The College Club of Cleveland in Cleveland Hts., an historic landmark built in 1903, was designed by Meade & Garfield as a 13,000-sf private home. The 18-room, five-bath clubhouse is today a showplace: an eclectic mixture of Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau elements. And that’s the problem.
Club members had noticed that water service to their commercial-grade kitchen, restrooms and coffee areas had diminished in both quality and quantity. The existing pipes, both copper and galvanized, had extensive corrosion and leakage. Tiring of patching, and of activities interrupted by visits from plumbers, the club called in a plumber. “Our pipes were in very bad shape,” says Bernice Jefferis, president of the club. “The increasing frequency of problems throughout the house forced us to consider a system-wide fix.”
But replacing the water pipes to solve this problem might jeopardize the woodwork, plasterwork and finishes in the building, which include Macintosh-inspired metallic glazed tiles, cherry paneling and blue wreath tiles. Another problem: the club members are active people, and the club needed to stay open to serve their needs. Plus, “the cost of new plumbing was beyond us,” says Jefferis. “Replacing the system also meant cutting into the antique cherry paneling, Art Nouveau tile in the baths and two-foot thick plastered walls.” The plumber who had suggested a pipe replacement then suggested Curaflo.
Curaflo, which started in Vancouver, BC, Canada, in 1996, began by serving the needs of the coastal city’s high rises, which were dealing with the compromised plumbing in that province, caused by its aggressive water quality. But the system worked in other areas as well to solve their particular water problems. The technology is often used in Europe and Japan, as well as by the U.S. military.
Curaflo recently moved its headquarters to Beachwood, OH, just in time to help the College Club meets its needs. The company first set up a command center in the basement, mapping the plumbing for the structure and analyzing the condition of the pipes. “It is like the body’s vascular system,” says Tom Hruby, of the firm’s rehabilitation division. Because the technicians access the pipes through the plumbing fixtures, the building owners avoid mess and reduce costs, and save worktime as well. Curaflo divided the College Club building into two segments and worked on each alternately so that one side would always be in service to members.
Three steps to water
The Curaflo process is a three-step one: Curaflow dries the interior of the pipes using a high heat, and then runs one of two abrasives, depending on whether the pipe is copper or galvanized, through the pipes to remove interior corrosion; the corrosives are collected at the end and disposed of. Finally, a two-part epoxy is run through the pipe to protect it from further damage. The epoxy is mixed on-site and applied through a computer-controlled device for precision application. “It’s a science to determine how much to use,” says Hruby. The total job at College Club took about two weeks, start to finish.
According to Hruby, the technology has been in service for about 50 years with great success, so its eventual lifetime is anybody’s guess, but the Curaflo service has a 10-year warranty.
Curaflo also offers SpinCast for larger water mains, drains and industrial process pipes; the system is similar to that of the commercial market, but a spinning head is used to coat the pipes. Pipes can be reclaimed for use with no excavation through access points at filings and hydrants, with inspection via CCTV The system is being used at Lockheed property’s in Akron. For more, go to www.curaflo.com. BXM