Yearly Archives: 2009

Use only Genuine Pipes! for Plumbing

Today’s post is courtesy of  Dr Marc Dussault. Check him out at:

 http://www.ExponentialPrograms.com/business/blog

Piping Specifications

Mr. Santa Singh is a brilliant engineer of College of Engineering Patiala and Mr. Banta Singh is his boss and a gold medalist of Jalandhar University. Both of them are serving for Punjab Pipes whose owner is Ms. Gurujit Kaur. In one of the tenders Mr. Santa Singh has declared the pipe specifications.
Prepared by: SANTA SINGH     Approved by: BANTA SINGH

1. All pipes are to be made of a long hole surrounded by metal or plastic centered around the hole.
2. All pipes are to be hollow throughout the entire length – do not use holes of different length to the pipe.
3. The ID (Inside Diameter) of all pipes must not exceed the OD (Outside Diameter) – otherwise the hole will be on the outside.
4. All pipes are to be supplied with nothing in the hole, so that water, steam or other stuff can be put inside at a later date.
5. All pipes should be supplied without rust; this can be more readily applied at the job site.
NOTE: Some vendors are now able to supply pre-rusted pipes. If available in your area, this product is recommended, as it will save a great deal of time at the job site.
6. All pipes over 500 ft (150 m) in length should have the words “LONG PIPE” clearly painted on each side at the end, so that the contractor knows it’s a long pipe.
7. Pipes over 2 miles (3.2 km) in length must also have the words “LONG PIPE” painted in the middle, so the contractor wouldn’t have to walk the entire length of the pipe to determine whether or not it is a long pipe or a short pipe.
8. All pipes over 6 ft (1.83 m) in diameter must have the words “LARGE PIPE” painted on them, so the contractor will not mistake it for small pipe.
9. Flanges must be used on all pipe. Flanges must have holes for bolts, quite separate from the big hole in the middle.
10. When ordering 90 or 30 degree elbows, be sure to specify left-hand or right-hand, otherwise you will end up going the wrong way.
11. Be sure to specify to your vendor whether you want level, uphill or downhill pipe. If you use downhill pipes for going uphill, the water will flow the wrong way.
12. All couplings should have either right-hand or left-hand threads, but do not mix the threads otherwise, as the coupling is being screwed on one pipe, it is being unscrewed from the other.
13.All pipes shorter than 1/8 in (3 mm) are very uneconomical in use, requiring many joints. They are generally known as washers.
14. Joints in pipes for piping water must be water-tight. Those in pipes for compressed air, however, need only be air-tight.
15. Lengths of pipes may be welded or soldered together. This method is not recommended for concrete or earthenware pipes.
16. Other commodities are often confused with pipes. These include: conduit, tube, tunnel and drain. Use only genuine pipes!

 

Danger of Gas Room Heaters

Last weekend, a dear friend asked me to look at his gas room heater.

We opened the heater to have a good look inside and it appeared that the motor had overheated and had started to melt the casing. It was a disaster waiting to happen!

Fortunately there was a tradesman working next door who quickly came on the scene and disconnected the gas appliance from the gas supply, preventing a potential fire!

Dust buildup will cause  problems like this.

As the days get colder and we turn to our gas room heating appliances to keep us warm, please dust them and make sure you can disconnect them from your gas bayonet  fittings with ease.

If you are unsure, get a competent licensed gasfitter to check them before you use them.
Dangerous gas room heater

Dangerous gas room heater

 

Never Underestimate The Power of Water and its Effects on Drainage

The awesome power of water and the damage  it can cause has been widely witnessed in the past month, not only throughout Sydney, but also along the entire eastern coastline of Australia. These problems have been caused by freak weather patterns and the failure of man-made stormwater systems to cope with the sheer volume of stormwater.

Large storms in South East Queensland have caused the largest floods that the area has seen in 20 years. These floods left hundreds of people stranded for days, as well as causing millions of dollars in damage and completely submerging many towns, with levee banks being breached and  rivers bursting their banks. Locally, damage from extensive rains was also seen in Coogee and Randwick with flash flooding sweeping parked cars out onto the street, turning low lying areas into lakes and severely damaging some local homes, properties and businesses like Coogee Bowling Club, only 200 metres from our Coogee base. The world famous Coogee Oval was submerged, with only the tops of the picket fence still visible.

Stormwater systems throughout the Coogee and Randwick area were put to the test, and any property with even slightly blocked stormwater drains had water lapping at their doors, and in some cases had water damage inside their homes. Many gardens were ruined by the “walls” of stormwater passing through.

Dolphin Street Coogee turned into a riverbed

On May 28th 2009, a water main running underneath Victoria Road in Bellevue Hill burst, causing such a great deal of erosion that a 25m stretch of road collapsed, washing away two cars with it into Cooper Park below. This landslide caused a major road to be closed indefinitely. The damaged gas pipes meant that the surrounding area had to be temporarily evacuated because of the risk of an explosion.

It has been reported in the press that water was seen leaking from the road in this area in the week leading up to this hole appearing.

Never ignore a leaking water pipe or blocked stormwater pipe.

Cooper Park below burst water main in Bellevue Hill

Cooper Park below burst water main in Bellevue Hill

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The History of Plumbing

Here’s something the Romans did for us – they invented plumbing!

By Adam Hart-Davis

Julius Caesar had a weekend native-bashing excursion to Britain in 55 BC. But I guess he didn’t enjoy the damp boarding houses with their fierce landladies, for he quickly went back to Rome, and naturally claimed a great victory. Almost a hundred years later the emperor Claudius sent a powerful invading army, and the Romans then occupied Britain for the next 350 years. What did those Romans ever do for us?

Flushing lavatories

The Romans were keen on hygiene and built public baths in all their cities. Many of them have survived, notably the grand complex at Bath. The bath houses were places for social gathering, gossiping, and exchanging news. In the same complex there were communal lavatories, often flushed with the used bathwater.

There is a well-preserved lavatory at Housesteads Roman fort, near Hexham, on Hadrian’s wall. The camp was home to some 800 soldiers, and the communal lavatory in the south-east corner must have accommodated a dozen men at a time, shoulder to shoulder, without any partitions. The sewage fell into a trench, and rainwater, collected in a cistern, flushed it away through the outer wall of the camp and into the civilian settlement outside.

A shallow channel in front of the sitting men also contained running water, probably to rinse the sponges on sticks that they used to wipe their bums. Each soldier probably carried his own sponge, since using one immediately after someone else would not have been appealing.

The Latin word for sewer is cloaca — the main sewer in Rome was called the cloaca maxima — and the Romans worshipped Cloacina, the goddess of the lavatory. There is even a poem in her honour:

O Cloacina, Goddess of this place,
Look on thy servant with a smiling face.
Soft and cohesive let my offering flow—
Not rudely swift, nor obstinately slow.

https://www.thelonedrainerandpronto.com.au/

Vaporooter Guarantee

Blocked drains are a major problem – any way you look at it!

Tree root invasion of sewer lines is a common cause of such blockages — BUT, when left unattended, tree roots will cause major damage to your sewer pipes (which, as you might imagine, can be far more troublesome than just any old blockage, not to mention the resulting sewerage backflow).

Replacing broken or collapsed sewer pipes can be a VERY expensive exercise…

Thankfully, there is a solution!

The best solution available is Sanafoam Vaporooter. When applied to sewer lines correctly, the foam coats the interior of the affected pipes, seeping through any fine cracks which may have been created by the invading tree roots, and killing off any roots it comes into contact with. Vaporooter is so effective, that we guarantee the results for 12 months

Vaporooter: The BEST solution for tree roots in sewers!
https://www.thelonedrainerandpronto.com.au/vaporooter.php

What Happens When Tree Roots Grow In Sewer Pipes

The intrusion of tree roots in sewer pipes is probably the most destructive single element that faces those maintaining a sewer collection system today.

Sewers are ageing expensive assets that only attract public attention when they fail. There are more than 35,000 kms of water and sewer pipes in Sydney and 60% of all collection systems are made up of pipes with a diameter of 9 inches (225 mm) or smaller. The potential for tree root intrusion to inhibit flows, produce blocked drains and damage valuable pipes, is enormous.

Tree roots normally do not grow underwater and seldom cause problems where ground water covers the pipe. But in most areas, this is not the case.

Tree Roots Grow One Cell at a Time

When a seed germinates, it adds one cell at a time toward the best environment from which it might extract nutrients and moisture. The growing point of a tree moves best through loosely cultivated soil.

The most common practice used to lay sewer pipes is in an open trench. The back-filled soil offers a good growing medium for tree roots. Because the flow in sewer pipes is a higher temperature than the soil, this causes a condensation to appear on the crown of the pipe.

As the warm moisture from the sewer pipe evaporates up through the soil, the vapours offer an excellent trail for the tree roots to follow. If a vapour leak exists in the pipe, the roots concentrate its efforts at that point. Since some pipe joint compounds are of nutrient based material themselves (like rubber rings or sand cement mix), the root may entirely girdle before entering the pipe.

Roots Allow Accumulation of Debris

Once inside the sewer pipe, the root takes on the appearance of a “veil” or “horse tail” type structure. If flows in the pipes are fairly constant, the root mass hangs down like a veil to the normal flow level where they accumulate deposits of grease, slime and other debris.

Conventional methods of removing tree roots by cutting with an electric eel or a “Rattlesnake” high pressure water drain cleaner tend to increase regrowth; similar to pruning a tree. Removing tree roots inside the pipe solves the immediate problem of clearing the blocked drain, but does nothing to retard the tree root regrowth or destroy the tree roots outside the pipe.

This removal, regrowth and removal cycle of cutting and tearing roots can destroy the structural integrity of the pipe.

Herbicide Fumigants

Herbicide fumigants present  the most effective method to destroy tree roots and inhibit their regrowth without affecting the above ground plant life. Vaporooter is a root control herbicide that enters the sewer as a foam. Only tree roots within the pipe and a short distance outside the pipe are affected. Trees and shrubs immediately above ground are not harmed in any way.

https://www.thelonedrainerandpronto.com.au/vaporooter.php

Plumbing Apprenticeship – ‘Giving back to the Community’

At The Lone Drainer and Pronto we like “Giving Back” to the community because the Plumbing industry has been very good to me and my family.

Every year around January we have anywhere from 5 to 20 boys (or their mothers) contact us inquiring about a plumbing apprenticeship. We have trained 9 apprentices in 20 years (plumbers apprenticeship is 4 years).

In early January we received the usual phone calls, letters and emails from people asking aboutplumbing apprenticeship. One day we received a call from a lady (she sounded late 40’s early 50’s) asking for a plumbing apprenticeship. I replied saying, “with the greatest respect, you sound a little old to be starting an apprenticeship.”

You could almost hear this lady blushing down the phone… She said, “I’m ringing for my son.” She told me all he ever wanted to be was a plumber! So we talked a little about her son and about his experience and she said he was very shy! I asked her to get him to ring and speak to me if he was keen about trying to develop the skills that he would need in his preferred occupation.

Three days later  her son “Francis” rang and he told me how they had laughed about my quip about his mum being “a little old to start”. He sounded like a great kid and I invited him over to our office to talk. I showed him around our office, workshop and store and he was able to take a look at plumbing stuff, pipes and fittings. He loved the experience! I could not take him on at that time, but invited him to come back at his leisure and ask questions or check out anything about plumbing that he was interested in.

Francis came back twice over the next few weeks and about a month later, he rang me to say he had got an apprenticeship with a plumbing company near his home. He sounded completely different to the shy kid who got his mum to ring. He said he had the confidence to apply for a job because the things we had shown him, the pipes, the fittings, the equipment, the jargon, had given him enough confidence to get him over the line at another job interview.

He thanked me profusely.

I see Francis at local plumbing suppliers and he always has a smile and we have a chat. It’s great to know our industry will be in good hands in the future.

The distinction!
No matter how simple, always try to pass on the knowledge, educate and inform!

It’s like sowing a crop!

Plant the seeds … Add water and sunshine …  Prepare for harvest.

https://www.thelonedrainerandpronto.com.au/unmasked.php

Symptoms of a Blocked Drain

As Easter approaches we make plans to get together with our family and friends, so there is constant use of kitchen and bathroom facilities. To make the holiday break memorable and keep an eye out for some of those vital symptoms that might indicate you have a slow or blocked drain rather than having to call an emergency plumber to rescue you and your family from a blockage.

Keep an eye out for the following:

  • The excessive rise or fall of the water level in your toilet. We call it syphoning, and it comes with a Glug Glug Glug.
  • Slow draining water or ankle deep water in the shower or bath.
  • Swarms of small flies  or sewer flies around smelly drains.
  • Your kitchen sink, waste disposal unit or dishwasher are slow to drain.
  • Toilet paper or dirty water around your sewer surcharge gully in the garden or yard.
  • Dirty water leaking from a retaining wall or garden bed that conceals sewer pipes.

These are signs of a blockage, and your pipes have been trying to tell you, that all isn’t well.

Because you have extra guests using the facilities, if there is a problems in your pipes it may likely show signs then that you are able to pick up.

So have a look around you home for the symptoms and please do not ignore them.

Have a peaceful Easter.

I hope the Easter Bunny comes!

Fixing a Blocked Drain with The Electric Eel!

I asked Bruno, the plumber, to attend to a blocked drain at a well-known food shop in Bondi as I was on crutches and could not do so myself.

Whilst Bruno was fixing the blocked drain he rang me to say that he couldn’t get the electric eel out of the drain pipe and could I come and help.  My wife (who was 8 months pregnant at the time) drove me to the site and I limped in and found Bruno with the electric eel over an access drain with the eel cables stuck fast!

“What happened” I asked. Bruno said, “The eel cables just kept going in, so I kept on putting them in”.

“How much cable is in that hole”? I asked. “About 45 feet” (15 metres) he replied!

“How far to the blocked toilet”? I asked”  “About 10 feet” he replied!  I cringed!

I held on to my crutches and tried to help Bruno drag that electric eel out of that pipe. It wouldn’t budge!

Fortunately for us, the house behind the shop was vacant …. except for the “beast” that had been unleashed in the bathroom. The extra 35 feet of eel had come out through the back of the toilet, done a complete circuit of the small bathroom, then out the door and down the hallway towards the kitchen. The spinning action of the eel had allowed it to grab the old carpet hall runner in a “death roll”. When we had tried to wrestle the eel from the pipe, the old carpet had got stuck fast!

We were of course able to salvage the situation, had the carpet cleaned, replaced the loo and successfully cleared the blockage.

Some 12 years later when I have a coffee with Bruno (who now has his own very successful plumbing business) and we laugh about our daily plumbing lives, telling those gathered about the dangers of the electric eel, Bruno still blushes and says “David, it’s just The Nature of The Beast“!

Plumbing Tip: Don’t keep putting your resources into a black hole!

https://www.thelonedrainerandpronto.com.au/plumbing_services.php

Plumbing Industry ‘Food Safe’ Cleaners

I am often asked how surfaces that need to be ‘food safe‘ e.g. in cafes, restaurants and any establishments that prepare or manufacture food products or meals, should be kept clean.

A colleague, Gavin Buckett, of The Gourmet Guardian is a food safety specialist and has this advice to offer.

In the food industry, most people are aware that bacteria in food can be dangerous. This is particularly so if the food is served by someone who hasn’t washed their hands or if the food has been stored at the wrong temperature. Equally as well known, is that no one wants to find a foreign object such as a Band-Aid, piece of metal or a cigarette butt, in their food.

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) is an internationally recognised preventative food management system, and ALL food safety hazards are categorised into only one of three different types.

The first example is called a microbiological hazard and is caused by one of three problems: the food hasn’t been handled, stored or transported properly.

The second example is called a physical hazard. That is any foreign object or extraneous matter that you would not normally expect to find in that particular food product.

The third type of hazard is called a chemical hazard and is often forgotten or disregarded. Chemical hazards are chemical substances that can cause poisoning or illness if they are not adequately removed or if excessive levels are present. We all use chemicals to clean, but did you know that if you use the wrong chemical or use a chemical incorrectly; what you are doing may be more dangerous than not washing your hands before handling food? Cleaning chemicals are vital in ensuring that dangerous bacteria is removed from our kitchens and food contact surfaces, but you must ensure that they are used correctly.

In a separate Blog Post I explain how “Chemicals can clean, but chemicals can kill”, but in short, you must ensure that if you are using a chemical in a kitchen or food processing area, that the chemical is “Food Safe”.

A Food Safe chemical is a chemical that:

  • Is designed for use in the food industry
  • Will not contaminate food or food products if used correctly

In Export Meat Establishments ALL chemicals that are used, must have been approved by the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS). As a rule of thumb, I recommend to my clients to ONLY use chemicals that have been approved by AQIS, even if they aren’t export registered establishments. The cost of acquiring this approval is $200 and is valid for five years; so if a chemical supplier is not prepared to have the chemical registered then they can’t be serious about it’s suitability for use in the food industry. Once the chemical is approved, it must be used as it is intended to be used. Even if a chemical is deemed food safe, there are some chemicals that are not suitable to use on a food contact surface (such as a disinfectant or floor cleaner).

Always check on the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) its:

  • Intended use
  • Correct dilution
  • Any Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) that might be needed
  • If it needs to air-dry OR be rinsed off after the exposure time

If the MSDS does not state that it is intended for use in food premises, then the chemical must not be used.

Plumbing Humour

Today’s post is courtesy of Dr Marc Dussault, who is Australia’s #1 Exponential Growth Strategist. It’s a hilarious YouTube video that he has posted on his Personal Mastery Blog.

Click here to view the video. It’s about a toilet-house built in South Korea; it shows what passion is all about – even when you’re in the Toilet Industry!

Marc calls this “antimimeticisomorphism” – shifting ones thinking to create an exponential mindset by doing something out-of-the-ordinary to achieve extra-ordinary results. He has an entire website devoted to this amazing concept!

Stay tuned for more intriguing posts like this one! Who said plumbing can’t be fun?!?!?!?

Welcome to Sydney’s Premier Plumbing Services Blog!

We have launched the Lone Drainer and Pronto’s NEW Blog!

We invite you to access our new blog regularly to see the modifications, changes and enhancements that have been made as well as the jokes, funny stories and videos that we’re going to be posting.

We are Sydney’s premier plumbing service and are ready to deal with all your plumbing emergencies and issues including blocked drains, emergency plumbing, drainoscopy as well as provide you with tips on how to take care of your pipes and drains.

We take what we do VERY SERIOUSLY, but we also like to take a light-hearted approach that will lighten the mood to make you relax.