UPCP DEFINITION OF TERMS

ABS

Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene

CONDUCTOR OR DOWNSPOUT

A vertical pipe to convey rainwater .


BIBB

Synonymous with faucet, cock, tap, plug, etc. The word "faucet" is preferred.

AIRBREAK

A physical separation which may be a low inlet into the indirect waste receptor from the fixture, appliance or device indirectly connected.

AIRGAP

the unobstructed vertical distance through the free atmosphere between the lowest opening from any pipe

AREA DRAIN

A receptor designed to collect surface or storm water from an open area

ASPIRATOR

a fitting or device supplied with water or the other fluid under positive pressure that passes through integral orifice or construction , causing a vacuum.

Back Pressure Backflow

Backflow due to an increased pressure above the supply pressure, which may be due to pumps, boilers, gravity or other sources of pressure

Backflow Preventer

A device or means to prevent backflow

Back siphonage

Is the backflow of used, contaminated or polluted water from a plumbing fixture due to negative pressure

Backwater Valve

a device installed in a drainage system to prevent reverse flow

Bathroom group

A group of fixtures consisting of a water closet, lavatory, bathtub or shower, including or excluding a bidet, an emergency floor drain or both. Such fixtures are located together on the same floor level.

Battery of Fixtures

any of two or more similar adjacent fixtures which discharge into a common horizontal soil or waste branch.

BOILER BLOW-OFF

a valve outlet of a boiler that permits discharge of accumulated

sediment

BRANCH

any part of the piping system other than a main, riser or stack

BRANCH VENT

A vent connecting one or more individual vents with a vent stack or stack vent

BUILDING DRAIN

that part of the lowest horizontal piping of a drainage system which receives the discharge from soil, waste and other drainage pipes inside the walls of the building and conveys it to the building sewer beginning 0.6 meter outside the building wall

BUILDING SEWER

That part of the drainage system that extends from the end of

the building drain and conveys its discharge to the public sewer,

private sewer, individual sewage disposal system or other appropriate

point of disposal.

BUILDING SUBDRAIN

that portion of an underground system, which cannot drain by

gravity into the building sewer

BUILDING SUPPLY

the pipe carrying potable water from the water meter or other source of water supply to a building or other point of use or distribution on the lot. Building supply shall also mean water service connection.

CESSPOOL

an underground container for the temporary storage of liquid waste and sewage.

Clear Water Waste

cooling water and condensate drainage from refrigeration and air conditioning equipment; cooled condensate from steam heating systems; cooled boiler blown down water

CLINIC SINK

A sink designed primarily to receive wastes from bedpans and having a flush rim, an integral trap with a visible trap seal, and the same flushing and cleansing characteristics as a water closet.

PRESSURE BALANCING VALVE

A mixing valve that senses outlet temperature and incoming hot and cold water pressure and compensates for fluctuations in incoming hot and cold water temperature and pressure

CONTAMINATION

An impairment of the quality of the quality of the potable water that creates an actual hazard to the public health through poisoning or through the spread of disease by sewage, industrial fluids or wastes

CONTINUOUS VENT

A vertical vent that is a continuation of the drain to which it connects

CONTINUOUS WASTE

A drain connecting the compartments of a set of fixtures to a trap or connecting other permitted fixtures to a common trap.

CPVC

Chlorinated Polyvinyl Chloride

CRITICAL LEVEL

C-L or C/L marking on a backflow prevention device or vacuum breaker is a point conforming to approved standards and established by the testing laboratory (usually stamped on the device by the manufacturer) which determines the minimum elevation above the flood level rim of the fixture or receptacle served where the device may be installed

CROSS-CONNECTION

any connection or arrangement, physical or otherwise, between a potable water supply system and any plumbing fixture or any tank. receptacle, equipment or device, through which enables non-potable, used, unclean, polluted, contaminated water or other substances to enter into any part of such potable water system under any condition.

DOMESTIC SEWAGE

The liquid and water borne waste derived form the ordinary living process, free from industrial wastes, and of such character as to permit satisfactory disposal without special treatment into the public sewer or by means of private disposal system.

DOWNSPOUT

the rain leader from the roof to the building storm drain, combined building sewer, or other means of disposal located outside of the building

DRAIN

Any pipe that carries wastewater or water-borne wastes in a building drainage system.

DRAINAGE SYSTEM

Includes all piping within public or private which conveys sewage, rain water or often liquid waste to a legal point of disposal but does not include the main of a public sewer system or private or or public sewerage treatment

DURHAM SYSTEM

A term used to describe soil or waste system where all pipings are of threaded pipe, tubing or other such rigid construction using recessed drainage fittings to correspond to the types of piping

EFFECTIVE OPENING

The minimum cross-sectional area at the point of water supply discharge measured or expressed in terms of (l) diameter of a circle; (2) if the opening is not circular, the diameter of a circle of equivalent cross-sectional area

EXCESS FLOW VALVE

A valve designed to close when the liquid or vapor passing through it exceeds a prescribed flow rate

FIXTURE BRANCH

The water supply pipe between the fixture supply pipe and the water-distributing pipe.

FIXTURE DRAIN

The drain from the trap of a fixture to the junction of that drain with any other drain pipe.

FIXTURE UNIT

A quantity in terms of which the load-producing effects on the plumbing system of different kinds of plumbing fixtures are expressed on some arbitrarily chosen scale.

FIXTURE SUPPLY

Water supply pipe connecting the fixture with the fixture branch.

FLAMMABLE VAPOR

A concentration of constituents in air that exceeds 10 percent of its lower flammable limit

FLOOD HAZARD AREA

the area within a floodplain subject to a one percent or greater chance of flooding in any given year

FLOOD LEVEL RIM

The top edge of a receptacle from where water overflows.

FLUSH TANK

A tank located above or integral with the water closet, urinal or similar fixtures

for flushing or removing excrements in the fixture

FLUSH VALVE

A device located at the bottom of a flush tank for flushing water closets and similar fixtures.

FLUSHMOTER TANK

Tank integrated within an air accumulator designed to discharge a predetermined water for flushing purposes

FLUSHOMETER VALVE

Valve that discharge a predetermined water to fixtures for flushing purposes

GRAVITY GREASE INTERCEPTOR

Plumbing appurtenance that is installed in a sanitary drainage system to intercept FOG from wastewater discharge with V=300 Galloon and 30 mins SRT.

GREASE REMOVAL DEVICE

A hydromechanical grease interceptor that automechanically removes FOG

HORIZONTAL BRANCH

A drain pipe extending laterally from a soil or waste stack or building drain with or without vertical sections or branches, which receives the discharge from one or more fixture drains and conducts it to the soil or waste stack or to the building drain.

HORIZONTAL PIPE

any pipe or fitting installed in a horizontal position or which forms an angle of not more than forty-five degrees with the horizontal plane.

HOT WATER

Water at a temperature greater than or equal to 120 º F (49º C).

INDIRECT WASTE PIPE

A pipe that does not connect directly with the drainage system but conveys liquid wastes by discharging into a plumbing fixture, interceptor or receptacle directly connected to the drainage system.

INDIVIDUAL VENT

A pipe installed to vent a fixture trap and that connects with the vent system above the fixture served or terminates in the open air

INDUSTRIAL WASTE

Any and all liquid or water-borne waste from industrial or commercial processes, except domestic sewage.

INSANITARY

A condition contrary to sanitary principles or injurious to health.

INTECEPTOR

A device designed and installed to separate and retain for removal, by automatic or manual means, deleterious, hazardous or undesirable matter from normal wastes, while permitting normal sewage or wastes to discharge into the drainage system by gravity also known as clarifier.

LAVATORIES IN SETS

Two or three lavatories that are served by one trap.

GANG

Two or more showers in common area

LEADER

An exterior vertical drainage pipe for conveying storm water from roof or gutter drains also known as DOWNSPOUT.

MACERATING TOILET SYSTEM

A system comprised of a sump with macerating pump and with connections for a water closet and other plumbing fixtures, which is designed to accept, grind, and pump wastes to an approved point of discharge.

MAIN

The principal pipe artery to which branches are connected.

MAIN VENT

The principal artery of the venting system to which vent branches may be connected.

MOBILE HOME PARK SEWER

That part of the horizontal piping of sanitary drainage system which measures 0.6 m downstream from the last mobile home site and conveys sewage to a public sewer, private sewer, individual sewage disposal system and other points of disposal.

OFFSET

A combination of elbows or bends in a line of piping that brings one section of the pipe out of the line but into a line parallel with the other section.

Polybutylene

PB

Polyethylene

PE

PEX-AL-PEX

Cross-linked polyethylene-aluminum-Cross-linked polyethylene

PEX

Cross-linked polyethylene

PIPE

A cylindrical conduit or conductor conforming to the particular dimensions commonly known as 'pipe size" and is denoted by its interior diameter.

PLUMBING

Business trade or work having to do with the installation, removal, alteration, or report of plumbing system.

Plumbing Appliance

A special device or equipment intended to perform a special plumbing function.

PLUMBING APPURTENANCE

A manufactured device, prefabricated assembly or an on-the-job assembly of component parts that is an adjunct to the basic piping system and plumbing fixtures. An appurtenance demands no additional water supply and does not add any discharge load to a fixture or to the drainage system.

PLUMBING FIXTURE

Any of various receptacles for receiving water from a water system and discharging the liquid waste into a drainage system

POLLUTION

An impairment of the quality of the potable water to a degree that does not create a hazard to a public health but which does adversely and unreasonably effect the aesthetic qualities of such potable water for domestic use.

Polypropylene

PP

PE-AL-PE

Polyethylene-aluminum-polyethylene

STATIC PRESSURE

The pressure existing without any flow motion.

RESIDUAL PRESSURE

The pressure available at the fixture or water outlet after allowance was made for pressure drop due to the friction loss, head, meter, and other loses in the system during maximum demand.

PRIVATE SEWAGE DISPOSAL SYSTEM

Septic tank with the effluent discharging into a subsurface disposal field, into one or more seepage pits or into a combination of subsurface disposal field and seepage pit or of such other facilities as may be permitted under the procedures set forth elsewhere in this Code.

PRIVATE SEWER

A building sewer, which receives the discharge from more than one building drain and conveys it to a public sewer, private sewage disposal system, or other points of disposal

PUBLIC SEWER

Common sewer directly controlled by public authority to which all abutters have equal rights of connections.

Polyvinyl Chloride

PVC

Polyvinylidene fluoride

PVDF

RECEPTOR

A plumbing fixture or device of such material, shape and capacity as to adequately receive the discharge from indirect waste pipe, so constructed and located as to be readily cleaned.

REGULATING EQUIPMENT

Include all valves and controls used in plumbing systems which are accessible.

RELIEF VENT

A vertical vent line, the primary function of which is to provide additional circulation of air between the drainage and vent systems or to act as an auxiliary vent on a specially designed system such as a "yoke vent" connection between the soil and vent stacks.

REMOTE OUTLET

The furthest remote dimension or length measuring from the meter.

RISER

A water supply pipe that extends vertically one story or more to carry water to fixtures.

ROOF DRAIN

A drain designed to receive water collecting on the surface of a roof and to discharge it into a leader or downspout.

ROUGHING-IN

The installation of parts of the plumbing system which can be completed prior to installation of fixtures or finishing. This includes drainage, water supply and vent piping and necessary fixture supports.

SEEPAGE PIT

A loosely lined excavation in the ground, which receives the discharge of a septic tank and designed to permit the effluent from the septic tank to seep through pit bottom and sides.

SEPTIC TANK

A watertight receptacle which the discharge of sanitary plumbing system or part thereof, designed and constructed to retain solids, digest organic matter through a period of detention and to allow the liquids to discharge into the soil outside of the tank through a system of open jointed subsurface piping or seepage pit

SEWAGE

Any liquid waste containing animal or vegetable matter in suspension or solution, including liquids containing chemicals in solution.

SEWAGE EJECTOR

A device for lifting sewage by entraining the sewage in a high-velocity jet of steam, air or water.

SEWAGE PUMP

A permanently installed mechanical device, other than an ejector, for removing sewage or liquid waste from a sump.

SHIELDED COUPLING

An approved elastomeric sealing gasket with an approved outer shield and a tightening mechanism.

SLIP JOINT

An adjustable tubing connection, consisting of a compression nut, a friction ring, and a compression washer, designed to fit a threaded adapter fitting or a standard taper pipe thread.

SOIL PIPE

Any pipe, which conveys the discharge of water closet, urinal or fixtures having similar functions, with or without the discharges from other fixtures to the building drain or building sewer.