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ARTICLE XVALLEGHENY COUNTYHEALTH DEPARTMENTPLUMBING CODE

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Article XV Allegheny County Health Department Plumbing Code

First Printing: September 2018

ISBN: 978-1-60983-820-1

COPYRIGHT © 2018 by

INTERNATIONAL CODE COUNCIL, INC.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This Article XV Allegheny County Health Department Plumbing Code contains substantial copy-righted materials from the 2009 International Plumbing Code®, 7th printing, which is a copyrighted work owned by the Interna-tional Code Council, Inc., that is copyright © 2009 International Code Council, Inc. Additionally, a substantial portion of allfigures included in this Article XV Allegheny County Health Department Plumbing Code were initially printed in the 2009 Inter-national Plumbing Code—Code and Commentary, which is a copyrighted work owned by the International Code Council, Inc.,that is copyright © 2010 International Code Council, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Without advance written permission fromthe copyright owner, no part of this work may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including,without limitation, electronic, optical or mechanical means (by way of example, and not limitation, photocopying, or recordingby or in an information storage retrieval system). For information on use rights and permissions, please contact: ICC Publica-tions, 4051 Flossmoor Road, Country Club Hills, IL 60478. Phone 1-888-ICC-SAFE (422-7233).

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PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.

T022787

ARTICLE XV ALLEGHENY COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT PLUMBING CODE iii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Allegheny County Health Department gratefully acknowledges the contribution of time, expertise and diligenteffort generously given by a variety of individuals in helping to bring this edition of the Article XV Allegheny CountyHealth Department Plumbing Code to fruition.

ALLEGHENY COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENTKaren Hacker, M.D., M.P.H.

DirectorJim Kelly

Deputy Director of Environmental HealthAndrew F. Grese

Plumbing Program Manager/Chief Plumbing InspectorMike Parker

Attorney

PLUMBING ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERSMartin O’Toole, Board ChairmanJohn Cummins, Board Vice-chairmanCharles L. DesmoneRuthann L. Omer, P. E.John InksRegis R. ClausJeff A. MartinMaura KennedyWilliam PriceJohn Moffett

CODE REVIEW COMMITTEEAndrew F. Grese

Plumbing Program ManagerIvo Miller

Assistant Program ManagerTim Mahoney

Plumbing Inspector SupervisorTom Ruffing

Plumbing Inspector SupervisorAndrew P. Grese

Plumbing Plans Examiner/SupervisorAmanda Minech

Senior Secretary ACHD Plumbing Division

INTERNATIONAL CODE COUNCILMargaret M. Leddin

Vice President, Publishing and Multimedia(Editor)

Beverly LedbetterPrint Production Technician(Layout)

iv ARTICLE XV ALLEGHENY COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT PLUMBING CODE

ARTICLE XV ALLEGHENY COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT PLUMBING CODE v

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1 ADMINISTRATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

PART 1—SCOPE AND APPLICATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Section

101 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

102 Applicability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

PART 2—ADMINISTRATION ANDENFORCEMENT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

103 Department of Plumbing Inspection . . . . . . . . . . . 2

104 Duties and Powers of the Code Official . . . . . . . . 2

105 Approval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

106 Permits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

107 Inspections and Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

108 Violations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

109 Means of Appeal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

AC-110 Plumbing Advisory Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

CHAPTER 2 DEFINITIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Section

201 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

202 General Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

CHAPTER 3 GENERAL REGULATIONS . . . . . . . 23

Section

301 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

302 Exclusion of Materials Detrimentalto the Sewer System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

303 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

304 Rodentproofing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

305 Protection of Pipes and PlumbingSystem Components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

306 Trenching, Excavation and Backfill . . . . . . . . . . 27

307 Structural Safety. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

308 Piping Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

309 Flood Hazard Resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

310 Washroom and Toilet RoomRequirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

311 Toilet Facilities for Workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

312 Tests and Inspections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

313 Equipment Efficiencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

314 Condensate Disposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

CHAPTER 4 FIXTURES, FAUCETS AND FIXTURE FITTINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Section

401 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

402 Fixture Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

403 Minimum Plumbing Facilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

404 Accessible Plumbing Facilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

405 Installation of Fixtures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

406 Automatic Clothes Washers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

407 Bathtubs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

408 Bidets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

409 Dishwashing Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

410 Drinking Fountains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

411 Emergency Showers and Eyewash Stations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

412 Floor and Trench Drains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

413 Food Waste Grinder Units. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

414 Garbage Can Washers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

415 Laundry Trays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

416 Lavatories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

417 Showers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

418 Sinks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

419 Urinals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

420 Water Closets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

421 Whirlpool Bathtubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

422 Health Care Fixtures and Equipment . . . . . . . . . 47

423 Specialty Plumbing Fixtures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

424 Faucets and Other Fixture Fittings . . . . . . . . . . . 48

425 Flushing Devices for Water Closets and Urinals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

426 Manual Food and BeverageDispensing Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

427 Floor Sinks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

CHAPTER 5 WATER HEATERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Section

501 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

502 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

503 Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

504 Safety Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

505 Insulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

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vi ARTICLE XV ALLEGHENY COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT PLUMBING CODE

CHAPTER 6 WATER SUPPLY ANDDISTRIBUTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Section

601 General. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

602 Water Required . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

603 Water Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

604 Design of Building Water Distribution System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

605 Materials, Joints and Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

606 Installation of the Building WaterDistribution System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

607 Hot Water Supply System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

608 Protection of Potable Water Supply. . . . . . . . . . . 70

609 Health Care Plumbing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

610 Disinfection of Potable Water System. . . . . . . . . 76

611 Drinking Water Treatment Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

612 Solar Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

613 Temperature Control Devices and Valves . . . . . . 76

CHAPTER 7 SANITARY DRAINAGE . . . . . . . . . . 77

Section

701 General. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

702 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

703 Building Sewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

704 Drainage Piping Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

705 Joints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

706 Connections between Drainage Piping and Fittings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

707 Prohibited Joints and Connections. . . . . . . . . . . . 88

708 Cleanouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

709 Fixture Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

710 Drainage System Sizing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

AC-711 Sizing of Offsets in Vertical Stacks . . . . . . . . . . . 94

712 Sumps and Ejectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

713 Health Care Plumbing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

714 Computerized Drainage Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

715 Backwater Valves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

CHAPTER 8 INDIRECT/SPECIAL WASTE . . . . 103

Section

801 General. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

802 Indirect Wastes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

803 Special Wastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

804 Materials, Joints and Connections . . . . . . . . . . . 107

CHAPTER 9 VENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Section

AC-901 Selecting Size of Vent Pipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

AC-902 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

AC-903 Protection of Trap Seals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

AC-904 Vent Stacks and Stack Vents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

AC-905 Vent Terminals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

AC-906 Vent Grade and Connections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

AC-907 Fixture Vents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

AC-908 Vents for Fixture Traps belowTrap Drip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

AC-909 Venting Requirements for Floor SetWater Closets and Pedestal Urinals. . . . . . . . 111

AC-910 Venting Requirements for Wall Hung,Valve-operated Water Closets. . . . . . . . . . . . 111

AC-911 Venting Requirements for Floor Drains and Similar Floor-level Connecting Fixtures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

AC-912 Venting Requirements for Water Closets,Floor Drains, Conductors or Similar Floor-level Connected Fixtures Located on Same Horizontal Branch of Building Drain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

AC-913 Circuit and Loop Venting for Water Closets and Pedestal Urinals (Floor-type Tank Operated, Valve-operated Wall-hung Tank Operated). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

AC-914 Common Vents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

AC-915 Relief or Yoke Vents for Stacks of More than Ten (10) Branch Intervals . . . . . . 113

AC-916 Venting of Sumps and Sewers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

917 Reserved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

918 Engineered Vent Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

919 Computerized Vent Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

AC-920 Air Admittance Valves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

CHAPTER 10 TRAPS, INTERCEPTORS AND SEPARATORS. . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Section

1001 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

1002 Trap Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

1003 Interceptors and Separators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

1004 Materials, Joints and Connections. . . . . . . . . . . 122

CHAPTER 11 STORM DRAINAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Section

1101 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

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ARTICLE XV ALLEGHENY COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT PLUMBING CODE vii

1102 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

1103 Traps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

1104 Conductors and Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

1105 Roof Drains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

1106 Size of Conductors, Leaders and Storm Drains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

1107 Secondary (Emergency) Roof Drains . . . . . . . . 125

1108 Combined Sanitary and Storm System . . . . . . . 125

1109 Values for Continuous Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

1110 Controlled Flow Roof Drain Systems . . . . . . . . 126

1111 Subsoil Drains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

1112 Building Subdrains. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

1113 Sumps and Pumping Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

CHAPTER 12 SPECIAL PIPING ANDSTORAGE SYSTEMS . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Section

1201 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

1202 Medical Gases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

1203 Oxygen Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

CHAPTER 13 REFERENCED STANDARDS. . . . . 131

APPENDIX A PLUMBING PERMIT FEE SCHEDULE - RESERVED . . . 141

APPENDIX B RATES OF RAINFALL FORVARIOUS CITIES - RESERVED . . 141

APPENDIX C GRAY WATER RECYCLINGSYSTEMS - RESERVED . . . . . . . . . 141

APPENDIX D DEGREE DAY AND DESIGNTEMPERATURES - RESERVED . . 141

APPENDIX E SIZING OF WATERPIPING SYSTEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Section

E101 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

E102 Information Required. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

E103 Selection of Pipe Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

E201 Selection of Pipe Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

E202 Determination of Pipe Volumes. . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

APPENDIX F STRUCTURAL SAFETY. . . . . . . . . 165

Section

F101 Cutting, Notching and Boring in Wood Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

APPENDIX G VACUUM DRAINAGE SYSTEM. . 167

Section

G101 Vacuum Drainage System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

APPENDIX AC-HILLUSTRATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171