Aged Care Plumbing: What Facility Managers Should Know

Aged care plumbing uses the same pipes, valves and fixtures as any other building. What’s different is who is on the other end of the tap. The people using the water are the ones least able to cope when it’s too hot, when it carries something it shouldn’t, or when it stops. So the rules are tighter, more of the equipment has to be tested on a schedule, and the work has to be planned around people who live there.

This guide is for facility and maintenance managers. It covers what the rules are aimed at, what belongs on a yearly schedule, and what to ask of a plumber before they start.

Why the plumbing in an aged care home is different

Three things set it apart from a house or an office.

• The residents. Older skin burns faster, and someone who is frail or has dementia may not pull away from water that’s too hot. That one fact drives most of the hot water rules.
• Nobody can leave. In an office, a morning without water is an inconvenience. In a home with dozens of residents it affects showers, toilets, the kitchen and the laundry at once, so repairs get planned rather than just started.
• The records. Tests and services have to be written down and kept, because sooner or later somebody will ask to see them.

Hot water temperature: the 45°C limit

In most buildings, including houses, the plumbing code limits hot water at a basin, bath or shower to 50°C. In NSW the limit drops to 45°C in the residential part of an aged care building.

That sits awkwardly with another rule. Hot water has to be stored at 60°C or more, because legionella bacteria grow in water kept warm rather than hot. So the water leaves the plant too hot to touch and has to arrive at the tap at 45°C or less. Something between the two has to bring it down, reliably, every time a tap opens.

The limit applies to water used for washing people: basins, showers and baths. Kitchens and laundries are a separate matter and usually run hotter, which is why one building can have several water temperatures and more than one set of valves.

If you’re replacing a water heater, the temperature control has to be right when the new unit goes in. Our hot water system repairs and installation page covers how we go about a replacement.

Thermostatic mixing valves and their yearly test

In aged care the job of bringing the temperature down is done by thermostatic mixing valves, or TMVs. A TMV blends hot and cold to a set temperature, holds it steady while other taps open and close, and shuts the hot off if the cold supply fails. Houses mostly use a simpler tempering valve, which is not built to the same standard.

We’ve written a separate guide to what a thermostatic mixing valve is and who needs one. For a facility, the points that matter are these:

• Every valve is tested and serviced at least once a year. The service checks the outlet temperature, proves the valve shuts off when the cold is cut, and cleans or replaces the strainers and internal parts.
• Not every plumber should be doing it. NSW Health’s policy for hospitals and nursing homes asks for a licensed plumber who has been trained in TMVs by a registered training organisation and has experience maintaining them. Ask to see that before the work starts.
• Each valve gets its own report. Keep them together, in order. A valve with no service history is treated as a valve that hasn’t been serviced.

The same NSW Health policy calls for a monthly temperature check at an outlet between services. It’s a thermometer and a logbook, and your own staff can do it. A reading that has crept up or down since last month is the early warning that a valve is drifting.

Legionella and water that sits still

Legionella likes warm water that isn’t moving. Aged care buildings have plenty of places for that to happen: a room that has been empty for a month, a basin nobody uses, a branch of pipe left capped off after a renovation.

The plumbing side of keeping it under control comes down to a few habits.

• Store hot water at 60°C or more, and keep the plant serviced so it actually reaches that.
• Keep the run between each mixing valve and its outlets short, so there is very little warm water standing in the pipe.
• Remove dead legs, the capped-off lengths of pipe that fill with water and never flush.
• Run the taps and shower in any room that has been out of use, on a set schedule, and write it down.

Your facility’s water management plan sets the detail. A plumber’s job is to work to it, and to tell you when the pipework itself is the problem.

Backflow prevention

Backflow is water travelling back from a property into the main. Every connection to Sydney Water’s main has a hazard rating, and a medium or high hazard connection needs a testable device at the boundary. That device is tested when it’s installed and every year after, by a plumber with backflow accreditation, and the result is lodged with Sydney Water. A fire sprinkler or hydrant service has its own device and its own test.

If you’re not sure what your site has, the reminder Sydney Water sends the owner each year is the place to start. Our guide to backflow prevention explains the ratings and the test.

Drains and toilets

The blockages are predictable. Wet wipes, continence pads, paper towel and gloves don’t break down the way toilet paper does, and in a building with this many toilets some of them end up in the sewer. A sign in each bathroom and a bin within reach do more than any amount of drain clearing.

When a line blocks more than once, stop clearing it and look inside it. A drain camera shows whether the cause is what’s being flushed or a pipe that is cracked, sagging or full of tree roots, and you get the footage to show whoever approves the repair. See how we handle blocked drains.

If the pipe is damaged, pipe relining can often repair it from an existing access point, with no trench across a courtyard or a car park. In an occupied building that matters as much as the repair itself.

What to ask a plumber before they start

• Licence and insurance. Ask for the licence details and a certificate of currency for your contractor file before the first job, not after it.
• Who they report to on site. A nominated contact and a site induction make every later visit quicker.
• How a shutdown will be handled. Which wing or riser will be isolated, for how long, and whether the work can be done early in the morning or out of hours.
• A fixed price before work starts. A scope that moves is one you then have to explain to somebody else.
• What you’ll get in writing. Test reports, compliance certificates for gas and hot water work, and camera footage where a drain is involved.
• What happens after hours. A burst pipe or a sewer backing up can’t wait until morning. Know who answers the phone.

Where we fit

Precision Pipes is a licensed plumbing and gas fitting business based in Castle Hill, working across the Hills District, Hornsby Shire and the Upper North Shore. We’re fully insured and backflow accredited, we quote a fixed price before work starts, and the phone is answered 24 hours a day for genuine emergencies.

If you manage a home in our area, our commercial and strata plumbing page explains how we work on managed sites. Or get in touch and tell us about the building.