PROJECT
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plumbing system was up-and-running in the minimum
time,” says Tsabedze.
“One of the principle reasons for choosing to work with
Geberit was the local backup. The system is relatively
easy to maintain and, with aid from Geberit themselves,
keeping it up and running over the years should be a
simple matter,” explains Tsabedze.
In the bathrooms, Uhuru installed Geberit cisterns for all
toilets. Once again, the major concerns were reliability
and the ease of future maintenance, which, according
to Tsabedze, was pretty much guaranteed due to the
proven history of the Geberit system, but the 4.5ℓ flush
was also considered attractive.
The building consists of 10 courtrooms, including one civil court, two
family courts, and one child, domestic violence, and peace order court.
“If the rest of the system wasn’t already Geberit,
we probably would have gone with their cisterns due
to the 25-year guaranteed spare parts availability,”
says Tsabedze.
The domestic water system ends in the bathrooms
through the Geberit Bathroom Collection, which is
described as being elegant and functional with a focus
on how easy they are to clean and, once again, maintain.
The interesting part of the domestic water system is the
way the water is heated. The hot water system uses two
ring mains via circulation pumps from the two different hot
water tanks and electrical element backups. These two hot
water tanks are heated by the VRF heat recovery system,
with electrical elements as a backup in the event of HVAC
failure or downtime. This system ensures a significant
energy saving, which in turn leads to lower running costs.
Due to the desire to save space, Uhuru went with the
Geberit Pluvia roof drainage system, which requires
fewer downpipes due to its high-volume capabilities, and
maximises the use of space inside the building due to its
ability to lay pipes horizontally without slopes.
The result is an efficient and extremely resilient system
that pleased the final client and met all the SABS and
Department of Works requirements. PA
Uhuru Wetu Consulting were the wet
engineers on the project.
The system uses Grundfos pumps to move water
into Geberit Mapress Stainless Steel pipes.
LIST OF PROFESSIONALS
Project name Booysens Magistrate’s Court
Owner / User / Client Department of Justice and Constitutional
Development
Client Department of Public Works
Developer / Implementing agent Independent Development Trust
Architect / Designer Consultium Architects & Urban Designers
in JV with Co-Arc International Architects
Project manager Triviron Project Management
Consulting engineer Electrical Rivoningo Consulting Engineers
Mechanical engineer Uhuru Wetu Consulting
Wet services engineer Uhuru Wetu Consulting
Civil engineer ARUP
Contractors
Main building Clear Choice Builders
HVAC&R Firstcool
Wet services SolaPlumb
Electrical EIS Electrical
Product suppliers
www.plumbingafrica.co.za
Product Supplier
HVAC Mitsubishi VRF Heat Recovery
HPAC HiRef
Fresh-air Petra Fresh-air Rooftops
Plumbing piping Geberit
Sanitary fittings Geberit
Pumps Grundfos
February 2019 Volume 24 I Number 12