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done correctly and there are no leaks,” Burger advises.“ You have to make sure that there are no pipes bending or warping on any fittings. Is the pressure sufficient and are the clients happy with it? Are they happy with the flow rate through the pipes?”
Once the system was online, the team had to go through every water point on the property to make sure the pressure is right, to every draw off point. Were the geysers filling up correctly? Were the toilets flushing? They had to make sure that no valves are blocked. All in all, a very laborious process, considering the size of the schools.
Challenges Because of the location of the schools, theft was an issue, Burger explains. Usually the pipework connecting the tanks together and the pump to the tanks, is copper. But on these sites, 50mm uPVC pipes were used instead, because there is no interest in these pipes to be stolen and sold for scrap metal.
Another challenge was mixing the concrete, as the area where the slabs were going to be installed does not have water points nearby. It is quite a large property and the closest water point was about 200m away from where the tanks were going up. How did they solve it? There was a pressure gauge on the municipal line behind the water meter in a manhole, so they removed the pressure gauge and installed a lever valve under pressure and used that as a draw off point to mix the concrete. They also had the challenge of the rain downpours. This installation was done during one of the periods that Johannesburg experienced flash floods, and especially Heidelberg received a lot of rain. This made the job quite tricky for the Burgess team. The concrete was timed on the weekend it didn’ t rain, but the excavation and pipework had to be done in the rain.
Distance to site was also quite a challenge as Burgess’ s head office is based in Edenvale. So, the team spent a lot of time in traffic and put in some long hours to get the job done.
Turning off the water was also a big thing, as the school was operational during the entire installation. The water could only be turned off at very specific times to minimise the impact. They had to give an indication of how long the water would be off and stick to those deadlines exactly. So, they turned it off just after second break as the kids had already been to the restrooms and had already eaten, so the hostels didn’ t have to cook still.“ There were so many variables to take into consideration when doing this project,” says Burger.
List of professionals Wet service installation:
• Burgess and Partners Plumbing Services
Suppliers:
• JoJo Tanks
• HMS pumps( Hendrie Schalkwyk)
• Astore Africa( Boksburg) – uPVC pipework and fittings
• Cobra ball, lever, and gate valves
• Genebre gate valves. PA
JW Luckhoff Child and Youth Care Centre in Heidelberg.
www. plumbingafrica. co. za April 2017 Volume 23 I Number 2