Advantaclean Successfully Performs Major Surgery On New Orleans' Hurricane-ravaged Va Hospital

(Monday, January 01, 2007) - As one of the Southeast's leading disaster remediation, emergency and environmental services firms, Charlotte-based AdvantaClean had faced some pretty trying situations. But New Orleans' unprecedented post-Katrina disaster cleanup gave the company the opportunity to work on the largest air duct cleaning job it had ever undertaken—and the chance to stretch its problem-solving expertise to new limits.

"The hurricane struck at the end of August, and we'd been in New Orleans since the fall, working on a number of major disaster-remediation projects involving large retailers and office buildings," recounted AdvantaClean's Director of Operations Brian Nunan, a 25-year veteran of the environmental services industry. "But then we learned that the Veterans Administration Hospital was looking for help in getting its facility back into shape."

The ten-story Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center is a 354-bed hospital and transitional care facility located in New Orleans' Medical District. The hospital's patients had been evacuated and its 1600 employees furloughed when Katrina struck and the waters breached the city's levee system, causing extensive flooding through most of the city.

Hospital administrators had finally made a commitment to reopen the facility, and work was underway to clean and refurbish the flood-damaged areas. "The building had been shut down and sealed for three months," recalled Nunan. "There was a tremendous amount of work to do to get the hospital back in business."
Air duct cleaning on a mammoth scale

A major — and critical — component of the disaster remediation was a thorough cleaning of the hospital's huge ventilation system. "Before the hospital could re-open its doors," Nunan explained, "all of the systems had to pass a number of inspections and meet very exacting standards."

Due to the quality of the work AdvantaClean had already completed in the flood-ravaged city, the company was invited to bid on the massive project. Despite the size and complexity of the assignment, AdvantaClean came armed with a great deal of experience in this area. As part of its environmental services portfolio, the company had been performing air duct cleaning for residential, commercial and industrial properties throughout the Southeast.

The Veterans Administration parceled out the job, awarding air duct cleaning contracts to AdvantaClean and another company. Shortly after work began, it became clear that the other company wasn't able to perform as specified, and the entire contract was awarded to AdvantaClean.
Overcoming a constant string of hurdles

"When we first got to the VA Hospital in December," recounted AdvantaClean Senior Project Manager Scott Brown, "the first step was to locate the blueprints. We had to track down Veterans Administration employees who had been transferred to Tampa in order to find them, and then we learned that some of the prints were outdated. Finally we were able to sit down to map out all the duct work that ran like a maze on every floor into every room and outline a very detailed plan of attack." A fifth-floor conference room overlooking the Louisiana Superdome became AdvantaClean's makeshift office.

It soon became clear that this was going to be no ordinary project. "For the first few weeks, the elevators weren't working," said Corbett Putman, AdvantaClean's Production Manager. "We had to carry all of our heavy equipment up to the top floors." AdvantaClean's three crews—with eight technicians in each crew—were getting their first taste of what was to be a most unusual job.

The hospital's power source was located in the basement, which had been flooded with ten feet of water. For the duration of the five-month project, much of the building remained on emergency power. "We were working with hundreds of feet of drop cords," said Brown. "You could never count on there being power—you always had to bring your own."

Standard procedure upon entering each room to begin work involved completely masking everything in the room: beds, desks, computers, furniture, carpeting, doors. Each room in the hospital contained a variable air volume (VAV) box, which had to be disassembled and sanitized as part of the cleaning regimen. "There was a damper built into the VAV box, and each box was fed by supply lines," recounted Putman. "We had to clean the damper, take the VAV apart to get at the motor, clean it, then clean the lines and blow them out with an air hose. Finally, we had to wipe down the entire assembly and reinstall it." Complicating matters was the fact that not AdvantaClean successfully performs major surgery on New Orleans' hurricane-ravaged VA Hospital all the VAV boxes were the same. "As you move to the lower floors, the rooms get older, and the VAV boxes got older, too," Putman said.

The AdvantaClean team gained access to the endless maze of ducts by cutting thousands of holes in the duct work. One-inch uni-bit holes (about the size of a quarter) allowed technicians to feed in the compressed-air whip, with agitation lines that would loosen and collect debris. Eight-inch diameter holes provided a space just large enough to work the vacuum equipment and long-handled cleaning poles through. And fourteen-inch openings allowed some of the smaller technicians to climb inside the ductwork when particularly extensive cleaning was required. Each hole had to be painstakingly marked on the blueprints, and the holes were then permanently sealed with aluminum plates after inspection.

In each instance that a technician climbed into a confined space, standard safety equipment included safety harnesses and two-way radios. In addition, a crew leader was stationed just outside the area monitoring the progress—always with the ability to cut through the duct and free the technician if necessary. "Our tech training includes instruction in working in confined areas," noted Nunan. "Still, we take every safety precaution when they're working in tight spaces."
A surprise around every corner

The specialized nature of some sections of the hospital posed unique challenges. "The sixth floor was where the Animal Testing Laboratories were, and the ducts were thick with hair and dander and fungus," said Brown. "And when we worked in the rooms with radioactive contents, we'd have to get a radiation safety officer to use a Geiger counter to determine if it was safe for us to be in there."

The AdvantaClean teams' personal protection equipment got plenty of use as well. "We'd have to climb inside the air handling units—the two huge units on the roof and the seven units inside the building," recounted Nunan. "Our people wore Tyvek suits, goggles and respirators as they got deep inside the AHUs to vacuum them out and pressurewash them." The cavernous air handling units required AdvantaClean technicians — in full safety gear and carrying cleaning equipment — to worm their way into claustrophobically tight spaces to make sure the units were completely clean.

In one case, Putman had to find someone to climb inside an aperture that measured a mere twelve inches by twelve inches. "It was the only way we could reach an area that had to be cleaned," he recalled. "I was too big to fit, and so were all the other men on the crew. But one of the women on the crew was small enough—and brave enough—to climb in there."

Each day of the five-month-long project presented a new challenge. The plumbing system's pressure regulators had been located in the hospital's flooded basement. Water was now being pumped into the facility from a station across the street, and the pressure was no longer being regulated. As a result, the antiquated brass pipes and fittings would occasionally burst, calling for duty above and beyond the contracted scope of work. "Sometimes we'd turn a corner in a hallway and find a flood," recalled Putman. "We'd stop work and contain it and clean it up right away, before the water could spread and affect areas that we'd already worked on."
No rest for the weary

There was little relief for exhausted AdvantaClean technicians after each day's work was done. So much of the New Orleans area had been damaged by the flood that no nearby housing was available. The solution? Nunan established "Camp Advanta" in Covington, an hour north of the city. "Our headquarters were in self-contained trailers, and we converted a string of offices into a bunkhouse for our people," he recalled. "And because traffic in and out of the city was so bad, we decided to work from 6 am to 4 pm daily to avoid the worst of the traffic." By March, the AdvantaClean workforce was able to break camp and move to accommodations on New Orleans' Canal Street.

Brown and Lewis and Putman, who lived in Charlotte, and Nunan, an Orlando native, were able to return home to see their families every three weeks or so over the five-month duration of the project. "It was hard on us, but it took a toll on our families, too," Brown noted.

The AdvantaClean team transmitted daily reports to the VA's resident engineer and to the company's Charlotte headquarters, tracking the steady progress of the enormous project. By May, the hospital's ventilation system was ready to undergo rigorous National Air Duct Cleaners Association testing. The vacuum samples taken during the testing determine if there is any microbial growth in the ducts.

"I'm pleased to report that our work passed the inspections and that the hospital can now move onto the next phase," said Nunan, getting ready to move on to his next project. In fact, the clinic in the VA Hospital has begun accepting patients, and was the first facility in New Orleans' vast Medical District to reopen its doors.

AdvantaClean, one of the leading providers of environmental services in the southeast, is now offering franchises of its AdvantaClean Air Duct, AdvantaClean Environmental, AdvantaClean Heating and Air, AdvantaClean Plumbing, and AdvantaClean Emergency Services businesses. AdvantaClean's 12-year record of success, proven and powerful business model, and patent pending e-CCM technology provide incredible business advantages. For more information, visit advantacleansystems.com or call 877-800-2382.

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