Plumbing Connection Summer 2016

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6 4 PLUMBING CONNECTION SUMMER 2016
STREET SIDE OF THE WATER METER
Y ou may have finally scored your first job with a Water
Authority, perhaps laying some pipe, installing
property service connection valves, branch or gravity
sewer repairs and you are keen to use plumbing products
that have served you well for many years.
Well in theory that sounds like a pretty trusty plan,
however each Water Authority has a set of procurement
guidelines that specify what product they prefer. As we all
know, on the residential side of the water meter all plumbing
is required not only to be installed in accordance with AS/NZS
3500, but use WaterMark certified product.
Using WaterMark certified plumbing products not
only ensures that you are using a quality and controlled
component in your installation but should a WaterMark
product cause flood damage due to the product being found
faulty, your insurance company should gladly indemnify you
from any costs associated with repairs.
Although WaterMark is a sound and trusted scheme, Water
Authorities can operate with a different set of guidelines
and care should be taken before embarking on any projects.
There is no hard and fast rule of what product is accepted
and it is strongly advised that you seek clarification from
each Water Authority you endeavour to do work for.
Due to the rugged and varying conditions that product
can see within a Water Authorities’ jurisdiction, WaterMark
product is often not necessarily accepted. Some Water
Authorities run prolonged field trials with certain product
in an attempt to validate performance and longevity before
a product is nominated with a technical specification. In
other instances, which is ever more growing amongst Water
Authorities is to use the services offered by Water Services
Association of Australia (WSAA).
WSAA offers manufacturers and distributors a product
appraisal which assesses a products’ quality even if the
product carries or does not carry WaterMark certification.
By a Water Authority using and trusting in the expertise of
WSAA they can confidently specify and approve a particular
product for an application. So don’t be too alarmed if you see
the acronym WSAA in any tender documentations, as all they
are specifying is a type of product approval process that is
being recognised by the Water Authority.
At this point it is really up to you to ask your suppliers if the
product they are offering such as a Gibault or a ductile iron
fitting carries WSAA appraisal or WaterMark certification.
Alternatively, you can identify brands and products that have
WSAA appraisal by visiting their WSAA website.
FRANK IAPOZZUTO DISCUSSES WHAT YOU NEED TO BE AWARE OF WHEN IT COMES TO INSTALLING WATERMARK
CERTIFIED PLUMBING PRODUCTS THAT SATISFY VARIOUS WATER AUTHORITY GUIDELINES.
PROVE STANDARDS
Contact:
Prove Standards & Engineering offers multi-disciplinary
engineering and testing services. Its expertise is completely
driven around the Water Industry including product testing
for certification, WELS registrations, WSAA approvals,
infrastructure services, and extensive services for solar hot
water testing.
SOWHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN?
Essentially, before submitting a quote to a Water Authority,
carefully comb through all of the technical specification and
identify what criteria has been stipulated in order to submit a
conforming bid. Does the Water Authority specify Australian
Standard numbers? Are certification schemes such as
WaterMark and WSAA referenced? If so, you will need to offer
product that meets compliance as once you have backfilled
over the product it may be too costly to replace, particularly
if you have installed volumes.
If you feel the documentation provided from the Water
Authority is vague and you don’t seem to be able to get a
straight answer from the project engineer, then I would
strongly advise to clearly specify on your quote or tender
what product you have nominated, brand, type and
certification for each component. If you are the successful
contractor, this will quickly eliminate any confusion or
potential wrong doing down the track as your job has been
clearly identified, approved and signed off.