Plumber in NoMad
The stretch north of Madison Square has converted faster than almost anywhere else in Manhattan, and the plumbing is still catching up.
A district that changed use twice
These blocks were a wholesale and millinery quarter, then went quiet for decades, then filled up with hotels, restaurants and residential conversions. Two changes of use on the same buildings, and each one added plumbing on top of what was already there rather than replacing it.
Hotels, and why they are different
NoMad has an unusual concentration of hotel use, and hotel plumbing has its own pattern.
- Simultaneous demand. Everyone showers within the same ninety minutes. A system that copes fine at noon struggles at eight in the morning
- Stacked bathrooms on every floor, so any stack fault presents in a lot of rooms at once
- No tolerance for downtime. A room out of service is revenue lost, which changes the calculation on planned work
- Back of house carrying commercial kitchen and laundry loads on the same building drain as the guest floors
Residential conversions above retail
The apartments here are mostly carved out of upper floors of buildings whose ground and second floors are commercial. That means a residential waste stack running down through a restaurant, and it means the timing of any work has to suit two very different sets of occupants.
What we see most
| Slow branches | Long runs from perimeter fixtures to a core stack, same as the Flatiron blocks to the south |
|---|---|
| Hot water capacity | Plant sized for an earlier use, now serving far more fixtures than it was chosen for. See water heaters |
| Backflow requirements | Hotels and food service generally need protection on the service, and it surfaces during fit-out. See backflow prevention |
| Grease | A dense run of restaurants on the side streets, all putting load through lines that were never intended for it |
Where we cover
Broadway, Fifth and Madison between 25th and 32nd, the side streets east to Lexington, and the blocks around Madison Square Park and toward Herald Square.
Plumber needed in NoMad?
Call and tell us the cross street and which floor you are on.