When the Gas Goes Out: A Bronx Co-op’s Laundry Saga

Gas shutdowns are every building's nightmare, and depending on which service is affected residents could be without heat, cooking or laundry service for who knows how long. Getting service restored can open a can of worms though, particularly in a laundry room. Ashley Erichsen, an account executive at Automatic Industries, explains why and details the journey of a large Bronx co-op to get its laundry room back up and running after a gas shutdown. Habitat’s Emily Myers conducts the interview.

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Transcript

Emily Myers (00:05)
Welcome to Problem Solved, a conversation about challenges facing New York co-op and condo board directors. I'm Emily Myers with Habitat Magazine. I'm joined today by Ashley Erickson, account executive at the laundry room service provider, Automatic Industries. Ashley, great to have you.

Ashley Erichsen (00:21)
Thank you for having us. We're excited to be here.

Emily Myers (00:24)
So today we're diving into a challenge that no building wants to face, having the gas shut off, which when this happens, gas appliances can't be used and that leaves residents frustrated. So I guess the question, how do you keep everyone happy while working to restore service? So let's kick off our conversation with a look at a co-op in the Bronx, which had its gas lines shut down in response to a leak, leaving the board to try and get laundry services back up and running. Ashley, can you set the scene for us? How big is this building?

Ashley Erichsen (00:54)
Sure, it was a 520 unit apartment complex, the Bronx. And just picture the entire complex is shut down. So aside from the four laundry rooms that are now shut down, all the apartments are now in need of electric stove tops to continue cooking.

Emily Myers (01:13)
So I imagine the board was a bit frenzied on this. How did you get the laundry rooms back up and running and how long did it take?

Ashley Erichsen (01:20)
Sure, so management had called us, kind of begging and pleading to see what we can do to help. They offered to compensate us, they were willing to pay for equipment, but we went into our stock, we had electric dryers. We were able to temporarily install those electric dryers in replacement of the gas dryers within five business days. we had residents able to do laundry by the end of the next weekend.

Emily Myers (01:47)
Gosh, because gas shutdowns notoriously take a very long time to get the service back up and running. So the strategy was to pull out the gas appliances and replace them with electric alternatives. Did the building need to upgrade electrical capacity to operate these appliances?

Ashley Erichsen (02:06)
You know, it is a team effort. We were able to provide the electric dryers, but the building did have to install 220 volt, 30 amp electric outlets. You know, our agreements are pretty simple. As long as the buildings provide us with the needed utilities, we're able to provide the equipment.

Emily Myers (02:24)
I just wonder if you want to take that question again, because we could hear hooting behind you. Shall I say? Yeah. So I'll just say again. yeah, did the building need to upgrade electrical capacity? Is that what I think? That was a question I asked.

Ashley Erichsen (02:28)
Welcome to New York.

Sure, so it's a team effort. We asked the building provides us with the needed utilities. They had to provide 220 volt, 30 amp outlets to power the electric dryer. So again, our contracts are pretty simple. As long as the building provides us with utilities, we're able to provide the equipment.

Emily Myers (02:58)
Did you make any changes to your contract with the building as a result of this work?

Ashley Erichsen (03:03)
No, we did not. know, automatic industry has grown over the past 53 years out of word of mouth referrals. We just, sorry, can I start this one again? All right. Property management had offered to compensate us for the additional equipment mid contract term. But in good standing, we just wanted to...

Emily Myers (03:15)
Go for it, yeah.

Ashley Erichsen (03:28)
show that we are a good and professional company. We've grown over the past 53 years out of word of mouth referrals. We understand that the property was in a bit of a pickle, so we were able to help them out.

Emily Myers (03:39)
I mean, of course, in some cases, a laundry room is a source of income for a building. So having the amenity closed, you know, can affect a building's bottom line.

Ashley Erichsen (03:47)
Absolutely.

Emily Myers (03:48)
So you pulled out the electric drives. You mentioned that it was a temporary solution. I'm just curious because of course carbon emission caps under Local Law 97 are forcing many boards to reconsider the use of fossil fuels and in some cases switch from gas to electric appliances. So, but you're saying that the building will revert back to the gas appliances.

Ashley Erichsen (04:11)
They will. Currently, the electric dryers are still in place. Management gave us about a four-month timeline. I believe it probably will take longer to get the gas restored. But electric dryers are definitely an alternative to circumvent the whole sprinkler system law. Do I believe maybe one day the Department of Buildings will go after laundry facilities that have electric dryers? Most likely. But for right now, it is a way around having sprinklers.

gas violations and all that good stuff.

Emily Myers (04:45)
Yes, I mean actually one thing I've heard of anecdotally is laundry rooms actually being deemed illegal either because their room is not found to have the correct certificate of occupancy or there aren't the required sprinklers. Is that something you're seeing and how do you work with buildings to solve these problems?

Ashley Erichsen (05:05)
Yes, it is definitely a common issue. As a laundry provider, we try and educate our customers on the laws and what they can do. One instance would be the example we did here was install electric dryers or we educate the building that they have to hire an architect and an engineer to pull the correct permits to get the laundry facility on the CFO and have sprinkler systems installed.

The law is for every two commercial gas drying pockets, you need one sprinkler head. Sometimes we may bonus a property to kind of help them pay for sprinklers and filing and all that good stuff. But again, it's not on the responsibility of the laundry provider, it's on the responsibility of the building.

Emily Myers (05:49)
Is it a good moment to mention local law 157, which I think requires natural gas detectors in residential buildings? This has a May 1st deadline, I think.

Ashley Erichsen (06:00)
So to be honest, I'm not sure 100 % on it. I have heard of it. We haven't seen it where it's required in a laundry room yet. But I'm not fully educated on it, to be completely honest.

Emily Myers (06:10)
Okay.

Okay, so what are some of the takeaways from this example for other boards who might be dealing with gas shutdowns or perhaps, know, laundry room problems with the CFO or sprinkler issues?

Ashley Erichsen (06:28)
Definitely speak to your vendors. We've seen it before and there are ways that we can help you. And just stay educated, keep current with the laws and do your best to maybe get electric dryers or make sure that your gas dryers are up to code.

Emily Myers (06:43)
And do the gas dryers and the electric, sorry, I'll say that again. Do the electric dryers have the same capacity as the gas dryers? Are they sort of as powerful?

Ashley Erichsen (06:56)
Unfortunately not. So single capacity dryers come in either gas or electric. But if you do have 30 pound gas drying tumblers, again, those are only made in gas. Those are often found in laundromats or larger complexes, high rises with larger apartments. Unfortunately, they don't make the tumbler in electric. So if you do have a building that is equipped with larger machinery,

you have to legalize your laundry room, make sure you're up to date on clothes and all that good stuff.

Emily Myers (07:29)
And just going back to this idea that you're going to return the system to the gas, are you holding that equipment, those appliances, are they held somewhere or is the building having to store them?

Ashley Erichsen (07:42)
In this instance, the building had room for us to store them. We have had this happen before, so we would store them in the shop. But again, it's a long process to have the gas restored, so it's not usually something we prefer to do. We do need to have room for other equipment.

Emily Myers (08:00)
Great, Ashley. Thank you so much for sharing your insights.

Ashley Erichsen (08:04)
Thank you for having me.

Emily Myers (08:05)
Ashley Erickson, Account Executive at Automatic Industries.