Hello and Happy New Year,
I built my home but subcontracted the plumbing and septic install. I am having a dispute with the plumbing contractor over their testing of the DWV.
I understand it is standard practice to
1. Inflate a balloon at the sewer outlet of the house (before the septic tank)
2. Cap all the drain pipes where all the fixtures will be
3. To cap off any low lying vent caps (for us, the ones on the single story side of the two story house)
4. Filling the DWV pipes with water to prove there are no leaks.
My questions:
Is this correct? Are there any other practices used to prevent the balloon from getting flushed into the septic tank when deflated? Specifically, is the septic tank outlet filter ever used at the inlet end to catch the balloon if it gets away when deflating it?
I haven’t found any references to this topic on the FH DVD.
Thanks for you insights,
Mark
Replies
Mark,
You listed one of two possibilities.
An air test is also allowed as a leak test (at least here in my area).
Temporary caps are glued in and an air pressure gauge and air fitting (tire stem ) affixed to a cleanout , system is pressurized and has to remain under pressure for a certain period of time.
The "balloon" is usually attached to a chain or rope that is tied off to either the pipe or some other object so that accidental flushing of it does not occur. Most are long enough that only part of it blocks off the pipe, the other part remains visible in the cleanout vertical so it can be inflated and deflated.
It is pretty easy to hold on to it with one hand and let some air out with the other until it can be pulled.
What is the nature of you and your plumbers dispute? I get the impression that you are quite a bit less than skookum savy about this subject.
Is there truly a dispute? Or is someone getting tired of answering ill-informed questions?
Standard DWV test is 10' of water column pressure.
We fill the pipes with water so that every joint has 10' of head pressure, except those that are less than ten feet below the highest roof vent.
In my area I can test with air as long as there is no plastic pipe on the system.
Test balloons are common practice to plug a pipe, they com with a chain that usually has a ring on the end that is larger than the pipe so it won't go down inside it.
Here are the test ballons we use. http://www.cherneind.com/cats/Cherne%20Catalog%202006%20Page%204.pdf
After rough in mine was pressurized after capping and left while the other subs were doing their thing. Same with the heating systems.
Only heard one PPFFTTTTT from the drywaller. (not surprising as they were the worst dirtballs)
didnt Gunner have this problem couple months ago
If you test with air do not use over 5psi. Twenty minutes is the normal test time here.