

6 8
PLUMBING CONNECTION
SUMMER 2016
PODS FROM PUDONG
P
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