REALLY exciting question

[Jimbob]

No really...

Please enlighten me, I have a motive for kitchen mixer taps and associated valves, connectors etc. I am looking to purchase lots of these from a far away place.

The supplier has ISO 9002 certification, they also mark their products with the CE logo to indicate the product is suitable for the European market.

However... what about British standards? Is the CE logo good enough for you as a plumber/plumber outlet/merchant supplier etc... or are you looking for specific British standards (kitemark, BS864, EN1254).

If you are enclined to this sort of thing please drop me a line.

Merry Christmas!

[Blackbeard]

Before you purchase LOTS of anything from some faraway place, please take a few minutes and check the plumbing code. Those valves MUST be stamped with very specific numbers or they are not legal to use in the United States. You may find something similar in Britain. Just be sure those numbers are stamped on whatever you install. Most plumbing inspectors don't check that sort of thing. But I've run into a few inspectors who will nail you on some crazy shit.

Had a friend last week who had to hack out a sizeable section of a new install. The pipe he purchased from the supply house had been stored out in the sun and the lettering had been bleached out by the sun. The inspector saw no markings (as required by code) and made him cut it all out and re-plumb the damn thing with stamped pipe. This same plumbing inspector is well known in my area. He turns down tubs and sinks and everything else if the cleaning lady removes the stickers before he gets there. We have contractors having to pay for company reps to come to the jobsite and put new stickers on the tub. So yeah, be careful that what you buy is something you can actually use.

[Dale Wilcox]

Wow Black, you work in bellevue Wa. too?

[Blackbeard]

I don't know how some of these guys keep their jobs as inspectors. I had one inspector fail a final because I didn't have a 1/2-gal/min aerator on a commercial lavatory. The appropriate aerator WAS installed. Anybody who knows plumbing knows the difference just by running the water. But this guy told me that the box wasn't on the job so he had no way to tell what type of aerator I had in there.

This is the same guy who last year wrapped his arms and legs around my

4" waste pipe and bounced his body weight up and down (the guy weighs over 300-lbs). When the straps BROKE, he failed the inspection because it was not properly strapped (even though I had straps every 4-feet). I called the state to complain. The guy cost me an inspection, and cost me better than a full day of labor and materials re-plumbing things that were damaged by his fat ass. Unfortunately, this guy gets away with pretty much whatever. He's good friends with the dog at the top of the heap. They go fishing together regularly. Damn...welcome to north carolina...

I found out later that this particular inspector actually keeps a little notebook and makes notes when contractors piss him off. The particular contractor I was working for had gone over the plumbing inspectors head a year earlier and forced the inspections office to pass a job that the inspector wasn't prepared to pass. So this contractor is on the plumbing inspectors shit list..pretty much forever from what I understand. Everyone is looking for this guy to retire..or something.

[Jimbob]

The taps/faucets I am looking at are from China. I have discovered that only two companies out there have WRAS (UK) approval.

British standards seem to be a minefield. There are so many different standards I am surprised they're allowed to call them standards at all. I think I'm gonna have to get a few of things over here, put them through a lab to check that they don't bleed chrome or any other nasties into the water etc etc.

Like you say Blackbeard, I'm going to need to find the appropriate standard and get 'em approved and stamped up.

Out of curiosity, is their a specific agency in the US that looks at standards for the plumbing industry? If so, who are they?

Thanks.

[Blackbeard]

Yeah, but it's a long ridiculous list (appendix H in the plumbing code). Here they are...

ANSI (American National Standards Institute)

ARI (Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Institute)

ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers)

ASSE (American Society of Sanitary Engineering)

ASTM (American Society of Testing & Materials)

AWS (American Welding Society)

AWWA (American Water Works Association)

CSA (Canadian Standards Association)

CISPI (Cast Iron Soil Pipe Institute)

FS (Federal Specifications - General Service Administration)

ICC (International Code Council)

NFPA (National Fire Protection Association)

NSF (National Sanitation Foundation)

PDI (Plumbing & Drainage Institute))