The International Codes deadline for 2012
code changes extended
By Ron George
President, Ron George Design & Consulting Services
The International Code Council has extended the code change proposal deadline from April 24, 2009 to June 1, 2009. The main reason for the extension was because the 2009 code books were not ready for distribution until March of 2009 and the code change deadline was April 24th of 2009. This did not allow much time for the 2009 code to be reviewed before code changes for the 2012 edition are due. The Board of directors was aware of this and they moved the date back to June 1st and made the announcement at the Code Forum in New Orleans in March. Engineers and code officials are urged to get a copy of the 2009 edition of the code as soon as possible. Consider forming a code committee and review the code for possible code changes. Code change forms are available at the ICC website
Collecting air miles
Over the last few months I have been traveling more and more to attend meetings and visit with clients. I have an office in Texas and I travel down there every few weeks to meet with clients and work on projects. I also travel to most of the plumbing, mechanical, fuel gas and building code hearings and the plumbing product standards meetings, and related seminars to keep up with what is going on in the industry. I try to attend educational meetings to keep up with new technology. Following are a few notes about where I traveled and some of it may be of interest to you:
San Diego
I attended the ASME A112 meetings in San Diego where on the first day I participated in a task group to discuss development of a new product standard. The standard is titled: ASME A112.18.9: Barrier Free Insulated Protectors for Exposed Waste and Supplies. The first draft of the new standard has just been balloted and another meeting may take place at the ASME meetings scheduled the week of July 21-24 in Seattle to address the ballot comments. There was also a meeting on: ASME A112.19.8a-2009 Suction Fittings for Use in Swimming Pools, Wading Pools, Spas, and Hot Tubs. The task force meeting was working out some details in the standard for testing requirements for large pool suction covers to be compliant with the standard, which is now required by federal legislation, “The Virginia Graham-Baker Act,” which requires all public pools to have dual inlets and suction covers that conform to the standard that will not allow hair entrapment or suction entrapment by using drain covers that eliminate a vortex that could twist long hair (which could cause entrapment) and by requiring a suction relief valve in the piping system or dual pool suctions to minimize the chance of vacuum or suction entrapment to the drain.
The A112 Main Committee meeting was held on Tuesday and they reported on all of the standard activities under ASME A112 during the main meeting. I attended as an alternate for ASSE.
On Wednesday, the ASME/CSA joint Harmonization Task force on low flow showerhead performance met to discuss the progress on the low-flow showerhead issue. The purpose of the meetings are to develop testing protocol that will address many of the issues related to showerhead performance, which will eventually be the specification for showerheads receiving the EPA WaterSense label. The test methods still are being worked out and various groups are performing laboratory testing with a controlled group of showerheads and user satisfaction surveys are being performed using various survey methods that are not the same, but they hope to compare the results. I am urging the group to address non-compensating-type shower control valves or two-handled shower valves used with low-flow showerheads. Apparently, none of the testing that I am aware of is using non-compensating-type shower control valves or two-handled shower valves. My concern is installing low-flow showerheads on non-compensating-type shower valves will cause an increase in the occurrences of thermal shock and scalding. The existing housing stock in the United States has probably 50 percent of all existing shower or tub/shower installation that do not have compensating type shower controls. Compensating type shower controls are pressure balancing or thermostatic shower valves that will adjust or compensate for pressure or temperature fluctuations and they have a maximum temperature adjustment to limit the hot water. We will be having a meeting before you read this and I hope to have a resolution by requiring manufacturers selling only showerheads without a shower control valve to include a warning that low flow showerheads should not be used with two-handled or non-compensating type shower valves.
On Thursday, there was a meeting of the ASME/CSA A112.19.5 Trim for Water Closet Bowls, Tanks, and Urinals. The meeting was a harmonization task force that discussed some of the issues relevant to the standard including some proposed legislative requirements in some states like California, which were mandating 20% reductions in flush volumes from 1.6 GPF to 1.28 GPF within the next few years. There was discussion about new fixtures that flush with 1 gallon or less. Concern was expressed about drainline transport at these lower flush volumes and the ability of the fixtures to wash the entire bowl at lower flows. There was concern expressed that the drainline transport will be significantly less with lower flushing volumes and an increase in drainline blockages could result. Pete Demarco said research is needed for drainline transport and he announced the formation of the recent Plumbing Efficiency Research Coalition.
Fort Worth, Texas
From San Diego I traveled to my Texas office where I have two scald cases I am consulting — one case was in Fort Worth and the other was in San Antonio. I also was consulting on a thermal expansion tank product failure case and I was working on a case in the south part of the state were a plumber was severely injured when he cut into a PVC pipe that was under pressure and it exploded. (Don’t test with air.) I also was consulting on a case dealing with a Legionnaires Disease outbreak in a hospital that had over a dozen of confirmed cases of Legionellae and multiple deaths.
Austin, Texas
I attended a meeting of the ASTM Forensic Engineering Committee in conjunction with the National Association of Forensic Engineers NAFE. This meeting was proposed to bring these two organizations together to address ASTM E-30 forensic engineering and ASTM E-58 forensic science issues and a new committee was formed with NAFE to address forensic issues.
Metro Detroit/Monroe/Ann Arbor Michigan
When I returned to Michigan, I was consulting on a scald case in Georgia where a mom is accused of child abuse because her daughter was scalded to death in a tub/shower with a non-compensating shower control and a low-flow showerhead. I also have been working on a scald case in Indiana involving a steam room at a health club with no temperature controls on the steam system. There is also another scald case I am consulting on in Michigan. I can’t give any more details about these cases because they need to remain confidential, but some day I’m going to write a book about all the dumb things that I see on a regular basis that lead to system failures and someone gets injured or dies. I will leave out the names and places.
In addition to the forensic work, my company also provides plumbing, mechanical, and fire protection design services, 3D CAD services and Building Information Modeling or BIM services. I have a dedicated group of designers and CAD guys working with me and currently several of them are busy working on the plumbing, piping and medical gas drawings for the new University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s and Women’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They are drawing the building in 3D CAD using Autocad MEP and using another program called Navisworks, which Autodesk recently purchased. The Navisworks software imports all of the trades on a project into a single 3D file and it identifies interferences between the various trades. When each trade is done with a floor or a designated area in a floor, all of the 3D files are loaded into the Navisworks program and it prints out a report showing all of the areas where two or more different trades occupy the same space. This is called a “collision report” and early on the collision reports are quite large. Moving a few pipe racks, cable trays and duct runs can eliminate a lot of collisions because each separate section of duct and each duct flange and pipe fitting shows up as a separate collision, when a pipe and duct occupy the same space in a corridor. As coordination meetings are held, the various trades agree on which trade will move and eventually all of the collisions are worked out and everything fits together like a Swiss watch.
Big savings
On a typical project the university would carry a 10 percent construction contingency for conflicts between trades that would require removal and reinstallation of various systems and money to cover owner changes and unforeseen extras. This project has a construction cost of $530 million so the construction contingency was about $53 million. The owner chose to develop a 3D virtual model of the building prior to construction to significantly reduce or eliminate the construction conflicts, which are common on a project of this size. The owner has virtually eliminated contractor extras for changes. Although owner generated changes are still an extra, the owner changes are minimized because the various department personnel and users get to review the virtual model of the building by flying through the 3D model before construction, which allows them to see it and recommend changes to be made to the computer file instead of steal beams and concrete. Reviewing the virtual model minimizes owner-generated changes. Every pipe, duct, cable tray, ceiling, wall and structural element has a dimension or bottom elevation or top elevation noted on the plans so everything fits together and the tradesmen have very specific installation/fabrication drawings with bottom of pipe elevations. The Navisworks program has the ability to set a tolerance for clearances from other trades. It could be two inches, one inch or one-half inch for clearances and this allows the trades to avoid each other, allowing a little space for flexibility. The ability of the 3D CAD drawing to provide accurate installation drawings allowed the university to reduce the contingency from $53 million to probably less than $10 million. The project is not complete yet so we don’t know the final numbers, but I’m sure the amount invested in the 3D model was well worth the investment. Plus, they can use the 3D model to assist in their maintenance. I believe 3D drawings and building information modeling (adding the equipment model numbers and data to the 3D objects) will be significant because it aids in building maintenance and there is no room for extra charges on the project. That seems like a good investment to me.
Other Michigan office projects
Other projects in the Monroe office are the Plumbing, Piping and Medical Gas Drawings for St. Joseph Hospital, Critical Care Tower Addition in Ann Arbor, Mich.; The Surgery Center Addition at St. Josephs Hospital, Oakland County in Pontiac, Mich.; two projects at Beaumont Hospital in Troy Mich.; and we just finished the renovation of the 23-story Doubletree Hilton Hotel in downtown Detroit.
On a recent animal toxicology laboratory project for a pharmaceutical company we used 3D CAD and needed the one-inch cushion that the CAD system allowed us. When we drew the digital version of the building it was very accurate to within a thousandth of an inch, with 1inch of tolerance around each trade. But in the field, unexpected things happen. In this case the steel was up and was installed exactly to the dimensions on the plans. When they added the metal decking and poured the concrete floors, there was one and a half to two inches of deflection in the beams in the center of each bay. This deflection was allowable and normal according to the structural engineer. But it made things difficult because this building was so crowded with mechanical system everything was design to fit like a glove. Many of the installation dimensions were from the finished floor to the bottom of the pipe or duct. When the steel deflected, the concrete was poured thicker in the center to make the concrete level. We lost a couple of inches in the middle of the bays. Many of the 3D drawings had drains, pipes, ducts and cable trays tight to the beam below. Since the beam was a couple of inches lower, the ceiling space basically lost a couple of inches of clearance. But that was OK because we had included a one-inch tolerance in the Navisworks program. There were some adjustments that were calculated the new bottom-of-pipe elevations were issued on the drawings and it all worked out to a one half-inch clearance in a few tight areas.
Dallas
After a few days in Michigan I was on the road again to investigate a plumbing problem in a very large residence. The house is about the size of a football field. I rang the call button at the gate entry and the owner let me in and, as I drove up the long driveway, I noticed longhorn steers behind the fence on the left and a lake on the right with a fountain and a picnic area. I drove up to the covered entry at the front door that reminded me of carport at a fine hotel. After some brief discussions with the owner it was discovered the house was a slab-on-grade construction with the original specification for the plumbing system was for soft copper type “K” tubing with closed cell foam insulation, and apparently somewhere it got changed to PEX or cross-linked polyethylene instead of copper tubing to save some money. When the owner inquired about the lack of insulation he was told, “PEX is plastic and it has better insulating values than copper, so no insulation was needed.” Oops! Do not install PEX piping underground for domestic hot water distribution without insulation! They use PEX for hydronic floor warming tubing without insulation because they want to lose the heat to the floor. Maybe that is where he got the idea he didn’t need insulation. I’m not sure what they were thinking. When the pipe was installed, it did not have sleeves installed where the piping passed through the concrete, as shown in the installation manual. Oops! He didn’t follow the installation manual. Then the trenching was done for water distribution; the hot and cold water pipes and the hot water return pipes were all laid in the same trench that went around the U-shaped house with approximately 270 linear feet of buried piping and more than 540 feet of piping in the hot water and the return loop. The maximum allowable distance in underground hydronic heating/floor warming loop is generally about 200 feet for ½ inch tubing (because the pipe will loose most of its heat in this distance. Larger pipes can allow slightly longer distances, but not 540 feet.) To compound the situation, when the system was turned on and hot water was circulated, the cold water pipes were laying in the trench adjacent to the hot water pipes, so guess what, the cold water was hot. It took over 14 minutes to get the hot water drained from the pipe and get cooler water to the master bathroom sinks so the homeowner could brush his teeth. Ok, so what if you turn off the circulating pump. Well, now we are back to the floor warming system situation, and when you turn on the hot water and the ground returns to ambient temperature for a shower, it takes an even longer time to drain the ambient temperature water and warm up the surrounding soil, and adjacent cold water pipes get slightly higher than ambient temperature water to the master bath shower. In this scenario the ground absorbed most of the heat and the water never got hot. If the building had storage-type water heaters, it would run out of hot water before the ground warmed up. In this case he had multiple instantaneous water heaters that were adjusted to discharge really hot water and that caused fixtures close to the water heaters (in the maid quarters and guest rooms) to have scalding hot water. Even then it took a long time before the water is warm enough for a shower in the master bath. Oops! (Don’t put hot and cold water pipes in the same trench with no insulation. Copper or PEX — it does not matter.)
Instead of using copper or brass full bore manifolds on the PEX system with isolation valves, the plumber decided to build manifolds out of PEX piping spools and fittings with no isolation valves. In some cases the manifold had as many as five PEX fittings through which the water flowed. Each fitting had a reduced waterway, which caused increased friction loss. Instead of running a water line to each fixture in a home run piping arrangement, the plumber daisy-chained the piping around the construction site or routed the water piping up and through a manifold at numerous fixture locations, as the piping routed around to the most remote fixture. From the installation photos it appears the water piping passes through about six PEX fitting manifolds, with as many as five reduced waterway PEX fittings in each manifold on its way to the most remote fixture. This caused considerable pressure drop across the piping system. Oops! No home runs and lots of PEX fitting manifolds. In all there were dozens of mistakes. I noted a few here so you can learn from them.
Las Vegas
Then I was off to Las Vegas to meet with the ASSE series 7000 Committee that is developing a certification exam for installers and inspectors to be certified with ASSE Series 7000 Design and Professional Qualifications Standards for Plumbing-Based Residential Fire Protection Systems. The committee is working to develop this certification exam to compliment the new requirements for residential sprinklers that were recently added to the International Residential Code for all new construction beginning in the next year or so these requirements will apply.
While in Las Vegas, I also participated in the meeting for ASSE 8000, which is the new standard for Firefighter Breathing Air Replenishment Systems (FBARS) for high-rise buildings. I have been a volunteer firefighter since 1980 and I have refilled plenty of breathing air bottles so it made a lot of sense to me. This standard was born out of the several recent high-rise fire incidents, including fires in Philadelphia, Los Angeles and the World Trade Center towers, where numerous firefighters were required to carry breathing air bottles up the stairs of high-rise buildings in a fire incident. That is like asking them to carry water up in buckets. It’s not very efficient. This system is designed to be a high pressure breathing air replenishment system that will have breathing air tank refilling stations at regular intervals in high-rise buildings so refilling operations can occur a few floors below the fire incident. It’s kind of like the fire hose standpipe system but it is for high pressure breathing air instead of water. The working group just met again this last week and the standard is moving along. A draft should be ready for review and comment in the near future. Contact ASSE if you would like to review the draft and make comments.
Frankfurt, Germany
I went home for a few days then I was off to Frankfurt, Germany to attend the International Sanitation and Heating Trade Fair and Expo. I was also a guest speaker at the “Dry Drains Forum,” which was part of the ISH conference. The dry drains forum had representatives from all around the world participate in a forum where each country addresses what they were experiencing relative to water conservation and dry drains. I found it interesting that we are all dealing with the same issues concurrently and with similar results. Many of the presentations at the dry drains forum addressed the problems with drainline transport as water use is reduced or eliminated and as wastewater is redirected for greywater systems.
Later that day, representatives from nine countries attended a meeting of the World Plumbing Council (WPC) held in association with the ISH trade fair.
The meeting received reports on the progress of a wide range of activities identified in the World Plumbing Council’s Strategic Plan for 2008-2011 including:
• The redevelopment of the WPC website which now includes introductions in Chinese, Spanish and German as well as English;
• A review of the WPC Lecturer’s/Trainer’s Scholarship;
• Proposals to launch the first ever World Plumbing Day when plumbing organizations throughout the world will be encouraged to celebrate and promote the importance of the plumbing industry; and
• WPC’s ongoing relationships with organizations including the World Health Organization, WorldSkills and Messe Frankfurt.
It was agreed that the next World Plumbing Council meeting would take place at Leriba Lodge, Centurion, South Africa from October 21-24, 2009 with the subsequent meeting taking place in Sydney, Australia in March 2010. All full and affiliate members are invited to attend these meetings.
Planning is underway for the 9th World Plumbing Conference, which will take place in Edinburgh, Scotland from September 7-11, 2011. The World Plumbing Council Chairman, Robert Burgon, who is based in Edinburgh, said, “This Conference promises to be a conference to remember and we look forward to welcoming a large number of delegates and partners from many countries. Edinburgh is an amazing city and we are confident that our city will provide a warm welcome to our overseas visitors.” The Conference will take place shortly after the Edinburgh International Festival, which will give those delegates who wish to come earlier the opportunity to attend some of Edinburgh’s spectacular cultural events. Those interested in attending are invited to contact the dedicated conference organizer by email to: enquiries@wpc2011.co.uk.
New Orleans
Next, I was off to New Orleans to the ICC Code Forum where I attended the meeting where they outlined the changes to code change process and they announced the deadline for the code changes for the International Code had been moved back to June 1, 2009 because of the delays in getting some of the codes out and to allow enough time for code change proposal to be drafted.
San Antonio
From New Orleans, I went to San Antonio where I attended the American Burn Association conference. The conference is dedicated to burn victims and discusses burn care and prevention. Prevention is always better than treatment. I promote the numerous ways we can prevent scald burns with good plumbing system design.
Newport Beach, Calif.
After returning home for a few days I was a guest speaker at the Water Efficiency Conference in Newport Beach, California. I attended the product show and several seminars on water conservation and energy conservation. I also gave a presentation on “Drainline Transport issues associated with low flow drains” and I gave a presentation on “Thermal Shock and scalding issues associated with low flow shower heads and non-compensating shower valves”.
Birmingham, Ala.
I then went to Birmingham, Alabama to investigate a scald case where a child was scalded in a tub/shower with a non-compensating type shower valve.
Troy, Mich.
Upon returning home, I had to prepare for a deposition for a scald case at a hotel where a lady was scalded in a hot tub and there was no compensating type control valve and no thermostatic controls in the system.
Cleveland, Ohio
After a couple of days in the office I was off to Cleveland for the ASSE mid-year meeting where I serve as a member of the ASSE Seal control board and during the meeting, I was elected to serve as Vice Chair of the Seal board and liaison to the Plumbing Standards Committee. The seal control board reviews laboratory test reports and the product submittal documentation for conformance with the ASSE product standards and they vote to authorize the use of an ASSE seal on products that display the ASSE seal. I also serve as a member of the ASSE Plumbing Product Standard Committee, which oversees the development of ASSE Plumbing Product standards. I also am in the process of collecting plumbing definitions as chairman of the Plumbing Terminology Committee for the ASSE Plumbing Dictionary. If you are aware of a new plumbing term that is not in the dictionary send me an e-mail and we will add it to the Seventh edition of the book. The next edition is no due out for a couple of years but if you send me revisions to the definitions or new definitions I will have the committee address them. My e-mail address is rgdc@rongeorgedesign.com. You can purchase a copy of the Plumbing Dictionary by contacting ASSE through their website at: www.asse-plumbing.org or by calling the society office at: (440) 835-3040. I am a member of the Legionnaires Disease Research Committee and I reported that I will be sending a presentation on “Legionnaires Disease Control in Plumbing and Mechanical Systems for Healthcare facilities” to the ASSE to be posted on their website. I am also chairman of a committee to rewrite the ASSE Energy and Water Conservation Guidelines book. The committee consists of: Ron George, Joe Petro, Rand Ackroyd, Tim Kilbane, William Briggs, Robert Tesar, Philip Campbell, and John Watson. We are striving to have the book revised as soon as possible. So far we have taken the old book and put in it digital format and we have drawn all of the hand drawn illustrations in CAD. Now the real work begins.
Ron George is president of Ron George Design & Consulting Services. He is the former Chairman of the International Residential Plumbing & Mechanical Code Committee and he serves on the International Association of Plumbing & Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) Code interpretation Answers and Analysis Committee and the IAPMO Standards Council. He is active in Plumbing Code and Plumbing Product Standard development and consulting. His company specializes in plumbing, piping, fire protection and HVAC system design. He provides plumbing and mechanical code consulting, plumbing product standard consulting and forensic investigations and litigation support for plumbing and mechanical system failures. E-mail: rgdc@rongeorgedesign.com. Web site: www.rongeorgedesign.com.