BRE349 Building

S i
Services I

Drainage System
Introduction
 Drainage system intends to carry liquid and slurry
effluents from buildings and convey it to suitable locations
for discharge or treatment. Effluents refer to wastes in
the
h form
f off solid,
lid liquid
li id & slurry,
l or gas.
 In this lecture, the drainage for general interior
environment and dd drainage at roadd side
d willll be
b discussed.
d d
Effluent

 For non-industrial premises, liquid and slurry effluents can

be classified as:
 Storm water – rain water and melted snow
 Grey water (waste water) – waste from laundries, wash basins,
sinks showers,
sinks, showers bathtubs,
bathtubs etc.
etc
 Black water (soil water) – waste from water closets and urinals
 Kitchen discharge – waste from sinks and floor drains of
kitchens (usually greasy/oily)
Drainage System in Hong Kong
 In Hong Kong, for non-industrial wastes, the following
drainage systems are provided:
 Storm water drainage system (rain water)
 Sanitary drainage system (soil and waste water)
 Kitchen drainage system (oily wastes)
 Sub-soil drainage system (underground water disposal)
 For industrial ppremises,, for industries rated as highly
g y
polluting, (e.g., dyeing, electroplating, etc.), factories
are required
q to provide
p initial sewage/chemical
g
treatment before discharging wastes to the public
sewer.
Storm Water Drainage

 Storm water
St t d drainage
i system
t can usually
ll be
b found
f d att
two distinct areas, roof top and paved area. From the
roof, storm water (rain) is collected by gutters,
inverted open channels (U channels) and floor drains
on roof structure.
 On flat roof, fall is provided by the screeding to
ensure rainwater will not be accumulated on the roof
which may cause on the water proofing and the
additional loading of the rainwater may cause
problem to the structure as well.
 For paved areas, falls to floor drains or open channels
must be ensured. In addition to this, each floor drains
must be fitted with trap gully to prevent rubbish from
entering into the public sewer.
Sanitary Drainage System
 Sanitary drainage system refers to installation which
assists in the discharge of soil and foul wastes from
sanitary fittings in building to the public sewer for
treatment and d subsequent
b disposal.
di l
 Typical sanitary fittings include baths, sinks, lavatory basins,
fl
floor drains
d in lavatories,
l water closets,
l urinals
l bidets,
bd
drinking fountain, etc.
On the Design of Sanitary Drainage System

 All pipings
i i mustt be
b watertight
t ti ht withith smooth
th iinternal
t l
bores which can avoid blockage and back pressure
thrust.
 Provisions for cleaning (e.g., cleaning eyes) must be
provided
 All waste and soil pipes and drains must discharge the
flows that they receive immediately and that
consequently all pipes must fall continuously to
ensure a proper flow.
 Wastes and soil systems have to convey the flows
from sanitary appliances or fittings to the manholes
without causing any nuisance from leakage, blockage
or smell.ll In
I order
d to achieve
hi this,
hi the
h use off traps andd
vents are typical measures.
Traps
 Trap is used for separating the sanitary fittings and
the attached waste pipes which retains a small
amount of water at the outlet of the sanitary fittings
so as to p
prevent unpleasant
p smell and ppotential
dangerous gases from entering into the building from
the waste pipes system.
 I H
In Hong KKong, allll sanitary
i fitments
fi must be
b fitted
fi d with
ih
dedicated traps and cleaning provisions must be
provided.
provided
 The shape of traps can be “S” shape, “P” shape and
bottle shape,
p and the materials used can be steel, iron,
copper, brass and plastic (UPVC).
Vents

 Vents (vent
V ( pipes)
i ) are fitted
fi d to the
h waste pipes
i from
f
sanitary fittings. The major functions of vents are:
 To ventilate the waste and soil drainage systems by allowing air
from the fresh air inlet to circulate throughout the systems and
carry away offensive gases
 To break the possible siphonage of water out of the traps
 To prevent the bubbling of foul gases through the trap seal
Siphonage
Piping for Drainage System
 The systems of sanitary drainage system can be
roughly
hl ddivided
d d into two main categories: one-pipe
system and two-pipe system.
 Th major
The j diff
difference between
b one-pipe
i and d two-pipe
i
systems is the use of combined or dedicated waste
pipes for to discharge soil and waste water.
water
Difference piping arrangements of one-pipe and two-
pipe system is enclosed for reference.
reference
 There is a system called single stacked system where
no vent pipe is required. However, this is not normally
allowed under Hong Kong law to use this system.
Drainage for Basement &
Kitchen
 FFor drainage
d i at basement
b llevels,
l because
b suchh levels
l l may beb
well below the levels of manholes, therefore natural fall cannot
be achieved.
 To cope with this problem, pumps (usually sump pumps) are
installed in the sump pit (tank) at the basement level (usually at
the
h llowest point)) to pump the h wastes to a height
h h so thath theh
natural fall to the manhole can be achieved.
 Regarding drainage of kitchen waste,
waste grease interceptor must
be installed between the floor drains and the manhole. The
grease interceptor usually has several chambers, the flow of
waste is slowed
l d down
d andd therefore
h f the
h greasy element
l can
“float” on top of the wastes and be filtered away with relative
ease. In other words, frequent cleaning to grease interceptor is
necessary to enable proper functioning.
Below Ground Drainage System

 Below
B l ground dddrainage
i system must bbe designed
d i d iin the
h
way such that natural fall throughout the system is
achieved & no extra energy is required to facilitate the
flow.
 In ideal
a ssituation,
tuat o , aall ppipes
p s must
ust flow
ow in the
t same
sa
directions. However, this is very difficult to achieve.
Therefore, inspection chambers and/or manholes are
required
i d to facilitate
f ili efficient
ffi i flow
fl and
d inspection
i i
 Underground wastewater pipes in small diameter
(<500mm) should be protected by weak concrete
surround
 In short,
short Inspection chambers/manholes serve as the
junction of several pipes and for change of directions
(including sharp change of fall).
Manholes
 Water flow inside manhole should not be enclosed to
facilitate inspection and repair
 The surface channel inside manhole is called
“Haunching” by cement/sand screed
 Manhole can be made by brickwork and/or RC
 Step Iron must be provided for deep manholes
 M h l cover can be
Manhole b precastt concrete,
t castt iiron,
steel and recessed type (for receiving further floor
d
decorative
ti materials)
t i l)
 Double-sealed manhole covers are generally used for
under-roof areas
Surface Drainage / Last Manhole

 FFor water coming from

f the
h surface,
f as mentioned,
d
gully must be provided to prevent rubbish from
getting in and unpleasant smell.
smell
 before connecting to the public sewer, a “last manhole”
(terminal manhole) must be installed.
installed
 The last manhole must be fitted with fresh air inlet to
ventilate the whole below ground system (unlike
sanitary system, below ground drainage systems
seldom flow with full bore of the pipes).
 Also trap must be provided at the last manhole to
separate the public sewer from the below ground
drainage system.
Testing on Water-tightness
Water tightness

 Testing
T ti on water-tightness
t ti ht for
f drainage
d i pipes
i ((above
b
& below ground) before covering up is demanded by
the Drainage Services Department
 To test whether underground piping is watertight, it
can be tested by air-test, water-test or smoke test.
 Air-test and water-test check the pressure drop
within enclosing section pipes for a designated period.
 S k
Smoke-test makes
k use off coloured
l d smokek to provided
a mean for visual inspection which is usually for
testing the watertightness at the junctions of
pipelines.
 For above gground drainageg system,
y , generally
g y water
test is adopted
Drainage for remote areas
 For remote area where public sewer is not available, in
order to disposal waste, sceptic tank, soakaway and
cesspool are employed.
 The principle of those devices is either holding the waste
for some time and manual disposal periodically (sceptic
tank,
k cesspool),
l) or
 let the waste (not harmful to the environment) immerse
into the
h soill nearby
b (soakaway).
( k )