About
Address: New York – Presbyterian Helmsley Medical Tower, 1320 York Avenue, New York, NY
Building Type: Institutional
Location: Oil Tank Room
Substrate: Concrete
Client: New York – Presbyterian (c/o Royal Charter Properties)
The HVAC Room located in the Sub-cellar Level 3C was exhibiting groundwater infiltration for many years. An old oil tank was removed several years ago on the exterior side of the foundation walls.
Unfortunately, there had remained residual oil that had saturated the soil. This oil combined with the groundwater and was seeping through several cracks and joints of the foundation walls. The maintenance people of the facility had inserted several PVC pipes in the wall to have this oily water flow to storage containers and would then dispose of the oily water properly.
Our technicians removed these PVC pipes and closed off the pipe holes with hydraulic cement. As the oily groundwater was constantly active, they adjusted the time for the gel to set at a fast setting time of 5 seconds. The “CGI” waterproofing system was implemented successfully and the oily water leakage was completely eliminated. The “CGI” gel is not affected nor breaks down in the presence of oily water. The foundation walls were subsequently coated with two (2) coats of Thoroseal and the previously oil sludge stained walls are now bright and clean.
The CGI system was also implemented in the adjoining Elevator Machine Room on the same 3C Level. A new hydraulic unit for the 3C level freight elevator car needed to be installed, as the old unit needed replacement and was corroded at its base because of groundwater seepage. However, the groundwater needed to be eliminated before the new unit could be installed. As the facility could not afford to shut down this freight elevator service for an extended period of this, time was of the essence. The old unit was removed and discarded by Otis elevator Co. and our crews worked double shifts and implemented the injection waterproofing successfully, in a timely fashion. Subsequently, the new hydraulic unit was installed in the water-free Elevator Machine Room and the 3C freight car was back in service.
