Thread: Plumbing Work - What is Permitted

Can anyone refer me to the correct AS/NZ Standard that covers underfloor plumbing in a bathroom. Just want to be sure the plumber is doing it correctly.

The best way to make sure he is doing it right, is to be there when the local Plumbing Inspector checks his work before it is covered over. Anything that does not meet the standard will have to be fixed.
Thats assuming you are putting it through the council.

You need to buy the standards they arn't downloadable or issued for free. They cost round 150-200$$$$$.

What r u worried about.

Yep, just bought a current set, as my old ones where 1996/98 and they set me back $185, but I got a free SAI Global t-shirt.........yippeee

Hiya all, I've just read thru all the posts on this subject,
after reading in the media that some plumbers can demand upto $1500 a day(The Age last week) what chance has your average householder got of getting someone to quote on a messy small renovation. I've wasted hours on end waiting for varios tradies to turn up just to quote. If only they would say they wasn't interested when you first phone up.
The licenced trade system in Victoria is a good idea, but it locks allied trades out of doing the same job competently. I work as a transport refrigeration mechanic. So I can pipe up a fridge that holds 12kg of gas and runs at pressures of upto 440psi. But yet I can't touch my household plumbing. Simillary I can't work on Domestic splits as my licence only covers mobile equipment. It doesn't cover car a/c either.
I'm a quailified diesel mechanic also. No qualifications are needed for that trade. Yet my actions could lead to a truck driving over the top of your car.
So I can't see the harm in doing your own basic plumbing if your competent. The worse scenario is that you'll flood the place, and if that happens, you know whose to blame.
If its a licenced restricted trade why will anybody sell you the parts?
You certaintly can't go and buy refrigerant from Bunnings.
For all wanna be D.I.Y ers, go and buy an american D.I.Y book, they tell you how do everything!

Originally Posted by Gravy258

Hiya all, I've just read thru all the posts on this subject,

If its a licenced restricted trade why will anybody sell you the parts?
You certaintly can't go and buy refrigerant from Bunnings.
For all wanna be D.I.Y ers, go and buy an american D.I.Y book, they tell you how do everything!

Do not buy american info books- You will get it wrong- Our system is compleately different!!!!

Im sorry to say it gravy but thought's like that are the reason you cant do your own liscenced work.

The reason that anyone can buy the parts is because the parts arn't liscenced and it is illegal not to sell them to anyone who asks. Refrigeration gas- i belive you need to be qualified to buy it, same as termite poisions and industrial solvents and the like, but you can buy an airconditioner with fridge gas loaded into it from bunnings??

At the end of the day- If you don't have a liscence, you can't do it because it's illegal.

Originally Posted by bricks

Do not buy american info books- You will get it wrong- Our system is compleately different!!!!

but fine if you are in America )

That's a no brainer terrain?

Originally Posted by Gravy258

Hiya all, I've just read thru all the posts on this subject,
after reading in the media that some plumbers can demand upto $1500 a day(The Age last week)

I wish!!!!!!
The bosses might get that running 1/2 dozen blokes, might scratch it in doing jet/camera surveys all day but the lone plumber wont get that working at your place for $65/$70ph or for a builder at $50/$55ph.
If I could 'demand' $1500 per day id only be doing it for 4 days per week, instead of the usual 6 and more often than not 7 days per week!

Having just moved over here from the UK with the express purpose of renovating my other half’s house i have been gob smacked by the restrictions over here.
I have an Engineering degree and a great deal of experience maintaining equipment to supply chemicals (many potentially dangerous) to large industrial equipment where the consequences of a failure/leek could cost hundreds of thousands an hour or at worst seriously injure somebody! Yet it seems i am not allowed to plumb a bathroom or replace a tap! My old man was a plumber and taught me plenty about what to do and i have done all manner of jobs from guttering replacement to installing a gas combi boiler (although i didn’t touch the gas). I have re-wired a house with my dad, we had it inspected by a sparky mate and it was given the all clear, he reckoned it was spot on. <O></O>
<O></O>
Now there is plenty i won’t do but i am an intelligent capable person, why the hell should i be forced to pay someone to do a job i can do as well and with 100 times more care. It is just indicative of the `nanny` culture that pervades everything we do these days, or can’t do! Now we are going a similar way in the UK and i thought i could escape this by moving to somewhere like OZ, in many ways its worse over here. <O></O>
<O></O>
Needless to say i have installed the bathroom and i shall do the same with the kitchen we are about to buy, neither of us can afford to pay the small fortune to tradies who have no time for `small` jobs so why should we. I’m not going to endanger anyone else, and if i choose to endanger myself then that is my choice. I mean not even being able to replace guttering, for gods sake what harm can poorly installed guttering do its not rocket science!

Sorry bout the rant everyone but i just found this site what better place to vent my frustrations, and the girlfriend is very sick of hearing all about it!!