Plumbing Retrofit Project Requires Weekend Worktest

By Dave Lubach, Associate Editor

March 2015

To complete the countywide plumbing and restroom retrofits, maintenance managers asked the 45-person staff to volunteer for weekend work to avoid inconveniencing building occupants as much as possible. Depending on the size of the building, each shift required as few as three and as many as five technicians to complete the job.

 “We asked for different volunteers throughout our staff, so we weren’t working the same people every weekend,” Harris says. “We tried to establish a schedule to work out of a month maybe two weekends as we started the different projects. We still got our regular work done during the week.”

As project manager, Harris was responsible for budgets and work schedules. For product specification, he relied heavily on the expertise of two in-house plumbers.

“We have used various (plumbing) fixtures and valves in the past, and (they) selected the ones which have performed the best,” Harris says. “We stuck with the same products through the process. Therefore our staff was familiar with what they saw when they entered each building, and using the same products, we have to maintain less repair parts.”

The county also took advantage of local rebates to buy fixtures at lower prices.

“We have been lucky at the county because we receive great support from our board with our annual budget,” Harris says. “The projects have spanned over several years to minimize a large hit in any one year. Also, certain water (utilities) in our area have offered rebates on fixtures and we have tried to maximize this as much as possible.”