Typical project · Quebec and Ontario
Water leak detection tied to the alarm system in a warehouse with offices and a server room
These are typical projects, described from the kind of work we do. They do not describe a named client or a specific building.
The building is empty at night and on weekends, the alarm is monitored, and nobody hears water running. This is how leak sensors and shut-off valves join the existing alarm, so that a leak reaches the same people as a break-in.
The situation: an empty building at night and water that nobody hears
The client is a distribution company with a warehouse, offices on a mezzanine and a small server room under the washrooms of the floor above. The building has an intrusion alarm connected to a monitoring station the company chose, and a short list of people who take turns being on call.
A supply hose gave way on a Friday evening. The water ran all weekend, reached the offices and stopped at the door of the server room by luck. The alarm saw nothing, because nobody broke in. Management now wants water treated like an intrusion: detected, reported to the monitoring station and to the person on call, and stopped where a valve can stop it.
What the walk along the water pipes finds
- Risk points that nobody visitsThe water heater and the backflow preventer sit in a mechanical room that is rarely opened. A supply line crosses the ceiling of the server room.
- An alarm panel with room to growThe intrusion panel has unused zones, or can be extended with a module, and already reports to the monitoring station. Leak alarms can travel the same way.
- Branch lines that close separatelyThe washrooms, the kitchenette and the water heater each have their own branch, so a leak in one place does not cut the water to the whole building.
- A fire protection line left aloneThe line that feeds the fire protection system is identified on the first visit and left outside the project: no leak valve is ever placed on it.
What is designed, and why
The design follows one rule: a leak reaches the same people, by the same path, as a break-in.
- Sensors where water starts and where it does harmSpot sensors under the water heater, beside the backflow preventer, under the sinks and the kitchenette, and a water-sensing cable along the walls of the server room, where water from the ceiling would land.
- Valves on the branches that feed the risk pointsA motorised valve on each branch a sensor protects. The main supply is not closed automatically, and the rule of each zone, close at once or alert only, is set with the client.
- Leak alarms through the alarm panelEach leak zone is wired to its own zone on the intrusion panel, active whether the building is armed or not. The monitoring station receives a water alarm, distinct from an intrusion, with the name of the place.
- A call list made for waterThe station calls, in order, the people the client lists for water alarms, and the same alert reaches their phones. From the first message, the person on call knows where to go and what has already closed.
- The server room covered even when no valve helpsWater coming through the roof or from the floor above cannot be stopped by a valve. The server room sensors raise the alarm anyway, and that time is what matters for the equipment.
How the leak detection is added to a building that keeps working
The warehouse ships every day; the water is cut one branch at a time, at times agreed with the client.
- The zone list and the call list approved
The client approves the plan of sensors and valves, the name of each zone as the monitoring station will read it, and who is called for a water alarm.
- Valves fitted with a plumber
The piping work is coordinated with a plumber, branch by branch: each one is drained, fitted with its valve and put back in service the same day.
- Sensors, wiring and the panel
The sensors and the sensing cable are placed, the controllers are wired to spare zones of the alarm panel, and the zones are named.
- A test with water, up to the monitoring station
Each sensor is tried with water: the valve closes, the panel shows the right zone, and the station receives the water alarm under the right name and calls the right person.
- Staff shown how to reopen
The people on call practise checking the place, reopening the water, resetting the sensor and the zone, and telling the station that all is in order.
What is handed over
- The plan of every sensor, cable and valve, with the name of its zone as it reads at the panel and at the monitoring station
- The rule of each zone: close at once, or alert only
- The record of each test, including the signals received by the monitoring station
- The call list for water alarms, kept with the monitoring details of the alarm
- A one-page procedure after a water alarm: check, reopen, reset
- Administrator access to the leak system and the alarm panel, in the client's name
Services involved
Industry
Other typical projects
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A project like this starts with a walk along the water pipes
Tell us where the water enters the building, what sits under it and how your alarm is monitored today. We walk the pipes with you and look at the alarm panel, then send a quote with the zones, the valves and the call list. We reply in English or French.