40
PROJECT
“One thing
that proves
a common
challenge in
development
like Katherine
Towers is that
when you are
dealing with
tenants, the
tenant criteria
can change all
the time.”
Says Trinesh Chanka of Izazi Consulting Engineers, “We
chose copper for the installation because we went to
tender on alternate piping solutions, and what we found
is that the overall cost to the client at the end of the day
is still more expensive for the alternate piping solutions.
You will get a lot of stories from a lot of suppliers telling
you that alternatives are cheaper, but then you start
investigating as we did, and the result is that on a project
such as Katherine Towers, the entire system is cheaper
in copper, and this needs to be factored in for the
client at the end of the day because everything is price
sensitive these days.”
Security on site is obviously important and should
definitely be an element where no corners are cut.
Two 5 000ℓ hot water storage vessels and heatpumps
powering the hot water generation system are installed
in the plant room on the ground floor.
fail, there are electrical back-up elements in the storage
tanks that would turn on automatically on a false signal
from the heat pumps.
The hot water is circulated throughout the building, up
one of the ablution cores, and then turns on the topmost
level and down the next ablution core, and then returns
to the boiler. There is a ring of circulating hot water with
no dead legs longer than 12m as per the requirements
of the national standards.
The domestic cold water installation consists mainly of
large bore galvanised steel piping, typically from 50mm
to 100mm. Small bore cold water piping as well as all
hot water piping was plumbed using copper.
A common noting or complaint from industry is that
plumbers want to stay away from copper because of theft,
but according to Leon Tobias of Jazzman Plumbing, “in all
reality copper is still a cheaper option – even considering
the theft element. The cost difference in fittings is vast
between copper and plastic piping systems, even though
the pipe is more or less the same price. When you look
at big installations like this, copper lands up being highly
competitive. Other companies may argue that plastic
piping is better and faster to install, but for the plumbers
on site chasing of the walls is still needed, you still have to
install the pipe, still have to crimp the fittings and so on, so
the time spent is not actually less.”
July 2019 Volume 25 I Number 5
All of the waste lines installed are the Valsir HDPE
system and the rainwater system installed is the Valsir
Rainplus system. Rainplus was selected because it was
also a cheaper overall solution and because the systems
are interchangeable, it was just easier to run with. In
terms of the HDPE drainage system, it was selected
simply because it is a more robust system than PVC and
its longevity is superior. You also don’t have the risk of
the issue of glue coming undone in a couple of years.
PRODUCT CHOICES
Jazzman Plumbing contributed to the choices of sanitary
and brassware, which specified the same products as
the Sasol Head Office, which is two buildings down. The
choice of products were based on an overall experience
with the brands, that are reliable and available.
One particular thing about choosing copper and
galvanised pipework was that for a maintenance service,
this is readily available from any plumber, and you also
don’t need any specialised fittings or tools to weld
the piping, which is one of the advantages of using a
standard copper or galvanised system. Also, if a leak is
sprung at midnight, the chances of you finding someone
who deals with copper or galvanised is much more likely
than with any specialised pipe system.
IMPACT ON EFFICIENCY AND SUSTAINABILITY
The Katherine Towers project is on par with the Green
Star rating system for water usage guidelines. There are
low-flow fittings installed on all units, so all of the basins,
taps, and WCs are low flow.
UNIQUE SYSTEM ELEMENTS
One of the things that was initially a worry for the wet
services team was the fact that building was 20 storeys
high and the plant room was on the ground floor. If you
have to estimate on a 20-storey building with each floor
being 3.5m high, this equates to 70m tall, which then
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