Wastewater management is every ones responsibility aiding sustainability

by Gary Mays | Jan 25, 2023 | City of Gold Coast, Consumer Issues, Health Issues, Insurance, Plumbers Gold Coast, Plumbing Maintenance, wastewater management, Water Filtration

Do you know what happens to your water when you flush the toilet?

At Whywait Plumbing, we know how important it is to take care of our wastewater. Wastewater is any water used in homes or businesses that needs to be cleaned before it can be safely released into the environment. If not appropriately managed, wastewater can pollute our water sources, harm wildlife and affect our health. That’s why we want to help our clients understand the best ways to handle their wastewater.

First, it’s essential to know that there are different types of wastewater. Household wastewater comes from everyday activities like showering, washing dishes and doing laundry. Industrial wastewater is created by restaurants, mechanics workshops, bakeries, supermarkets, butcher shops, factories and can have different chemicals and pollutants. Both types of wastewater need to be cleaned before they are let into the environment. Most of the time, this cleaning happens at a wastewater treatment plant. These plants use a combination of physical, chemical and biological methods to remove pollutants and bacteria from the water.

Households produce an average of 300 litres of wastewater per person per day. Despite popular misconceptions, ninety-nine per cent of this wastewater is just water. The other one per cent is contaminated wastewater. Wastewater is a vital resource and will be released to our land, waterways and the ocean as recycled water after treatment.

What is wastewater?

At Whywait Plumbing, we ensure that our customer’s wastewater management treatment systems are working correctly. This includes regular maintenance and repairs for septic tanks, treatment plants, grease traps, house drain sewer systems, and installing new systems when needed. If you live in the City of Gold Coast, then you are connected to the council sewage system unless you live in a rural area.

It’s also important to try and reduce the number of pollutants that get into the wastewater system in the first place. This means being careful about what we put down the drain or toilet, such as grease, oil and chemicals.

Another essential aspect of wastewater management is appropriately disposing of greywater. Greywater is water that has been used for things like laundry or showering but does not have fecal matter in it. Greywater can often be reused for watering gardens or flushing toilets, which helps us save our freshwater resources.

Stormwater is also wastewater being the runoff that flows from roofs, parks, gardens, roads, paths and gutters into stormwater drains after rain in urban areas. Stormwater flows untreated directly to local creeks, streams or rivers, eventually flowing into the ocean. As a result, most stormwater receives no treatment. However, this is changing in new subdivisions and commercial sites with stormwater treatment to remove vegetation debris, human litter, sand, and gravel using bioretention basins and gross pollutant traps.

What are On-site Sewerage Facilities?

At Whywait Plumbing, we understand that not everyone has access to the same sewerage infrastructure provided by the council. That’s why we want to explain what On-site Sewerage Facilities (OSSF) are and how they can help keep your property and the environment safe. Traditionally these have been called septic tanks.

OSSF’s are systems that treat and dispose of the sewerage generated on your property within your property boundaries. These systems include septic tanks, aerated wastewater treatment systems, passive wastewater treatment systems and composting toilets. These types of systems are typically required in areas that are not serviced by council sewerage infrastructure.

It’s important to note that well-maintained OSSF can help protect public health and safety and reduce the risk of environmental harm with contaminated water flowing into creeks and streams. So, if you have an OSSF on your property, it is essential to keep it well-maintained to ensure it continues to work effectively.

If you have questions or concerns about your On-site Sewerage Facilities, please don’t hesitate to contact us at Whywait Plumbing. We’re always happy to help!

How is wastewater treated in a sewage treatment facility?

At Whywait Plumbing, we want to ensure you understand how sewage is treated before it is released into the environment and, ultimately, into the ocean. On the Gold Coast, there are four wastewater management treatment plants at Pimpama, Coombabah, Merrimac and Elanora, which process your wastewater in four stages:

In the first stage, primary treatment, they remove large objects and debris from the sewage. They do this by passing the sewage through screens to catch anything that shouldn’t be there, like plastic or other trash. They also use grit traps to remove smaller particles like sand. After that, they let the sewage sit in tanks so that any remaining solids can settle to the bottom and be removed. Finally, they also skim off any grease or scum that floats to the top.
Next, they use microorganisms to break down and remove any remaining dissolved wastes and small particles. This is called the secondary stage treatment. Finally, they add microorganisms to the sewage that eat away any remaining pollutants.
In the third stage, nutrient removal, they remove nitrogen and phosphorus from the sewage. These nutrients can cause problems in our waterways, like algal blooms.
Finally, they disinfect the sewage to ensure it’s safe to release back into the environment as recycled water for golf courses and parks or ocean discharge. They do this by adding chemicals or using ultraviolet light to kill any remaining disease-causing microorganisms. They may also let the sewage sit in the ponds for several weeks, allowing the microorganisms to die off naturally before releasing it.

We hope this helps you understand the sewage treatment process and how it keeps our waterways clean and safe!

How can you help?

At Whywait Plumbing, we educate our clients on wastewater management and provide the necessary services to manage their wastewater seriously.

There are multiple ways you can help that are simple everyday tasks:

never connect stormwater drains to any part of your house sewer drains
never put substances such as petrol, oil, solvents, pesticides or herbicides into sewer or stormwater drains
compost all kitchen food scraps
use natural cleaning products that are phosphate and bleach free

wastewater management creates a clean environment for drinking water

Ultimately we are all individually responsible for sustainable wastewater management to keep our water sources and the environment clean and safe for future generations by working together.

Can I install a bidet seat or douche hand spray to my toilet?

by Gary Mays | Jun 11, 2022 | alternative toileting devices, bidet, bidet seats, Consumer Issues, COVID-19, douche sprays, Form 4, Health Issues, Insurance, licensed plumber, notifiable work, Plumbing Legislation, QBCC, water damage insurance claims, WaterMark Certification Scheme

DIY Bidet Seat and Douche Hand Spray Installations Are Illegal and Non-Compliant

Since the Covid-19 pandemic and the infamous toilet paper shortages, we are getting asked about installing bidet seats or douche hand sprayers. Many of these enquiries eventuate from sponsored posts on Facebook promoting the DIY installation of bidet seats. The photo above perfectly illustrates a DIY bidet seat installation we recently encountered in a client’s home.

We commonly come across these DIY bidet installations in clients’ homes. Unfortunately, we are then placed in the invidious position of informing them that this is an illegal installation that requires disconnecting as it has no WaterMark approval and is not compliant, as required by the Plumbing and Drainage Act 2018.

Unfortunately, we are only the messenger, but immediately, too many people believe we are wrong. This occurs as the online company they purchased the bidet seat from told them they could install it themselves.

Illegal DIY Installations Can Effect Your Home Insurance Cover

Imagine how we feel when explaining to a disgruntled client that their DIY bidet installation is not legally compliant. Then explain that if it fails and floods their home causing tens of thousands of dollars of damage, their insurance company will null and void insurance protection.

Despite what Facebook posts say, very few legal DIY plumbing installations exist. Your insurance policy requires a licenced plumber to undertake all plumbing work with all plumbing fixtures installed with the necessary WaterMark approval.

Avoid Online Retailers, and Only a Licensed Plumber Can Install a Bidet Seat or Douche Hand Spray

Bidets, bidet seats and douche hand spray bidets are popular with the elderly and people with disabilities. Correctly installed, they afford their users self-care toileting which aids their independence, plus they are much more hygienic than toilet paper.

If you are looking into bidet seats or a douche hand spray, only purchase them from reputable Australian suppliers. Avoid online retailers with no prominent Australian location and not displaying a WaterMark approval.

No matter what, you must use a licensed plumber to install the bidet seat or douche hand spray to ensure there is no risk of backflow. A backflow situation can risk your family and neighbours consuming sewerage-contaminated drinking water.

A legally compliant installation by a licensed plumber required lodgement of Form 9 with the local council and lodgement and payment of fees for Form 4 with the Queensland Government QBCC. You should always get a copy of both forms to prove to your insurer that it is a compliant installation.

Legally Installed Bidet Seat or Douche Hand Spray Offer Benefits in Terms of Hygiene and Independence for the Elderly and People With Disabilities

Remember, if you install a bidet seat or a douche hand spray, you need to do the following:

Purchase a WaterMark-approved product
Only use a licensed plumber to install your bidet products
All installations require high-hazard backflow prevention

Compliance with these requirements will ensure the safety and well-being of your family, protect your home from potential risks, and maintain insurance coverage.

A bidet seat should not be confused with a bidet. A proper bidet must go through an entire approval process by council plumbing inspectors.

Like everything in life, you only get what you pay for, so we recommend you stay away from online retailers, especially on Facebook.

The adage applies when finding cheap DIY bidet seats or douche hand spray hoses. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

The Myth Of The “Going Rate or Recommended Rate” For Plumbing Services

by Gary Mays | Oct 19, 2021 | Consumer Issues, Gold Coast Plumbing, Insurance, Plumbing Legislation, Plumbing Maintenance, the going rate for plumbers, the recommended rate for plumbers

Is there a going rate for plumbers to charge?

Unfortunately, the myth that there is a going rate for plumbers or recommended rate for plumbing services is one of those lovely urban myths that will never go away. Some consumers promote it to avoid paying for plumbing services after completing the work.

Even more disturbing is the fact that it is also promoted by some plumbing contractors who are:

lacking in necessary business skills and cannot do basic accounting equations to work out the cost of running their business and provide quality service at a fair profit
engaged in payback against other plumbing contractors to undermine their competitors by claiming they are overcharging

Every plumbing company has different costs

Every plumbing business is not the same. Every plumbing business has different cost structures, overhead, and productivity levels required to set a selling price or a break-even price.

It is illegal under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 for businesses to collude in setting prices or for any set or recommended rates by master plumbers associations.

When many one-person plumbing businesses start, it is far too complicated to put a budget together and calculate the cost of doing business. However, they need to do it to ensure they charge a rate for their services that covers the business’s cost. Unfortunately, most of the time, these one-person plumbing businesses decide to set the going rate for plumbers and be done with it.

So how do these one-person businesses determine the going rate for plumbers?

Very simply, they ring around all their competitors, pretending to be a prospective customer and find out what they are charging for their services. As no professional plumber can give a price over the phone, they tend to only get prices from like-minded one-person businesses promoting a whole undercutting philosophy based on some mythical hourly rate which then becomes the fictitious going rate.

The myth of a going rate is self-perpetuating by plumbers

To see how this whole myth of the going rate for plumbers becomes self-perpetuating, consider the following scenario, which is exactly what happens all the time.

Consider the scenario where Trevor bought a van, got a new mobile phone, used the tools supplied by his former employer, and opened up “Trevors Plumbing Service.” Trevor knew his old employer, “Gold Coast Plumbing”, was charging $130 per hour, but he knew that his former boss had lots of equipment and paid his employees above the award wages, so he decided to charge only $80 an hour.

A couple of weeks later, Jason, who does not like Trevor, hears that Trevor has opened up his plumbing business. He figures he’s much more intelligent than Trevor, plus he’s sure he’s faster and quicker at plumbing work than Trevor, so he decides to buy a ute, too and open up “Speedy Plumbing.” Jason gets his girlfriend to phone Trevor pretending to be a customer, to find out his charges. Again, Jason does not like Trevor, so he figured he could knock him out of business by charging $20 less and getting all his business. So “Speedy Plumbing” is now in business charging $60 per hour.

Plumbers start undercutting based on the mythical going rate

Meanwhile, Stephen had opened up “Super Coastwide Plumbing” a year earlier and had just had a builder who supplied him with 90% of his work tell him that he would be using another plumber to do his work in the future. This is despite Stephen providing excellent service but at $100 per hour was way above the going rate for plumbers. Stephen panicked on hearing this and decided to call around his competitors to see the going rate for plumbers. Stephen discovered that it ranged from $40 to $160 per hour. Stephen decided that to keep his business going, he needed to match the going rate for plumbers and, based on where most of his competitors were, opted to drop his rate to $65 per hour to be under the rate charged by “Trevors Plumbing Service” who appeared to pick up lots of work.

Meanwhile, over at “Gold Coast Plumbing”, the owners are having a meeting. “We aren’t making enough money to cover our costs!” They say. “Well, we can’t increase our rates because we’re already one of the highest in town — $70 higher than some after ringing around to find out the going rate for plumbers is.” The owners are frustrated because they’re gradually watching their business go down, a company that’s been in their family for three generations.

The going rate for plumbers myth destroys businesses and families

What happens next is textbook accurate and repeatedly occurs in the plumbing industry causing unemployment, financial hardship and family breakups.

“Gold Coast Plumbing” started cutting corners by using cheaper materials, cancelling insurance cover, not replacing old equipment, not replacing old utes and vans, charging clients for hours that were not worked, and using labourers and apprentices instead of qualified plumbers. As a result, their plumbers become disillusioned and start looking for jobs elsewhere. This forces “Gold Coast Plumbing” to use more labourers and apprentices to undertake the work that requires licensed and experienced plumbers.

Over at “Speedy Plumbing”, Jason is struggling to cope with all the work but cannot hire any licensed plumbers because he’s discovered he can’t afford to pay them plus buy more utes and equipment because his rates are too cheap and don’t cover the costs of running the business.

Trevor over at “Trevors Plumbing Service” is still working by himself, so he does not need a lot of work to keep him busy plus, the customers that hired him because he was the lowest price have left him and gone to “Speedy Plumbing”. Trevor is not concerned as he’s making more money than he did when he was an employee at ‘Gold Coast Plumbing” plus, he’s his own boss and doesn’t have to answer to anybody. However, Trevor has discovered that he’s got to cut corners to make sure he can pay the bills. He does not renew his QBCC licenses or take out public liability insurance. Trevor adopts a policy of never returning calls to customers who complain and starts using inferior quality materials.

Meanwhile, Stephen at “Super Coastwide Plumbing” struggled to pay bills since dropping his prices to the going rate for plumbers, with the losers being his family. Stephen’s wife is forced to return to her old job, supporting “the business” until it gets back on its feet. Even worse, cutting corners meant customers were not getting compliant plumbing work undertaken, with failures being the norm. Finally, employees started getting reduced or no training, with wages failing to be paid on time as there was never enough money.

No one ever wins in setting up a business based on the going rate for plumbers

Every successful plumbing business knows the starting point always is learning what it costs to run their business and setting charge-out rates that ensure they can make a profit for the long term, which is specific to their circumstances and business model.

No one ever wins in setting up a business based on the going rate for plumbers or recommended rate because they are a myth. The only guarantee is that the company will close, leaving employees, suppliers and customers all out of pocket and worse off for the experience in myriad ways.

Sadly, I repeatedly witness these “fictitious” scenarios on the Gold Coast amongst plumbing companies. There are no winners when you don’t operate a business to make a profit after covering every single one of your costs.

How much does a burst pipe add to your Gold Coast water bill?

by Gary Mays | Oct 4, 2021 | City of Gold Coast, Cold Water, Consumer Issues, Emergency Plumber, Gold Coast Plumbing, Gold Coast Water, Insurance, Leaking Pipes, Plumbers Gold Coast, Plumbing Emergencies, Plumbing Legislation, Plumbing Maintenance, Water, Water Leaks, Water Meters

Your Gold Coast water bill issued by the City of Gold Coast as a Water and Sewerage Rate Notice arrives every three months. Currently, every water meter is manually read every three months, with your Gold Coast water bill coming soon after. The cost of Gold Coast water is set every year as part of the budget process with the detailed current water pricing for 2021-22 available from Gold Coast Water.

What are the costs of your Gold Coast water bill?

For most homeowners who use around the average daily water usage of 451 litres, the highest costs in the quarterly Gold Coast water bill are their sewerage and water access service charges. If you look closely at your water bill, you can see that you have the following access charges:

Residential Charges	Cost
Sewerage access charge per quarter	$181.03
Water access charge per quarter	$53.02
Total Access Charges per Quarter	$234.05

The usage charges per kilolitre as measured by your water meter are made up of council charges and Queensland Government charges as below:

Residential Charges	Cost
City of Gold Coast water per kilolitre	$1.117
Queensland Government water per kilolitre	$3.231
Total Cost of Water per Kilolitre	$4.348

In reality, even if you did not use one drop of water, you would still pay for water and sewerage access service charges of $234.05 every quarter or $936.20 every year.

Our experience is that the average water use of 451 litres or 0.451kL per property shown on Gold Coast water bills is not an accurate guide to your water use.

Most homes with more than one occupant will use 1-2 kL every day. However, remember your water usage will vary every day based on the number of occupants at home each day and their water use behaviours. That is why we recommend you read your water meter weekly, as that will give you a better guide about your average consumption and alert you to a potential water leak.

The actual cost of water dripping from a tap

What will cause your water usage charges to blow out is having leaking water that you are unaware of. Leaking taps and toilets are frequently overlooked and put off to another day. A dripping tap that drips one drop every second will use 40 litres of water a day. The reality is that it becomes 280 litres a week and then 1214 litres a month, and then 14560 litres a year. This is all water charged for on your Gold Coast water bill that you never utilised for any practical purpose.

If we translate the litres wasted to the cost of water, then the numbers become real very quickly.

Cost of a Dripping Tap at 1 drip per second	Residential Cost at $4.348 per kL or 1000 litres	Business Cost at $8.909 per kL or 1000 litres
1.66 litres per hour	$0.007	$0.015
40 litres per day	$0.174	$0.356
280 litres per week	$1.217	$2.495
1214 litres per month	$5.278	$10.816
14560 litres per year	$63.307	$129.715

The actual cost of a leaking underground water main

You can visually see a dripping tap or running toilet, but the real killer to your Gold Coast water bill is your underground water main pipe leaking. For residential users, these are usually leaking polypipe water mains that were never installed correctly when the house was built. Only occasionally is a water leak apparent and bubbling to the ground. Most of the time, they are a silent Gold Coast water bill killer leaking 24/7 undetected.

There is no accurate average for any leaking water main supply pipe because it depends on the type of break in the pipe, what the pipe size is and what the incoming water pressure is.

Recently we had a client with a small leak where we have 24/7 electronic water monitoring installed that is leaking on average of 45 litres per hour, so we use that as a basis for what leaking water main will cost on a Gold Coast water bill.

Cost of a leaking underground water main at 45 litres per hour	Residential Cost at $4.348 per kL or 1000 litres	Business Cost at $8.909 per kL or 1000 litres
45 litres per hour	$0.196	$0.401
1080 litres per day	$4.696	$9.622
7560 litres per week	$32.87	$67.352
33480 litres per month	$145.57	$298.731
401760 litres per year	$1746.85	$3579.280

A water leak at 45 litres per minute is only a relatively small leak in larger pipes. It is unlikely to show up as bubbling at the ground unless it is directly under the grass in a shallow trench. Even looking at your water meter, it will not be evident unless you are testing your water use at the meter by checking for a water leak.

How much does a leak cost per litre?

We have always recommended that you test your water usage through your water meter every month. By having comparable figures, you will soon ascertain whether you have a leaking pipe.

We have always recommended that you install an AquaTrip water leak detection system after your water meter. An AquaTrip Water Leak detection system with an integrated automatic shutoff valve supplied and installed by Whywait Plumbing is a permanently installed leak detection protection system that quietly protects against leaks 24/7. It is a one time only insurance payment.

With our modern leak detection methods, it’s an easier task to locate a leak. However, unless you have an AquaTrip installed or use our 24/7 water monitoring service, you will still pay for a large amount of lost water before you become aware of the water leak.

If you think you have a water leak contact us because every litre that you lose is costing you $0.004348 for residential properties or $0.008909 for businesses on your Gold Coast water bill. If you naively feel that is inconsequential, we have just rectified a leak for a commercial business client in a 50mm underground polypipe water main that was leaking 106 kL every day, which is 106000 litres every 24 hours. This leak cost $944.354 every day.

Free Plumbing Quotes

by Gary Mays | Mar 20, 2021 | City of Gold Coast, Consumer Issues, Free Plumbing Quotes, Gold Coast plumbers, Gold Coast Plumbing, handyman, Health Issues, Insurance, Plumbers, plumbers call-out fee, Plumbers Gold Coast, Plumbing Emergencies, Plumbing Maintenance, the going rate for plumbers

Would you go to work for free?

Whywait Plumbing does not provide free plumbing quotes or estimates and has never done so on any service or maintenance plumbing works.

Yes, we will do free plumbing quotes if you bring a set of design drawings into our office, such as hydraulic or architectural plans.

If we have to attend on-site at your home or business premises, there are significant costs involved for us. That is why we charge you a diagnostic fee.

Businesses that advertise that they undertake free quotes or devalue their time and their expertise. I guarantee you will pay for their time, hidden somewhere in their charges because, as the saying goes, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Think about it, would you go to work for free?

People who want free quotes are…

We learnt long ago that offering free plumbing quotes or estimates wastes our time, money and company resources.

In our experience, people who call Whywait Plumbing asking for free plumbing quotes or expecting us to come to the site and solve their problems obligation-free fall into the following categories:

Dreamers who are toying with some vague idea of a plumbing installation such as a third bathroom or outdoor kitchen, who want us to design it all and solve all the problems but have little intention of using our services
price checkers who want us to give them a comparison price in the hope we come up with a cheaper alternative to undertake the work
time-wasting people who have a significant plumbing issue, such as flooding in their backyard in heavy rainfall, who want us to investigate and solve the problems and are insistent on picking our brains, getting all the information off us so they can then do it themselves or get a handyman to do it
the DIY homeowner who wants to pick our brain so he can run to Bunnings and be a weekend warrior playing at being a plumber.

Without profit, any business is just an expensive hobby

We learnt at Whywait a long ago to accept that we cannot compete with competitors who devalue their plumbing licenses by racing to the bottom with clients who are only interested in PRICE, being:

a cheap price,
a less expensive than fair price that an alleged competitor has quoted over the phone,
an entirely unreasonably and pathetically inadequate price that does not even cover the plumbers’ wages.

As the owner of Whywait Plumbing, I was lucky enough to learn a long time ago that we always had to do our budgets and know where our break-even cost was so we know when to say NO. This ensures that we don’t waiver from our commitment to providing outstanding customer service from well-trained and professional plumbers who stand behind their work.

As I said previously, there is no such thing as a free lunch because Whywait Plumbing Pty Ltd is a business that is legally obligated to generate profits.

I reiterate that without profit, any business is just an expensive hobby.

Non-Conforming Plumbing Products

by Gary Mays | Jul 14, 2020 | Consumer Issues, Health Issues, Insurance, licensed plumber, Plumbing Legislation, QBCC, Queensland Government

Non-Conforming & Non-Compliant Plumbing & Building Products Are Illegal To Supply, Specify & Install

Non-conforming plumbing products that have not the appropriate WaterMark certification have always been illegal for licensed plumbers to install.

The WaterMark Certification Scheme is not voluntary. It is a mandatory and legally enforcible certification scheme for plumbing and drainage products. This is to ensure they are fit for purpose plus appropriately tested and authorised for use in all plumbing and drainage installations.

It has been illegal since 2017 for anyone to supply, specify, instruct others to install or for anyone to install non-conforming plumbing and building products in Queensland. Unfortunately, many companies think they can ignore their responsibilities to obey the law. Online sales of non-conforming plumbing products are rampant. There are advertisements all over social media promoting DIY installations of non-conforming plumbing products such as My Bidet Australia.

On 30 August 2017 the Building and Construction Legislation (Non-conforming Building Products-Chain of Responsibility and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2017, regarding the use and sale of non-conforming building products became law.

These laws further strengthened how compliance must be achieved with amendments to the Queensland Building and Construction Act 1991, the Plumbing and Drainage Act 2018, and the Building Act 1975 concerning non-conforming building and plumbing products.

These laws create a chain of responsibility so that designers, manufacturers, importers and suppliers of plumbing and building products have as much responsibility as licensed plumbers to ensure a product is compliant and fit for its intended purpose.

These laws give the Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC) new powers to investigate the manufacture, sale and use of non-conforming building products.

Building and plumbing products are regarded as illegal, non-conforming or non-compliant for an intended use if;

the product is not, or will not be, safe; or
does not, or will not, comply with the relevant regulatory provisions; or
the product does not perform or is not capable of performing, for the use of the standard it is represented to conform by such as Watermark certification.

Definitions of Non-Conforming Plumbing Products

There are 1000’s of plumbing products manufactured both in Australia and overseas. Consequently, it can be challenging to know whether or not a plumbing product is genuine and will perform as required plus will comply and conform with the WaterMark Certification Scheme.

You can check the WaterMark Product Database which lists all plumbing products that have been certified and marked in accordance with the requirements of the WaterMark Certification Scheme.

In general, everyone should be aware of the following terms regarding compliant plumbing products:

Non-compliant plumbing and building products and materials are any product used in situations where they do not comply with the requirements of the National Construction Code (NCC) which encompasses the WaterMark Certification Scheme. You must be aware any plumbing product can be both non-conforming and non-compliant.
Fraudulent documentation refers to a recorded claim that a plumbing product’s performance meets specified Australian plumbing standards when used or tested, do not meet that performance claim. This frequently will include falsified documentation, fraudulent certification or test results.
Product substitution is commonplace and can occur when a product is submitted for third-party certification testing and, after the WaterMark certification is granted, the manufacturer/supplier alters it and does not retest or recertify the product. Product substitution is also a widespread problem where a seemingly identical but non-conforming replacement plumbing product is offered to replace the WaterMark certified product.
Counterfeit plumbing products are also widespread and are an unauthorised copy of a plumbing product, created with the intention to deceive. They are illegally sold to suppliers, plumbers, building owners and consumers, as genuine.

Responsibility

These laws have created a legal chain of responsibility for everyone for reporting non-conforming building or plumbing products to the QBCC. This duty applies to every person in the chain of responsibility who becomes aware or reasonably suspects that the building or plumbing product installed is non-conforming and or non-compliant for the intended use.

As Licensed Plumbers, it has always been illegal for us here at Whywait Plumbing to install non-conforming plumbing products. However, it is now illegal for anyone to supply a non-conforming plumbing product.

At Whywait Plumbing we have always complied with these laws. We will notify the QBCC immediately whenever we discover non-conforming, non-compliant illegal plumbing products installed anywhere.

Ultimately these laws are for the protection, safety and security of everyone.

« Older Entries