Automated Temperature Monitoring Streamlines Frozen Pipe Prevention

How a major construction site used CORIS automated alerts to prevent frozen pipe damage through a brutal winter.

Frozen pipes are an inevitable concern in buildings as temperatures drop in the winter months. But when you're talking about construction sites — where portions of a building's exterior are exposed to extreme cold — the concern levels and potential for damage rise dramatically.

The challenge: an active health clinic, mid-winter, with its walls coming off

Marcus Construction, a Minnesota-based provider of design-build services for the commercial, industrial, and agricultural markets, is no stranger to harsh winter conditions. In the fall, the team started work on a facade replacement project for a four-story health clinic originally built in the mid-20th century.

The clinic had to remain in full operation throughout the project. The scope called for removing all of the building's existing brick and replacing it with modern metal paneling. As the brick was pulled off, large amounts of plenum space — housing water lines and sprinkler system piping — were left exposed to extreme winter temperatures.

A single frozen-and-burst pipe in that environment could mean water damage to an operating clinic, an emergency shutdown, and a serious safety event for patients and staff. The Marcus team needed continuous visibility into temperatures behind the work zone, around the clock, from anywhere.

The solution: CORIS 24/7 remote temperature monitoring

With the CORIS 24/7 temperature monitoring system in place, the project team had a convenient way to keep tabs on temperatures in the exposed plenum spaces and be alerted the moment conditions trended toward freezing — whether they were on or off the job site.

• Continuous wireless temperature monitoring in the exposed plenum and pipe-run areas
• Real-time alerts pushed to project leads as soon as readings approached freezing thresholds
• Remote dashboard access so supervisors could check conditions from anywhere, day or night
• Historical data to verify conditions overnight and across weekends without a site visit

The result: proactive prevention instead of reactive cleanup

Instead of reacting to a burst pipe and a flooded clinic, the Marcus Construction team could act on early warnings — adjusting temporary heat, sealing exposed sections, or dispatching crews before water lines were ever at risk. The result was a winter facade replacement completed without a frozen pipe incident, in a live healthcare environment that could not afford one.