Testings to Conduct to avoid Plumbing Leaks in your Households | #Construction Diary 003

Plumbing Leaks are one of the common problems homeowners experience in their households. A Lot of owners didn't know why it happened and how to fix and avoid it. Here are some reasons why this problem occurs; faulty plumbing fixtures, unexpected water pressure, and poor quality of installation.

For today's blog, I will share with you some of the testing and Inspections I conducted on our Housing project site today September 7, 2024, that you can also conduct in your household to avoid Plumbing Leaks.

Hello builders in Hiver around the world, It's Saturday now but sad to say we have a site duty. I know the weekend would be a rest day and a family day but as one of the corporate slaves in the Philippines. We need to work to survive.

Anyway, for today's Testing and Inspection, we have five requested works to conduct onsite and some of those are Inspections that help to address our concern above. let me start with those ones.

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Sanitary Line Leak Test

It's 1: 00 pm and this testing starts my afternoon inspection, there are four units to be inspected and ready. It is one of the tests we require in construction to avoid unnecessary leaking in sanitary lines that can cause foul odors and harm our health.

For this test, we conduct its final measurement after two hours of holding the water in the pipeline. Comparing the initial and final measurements only three had passed. One has failed and needs to be repaired and retested.

How to conduct this Test?

After the plumbers installed the sanitary line system, secure all ends and cleanouts are plugs. Make stable support and make sure all pipes are visible to check. Leave one pipe in a higher place where you will fill water the entire sanitary line just like in the photo. Make sure to leave a place to measure the water.

Then now, measure the initial data of water drop from the edge of the pipe, hold it for two hours then observe. After measuring for the final water drop. If the final is not the same as the initial it is failed. And you need to check the leaking and retest until it passes the test.

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Pressure Test

It was already 2:30 pm on this day when I conducted this test in one house unit we constructed, we required everyone we built to have this to ensure our waterline installed would function well when the homeowners had their unit.

As you can see in the gauge it reads 80 Psi, It is the required pressure we set to test the piping system that is good and stands on the pressure. For this unit, it passes the Test.

How to conduct this Test ?

After the plumbers have fully installed your waterline system and sealed all the ends with plugs or caps, secure all fittings and tighten them properly. Next, you need to fill the water line with water and then pressurize the pipe beyond its operating pressure. The operating pressure is 1.5 times the design pressure from your water supply.

You need a hydraulic test pump as a medium to pressurize the pipe and have the gauge pressure to read and control the pressure inside the system. After setting up the pressure. Close the valve. This time you will observe the reading of the gauge at a certain time.

In our practice, we observed it for two hours. In that span, we will monitor it, and if there is a decrease in pressure after two hours there is a possible leak that needs to be addressed.

Have you heard of this kind of testing? If not yet you should learn about this test and conduct it. Lacking of pressure tests conducted on your households might be the reason why your waterline is dripping. you have unexpected leaks on your walls and broken plumbing fixtures.

And for not having a Sanitary Line test conducted is very harmful, It will affect everyone's health, and imagine you are living just like inside a septic tank. Are you okay with that?

These tests are just simple and even not a technical one can do it. Just follow the procedure properly and the required measurement.

For the remaining 3 works, all are inspections. Rebar inspection of wallfooting and Upstand wall and the other one is formworks installation. So far all items are complete and the formwork is installed properly. This Item should be inspected in the morning, but since it's not ready yet, I moved it to the afternoon after the two tests in our plumbing system that we discussed.

That's it guys for this blog hoping you learned new construction knowledge on this. Thank you for having an interest in construction. Let's build together a safe modern world.

This is @intoy.bugoy! See you in my next Hiventure 😉

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