the subsequent need to replace one or more entire piping system have produced shock waves.

Unknown to most property owners, virtually all such assessments and the tens of millions of dollars in potential pipe replacement costs at stake are based solely upon age verses the length of service estimates that older piping systems always provided.

• But No More

While the reasonable expectation would be that replacing a condenser water system with new pipe will provide another 65 years of service equal to the original system, the life of any new pipe installed is unlikely to last even half that long.  Yet, as more and more dramatic examples surface of new and replaced pipe failing in record time, the building industry has remained essentially oblivious to this reality.

• Delayed Actions

Adding to the lack of awareness of this problem is the fact that building engineers and property managers rarely look for trouble.  Rather than investigating further, initial pipe failures are most often just patched or repaired; preferably assumed to be an anomaly or isolated event.  Not until the frequency of such failures becomes too difficult to handle years later, or after a catastrophic event occurs, do most inquiries begin.

Next, the tremendous costs associated with pipe replacement either scale back the project, or reinstate patching and repairing the pipe as it fails.  Returning to the “run to failure” maintenance mode for motors and V-belts may be acceptable, but for a pressurize piping system capable of destroying multiple floors and causing millions in damage, delayed repair actions can, and have had, career changing consequences.

• More Than Just Pipe

Given that heavily recycled steel, copper, brass, cast, and ductile iron are all used in the production of most other HVAC components, higher failure rates are now appearing.

Accelerated corrosion at steel body valves interfere with their functioning.  Brass valves and other brass fittings have such high concentrations of cheaper zinc, leading to accelerated dezincification, that they appear to be made of gold.  The coating applied to some galvanized steel pipe is so thin and so poorly bonded, that safety glasses are required when rolling the groove in order to protect one’s eyes against flying shards of razor sharp zinc.

While the greater corrosion susceptibility of today’s pipe seems unavoidable, further self-inflicted changes in terms of design and execution have further elevated the threat to future building operations.

Ultra thinwall Schedule 7 and threaded Schedule 10 pipe are now approved for the fire industry.  LEED credits elevating a building’s stature are rewarded for the installation of thinner pipe products since less energy is required to manufacture them; the lower production costs for lesser quality foreign pipe providing an even greater incentive.

Higher flow rates due to the larger I.D. of Schedule 7 pipe, in turn allowing a reduction in pipe diameter as well as lower shipping costs, are heavily promoted and accepted – all at the expense of a thinner pipe wall just one credit card thickness away from failure.  An entire industry exists to shave costs from any piping installation by securing low cost products from every corner of the globe. “Value engineering” then finds additional cost savings through material and equipment substitutions or deletions which are eagerly adopted.

• Green Influences

Unproven and highly questionable new technologies for corrosion control are quickly accepted due to today’s green vilification of all chemicals.  Higher corrosion activity is simply addressed by raising the level of what is acceptable.  Energy saving variable speed pumps facilitate the settlement of rust; producing the most damaging high pitting conditions for others to inevitably face years later.  Although increasing a building’s green status, collecting rainwater for the cooling tower system will accelerate its destruction.

Changes in pipe construction are promoted as superior when the only true benefit is lower cost.  Pressed fittings allow far lesser skilled workers to install copper pipe without setting the building ablaze.

• Retirement

Traditionally, retirement in the HVAC field has meant the natural end of reliable service for any piping system component.  Yet again, that meaning has also changed.

Today’s frequent turnover of properties discourages aggressive maintenance or long lasting repairs; ignored threats and vulnerabilities becoming the next owner’s problem.  Many building operators openly acknowledge their sole objective being to extend the retirement date of their piping systems to just beyond their own.  And like everywhere else, work ethics have plummeted.  The appearance of doing something seems to have become far more important than doing the right thing.  And with barely 25% office space occupancy amidst a declining economy, where are the funds?

The most knowledgeable and skilled building engineers and property managers are leaving; replaced with those who have never actually gotten their hands dirty inside an MER.  “Diversity” forced hiring quotas now override the experience, skill, and qualifications of those capable of maintaining an aging building piping infrastructure.

Unlike older buildings which are simply running out of time, newer property owners are learning that corrosion and the physical laws of nature do not bow to “political correctness.” And for those faced with the need to replace multiple piping systems at the same time, at multi-millions each, yet providing far less longevity, there will be the sudden and overwhelming realization that such properties may actually be:

UNFIXABLE

You can view and download our two page handout on this subject below.

© Copyright 2023 – William P. Duncan, CorrView International, LLC