Who’s Watching the Water? How Smart Water Protection Helps Protect Multifamily Properties 24/7

Property managers spend a great deal of time thinking about who is coming into a building, what is happening in common areas, and how quickly someone can respond when something goes wrong.

But what about the water?

A small leak behind a toilet, beneath a sink, near a water heater, or inside an unoccupied residence can become a major problem before anyone knows it is there. And in a condominium or multifamily building, water rarely respects property lines. A problem in one residence can quickly affect the units below it, common areas, building operations, and other residents.

That is why VirCierge is expanding its approach to property protection with intelligent water monitoring and automatic shutoff capabilities.

Water Damage Is More Than a Maintenance Problem

Water damage can be particularly challenging in high-rise and multifamily properties because of the potential ripple effect.

The materials supporting VirCierge’s new water-protection offering cite $13 billion in annual U.S. property insurance losses from non-weather water damage. They also report that 52% of commercial and residential buildings experience at least one leak per month and that water damage claims exceeding $50,000 have doubled since 2015.

For property managers and boards, the potential costs extend beyond repairing a pipe or replacing drywall. A significant water event can mean remediation, displaced residents, damaged common areas, unavailable amenities, insurance claims, resident complaints, and operational disruption.

Repeated water-loss claims can also contribute to increasing insurance premiums or deductibles and may affect a property's insurance options.

Detection Is Good. Stopping the Water Is Better.

Traditional leak detectors can alert someone that water is present.

VirCierge’s intelligent water protection takes the concept further. It monitors for both the presence of water and unexpected water flow.

Sensors can be strategically placed in high-risk locations throughout residences and common areas, including beneath sinks, behind toilets, and near water heaters. If water is detected where it should not be, the system can communicate with the central gateway and, when configured to do so, automatically shut off the water supply to the affected area or residence.

But physical water detection is only part of the equation. The system can also monitor water flow and identify unexpected or abnormal usage. For example, continuous or unusual water flow may indicate a leak even before water reaches a sensor. Based on the property’s configuration and selected thresholds, the system can send notifications and even trigger an automatic shutoff valve when that unexpected flow is detected. 

Alerts can also be sent to residents and property management, helping everyone respond quickly.

Instead of discovering a leak after water has been flowing for hours, the goal is to identify an unexpected water event and stop the flow within seconds.

An Especially Important Safeguard for Seasonal Residents

For communities with seasonal residents, water protection takes on even greater importance.

Consider a resident who leaves for Florida for the winter, spends the summer elsewhere, or regularly travels for weeks at a time. Their residence may look perfectly secure from the hallway while a leak develops inside.

Nobody is there to hear running water. Nobody notices the puddle spreading across the floor. By the time water appears in the unit below, significant damage may already have occurred.

24/7 intelligent water monitoring provides another set of eyes on the property even when the resident is hundreds or thousands of miles away.

That can provide valuable peace of mind for the resident and an additional layer of protection for the association and neighboring residences.

Designed Around Your Property

Just as every VirCierge concierge and surveillance solution is designed around the needs of the individual property, water protection should not be one-size-fits-all.

VirCierge can develop a water-sensor and flow meter placement plan based on the property's floor plans, identifying appropriate locations for coverage. Depending upon the application, the solution can incorporate wireless or wired sensors, gateways, automatic flow-control valves, and water-flow monitoring.

The result is a system designed to detect problems where they are most likely to occur and respond when they do.

One More Way VirCierge Helps Watch Over Your Property

VirCierge has always combined people and technology to help multifamily properties improve security, access, resident service, surveillance, and incident response.

Intelligent water protection is a natural extension of that approach.

Because protecting a property is not only about watching who comes through the front door.

It is also about identifying the problems residents and property managers cannot see and responding before a small incident becomes a very expensive one.

Interested in adding intelligent water protection to your property? Contact VirCierge to learn how a customized water monitoring and automatic shutoff solution could work for your community.