Plumbing Safety

How to Hire an Industrial Plumbing Repair Specialist

If you’re the manager of owner of buildings that are zoned and constructed for commercial purposes, especially if you’re involved in warehouse or other large industry management, you need to know about industrial plumbing repair.

Commercial plumbing isn’t the same as residential – we’re talking about tens or even hundreds of thousands of gallons being pumped through a single location at a single time.

That’s nowhere near what it’s like to plumb a residence, so you can’t afford to be a property owner or manager who doesn’t understand the difference.

Underground (Main System) Plumbing

Most residential homes have a basic plumbing system that runs underground from the city’s main water pipes to the internal pipes in the house. Of course, commercial buildings have a similar structure, but it is far more complex, to account for the numerous pipes and tons of water flow going into and out of the building.

The mechanical joints under the building, the soldering, brazing, and fusion methods that are used on larger and more solid industrial piping, are more intense, requiring different training and certifications from your industrial plumbing repair team.

General Building Plumbing – Boiler Room

Your home likely has an electric or gas tank-type water heater, but an industrial building will have an industrial boiler. These large, complicated pieces of equipment are heavy-duty, multi-level pipe structures and carefully engineered water control systems that include storage tanks, boilers, and house pumps.

When something goes wrong in your boiler room, don’t even think about trying any amateur approaches to the problem – you’re dealing with pressures and temperatures that are far greater than any residential system. You need an industrial plumbing repair tech who is not only qualified on boiler systems in general, but on your specific type of boiler system.

General Building Plumbing – Sprinkler & Emergency Systems

One of the most water-needy things in your building may not even use water regularly, but it needs to be standing with a ready supply at all times, is your sprinkler system.

Hire the right industrial plumbing repair team to work on the piping underneath your building.

If you have a sprinkler throughout your building that uses water (as opposed to a chemical or waterless system), talk to your industrial plumbing repair tech about how to make sure that the system is maintained and ready to work at a moment’s notice.

It can be the difference between a saved business and a lost one.

General Building Plumbing – Bathrooms

Sure, bathrooms seem simple enough. But don’t let appearances fool you. If you’ve worked on your bathroom in your house, you know the basics of what it takes to make industrial plumbing repairs in business bathrooms, but you still have to consider the differences between them.

Fixture Types and Placement

For one, business bathrooms tend to include more fixtures than residential bathrooms. When you have a row of toilets, which are often touchless or motion-sensor activated, you can encounter different issues with the water flow and piping needs than in a home. The same idea goes for a row of sinks.

A small problem can turn into a big industrial plumbing repair in a complex boiler room.
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Second, there are different types of fixtures. While most homes have floor-mounted toilets that require a closet flange, businesses often have wall-hung toilets which need to be installed with a closet carrier behind the wall.

In addition, depending on your building’s needs or regulations in your area, you may need a lavatory chair carrier for your wall-mounted toilets (urinals) and you may need to install solar or other power-monitored tools to automatically conserve the water usage in your building.

Don’t Let Industrial Plumbing Repair Wait

Water can be one of the fastest-damaging elements to any business. If you see a leak, if one of your sprinkler system detectors alerts you to moisture, or if anyone reports an issue with condensation anywhere in the building, check it out immediately.

Little water problems turn into big water problems very quickly, so always make sure you have the right industrial plumbing repair team on your side.