How plumbers get work from pubs, restaurants and cafes

Trade waste: the plumber's part of the grease trap

Urban Utilities in Brisbane says every business that prepares food must hold a trade waste approval before it discharges to sewer, and Sydney Water says a retail food business needs its written approval before it operates. The pump-out side, where a licensed waste contractor empties the trap on the utility's timetable, is covered on the hospitality groups page. The plumber's side comes first and lasts longer, because the trap, the drainage to it and the fittings around it are your work, and they are what the utility looks at.

Sydney Water sets the plumbing out in unusual detail. Its guide for retail food businesses says a grease trap must be at least 1,000 litres and no more than 5,000, that wastewater from prep areas, floor wastes, kitchen sinks, dishwashers and garbage areas should all flow to it, and that it should sit as close to the source as possible so the pipes don't clog. Its minimum sizes by type of business are handy when an owner asks why your quote has a bigger trap than they expected.

Those figures are only a guide, because Sydney Water sets the volume when it assesses each application and wants further assessment for combination ovens, wok tables and tunnel dishwashers, so check before you order a trap for a pub kitchen. It also asks for in-sink and in-floor bucket traps in every prep sink and floor waste, a tap within five metres of the trap with a backflow device on its inlet, and potato peeler waste kept out of the trap because it carries starch rather than grease. When the job is done the plumber arranges the plumbing and drainage inspection with NSW Fair Trading, provides an updated sewer service diagram and gives the business a Certificate of Compliance.

Queensland utilities work along similar lines. Unitywater says a food business usually has to install a grease arrestor of at least 1,000 litres as a permit condition and must apply before installing pre-treatment, and Urban Utilities warns that a trap under 550 litres may need more frequent servicing and dry basket arrestors on every connected sink and floor drain. Those small traps are worth noticing in an older cafe, because the owner will have to deal with one sooner or later.

Backflow: a date in the calendar every year

A commercial kitchen is full of fittings connected to the mains, from glasswashers and coffee machines to the hose tap by the grease trap. In Queensland the Plumbing and Drainage Regulation requires councils to keep a register of testable backflow prevention devices, the property owner must register each one, and each must be tested every year by a plumber with a backflow endorsement. Moreton Bay's council says the tester must give the council and the owner the Form 9 test report within 10 business days, and that a plumber who removes or replaces a device lodges a Form 4 with the QBCC within 10 business days. In Sydney Water's area testable devices must be tested every year, only by licensed and backflow-accredited plumbers, who lodge the report online and give the customer a copy.

For a group with several venues this is the easiest standing work to offer. Ask the ops manager for the devices at each site, put every test on one schedule, and send one summary each year showing which devices passed, which were replaced and where each report was lodged. It also gives you a reason to be in every kitchen at least once a year.

Hot water at the hand basin and at the sink

Hot water in a venue runs to two different needs. The Plumbing Code of Australia limits water delivered to sanitary fixtures used for personal hygiene to 50°C in most buildings, with 45°C in places such as aged care and some children's facilities, and the rule reaches new heated water services and many water heater replacements, though some like-for-like replacements in the same spot are exempt. For the 50°C limit it accepts a tempering valve, a thermostatic mixing valve, a thermostatically controlled tap or a temperature limited water heater. The staff hand basin and the guest bathrooms are personal hygiene fixtures, while hot water for washing up is not, so a kitchen often needs a valve on the hand basin line while the sinks run hotter. Food safety rules expect a hand basin with warm running water too (the NT Government, for example, asks for hot and cold through a single outlet). When you replace a commercial water heater, check every outlet it feeds before you leave, because a staff basin left at storage temperature is a scald waiting to happen.

Gas, and the call at seven on a Friday

Many kitchens cook on gas, and a plumber who also holds a gas licence can be the one call for a fryer that won't light and a drain that won't clear. The rules differ by state. In NSW any gasfitting work needs a licence, and after work on a network gas installation the gasfitter has 5 business days to test it and submit a certificate of compliance to Building Commission NSW, Energy Safe Victoria says routine servicing needs the 'gas servicing Type-A' accreditation on the licence and that Type A appliances include light commercial ones such as cookers, and in Queensland gas work on a building's system needs a gasfitting licence from the QBCC.

The calls that win a group's loyalty are usually the after-hours ones, such as a floor waste backing up during Friday service, no hot water at five in the morning before the bakers start, or a gas smell at close. Tell the ops manager plainly what hours you answer and what you keep in the van for commercial kitchens, and explain how you'll keep the kitchen cooking while you work, for example by clearing one drain while the line stays open or isolating one appliance rather than the whole gas supply. The next morning, tell both managers what failed and how to stop it happening again. The plumbers page covers the other businesses worth writing to, and if you'd rather not send the first emails yourself, Curlew writes to hospitality groups near you in your business name.

A first email you could send

An example only. The business is made up.