Plumbing regulation in NZ - unlawful toilet installation

[David]

"In February, Ardern was featured in a newspaper article where she volunteered she and her partner had successfully installed a new toilet in their Auckland home "without flooding the place". Only problem was, such work must, by law, be carried out by a registered plumber.

Ardern clearly had no knowledge the task had to be undertaken by a professional; a complaint was made, she apologised and the regulatory body, the Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board (PGDB), issued a warning and called the matter closed.

However, PDGB chief executive Martin Sawyers says Ardern's accidental foray into an unlawful toilet installation was highly useful as an unintended publicity device.

"It showed a lot of people that a lot of people don't know that such work is illegal - and that it is illegal for very good reasons. Unlicensed operators can cause a lot of damage and threaten people's health and safety."

To mind very OTT regulation and a nice little money earner for "Tradies".

Regulation of gas fitting is fine IMHO because of the "flash, bang, boom there goes the neighbourhood" potential.

Electricity less so, because usually the danger is limited to a very localised area although you can set the loft and roof on fire.

Plumbing in a toilet?

"A house and three neighbouring blocks were evacuated today after an explosion due to an unsafe toilet installation.[1]"

Nope, not convinced.

In the UK this would turn this NG into the "uk.not-allowed-to-d-i-y".

Sometimes we don't know how well off we are.

Cheers

Dave R

[1] Cor blimey! Musta been somefing I ate!

[Tim Watts]

Yep - I agree 100%. Cannot understand why the Kiwi's put up with bollocks like this.

Isn't it similar in France?

[Theo]

What's fun is this is a 'Brand Insight' promo piece for the Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board, who just happen to be the authority in charge of regulation.

According to the articles google turns up, there are... lots of problems with the PGDB.

Theo

[Brian Gaff]

Sounds to me like a jobsworth. I suspect there are more things done by non acredited plumbers over there than normal. Its just that they thought the publicity would be good for business. I dounbt that would happen. Most would just shrug and carry on as before.

Brian

[Muddymike]

I have seen (and used) a toilet installed in a London cash and carry warehouse where it subsequently came to light that the soil pipe was connected to a rainwater downpipe that emptied into a surface water drain that ran straight into a nearby water course.

This was installed by the family of the Asian owner of the business who had no understanding of UK drainage.

Mike

[The Natural Philosopher]

Or didn't give a f*ck either way, most likely.

[Tim Watts]

Or building regs - as it is a notifiable job (drainage).

[dennis]

There is a house down the road from me where they have just had a bathroom done and there is 1 1/2" drain pipe going into the guttering down pipe.

That was done by a plumber or so it said on his van.

I did wonder about telling them its not done correctly as its easily visible from the street.

[David]

Yeah.

Article about plumbing in a toilet and a scare story about dodgy gas fitting.

No logical connection (...er...) so just pressure to hire tradies.

Cheers

Dave R

[Andrew Gabriel]

In some areas, (such as Victorian dense built-up urban areas), both surface water and sewage go into the same drain system, as there's only one.

In other areas, they can have two separate services for this. In such an area where a relative lives, Thames Water did a survey of all the drains in the houses along the road and served notices on quite a few to get their connections corrected where they were feeding into the wrong one. Surface water into a sewer which was not designed for it can cause it to flood in heavy rain, and foul waste into surface water drains causes untreated sewage and detergent foam in local streams (and it was this latter case that triggered the Thames Water checking of all the houses in the road).