January 2025
Water problems are no surprise to high-rise building residents or insurance companies.
Damage arising from water is rapid and expensive. Insurance premiums and deductibles have increased to cover these costs. Newer buildings are now being fitted with technologies to reduce if not eliminate this growing source of damage in high-rise communities.
Faulty gaskets in one building flooded 17 units. A frozen pipe bursting in another flooded 15 floors of a 41-storey building forcing hundreds of people to move out for weeks. In Emerald Park condominiums, a burst water pipe on the 42nd floor made units from the 25th to the 42nd floor uninhabitable. More than 200 units were damaged. More than a year later problems had not been fully resolved. The new insurance deductible for Emerald Park condominiums was increased to $250,000.
The main problem is pressure in pipes. City water pressure brings cold water up to about the seventh floor. Booster pumps are required to provide water to higher floors. Pipes containing fast flowing water become highly pressurized. Even the smallest of breaks can cause millions of dollars of damage in minutes. Even without breaks in pipes, high pressure causes pinhole leaks to occur that need to be found and plugged. Deterioration starts on the inside of a pipe and works its way to the outside making advance detection of problems, which can occur as early as five years from installation, unlikely. A portion of pipe becomes so thin that a small stream of water is released – a pinhole leak. A single pinhole leak is rare. More likely is that many more pinhole leaks exist and have gone unnoticed, and that more pinhole leaks may soon arise.
The majority of water damage claims are not arising from pipe breaks and leaks. They come from in-unit problems such as sink plumbing failures, washing machine overflows, and heating or cooling units that use water.
When water escapes water pipes, the two main problems are mould and structural damage. Building materials have to be dried or replaced. Undetected sitting water leads to rusting of metal behind walls and mould growth.
Over 60 percent of water damage claims could be mitigated or prevented according to a Zurich Insurance Claim Study.
Newer buildings, those built in the past five years, have a higher frequency of water damage due to the quality of materials, installation or workmanship. A 2020 British Columbia survey of strata properties concluded that the value of claims in buildings less than five years old was higher than in older buildings. The majority of the claims were for water damage – “plumbing leaks and failures” – which represented more than 56 per cent of the total value of claims. In 2020, insurance deductibles increased by 124 percent in high-rise buildings, and 135 percent in condominiums. This is in addition to increases in insurance premiums.
Raising insurance premiums and deductibles is having the desired effect of pushing smaller claims off the books of insurance companies. Unit owners and residents are directly paying repair and replacement costs rather than filing smaller claims.
Communities are implementing building-wide mitigation measures which involve Identifying leaks and moisture problems sooner, and repairing leaks to prevent ongoing problems. At one time the only solution for dealing with pinhole leaks was to cut away and replace damaged pipe. Today, a majority of pinhole leaks can be prevented using what is called thin-film technology. A coating is placed into pipes that protects the metal by creating a protective barrier. Properly maintained, the life expectancy of most pipes is increased. Building audits are identifying units with water leaks and those using less-reliable flexible piping. Unit owners not addressing problems can find they bear greater financial responsibility for water problems that are considered avoidable. An increasing number of communities, and individual unit owners, are placing water sensors in higher-risk areas that send an electronic notification when moisture is detected.
While water problems will never fully disappear, they can be controlled to ensure that those which do occur are quickly resolved without causing damage.
