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Project
1
to capture the rainwater off the main office block’s roof
and a portion of the factory roof. Due to the design of
the building, using 160mm pipework to discharge the
rainwater would not have been possible, thus 110mm
pipework was used. However, three separate sets of
110mm discharge pipework were installed to cope with
the volume of water that would discharge off the roof
space. (This was a lot easier said than done by the way,
considering the size of the tanks, which made them
awkward to carry. It took at least five people to carry one
tank around the building!)
So how does the system work?
2
The existing downpipes were cut off and the team
installed new 110mm white PVC pipes with holderbats.
They ran the pipework on the left-hand side, the front
side, and down the right side of the building. Because of
the indentations of the building, as well as the existing
air conditioners on the outside, it wasn’t possible to use
160mm pipework as it was too thick to allow for neat
bends (or to fit behind the air-conditioning units). The
bends on the 160mm would not only affect the neatness,
but also the functioning and fitting of the system. Hence
the selection of the 110mm alternative.
The left-hand side of the building has four downpipes
that run around the building and into the second tank.
Whereas in front of the building, two downpipes were
1. Leaf catchers have been installed on the
downpipes to keep the system clean.
2. 110mm PVC pipe was used throughout to
navigate the indentations of the building.
3. The five 5 000ℓ tanks on the side of the building.
3
September 2017 Volume 23 I Number 7
www.plumbingafrica.co.za