New York City is different, especially Manhattan. The skyscrapers, endless traffic, speeding taxicabs, blaring horns and sea of people leave an indelible impression on visitors as well as inhabitants. Businesses must adapt to this city that goes up rather than out. New car dealerships face unique challenges. There are no open spaces for car lots. Land is much too valuable to waste on parking lots. Creativity is an essential element to doing business in New York City.

Most car dealerships resolve this challenge by having small showrooms in town with remote storage lots in New Jersey or out on Long Island. While not ideal, this has been a necessary evil in order to move new cars in Manhattan.

One forward thinking dealership had an innovative solution. They decided to go up. They added two floors to an existing mid-town, west side Manhattan high-rise building. They built a rooftop car storage lot with a huge freight elevator to transport the cars from street level to the rooftop parking lot. They also built racks on a lower floor to store new cars three high and three deep. With this solution, the new vehicles would now be on site to quickly and efficiently serve their clientele. 

This resolved the proximity issue. New cars were now readily available to quickly fulfill new car sales. A wrench in the machine was the weather. Snowy or icy weather would bring the movement of new vehicles to a screeching halt. Snow plowing was not practical as there was minimal room to store the equipment and no room to push or blow the snow. This type of equipment would also be ineffective against freezing rain or ice. 

The owners decided that a hydronic snowmelt system was the best way to ensure safe, clear surfaces on the rooftop parking lot during all weather conditions. A snow/ice melt system powered by four high-efficiency condensing gas boilers would circulate a heated glycol solution through a network of PEX tubing embedded in the structural concrete slab. This heated slab provides safe, dry surfaces at all times.

The Hard Part 

Deciding on installing a snowmelt system was the easy part. The hard part was making it happen. While this was a large project, it was not overly difficult or complicated with the right company doing the work. The logistics of doing the job on a rooftop in Manhattan created the majority of problems on this project.

Enter Ezzy Travis, owner of E. Travis Mechanical based in North Arlington, New Jersey. Their service area is a one-hour radius of their office in Northern New Jersey, with select clients in Manhattan and Westchester County, New York. 

Ezzy got his start in the plumbing business at the early age of 12 or 13 helping neighborhood plumbers on weekends and over summer breaks. He was hooked. At age 16, he jumped in full time working for a plumbing contractor in Brooklyn. After working for several plumbing and heating contractors in the city, Ezzy moved to suburban New Jersey and started his own firm in 2014. 

After a year of doing consulting work for area homeowners and contractors, Ezzy jumped back in the game deciding he could do it better himself. E. Travis Mechanical specializes in plumbing and heating service work, remodeling and new construction with an emphasis on steam, hydronic and radiant floor heating. Ezzy is one of the most respected practitioners in this trade.

E. Travis Mechanical is a two-man operation. That has its pros and cons. On the plus side, Ezzy is totally in charge of his jobs and his company. Having only one employee minimizes the headaches and drama of running a larger company. He likes the fact he has complete control and that success or failure is 100% on his shoulders. He readily accepts the responsibility. 

‘Work Smarter And Harder’

You might think that being a smaller operation may limit the scope of work that can be undertaken. Not with Ezzy. The adage “work smarter, not harder” applies to Ezzy. I would modify the saying to read “work smarter and harder” because Ezzy works as hard as anybody in this business. He has devised work-arounds to not having employees. He has a network of fellow contractors who help out on his projects as needed. He has a scrap metal dealer he enlists to remove old cast iron boilers from the basement and set new ones eliminating the backbreaking labor of humping boilers in and out of customer’s homes. 

Once the boiler block is set in the basement mechanical room, Ezzy goes to work. He is an artist with a Ridgid 300 pipe vise and a 24-inch pipe wrench in his hands. The boiler block is his blank canvas with Schedule 40 black steel nipples and cast-iron fittings as his palette. Ezzy is a master pipefitter. His work stands up against the best. No better fitter exists. 

Ezzy received a call from Jan Andersson, president and CEO of Mr. PEX Systems, a leading manufacturer of PEX tubing, controls and system accessories, based in Ramsey, Minnesota. He asked Ezzy if he could do a large snowmelt project in Manhattan. Is that a question? Of course he can. Ezzy accepted the challenge and took on the project. No job is too tough for him. Laying tubing and piping boilers is second nature to Ezzy. 

The project was designed and specified by a mechanical engineer with input from Ezzy. Contracts were signed and materials ordered with a start date scheduled for late-2019. No sooner did work commence, it was put on hold in 2020 due to COVID-19. Work did not pick up again until late-2021.

The site location in Manhattan created the biggest issues. Meticulous planning was critical to the success of this project. Deliveries had to be precisely coordinated so materials and equipment could be received and transported to the roof using the large freight elevator. Ezzy and crew were on site by 6 a.m. and headed back home to suburban New Jersey by 6 p.m. most days. Even a 15–30-minute delay would put him behind rush hour traffic costing precious time. 

The 50,000-square-foot parking deck has 72 loops of ¾-inch Mr. PEX tubing embedded in the concrete slab fed by seven 1-1/2-inch stainless steel manifolds. The manifolds were installed in weatherproof electrical vaults allowing easy access for purging, balancing and isolation during future service work. Each loop has a balance valve and a flow meter to allow for exact control of flow in each loop. 

Ezzy had the help of fellow contactors to tie the loops to the structural rebar, three mechanics and three helpers. They laid all of the tubing in five days, one day per manifold. They used three PEX-Gun tie tools to quickly and efficiently tie the tubing to the re-bar.

“These tools were essential to completing this project on time while sparing unnecessary wear and tear on our backs and arms,” Ezzy says.”

The tubing was pressurized to 100 PSI and Ezzy monitored the pressure during the concrete pour as it was pumped up to the rooftop deck. 

More On The Mechanics

The snowmelt system is served by two penthouse mechanical rooms, each serving one-half of the parking pad. Each mechanical room features two HTP ELX 1M BTU condensing gas boilers vented through the roof with Centrotherm PPS vent pipe. Grundfos Versa-Flo and Magna pumps circulate the glycol through the boilers and Caleffi hydro-separators and out to the system. Webstone pump isolation flanges with purge/drain ports allow for easy isolation and service. Axiom glycol feeders maintain proper glycol level and pressure in the system. 

The system is activated by two tekmar snow/ice controls featuring slab sensors, aerial snow sensors and ambient air sensors to allow for automatic operation. A tekmar 486 Gateway connects the system to the cloud for remote access, monitoring and activation of the system using the Watts web and mobile app. Ezzy, with the help of his contractor friend Clammy, wired and installed both control panels. 

The installation was completed in late-2022 and has been in operation for two complete winter seasons. Ezzy started and commissioned the system himself. He ran the system for two days straight to stress test the system and work out all the kinks. He balanced the flow to each manifold and checked out every loop with an infrared thermal imaging camera to confirm flow to each loop. 

He knew the system would work properly when called on to melt accumulated snow and ice. Nonetheless, he was still a little nervous when the weatherman called for the first snow event in New York City.

The nervousness was unfounded as the system performed flawlessly. His client would accept nothing less as any snow or ice on the parking deck would inhibit the transfer of vehicles and cutting into his bottom line. Cars are moved up and down all day, every day. The dealership relies on a clear, snow/ice free deck for daily operations. The only hiccup to date was when a building engineer accidentally left a service switch off de-activating the system. This was quickly identified and the system soon caught up melting the snow and ice. 

This project was a win all the way around. The building owner made the right choice in installing a hydronic snowmelt system in the roof deck parking pad. They also made the right choice in choosing E. Travis Mechanical to execute their plan. The engineering firm that designed the system had an able partner in Ezzy. The manufacturers of the mechanical equipment chosen for this project were well represented by the skillful application of their products through Ezzy and his partner contractors. Ezzy worked with the design engineer to provide as-built drawings as required by NYC Code.