Mechanical Installation, Riser Renewal and Plant Room Refurbishment

How is the work done while people are living there?

Risers are handled one at a time. Main branch connections and valves are replaced in the first stage; after that one or two risers are built per day, so any interruption is limited to the units on that riser and to that line only.

At Pırlanta Göztepe the horizontal and vertical lines were run in parallel; the longest water interruption experienced on site during the whole construction was 2 hours. The building was never left without water, and the work was completed and handed over to the management.

What is used in a cold water riser renewal?

Renewing a riser is not “changing the pipe”; it is rebuilding how the line behaves under pressure. Fitting new pipe in place of old without correcting the pressure balance leaves the upper floors with weak flow and the lower floors with strained fittings — and the same fault returns within a few years.

• Special PPR piping rated to 20 bar — the riser is built with a safety margin far above working pressure. In a high-rise the lower risers work under continuous high pressure; that margin is what prevents fatigue over the years.
• Water distribution manifold renewal — if the point where distribution happens is not renewed, the imbalance stays at its source. The manifold is where the flow to each riser can be set individually.
• Dedicated pressure reducers for balanced distribution between floors — in a high-rise the static pressure difference between lower and upper floors is naturally large. Reducers keep each floor group within its own working range; this is the origin of the “no water upstairs, fittings straining downstairs” complaint.
• Pressure testing at 25 bar — the line is tested well above working pressure. In the test carried out at Pırlanta Göztepe not even the smallest leak was found.

Is “it is not heating” always a boiler problem?

• One flat cold, neighbours warm — an in-flat issue: closed or faulty valve, air in the radiator, blocked filter.
• Upper floors cold along one riser — a balancing issue: unset riser valve, differential pressure valve not working, insufficient pump flow.
• Whole building lukewarm — the plant room: fouled heat exchanger, insufficient boiler capacity, low flow temperature setting.
• Hot water runs out in the evening — hot water capacity: undersized calorifier or exchanger, or a circulation line that is not working.
• The distinction matters because each is a different cost. In buildings where “the boiler is too small” was assumed without measurement and the boiler was replaced, the problem usually continued.