Plumbing Connection Summer 2016

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PLUMBING CONNECTION

SUMMER 2016

PODS FROM PUDONG

re-fabricated bathroom pods present a host of

potential benefits to the construction industry but

issues can arise when trying to certify an entire

bathroom – a process that is made even more difficult when

pods are fabricated offshore. To make matters worse, the

WaterMark Standard that applies to these ready-to-go

bathrooms was written at a time when the most complex

pre-fab bathroom system on the market was a self-

contained fibreglass shower enclosure.

“It’s a concern. I really think that the Australian Technical

Specification has been taken beyond what it was intended

for. I was on the WS31 committee when this Specification first

got developed and the product that was being considered at

the time by the committee was for a self-contained shower

enclosure pre-fabricated with taps, shower head, waste

outlet and water supply pipework. The pods that are coming

out nowadays have taken the pre-fabrication process to the

next level – they are complete bathroom modules – and I

don’t know whether ATS 5200.050 is really suitable,” says the

Technical Manager of IAPMO Oceana Glenn Tate.

Far from wanting to stifle innovation, Glenn’s concerns

are not with the use of bathroom pods per se, but whether

the existing regulatory framework is effective in ensuring

that their manufacture and installation complies with the

relevant standards.

“I’m not against pods as long as they’re using WaterMark

certified or WaterMark compliant components and

are installed or signed off by a licenced plumber (both at the

point of manufacture and hook-up back here in Australia)

to ensure they’re in accordance with AS/NZS3500. If you

can streamline the manufacturing or the building process

by using these pods - so be it, that’s progress. But you

have got to make sure that the person who is installing

them and connecting up to the water supply and the

sewage knows what he’s doing and knows what the AS/

NZS3500 requirements are and have that signed off to say

that it complies.”

Glenn is concerned that pods fabricated overseas (often

in countries where plumbing qualifications don’t even exist)

are then brought over to our shores with a WaterMark

certification logo on them. The problem is that there’s no

one to take responsibility for the interconnection of all the

pod’s components during fabrication, no one to verify that

each component is WaterMark certified or has been verified

as meeting the relevant WaterMark Standard.

“I believe that it would be cost prohibitive to test every

single fitting, pipe and fixture that are incorporated in

the modern day bathroom pods in accordance with the

requirements of the ABCB WaterMark scheme, if they

are not already WaterMark certified. And I am concerned

that if these modules are manufactured completely

overseas and imported into Australia, they may not be fully

compliant with AS/NZS3500 and WaterMark compliance

requirements,” Glenn says.

Pre-fabricated bathrooms are likely to have a big part

to play in the future of the construction industry. But if

appropriate controls aren’t put on pods now, in a few years

time when all that non-compliant pipe-work/fittings begins

to fall apart behind fully-sealed, fibreglass pod walls, we’re

going to regret it.

WITH IMPORTS OF NON-COMPLIANT BATHROOM PODS ON THE RISE, IT MAY BE TIME TO TAKE ANOTHER LOOK AT

THE REGULATIONS THAT APPLY TO THEM.

PLUMBING CONNECTION

TURNED TO IAPMO OCEANA’S GLENN TATE

TO GET HIS TAKE ON THE SUBJECT.

BATHROOM IMPORTS