Commercial Plumbing (as a guide for someone new!)

This is a quick guide to operating as a potential storeowner (whom whoever reads this), who is looking to build their own business. As a quick overview, many businesses require some sort of access to water, whether it is for cooking, cleaning or for additional bathrooms, understanding the differences between the residential and commercial applications can serve to be very useful.

First of all it is important to understand what kind of zoning and building you are working with. Predominately I work with a certain class of buildings that are made entirely of concrete, therefore all of my experience is working with the regulations and safety regarding those. I run a few stores here in Toronto, Canada. If you ever have questions you are free to reach out to me at jorgenwong@gmail.com

Let's say you want to create a sink. Multiple separate sinks are often required for different businesses such as nails, tattoos, barbershops. For a sink you need to create a drain to the main drain system within the building. This takes a significant amount of time because, you need to often notify intent specific third parties (the City, any managing members, building permits, etc.), as well to create a drain.

The drain itself is somewhat tricky. It is an 8 inch slab of concrete that, embedded inside, (at least for my situation), high voltage conduit wire. It's dangerous, high liability and can lead to a hole placed in an area which you may not wish to have. 

First step here:

1. Run a radar team to scan the flooring. They run rays to check changes in densities and quickly map out where you can and cannot drill.

2. Get your drill team and the proper clearance below. They will drill and create a huge mess, make sure you have proper PPE because concrete dust is terrible for you. 

3. Finally run your plumbing team, occasionally the job calls for cast iron but I prefer the newer fire resistance commercial plastics currently on the market. The money you save is actually in labor time since the ability to cut and attach is dropped significantly.

Anyways commercial drills and waters are never particularly cheap but it can be done for a few thousand dollars if you are nimble.