Hotel Riser Failure Before a Convention Deadline
At 02:15, a 2 in chilled-water riser coupling fails in a ninth-floor mechanical closet of a 220-room, 14-story select-service hotel. Water reaches 22 guest rooms on floors 8 and 9, the ninth-floor elevator lobby, and 60 ft of corridor. Six rooms were occupied; three guests are relocated. Sixteen rooms are out of service. A 400-attendee convention arrives in 72 hours, and the hotel requires 10 rooms back by then and all 22 within 5 days. You have 8 technicians, 14 air movers, 4 LGR dehumidifiers, and 2 extraction units. Guest corridors must remain open, and one elevator is down, leaving stair access for equipment. Twelve rooms have saturated carpet and pad, six have carpet only, and four have only 12 in of drywall wicking. Water is Category 1. Initial readings show 78°F and 68% RH in affected rooms.
1. Sequence the first 24 hours across rooms, corridor, and elevator lobby, and explain why that order is defensible.
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First 24 hours: stop the leak and verify electrical safety in the mechanical closet; extract standing water from the elevator lobby and 60 ft corridor first because those are egress and guest-safety areas. Post slip warnings and keep one elevator for guest use. In the 12 saturated rooms, extract, remove pad, and float carpet; bag pad and debris. In the 6 carpet-only rooms, extract and determine whether carpet is salvageable. In the 4 drywall-wicking rooms, cut or open the base as needed and dry the cavity. Sequence by floor: stabilize floor 9 lobby and the 10 rooms needed for the convention first, then floor 8, then the remaining rooms. Do not place equipment in corridors unless it can be corded and protected without blocking egress. Set up a staging area at the stairwell because the elevator is down. Document room status, guest relocation, and daily milestones. Keep the 10 convention rooms on a separate completion list so housekeeping can release them only after final moisture readings.
2. Allocate the 14 air movers and 4 LGR dehumidifiers, and justify the allocation with drying logic.
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With 4 LGR dehumidifiers, place 2 per affected floor in a controlled drying zone rather than one per room; use closed doors or temporary poly to concentrate dehumidification, but maintain egress and ventilation. With 14 air movers, prioritize the 10 convention rooms: one air mover per room with directed airflow across wet carpet and up wall bases, plus 2 in the ninth-floor lobby and corridor and 2 in the eighth-floor corridor. That uses 14. The 6 carpet-only and 4 drywall rooms wait for the first rotation, or receive air movers as rooms dry. This is defensible because the saturated carpet and pad rooms have the highest evaporation load; the carpet-only rooms have less water, and the drywall rooms need cavity airflow rather than more surface units. Reassess after 24 hours with moisture readings and psychrometrics. If corridor RH rises above the drying goal or rooms stall, move a dehumidifier or add temporary power before adding more air movers. Reallocating too early to the low-load rooms would delay the convention deadline.
3. Identify two decisions that could cause rework or delay and explain how you would manage them.
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Two rework risks: reopening rooms before carpet backing, pad, and wall base reach the dry standard, and failing to remove pad or open wet wall cavities before drying. The first causes guest complaints and re-cleaning; the second traps water and extends drying. Manage them with a room-release checklist: final moisture readings, visual inspection, no odor, and housekeeping sign-off. A third risk is blocking egress with cords or equipment in the corridor; manage with protected cord ramps and a staging plan. Also, do not let the convention deadline override Category 1 drying logic: if a room is not dry, keep it out of service and move the equipment rather than declare it dry. Hold a 24-hour and 72-hour review with the hotel, and record any customer-directed deviation in writing.