Standards & Qualifying For Them
“I love your coating machine for rehabilitating drain, waste and vent piping and usually apply it as a repair. I have never pulled permits or requested an inspection from the local sewer agency, but I was working on a condo unit when an inspector showed up and asked what I was doing. After I explained the process he asked if I pulled a permit to perform the work and what the standard was for the work I was doing. He asked for the standard for the process and whether the material I was using was tested to the standard. Can you help me? Why are they asking for standards and approvals for a repair process?”
Welcome to the world of plumbing codes and standards. It’s mostly about unknowns and value. For an agency to ask for paperwork and money to change out a faucet would most likely be more expensive than a faucet so they tend to ignore that process – especially since the replacement of faucets occurs worldwide daily, is a known process, and value tends to be low enough not to bother with it.
UPC 
IAPMO 
ICC-ES
When you encounter a building inspector while performing the coating process they are trying to comprehend what you are doing, and if the value of what you are doing crosses a threshold they consider revenue for the agency in permit fees. The reason for learning about what you are doing is that property owners expect building inspectors to be the protection from unproven processes that may cost them money for no gain. If a process is applied and it fails, many owners look to the local agencies for reimbursement. So the agencies want to know what is being applied to projects within their jurisdiction.
The second issue is value. Agencies continually look for revenue, and if a process has a large enough value they see it as a way to add revenue to their coffers. These are accomplished by permit fees.
The coating process is relatively new to the market-place and not many know anything about it. Since they can’t know everything about everything they look to standards to rely on processes that have some standard application measurements. Once they establish that the work you are performing has a standard, they then look toward the materials being applied to see if the materials have been tested and passed the standards. If you demonstrate that the materials and processes applied to meet the standards, you’ve relieved some of the concern about being held responsible for misapplied products or materials that may fail.
Pipe Lining Supply meets the standards for coating drain, waste and vent piping established by IAPMO through the Uniform Plumbing Code IGC-351-19-a and ICC through the International Plumbing Code PMG-1485. These standards express a method to rehabilitate DWV piping and Pipe Lining Supply Corp has submitted the process and materials to the agencies for testing and passed their testing to meet the standard.
For more information contact Pipe Lining Supply at +1-888-354-6464 or email us at info@pipeliningsupply.com.
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