Plumbing for Dummies

[WendyWelton]

I agree that the plumbers do the plumbing. No matter what an architect draws, they end up doing their own thing anyway. I find that the biggest issue is where pipes run through a floor. Here's what I've done to help them along, when a project warrants it (design budget to pay for it, a floor full of lights, steel, and ductwork, whatever):

I draw a Reflected Ceiling Plan that shows the following, each in a different color:

- The lights and J-boxes, with their backboxes at the correct size.
- The framing for the floor above.
- The plumbing fixtures for the floor above.
- The walls, doors and windows for the floor below (to show them where they can bring a pipe down.

I give this to the mechanical and plumbing contractors at the same time. They give it a good look over. Then we have a coordination meeting for them to negotiate over space.

It's a trick I learned doing high end retail work, when everything but the kitchen sink has to go in a very tight ceiling space. The advantage over the 3D is that it gives a drawing, to scale, that they can do their layout on, to scale. It's saved many a field headache and is the premise for their as-builts as well. I've even found that by dimensioning one or two specific floor joists, we save the guys having to move something in the field to accomodate that giant duct or sh... pipe.

I haven't needed this in Chief yet, but I have to think it would be fairly easy to do as a Cad Detail.

Wendy