Outside of locations for the lavatory's,tubs, showers, hose bibs,etc, i've never seen a plumbing layout on the prints. It's up to the plumber to lay out the drain,waste, and venting as well as the hot/ cold water lines on your build, basically designing and laying out the system onsite off of the plans layout /location for walls,roof lines, cabinetry, etc.

thanks for your input. Should I hire mechanical engineer to handle this part. We are building a single story block home in florida. does this matter?

Contrary to what Manhattan stated.. I have been a plumber for over 30 years and i have never seen a residential print where the architect did the plumbing layout.

Why you ask? The answer is simple. If your going to be on a municipal sewer line you will not know the exact location of the sewer main tap until you apply for your permits and all elevations on the plumbing print begin at the exact location of the sewer main tap. Build 100 homes to the exact same print and you will end up with 100 different DWV layouts.

Our architect IS an architect - a very well known one in fact - and he did not do plumbing or HVAC plan for the very reason Lazypup mentioned. He did have an electrical, but we worked closely with our GC and electrician (just like the plumber and HVAC guy) to do it specifically for us and our build.

I second the opinion of sierraeast and lazypup. If you have a good plumber and general contractor you should be OK. We did try to build in 6" walls where we knew there would be pipes (i.e. washer/dryers, bathroom walls, etc.)

I've been building since '89 up to 4,600 sf and have never had a plumbing plan. The plumber comes in early to tell me where the drops are going, so the drain man can run the lines there. And I work out with the plumber where the drains and vents go to minimize intrusion into the rooms and visibility from the front.

Here, the plumbing contractor obtains his permit based on the requirements of the building plan. It's up to him to install by Code.

our architect did not lay out a detailed plumbing plan. However - he did make sure that the toilet drain loctaions would not interfere with the floor trusses which can be a real issue since trusses cannot be cut.

One thing are architect messed up on was that our second story suite is supported by laminate beams that were in a position that made it difficilt to run water pipes and drains up to the second floor. During construction we needed an engineer certify that we could drill some holes into the beams to get the pipes through. You should have your architect indentify areas on the plan to run return air ducts, water supply feeds and drains to the second level if you have one.

My architect doesn't do "plumbing" himself, but he's smart enough to send the conceptual plans out to engineers to have the HVAC, plumbing, and electrical finalized.

Of course, my builder is pretty impressed, he doesn't often get plan sets with 50 sheets. (The only real problem was when they went to get the building permit, the permit office gave the builder the rubber stamp and told him with a set like that he could stamp them himself.

Ive worked for the same architectural firm now for 23 years. We do high end homes usually in the 7,000 sf and up range. There has NEVER been a plumbing plan on any of those jobs. The only jobs that have plumbing plans are the commerical ones and they are done by the M,P and E engineer.

We've had two sets of house plans designed by two different architects in different parts of the country and neither included plumbing plans. Both did include electrical and mechanical.

We knew upfront that our architect was not going to include plans for the plumbing, electric and HVAC. This seems like fairly common practice and certainly did not cause a problem for us. We have friends in all three of those industries who were more than happy to do it for us!

Do you have a GC picked out yet? If so maybe talk to him about how easy it will be to have those systems planned out.

Our architect drew in locations for fixtures and included a waste stack system showing vents and such, but only conceptual, to prove everything was vented properly. He did not show locations of supply lines or anything, and we did run into a few complications because it was a renovation and joists were in unfortunate places.

"Contrary to what Manhattan stated.. I have been a plumber for over 30 years and i have never seen a residential print where the architect did the plumbing layout.
Why you ask? The answer is simple. If your going to be on a municipal sewer line you will not know the exact location of the sewer main tap until you apply for your permits and all elevations on the plumbing print begin at the exact location of the sewer main tap. Build 100 homes to the exact same print and you will end up with 100 different DWV layouts."

Complete nonsense.

I have been a builder and plumber for over 30 years, ALL architectural plans include plumbing plans, and the location of the building sewer has little if nothing to do with how the plumbing system is designed contrary to lazypup's opinion.

The majority of any plumbing design has nothing to do with the location of the building drain or building sewer, or whether the sewer is public or a private on-lot private disposal system (septic)..

Much more has to do with the location of kitchens, baths, water supplies, drains, and vents.

If an architect cannot or will not design the plumbing system, that architect is not worth his pay.

Nor any alledged "plumber' who disagrees...

PERIOD.

To put it bluntly....what a bunch of BS.

Manhattan42, do you work in NYC as your username suggests? If that's the case, I think what goes on in NYC is not what goes on in most cities across the US.

bdpeck-charlotte asked:

"Manhattan42, do you work in NYC as your username suggests? If that's the case, I think what goes on in NYC is not what goes on in most cities across the US."

Of course NOT, bdpeck-charlotte, and only a plumbing IDIOT would ask such a ridiculous question.

The same plumbing physics apply in Kentucky as in British Columbia...or London...or Caracas...

And while plumbing 'codes' may vary, ALL generally are constructed to result in the same ends.

That said, EVERY architect custom submitted set of plans I have ever encountered in the last 25 years have had a custom submitted designed set of plumbing plans to go with them...

Otherwise, just WHAT are you paying for?

If your (ahem...cough...cough) "architect" has no knowledge whatsoever about plumbing...how can you truts him and whay are you paying him for any other design service?

Only another idiot would do so.....

Case closed...!

Wow...that was a beyond rude response to a very benign question and comment. Obviously you disagree with the other posters, just let it go...

IMO, anyone who would hire YOU, Manhattan is an IDIOT.

Case Closed!

This always pains me. Do a search on Manhattan's user id, and you'll see that he's claimed to be a building inspector, an elctrician, a contractor, a builder, and now a plumber. On other forums, some of which he's been banned from, he's attacked professionals in various professions who have 30 or more years in their respective professions.

I, personally, have been posting here since GW started; over 12 years. My advice would be to listen to those pros here who everyone KNOWS are professionals; Sierra and Worthy.

Our plans did not come with any either. We had a VERY good architect as well. I did ask about them in the beginning and they said if we had a plumber who asked for a set....hire a new plumber! :-)

I find it interesting to note that while Manhattan42 is now claiming to be a plumber with 25 years in the business, not once have I ever seen him log into the plumbing forum and factually answer a question concerning either plumbing theory or the code.

On the other hand, I have logged in their daily for the last 3 years and in nearly all my response I not only offer the code answer, in most posts I give the actual code numbers so the readers may check the facts for themselves..

Now I wonder,,,just who is the alleged Plumber here?

the location of the building sewer has little if nothing to do with how the plumbing system is designed contrary to lazypup's opinion

Maybe it's a matter of how you define plumbing.

A critical element in the drain system for every home I've built--all are infill to existing municipal services--is the depth of the city sewer/drain lines. The drain contractor needs to know the depth to provide sufficient drop for his drains that are usually embedded in the basement floor. Or to provide a pump to bring the waste up to the sewer/drain lines. If the lines are too high for a sufficient drop, the house drains have to be run under the first floor joists, not in the basement floor. That's why I try to get the lines in early or I have to delay pouring the basement floor till I'm sure of the height. Municipal information can be unreliable. On one house, the city advised me their drains were only down seven feet from grade, so I left a void in the foundation wall. Fortunately, I waited till the crew dug down before I made any other adjustments. Turns out they were down 12 feet, deepest I've ever come across.

An architect I worked with at Kirkor when they still did individual homes told me that, if requested, his firm could give you as much detail as you wanted--right down to every wall receptacle. But professional spec builders usually decided such details themselves.

Wow, what a rude and un-informed response. I'm no plumber, but plumbing codes are not the same from coast to coast. In particular, NYC has very different building codes than rural Iowa. Not every municipality adopts the National Building Codes.

This proves to me that Manhattan42 is some sort of hack job, misrepresenting himself, and probably just trying to stir up trouble. It's too bad that people like that lurk on serious discussion boards.