aachor Posted August 14, 2022 Share Posted August 14, 2022 I wonder if it's nothing more than a water main busted under a basic slab floor due to subsidence outside the building (this drought has been wreaking havoc on the city's roads and pipes). If there was no easy way for the water pressure to be relieved, it could exert several thousand pounds of upward pressure on that floor slab. All of the sand in the video would seem to indicate that the slab is just sitting on a supporting graded sand base and is not likely designed to support multiple tons of unsupported pressure. Hopefully they got the water main shut off quickly. If they did, I wonder if the damage is minimal- limited to an interior floating floor slab and interior partition walls. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkultra25 Posted August 14, 2022 Share Posted August 14, 2022 On 8/12/2022 at 9:01 PM, BEES?! said: Edit- there are videos from inside and they are nuts. They’re on Instagram (which I don’t have an account on, but I’m trying to see if I can archive them?) Picuki is a pretty handy tool to browse Instagram profiles with if you don't have an account. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BEES?! Posted August 15, 2022 Share Posted August 15, 2022 16 hours ago, mkultra25 said: Picuki is a pretty handy tool to browse Instagram profiles with if you don't have an account. Thank you for that. You’re awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hindesky Posted August 15, 2022 Share Posted August 15, 2022 First OnSite and ServPro are both on site trying to fix the problems. Guard blocking the entrance and saw a few people that were allowed in to remove belongings. https://firstonsite.com https://www.servpro.com 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hindesky Posted August 15, 2022 Share Posted August 15, 2022 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hindesky Posted August 16, 2022 Share Posted August 16, 2022 "The residents of a Houston high rise that closed last week after a major water leak have been told to prepare themselves for a "long-term evacuation", according to Houston Public Works." https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Residents-of-closed-Houston-high-rise-told-to-17375610.php 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hindesky Posted August 17, 2022 Share Posted August 17, 2022 The Royalton at River Oaks high-rise, where its residents have been kept out of since last August 11, fired back at reports that the City of Houston pulled its occupancy permit, stressing that "at no time was the building's structural integrity compromised." https://houston.culturemap.com/news/city-life/08-17-22-river-oaks-luxury-high-rise-representatives-fire-back-at-inaccurate-reporting-of-structural-integrity-concerns/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted August 17, 2022 Share Posted August 17, 2022 On 8/15/2022 at 2:32 PM, hindesky said: When there's a truck with a 20-foot-long "DISASTER RECOVERY TEAM" outside your home, it kind of makes all of the "Everything is fine!" claims look like the Iraqi Minister of Information. 1 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aachor Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 From Wednesday: Quote The Royalton released the following statement: Early evening on Thursday, August 11th, one of Houston’s premier residential buildings, The Royalton at River Oaks, located at 3333 Allen Parkway, sustained a water damage event that started under the floor of the back lobby. From what we have been able to ascertain from engineering experts, a burst underground fire standpipe caused damage to the fire safety system. After the Houston Fire Department initially assessed the situation and decided to evacuate the building, within hours the Royalton had engaged a globally respected engineering and architectural firm, Wiss, Janney Elstner Associates (WJE). By Friday morning on August 12th, WJE had completed a preliminary assessment and declared the building to be structurally sound. A burst standpipe on its own is plenty reason to evacuate the building. Likely their fire suppression and alarm system will have to be recertified before the building can be occupied. https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2022/08/12/suspected-pipe-burst-prompts-evacuation-at-high-rise-condo-in-river-oaks-officials-say/ 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aachor Posted August 24, 2022 Share Posted August 24, 2022 On 8/22/2022 at 2:54 PM, aachor said: A burst standpipe on its own is plenty reason to evacuate the building. Likely their fire suppression and alarm system will have to be recertified before the building can be occupied. It's no wonder that there was a busted floor. Given the design requirements for standpipe systems, it's easy to imagine that standpipe would exert well over 14,000 pounds per square foot of hydraulic pressure (assuming no other easy outlet for that pressure) on the underside of the floor. It's also easy to imagine pressures multiple times higher than that. Nothing that is not already designed as a pressure vessel is going to provide the least amount of resistance. The main limiting factor is going to be flow rate. But, looking through NFPA requirements, I don't think that's going to be a factor in any confined space. I still think that maybe this could have been caused by soil subsidence on the exterior of the building. Shr.Technical.Rar.110.pdf 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff8201 Posted August 24, 2022 Share Posted August 24, 2022 On 8/22/2022 at 2:54 PM, aachor said: From Wednesday: A burst standpipe on its own is plenty reason to evacuate the building. Likely their fire suppression and alarm system will have to be recertified before the building can be occupied. https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2022/08/12/suspected-pipe-burst-prompts-evacuation-at-high-rise-condo-in-river-oaks-officials-say/ Thanks for the info! Does the Royalton have no basement so the standpipe runs under the slab of the first floor (which I presume sits on deep footings) off the fire pump? If so, I wonder why the builder elected to run the pipe under the floor and not through the ceiling of the first level? Last time I was in this building was 2005 so it’s been a while, I thought they did have a basement for mechanical. The break in that standpipe should have triggered the fire pump to turn on, along with flow switches indicating to the front desk and fire department water flow and a potential fire. The pump run would have increased the pressure under the floor even more. This should have occurred just prior or simultaneously to the break in the floor and the water flooding. I would assume while their wet pipe fire suppression system is crippled, that their alarm system would be working fine. Typically a building would implement a fire watch consisting of multiple people walking the building on shifts with 24/7 coverage. This is critical during an alarm outage. The loss of sprinklers and fire hose connections do not seem like reason enough to evacuate the entire building for a month or more, so what’s missing? Sprinklers in a condo with privately owned units are required in common area only. Lease properties are different where they do have to be in each unit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aachor Posted August 24, 2022 Share Posted August 24, 2022 4 hours ago, Geoff8201 said: Does the Royalton have no basement so the standpipe runs under the slab of the first floor (which I presume sits on deep footings) off the fire pump? If so, I wonder why the builder elected to run the pipe under the floor and not through the ceiling of the first level? It does seem odd to me. Though, it is the only thing that I can think of to explain the ridiculous amount of sand that came up with the water in the video that's going around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hindesky Posted August 29, 2022 Share Posted August 29, 2022 "A water leak that prompted the evacuation of a 33-story high-rise in Houston was caused by an underground utility line break. The subsequent damage from flooding, including a heaved area of slab, did not appear to compromise the 18-year-old building’s structural capacity, according to an independent engineer’s report. Still, the 253-unit building will remain empty of residents until repairs are made." https://www.enr.com/articles/54671-after-houston-high-rise-evacuation-engineers-find-structure-intact 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BEES?! Posted August 29, 2022 Share Posted August 29, 2022 I hope they’ll be able to fix it and people will be able to go home. It sucks having to be forced out of your home- I know it all too well. I’m so glad it doesn’t sound like there’s structural integrity concerns here. I was scared for a Surfside, FL collapse situation unfolding. (When it happened I was really spooked by it) I’m glad that everyone was promptly evacuated and it wasn’t worse. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hindesky Posted October 5, 2022 Share Posted October 5, 2022 "Almost two months after residents had to be evacuated from a well-known Houston high-rise due to possible structural issues, the city of Houston allowed some of them to move back into their units." https://abc13.com/the-royalton-at-river-oaks-residents-allowed-back-in-houston-luxury-high-rise-structure-issues-allen-parkway-condominium/12295100/ 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross Posted October 5, 2022 Share Posted October 5, 2022 11 hours ago, hindesky said: "Almost two months after residents had to be evacuated from a well-known Houston high-rise due to possible structural issues, the city of Houston allowed some of them to move back into their units." https://abc13.com/the-royalton-at-river-oaks-residents-allowed-back-in-houston-luxury-high-rise-structure-issues-allen-parkway-condominium/12295100/ The story says the Permitting Center is waiting for an asbestos report. That sounds strange, since the building isn't old enough to have had any asbestos used during construction. I wonder what is driving that testing. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BEES?! Posted October 6, 2022 Share Posted October 6, 2022 Unless it’s a boilerplate test that they make everyone do for one reason or another. But I’m not at all familiar with this process and am just spitballing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston19514 Posted October 6, 2022 Share Posted October 6, 2022 Keep in mind, with Houston media, there's a reasonably good chance they misunderstood it/misreported it. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToolMan Posted October 7, 2022 Share Posted October 7, 2022 (edited) They did misreport. People couldn't stay because the plumbing wasn't up to fire code after the pipe burst. Edited October 7, 2022 by ToolMan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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