165 Hotel Room Water Damage
Damages
Late on a Saturday, we received a request for water damage emergency services as a result of a large storm. The initial reports indicated approximately 125 guest rooms on 4 floors, Business Center, Meeting Facility & Storage Rooms were damaged. Water was coming in from the roof and had impacted all 4 floors. Crews were immediately deployed & work began right away and continued around the clock to mitigate the damages. The total cost for the emergency services and restoration was $976,209.
Challenges/Creative Solutions
The hotel did not have anywhere near enough vacant rooms to relocate the affected guests and closing was not an option so work was coordinated to create the least impact possible on existing operations as well as on the guests. The facility did not have a service elevator & only 2 guest elevators which created a challenge for moving all the equipment, material & personnel in & out. We removed windows from the building in order to expedite debris removal & had to protect the landscaping & guests from harm.
We immediately removed all of the textiles in the affected rooms, had them cleaned & stored off site, bringing them back as the rooms were completed.
Demolition was required so we had to arrange for hazardous materials testing to begin immediately. We were able to get a testing laboratory to open on Sunday around midnight to provide us the results right away. With the clearance in hand, the demolition process began which uncovered multiple ceilings. The finished ceiling was drywall, with an acoustic grid ceiling above it and yet another drywall ceiling above that. We had to arrange for the testing to begin immediately on the now visible ceilings and get the laboratory to open up after hours once more.
The amount of equipment needed to dry this job required more electricity than the hotel had available so we brought in a 250 KVW 120/208 3 Phase trailer mounted generator, ran lines & distribution boxes to power our drying equipment.
The original report identified all of the damaged units on the South side of the building, except for 1. Inspection of the surrounding rooms seemed to indicate the damage was isolated to this one unit. Two days later, they identified additional damaged units on the North side of the building on 3 floors.
During the course of the project there were 3 more water intrusions since the hotel hadn’t arranged for corrective repairs yet.
The amount of water in the structure now required for more drastic measures. We decided to bring in 3- 5,500 CFM & 1- 6,000 CFM – Tractor Trailer mounted desiccant units. Two of these units were fueled by propane which were overheating in our August, Phoenix heat. To combat this, we brought in 2 – 10 Ton Portable A/C units to cool them down.
Refueling all our equipment with diesel became a job in of itself. We were bringing in 242 gallons a day to run the equipment and on several occasions had to make additional trips for even more fuel.
Once demolition was completed, we discovered some structural steel that had been compromised over time and worked with the City Building Department and an Engineer to affect repairs. Additionally the City Inspector required fire taping which we performed. The Fire Protection System failed due to the storms requiring a round the clock fire watch until the system could come back online. This prompted an inspection from the Fire Marshall who determined that the measures we put in place were more than adequate along with his history with our company; he didn’t require any further inspections on his part. We received a surprise inspection from the County Air Quality Department who found everything in order and allowed us to continue with our progress.
With all the equipment on site, power cabling & liability potential, we maintained 5 full time police/security officers around the clock.
During all of the work, we had to maintain a clean & functional environment for the hotel guest & staff. We kept the floors protected, power washed walkways & parking lot with a trailer mounted pump twice per week to maintain a welcoming appearance for new guests
Results
The hotel is a part of a chain & customer satisfaction was monitored continuously during the mitigation & restoration process. They were able to maintain satisfactory scores which were critical to them even though Corporate didn’t take their current condition into consideration. With the tremendous amount of equipment & supplies on site at all hours of the day and night, no theft or items were reported missing. Even with all the dangerous conditions, no injuries were reported. We were able to react quickly to the changing conditions of the additional storms, uncovered damages, failed Fire Protection System, City Building Department’s requirements and still keep the project on schedule. We worked on a total of 165 Guest Rooms on 4 floors, Business Center, 200 person Meeting Facility & Storage Rooms. The scope of the work was constantly changing and being adjusted to. The project was fully restored and did not close at any time due to the loss.