Posted by Mark Slaby on November 6, 2008 at 11:00am
Recently we took on a job for a builder who had gone out of business. I got to see a few things up front and personal that I normally would not get to see. Among other things, we had to do the equipment set and hook up. Here is where we encountered a dozen extra 90s some digging and waste of time.We always think of optimum hydraulics yet we often don't do it in the end (or at the end) of the project.We work in the Central Florida area around Orlando/Mount Dora. In Florida, a pressure test is required prior to the deck pour. Many builders run the pipes from the pool and create a manifold of the pipes in a nice straight row -- 2 to 6 or more pipes 90ed straight up in a line about 2 inches from each other. They are connected by a single pressure gauge. Looks like a pipe organ. Then after the inspection the pipes are cut off under ground, redirected to the equipment pad and put in place for the final connections.By running the pipes to the exact spot of the equipment placement, we only have to cut the pipe and 90 them into the valve or equipment directly. See how the pipes are spaced for the future equipment set.Click on the link to see the picture from a project in 2004:Central Florida Pool Builder Mermaid Pools.JPGThis example shows 4 separate pressure gauges. We could have easily tied the pipes together as one and used one gauge. This was a fiberglass pool project requiring threaded plugs and if you've ever chased around the pool trying to figure out which plug is leaking -- you'll know why we did it (and we had four gauges on the truck.) Even though the requirement is that the piping hold 35 psi for 15 minutes the truth is that it will have to hold until the end of the next day as the inspector might not arrive until then.Here, as you can see, we make four cuts and 90 into two 3-way valves. Sometimes we even have the valves in place and he only thing to do is the 90. For security reasons, we usually bring the equipment out right when we are hooking up, like this case.In summary, hydraulics is all about ALL the piping.
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