If you are designing a commercial plumbing system for a property in a flood plain, you should keep the potential for flooding in mind as you design your system. Preparing for flooding in your design minimises your risk of damage, potentially saving you time and money. Here are some tips you should keep in mind:
1. Protect your business with a backflow valve
If you run a school, a restaurant, a factory or any other business, you cannot run your facility if you have raw sewage in your building. Unfortunately, if flooding causes sewer pipes to back up, sewage may sweep through the pipes toward homes and businesses.
To ensure none of that backflow can enter your commercial facility, you need a backwater valve – this valve allows water to leave through your pipes but not enter through them.
2. Cover all potable water wells and tanks securely
If you have a tank of potable water or a well on your commercial property, you need to ensure that is protected. Ideally, the entry to your wells and tanks should be located above the 100-year floodplain level, but if these covers are lower than anticipated flood levels, you want to ensure they are secure and watertight.
3. Do not locate pipes and fixtures on breakaway walls
In some cases, when builders create structures in floodplains, they build some walls that are designed to breakaway in the flood. If you have walls in your commercial building that are designed to breakaway under the pressure of strong waves, you do not want any of your plumbing fixtures rooted in those walls.
If those walls were to sweep away, that would pull on the plumbing pipes, potentially breaking them and causing more damage. Do not locate pipes behind these walls.
4. Contact a commercial plumber for help
To ensure your plumbing design is up to local standards and able to resist flood damage as much as possible, you should contact a commercial plumber about your project. A commercial plumber can advise you on relevant codes as well as about the best plumbing practices in flood plains.
These professionals can also help you assess issues like how strong your pipes need to be. For example, if a flood occurs, you need pipes and fittings that can resist hydrostatic pressures and stress. You also need fixtures that can stay in place regardless of buoyancy created by flood water. A plumber can help you wade through these issues. For more information, contact a business such as Epg Electrical Plumbing Group Pty Ltd.
Share9 April 2015
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