Viega ProPress

When premium wholesale plumbing supplier, Winston Water Cooler, decided to build a large training and distribution center in Phoenix, not only did they choose to stock Viega products, but they chose to show them off in their own plumbing and piping as well.

The 35,000-square-foot building was recently completed for use with customer training. “The Workbench” gives tradespeople the opportunity to do hands-on product demos and learn about the situations they might find on the job, as well as learn about products they can use.

“This is all live fire,” explained Phillip Clark, Partner of Winston Water Cooler in Phoenix. “There is water pumping through the heaters, gas running to the heaters, that sort of thing. We can simulate certain problems by putting different parts in and having people troubleshoot to find the issues. It’s all hands-on, which makes it valuable in our industry for these guys. We want them to be comfortable with the products, and it gives them a comfort level so they can come up here and screw up something instead of potentially screwing up their customer’s stuff!”

Clark said the training center includes products seen in multifamily buildings, plus parts of a mechanical room setup, including boilers, booster pumps and mixing valves. The building contains equipment supplied by a variety of manufacturers. Originally a data center, Winston remodeled the space into a training center.

All the water in the building is piped with ProPress, and gas lines are run with MegaPressG. About 200 feet of 2½” and 3” copper lines connect to storage tanks, where water can be circulated through heating and pressure-boosting segments. The gas lines have 1½” MegaPressG fittings.

“We wanted to become a stocking distributor for Viega for years, and in 2019 we jumped at the opportunity when it came,” Clark said. “We phased out Apollo as we brought in Viega. We realize the value in the product and know it’s good – and that a lot of customers only trust Viega.

“The product line with Viega is more diverse with the larger-diameter fittings, and Viega has some fittings in configurations and tighter tolerances. It’s just a good market presence that speaks for itself. We’ve had issues with other [brands], where we’re responsible for going back and taking care of the customer after hours. But Viega’s track record for quality and consistency is far superior to the competitors’ and it makes our customers happy.”

Clark said it’s a great advantage to hold training classes and show products at work that they also have in stock on their shelves. Attendees can see how Viega fittings work and that they’re a clean installation. All the piping in the facility is exposed on the walls and anchored so it can be used for show-and-tell.

When you take an old space and make it new, there are inherent challenges to it. And that’s exactly what happened with a restoration project in downtown Buda, Texas. Tight spaces to work in meant Viega products were a perfect partner.

In the downtown space, old and unused factories have slowly been getting facelifts. Developers are turning them into retail and restaurant spaces. It’s what Hill Country Plumbing was brought in to do with the old Buda Mill and Grain Company, changing it into Los Olivos Market, a wine shop and bistro.

“The big challenge was that there was another restaurant backing up to it, a common space with a delineating wall,” explained Colie Curry, owner of Hill Country Plumbing. “And there were two different architecture firms that got their measurements inconsistent, so we had to sacrifice space. The roof space we had for grease vents and mechanicals was very tight.”

Existing utilities had been run through the ceilings and were undersized for the new needs, so everything had to be retrofit. The 2½” gas line ended up going up the exterior of the building, down a soffit and then jumping up onto a flat roof to bypass a walkway access—in other words, it would have been nearly impossible to thread pipe together where it needed to be hung.

“I’ve been a fan of Viega for years and we use PureFlow on a daily basis—plus I’ve used smaller MegaPressG fittings,” Curry said. “I heard that the larger diameter was coming out in January, and we did this project in March, so the timing was perfect!”

With the help of Viega reps, Curry acquired a MegaPress PressBooster and rings so he could get the project done on time. There were about 20 fittings in the 2½” size, and then the pipe necked down to 2” for the equipment manifold and again to ¾”.

“We could have tried to thread, but hanging a 50-foot-long piece of threaded pipe that is 2½” and weighs 300 pounds would have taken six guys – that’s not good. Plus, we would have had to work our way from it after hanging it,” Curry said. “With Viega, we were able to work in multiple directions. We did a lot of the interior piping before the roof penetration, and we could cut in wherever we needed.

“In about four and a half hours we did what would have probably taken two days—it was a ton of labor savings! And if there had been a leak we would have had to start over after cutting that part out. Using the Viega fittings worked out really, really well.”

Curry and his crew also used PureFlow PEX, in sizes 1¼” and smaller, for waterlines to the bathrooms and commercial kitchen.

The Adaptive Sports Center in Crested Butte, Colorado, has been helping people with disabilities, as well as veterans, go on therapeutic recreation adventures for 30-plus years. Now the group is finally getting the building—and the space—it deserves so it can amp up its offerings and help even more people.

The nonprofit organization, located in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, is constructing a new building all its own. For the past decade, the organization knew it was running short on space, but real estate at the base of Crested Butte Mountain Resort is expensive and hard to come by, so it’s taken a while to make dreams reality.

Two years ago, the organization purchased land and began raising funds. Now the 25,000-square-foot building is just months from opening and leaders of the ASC can hardly wait.

“There has been a lot of work into this new building,” said Brian Barker, Marketing Manager for the ASC. “Our community has been hugely supportive, and we’re lucky to have help from a lot of really generous people and organizations that are both local to the Crested Butte area and across the country. We received donations from local individuals to major foundations and organizations—like Viega—who want to help out, because so many people believe in helping people.”

Viega helped this project by donating ProPress fittings for the plumbing. In total, in-kind donations for the construction efforts totaled more than $1 million, and Viega had a hand in it. Not only does the donation of ProPress fittings help monetarily, but ASC Executive Director Chris Hensley said it also helps by saving the contractors time—which also equals money.

The schedule for construction of the building was only 13 months, so there was no time to waste. During planning, there were lots of conversations about how to save the ASC money, and ProPress was one solid option.

Alpha Mechanical Solutions, LLC, out of Gunnison, Colorado, was hired to plumb the building, and Fred Niederer, a managing member of Alpha Mechanical, was already familiar with Viega and with ProPress.

“Viega’s training facility in Nashua (New Hampshire) made it possible to see the entire product line and made it easy to justify setting up our first ProPress gun seven years ago,” he said. “Our second gun was a matter of necessity, based on how often we use the Viega system.

“ProPress was really great for this project because it had a very tight timeframe and I couldn’t think of a better product to use. The time savings method over standard joining is huge.”

Alpha Mechanical had between 15 and 20 workers on the project to plumb nearly a mile of copper lines. The copper with ProPress fittings is for hot, cold and hot water recirculation lines, as well as hydronic lines, some variable air volume units, some in-floor heating and a little snowmelt.

“This has been press and go. Easy,” Niederer said.

The building is officially named the Kelsey Wright Building. Kelsey was a longtime participant of the ASC, and after she died her parents gave a generous gift to the organization in her honor to help get the fundraising project started. Barker said her family “really believed in what we do and what we did for her,” and they wanted to share it with others.

The four-story building (plus basement) will allow the ASC to double its capacity. Previously the organization only had the ability to offer overnight accommodations for a group of 15-20 people at a time, at a lodge in town. The new building will have housing on the third floor to allow for a second group to be served at the same time.

The facility is ski-in, ski-out, and fully accessible for all participants no matter their ability. Groups of participants come from various hospitals, VA medical centers, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and more.

There are other activities and amenities within the Kelsey Wright building as well, including an indoor rock climbing wall, programming area and kitchen facilities. Within the basement there will be lockers that can be rented out as an additional revenue stream for the ASC, and there is an area for participants to be fitted with their skis or other apparatuses before they head out.

Adventures through the ASC don’t just happen in the winter… There are activities like canoeing, cycling, hiking and mountain climbing in the summer, or skiing, snowshoeing and ice climbing in the winter.

Founded in 1987, and originally known as the Physically Challenged Ski Program of Crested Butte, 33 lessons were given during the first winter by an all-volunteer staff. Today, more than 6,000 lessons are provided to more than 700 individuals each year. The team includes 15 board members, 14 full-time staff, more than 25 professional instructors and hundreds of volunteers. The main focus is on the long-term impact of programming on participants, aiming to get—and keep—them more physically active.