Although the University of Houston will be closed for the winter break from Saturday, Dec. 21, through Wednesday, Jan. 1, it will still be business as usual for several areas of Facilities Management.

Reporting Facilities Issues

During the break, Facilities Management will continue to serve as the university’s central point of contact for all facility-related issues and problems. Anyone can report a non-emergency facility issue at any time during the day or night, seven days a week, by calling the Facilities Service Center at 713-743-4948 or logging on to AccessUH with their CougarNet ID and password and selecting the FAMIS icon. 

On-Call Staff

Throughout the year, Facilities Management arranges for a weekly rotation of key staff members to be on call and ready to respond to all facilities-related matters that may arise. This includes the upcoming winter break. These on-call staff members have knowledge of and information pertinent to all active construction (both minor and capital), all operational projects that are scheduled during the week and the weekend, and all custodial events.  For more information regarding the weekly duty roster of on-call staff members during the holiday period, call the Facilities Service Center at 713-743-4948.

Electrical Preventive Maintenance

From Dec. 26 through Dec. 29, in order to ensure safe and reliable campus electrical service, Facilities Management will be conducting the annual utility infrastructure preventive maintenance program of inspection, detection and correction. This important preventive maintenance function is scheduled and coordinated in advance to help prevent and mitigate major disruptions to building occupants and users. Planned outages are scheduled for Dec. 26-29 while UH Electrical conducts the preventive maintenance. All work will be conducted between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.  All electrical power, DI water, vacuum, condensate, compressed air, air handling and chilled water will be out for the duration. Only emergency generator power and life safety systems will be in operation.  Anyone with questions regarding the project can contact Senior Project Manager Mike Wheeler at ext. 3-5719 or mdwheel2@central.uh.edu, or Electrical Supervisor Karl Keilbach at ext. 3-5606 or kkeilbac@central.uh.edu. UH Electrical will follow the schedule below to conduct the preventive maintenance:

HVAC and Mechanical Systems

Facilities Management HVAC (heating, venting, and air conditioning) / Mechanical services will be busy during the holiday break addressing numerous issues related to campus mechanical equipment and operating systems. The various projects being conducted across campus will impact numerous buildings, and will include but are not limited to inspecting and repairing hot water and steam condensate pumps; installing steam fired hot water heaters and circulating pumps; repairing and replacing pressure steam valves in several facilities and in the steam tunnels; conducting annual water pump maintenance; performing numerous annual maintenance activities in labs, classrooms and office areas across campus; installing sanitary sewage pumps; repairing leaks to domestic hot water systems; replacing coils and rusted pipes in campus air-handler units;  providing campus-wide support for the Dec. 26-29 electrical outages; and replacing corroded and leaking pipes to chilled water and other systems. Anyone with questions regarding the HVAC/Mechanical holiday break projects can contact HVAC-BMS Supervisor Jesus Gonzalez at ext. 3-5798 or jgonzale@central.uh.edu.  

Additional Maintenance Projects

During the holiday break, the north and south zone maintenance offices will have staff working on campus conducting several special projects.  North zone staff will service, clean and clear fountain drains. They will also be installing new water lines in several campus locations. South zone staff will be painting, repairing, pressure washing stairwells and awnings, installing LED lights, installing food service fixtures, and cleaning vent hoods in food service kitchen areas. They also will be busy preparing the residence halls for the spring semester. The elevator shop will be working on changing proprietary controllers to non-proprietary controllers for two elevators in the Stadium Parking Garage and repairs for one of the elevators in the Hilton. Fire alarm shop personnel will be conducting sprinkler and fire alarm inspections at Moody Towers.

Additional Resources

UH faculty, staff and students are encouraged to look to their facility’s building coordinator as a valued resource for custodial and maintenance services, energy management, heating and cooling, fire and environmental safety, building security, construction planning and project management activities within each facility. A complete list of building coordinators can be found in the Building Coordinator Program section of the Plant Operations website.