The Plumbing Pipeline

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1 The Plumbing Pipeline A Newsletter for licensed Plumbers and Drainlayers May 2016, Issue 29 Please copy this bulletin and distribute to your staff. The Plumbing Pipeline is a semi-annual information newsletter published by the City of London, Development & Compliance Services, for the plumbing and drainlaying industry. City of London Development & Compliance Services This is the 29 th bulletin provided by the City of London Building Division for the licensed plumbers and drainlayers of London. The intent of this bulletin is to keep the industry abreast of the changes in the Ontario Building Code as well as the City of London s policies, and to receive feedback from you regarding questions or concerns about your trade. We want to encourage a better line of communication between our Building Division staff and the plumbing industry. To do this, we will keep you informed of changes in the Building Code, City by-laws, common inspection problems, acceptance of new materials and Building Division changes. We request that you also keep us informed of your concerns regarding code changes or interpretations. Please copy this bulletin and distribute to your staff. E-SERVICES The ability to apply for building permits online! Have you registered to use E-permitting? We continue to see an uptake in the number of users using E- permitting to apply for their plumbing and drainage permits. Using e-permits can help you run your business more efficiently and save you valuable work hours. If you have not registered to use this great system, please visit our web site at click ONLINE SERVICES and register today.

2 Saturday Services Starting May 30th, the City of London will be open more hours to make it easier for you to access our services at times and locations that are convenient for you. We re here to help and we ll be working Saturdays to serve you even better. Offering more hours will give home owners more access to our services without having to take time off work or school, take a vacation day or arrange for child care. Please note that plumbing inspections scheduled for Saturdays are for home owners only. More information at Administration/Service- Areas/Pages/Hours.aspx Plumbing Inspectors Contact Information In case you want to contact our plumbing inspectors but don t have their contact information, please refer to the table below where you will find names and phone numbers of our current plumbing inspector as well as the names of the plumbing inspectors they have replaced over the last two years. Former Plumbing Inspector Current Plumbing Inspector Cell Phone # Rudy Gilgen Will Rounds Paul Langdon Mark Wilson Ed Turner Steve Soares Doug Webster Clark Ballantyne Ron Psotka E-Permitting Please note that E-Permits are for repairing and replacing existing sanitary sewers for single detached dwellings only. Permits for any new sewer installations must be applied for in person on floor 7 at City Hall as frontage fees for new sewers apply. This specifically applies to those homes that are serviced by septic systems and home owners who want to connect them to the municipal sanitary sewer system. Grease Interceptors Internal Flow Controls Several Watts grease interceptors recently installed in London did not have internal flow control devices. Some local plumbing contractors have indicated to us that internal flow controls for Watts grease interceptors did not get shipped with the interceptors as they had to be purchased separately, so they ended up installing external flow controls only. Clause (9) of the Ontario Building Code requires all grease interceptors to be installed with internal flow controls. Here is the excerpt from the Code:

3 (9) All grease and oil interceptors shall have an internal flow control and, where the head will exceed five feet, a secondary flow control shall be required. Also, a failure to install a grease interceptor without an internal flow control is a violation of our Waste Discharge By-law (WM-16), Section 6.2 that reads: No person shall fail to install or maintain a suitable device to prevent the entry of grease, oil, sand and dirt into the public sewage upon being required to do so by the City Engineer. Please be aware that our plumbing inspectors will be paying close attention to the newly installed grease interceptors. Grease interceptors installed without internal flow control devices will not be accepted. Basement Cleanouts in New Homes Our Wastewater Treatment Operations Department has a concern about the removal of cleanout covers in newly built homes to drain foundations and runoff water into the PDCs. Under Section 4.1 of Waste Discharge By-law (WM-16), no person shall fail to ensure that storm water is discharged into a storm sewer. Please note that charges may be pursued if violations are found as per Section 7.2 of WM-16 By-law. Notwithstanding any other provision of this by-law, a corporation upon conviction of a contravention of this by-law is liable for a fine of not more than $50, for a first offence and not more than $100, for any subsequent offences. Trap Seal Primers Trap seal primers are required as per (1) & (2) OBC. The B Guide to Degree of Hazard describes a floor drain with flushing rim as a severe hazard. We allow the use of the following backflow prevention devices: 1. PPP inline devices 2. AVB with a Solenoid device installed upstream 3. Reduced pressure principle backflow device. 4. Air Gap. Permitted connections of Trap Seal Primers are found in the OBC under (4)(a)(d), or manufactured Floor drain body pre tapped. Drilling a hole in the side of the floor drain outlet pipe, stubbing Pex in it and applying silicone to the gap IS NOT PERMITTED.

4 New Backflow Prevention and Monitoring Program Account We have a new address to submit your initial or annual backflow preventer Testing and Inspection Reports to. Please use backflow@london.ca to also contact us with any questions regarding our program. Introducing Stacy Badeen Our Backflow Prevention and Monitoring Program continues to grow. Please join us in welcoming Stacy Badeen to our staff. She will be assisting Karen Kosir with the administrative portion of the program. Product Identification and Certification Under OBC , every pipe, fitting, and fixture must be certified by the applicable CSA standard or equivalent. For ease of identification, part of the certification requires the product to bear the certification mark. Products that do not bear the certification mark are assumed to be not certified and not in compliance with the Code. If we encounter a product that does not have a mark on it, we must assume it is not certified unless it is accompanied by documentation from the manufacturer indicating which organization certifies the product. To avoid unnecessary delays to your projects, please ensure marks are visible or supporting literature is present at the time of final plumbing inspections. Pedicure and Dental Chairs For pedicure chairs, the installation of atmospheric vacuum breakers is acceptable. Dual check valves are not acceptable. Zone isolation DCVA (double check valve assembly) is required for hot and cold water lines unless there is an AVB (atmospheric vacuum breaker) included in the equipment. For dental chairs, articles by CDC indicate that science suggests that there is an extremely low risk of contamination of public water supplies from cross connections in dental operative units, however, backflow can occur when saliva ejectors are used. The suction lines are supposed to be disinfected daily. No BFP devices are required on dry systems as there is no water supply. Dental vacuum pumps with water supplies shall be protected with RP BFPs as per CSA B64.10 Standard. Low Lead Plumbing Products Please be advised that Standards CSA-B and CSA-B require a low lead content in potable plumbing products and both these standards are listed in the 2012 OBC. The updated CSA standards state that, fittings intended to

5 convey or dispense water for human consumption through drinking or cooking should not contain a weighted average lead content in excess of 0.25% when evaluated in accordance with the test method in NSF/ANSI 372. CSA Group has advised that more standards have been updated to integrate low-lead criteria into applicable potable water standards including backflow valves (CSA B64 series), pressure pipes (CSA B137), drinking water treatment (CSA B483), flexible connectors (ASME A /CSA B125.6) and other products intended for potable water applications meant for human consumption. Weeping Tiles & Area Drains We have received some proposals to connect area drains to a weeping tile. As per the Building Code, a weeping tile (subsoil drainage pipe) does not constitute a part of a storm drainage pipe, thus no fixture is permitted to drain into a subsoil drainage pipe. Here are some definitions from the Building Code for clarification: Storm sewage means water that is discharged from a surface as a result of rainfall, snow melt or snowfall. Drainage system means an assembly of pipes, fittings, fixtures and appurtenances on a property that is used to convey sewage and clear water waste to a main sewer or a private sewage disposal system, and includes a private sewer, but does not include subsoil drainage piping. Storm drainage pipe means all the connected piping that conveys storm sewage to a place of disposal and includes the storm building drain, storm building sewer, rain water leader, catch basin and area drain installed to collect water from the property and the piping that drains water from a swimming pool, other than a public pool, or from water cooled air-conditioning equipment, but does not include, (a) a subsoil drainage pipe, or (b) a private sewage treatment and disposal facility designed for the treatment or retention of storm sewage prior to discharge to the natural environment. Subsoil drainage pipe means a pipe that is installed underground to intercept and convey subsurface water, and includes foundation drain pipes. An area drain is a fixture that shall discharge into a drainage system, not a weeping tile. Combo Heating Systems We have seen an increased number of combo heating systems (an appliance for domestic water heating used for both, domestic water and

6 space heating) being installed in home additions. Please note that the Code requires a means to be provided to prevent the stagnation of potable water in a hydronic heating system during the summer by recycling or flushing the contents not less than once every 24 h. plumbing inspector to cancel or defer the inspection, the inspection is to be cancelled and rescheduled through the IVR system at If you install the combo heating systems, please refer to CSA B standard for installation of hydronic heating systems. Corporation Couplings Please note that our Water Engineering Department does not permit corporation couplings to be used underground, on water service pipes inside the buildings. Water Engineering is offering two solutions to this issue: 1. Replace the water service piping from the curb box to the appropriate location inside the building, or 2. Keep the existing water service pipe, install a water meter pit (Ford Meter Box) on the outside of the building to house the water meter and run new piping into the heated part of the building. Deferring Plumbing Inspections If you have scheduled a plumbing inspection and for some reason you have to cancel the inspection, please call the inspector in the morning to let him know that the inspection will not be needed. If you are not able to call a

7 City of London Contacts Mark Wilson Plumbing Inspector Will Rounds Plumbing Inspector Drago Macar P.Eng. Manager, Plumbing Inspection ext Questions and Comments for Building Division Staff Please use this page for any questions or comments you may have and include the code section number, if applicable. The following box can be used to include any drawings that might clarify your question. Building Division fax #: Please include your contact information below, so that we can respond to you with our comments. Name: Address: City: Postal Code: Phone: Fax: Questions or comments: