NPCP Chapter 2

Definition of terms

ABS

Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene

Any public space, public park or thoroughfare less than three meters but not less than two meters in width dedicated or deeded for public use.

Alley

Any change, addition or modification in construction or occupancy

Alter or Alteration

When applied to a fixture, connection, appliance or equipment, shall mean having access thereto, but which may require prior removal of an access panel, door or similar obstruction. “Readily accessible" shall mean direct access without the necessity of removing any panel, door, or similar obstruction.

Accessible

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

Airbreak

The unobstructed vertical distance through the free atmosphere between the lowest opening from any pipe, plumbing fixture, appliance or appurtenance conveying waste to the flood level rim of the receptor.

Air gap, Drainage

An unobstructed vertical distance through the free atmosphere between the lowest opening from any pipe or faucet conveying potable water to the flood-level rim of any tank, vat or fixture.

Air gap, Water Distribution

Accepted or acceptable under an applicable specifications or standards stated or cited in this code or accepted as suitable for any proposed use under procedures and powers of the Administrative Authority.

Approved

An organization primarily stablished for purposes of testing to approve standards and approved by the Administrative Authority.

Approved Testing Agency

The flow of water or other liquids, mixtures or substances into the distributing pipes of a potable supply of water from any source other than from its intended source.

Backflow

Condition or any arrangement whereby reverse flow can occur.

Backflow Connection

Occurs due to an increased reverse pressure above the supply pressure. This may be due to pumps, boilers, gravity or other sources of pressure.

Backpressure Backflow

Device or means to prevent flow of liquid from returning to the source of supply. Also called vacuum breaker.

Backflow Preventer

The flowing back of used, contaminated or polluted water from a plumbing fixture or vessel into a water supply pipe due to a negative pressure in such pipe.

Back-Siphonage

A device installed in a drainage system to prevent reverse flow.

Backwater Valve

The part of a vent line, which connects directly with an individual trap underneath or behind the fixture and extends to the branch or main vent pipe at any point higher than the fixture or fixture traps it serves. This is sometimes called an individual vent.

Back vent Pipe

A valve opened and closed by the fall and rise, respectively, of an attached ball floating on the surface of the liquid.

Ball Cock

A type of pipe connection in which a ball-shaped end is held in a cuplike shell and allows movements in every direction.

Ball Joint

A room equipped with a shower stall or bathtub.

Bathroom

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

Battery of Fixtures

That portion of a pipe which, for a short distance, is sufficiently enlarged to receive the end of another pipe of the same diameter for the purpose of making a caulked or push-on joint.

Bell or Hub

A tool for straightening or bending lead pipe.

Bending Pin or Iron

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

Bibb

A plumbing fixture used for washing the middle private part of the body, especially the genitals. Also called a "sitz" bath.

Bidet

A pipe tlange that is not drilled for bolt holes.

Blank Flange

A flange that closes the end of a pipe. There is no opening for the passage of liquid or gas.

Blind Flange

A controlled outlet of a pipeline to discharge liquid or detritus.

Blow-off

The Licensure Board for Master Plumbers

Board

A valved outlet of a boiler that permits discharge of accumulated sediment.

Boiler Blow-off

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

Branch

A length of soil or waste stack corresponding in general to a story height, but in no case less than 2.43 meters within which the horizontal branches from one floor or story of a building are connected to the stack.

Branch Interval

A horizontal vent connecting one or more individual vertical back vents with the vent stack or stack vent.

Branch Vent

Any joint obtained by joining of metal parts with alloys which melt at temperatures higher than 449 degrees centigrade, but lower than the melting temperature of the parts to be joined.

Brazed Joint

Brown and Sharpe (Specification) or Bell and Spigot (Ends of Pipes)

B and S

A structure built, erected and framed of component structural parts designed for the housing, shelter, enclosure or support of persons, animals or property of any kind.

Building

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 Drain

That part of the horizontal piping of a drainage system which starts from the end of the building drain, and which receives the discharge of the building drain and conveys it to a public sewer, private sewer, individual sewage disposal system or other point of disposal.

Building Sewer

That portion of an underground system, which cannot drain by gravity into the building sewer.

Building Subdrain

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. ________ shall also mean water service connection.

Building Supply

Plugging an opening with oakum, lead or other materials that are pounded into the annular space. Also, the material pounded into the annular opening.

Caulking

A fitting screwed or caulked over the end of a pipe for closing the pipe end.

Cap

A receptacle in which liquids are retained for a sufficient period of time to allow settleable material to deposit.

Catch Basin

A person who has shown competence to test and maintain backflow assemblies to the satisfaction of the Administrative Authority having jurisdiction.

Certified Backflow Assembly Tester

A non-watertight lined excavation in the! ground which receives the discharge of a sanitary drainage system or part thereof, designed to retain the organic matter and solids discharging therefrom, out permitting the liquid to seep through the bottom and sides of the __________.

Cesspool

A vertical shaft for installation of different pipe stacks.

Chase

A valve that automatically closes to prevent the flow of liquid or gas in a reverse direction

Check Valve

A group vent pipe which starts in front of the extreme fixture connection on a horizontal branch and connects to the vent stack.

Circuit Vent

A specially designed system of waste piping embodying the horizontal wet venting of one or more sinks or floor drains by means of a common horizontal waste and vent pipe. Adequately sized to provide free movement of air above the flow line of the drain.

Combination Waste and Vent System

A structure which any part of its structural framework will ignite and burn at a temperature of 756 degrees centigrade or less.

Combustible Construction

That part of a plumbing system designed and installed to serve more than one (1) appliance, fixture, building or system.

Common

A room or space having a volume less than I-4 cu. m with 250-kilogram calorie of the aggregate input rating of all fuel-burning appliances installed in that space

Confined Space

An impairment of the quality of the potable water which creates an actual hazard to the public health through poisoning or spread of disease by sewage, industrial fluids or waste. Also, defined as High Hazard.

Contamination

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

Continuous Vent

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

Continuous Waste

A vertical pipe to convey rainwater

Conductor or Downspout

A stop valve placed at the connection of the water service pipe to the water main.

Corporation Cock

An open, unoccupied space, bounded on two (2) or more sides by the walls of the building. An inner court is a court entirely within the exterior walls of a building. All other courts are outer courts.

Court

Any connection or arrangement, physical or otherwise, between a potable water supply system and any plumbing fixture or any tank, receptable, 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.

Cross-connection

The extended portion of a pipe that is closed at one end to which no connections arc made on the extended portion, thus permitting the stagnation of liquid or air therein

Dead-end

The Administrative Authority and includes any other law enforcement agency concerned by any provision of this Code, whether St1ch agency is specifically named or not.

Department Having Jurisdiction

The length of a pipe along its centerline and fittings.

Developed Length

The liquid and water-home wastes derived from the ordinary living processes, free from industrial wastes and of such character that permit satisfactory disposal without special treatment. It is discharged into the public sewer or into a private sewage disposal system.

Domestic Sewage

A pipe fitting with adjacent reverse bends and shaped like the letter "S''

Double-Bend Fitting

Two offsets in succession or in series such that the centerlines of the outside ends are in the same straight line.

Double Offset

The vertical portion of a rainwater conductor.

Downspout

A pipe, which carries ground and surface waters, storm water or wastewater into a building drainage system.

Drain

Includes all the pipings within public or private premises which convey sewage or other liquid wastes to a legal point of disposal but does not include the mains of a public sewer system or a public sewage treatment or disposal plant.

Drainage System

A vent that does not carry liquid or water-borne wastes.

Dry Vent

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.

Durham System

__________ is the minimum cross-sectional area at the point of water supply discharge measured or expressed in terms of: (1) diameter of a circle; (2) if the opening is not circular, the diameter of a circle of equivalent cross-sectional area. (This is applicable also to air gap installation.)

Effective Opening

The on-going installation of the plumbing system or any part thereof which has been installed prior to the effectivity of this Code.

Existing Work

one person living alone or a group living together, whether related to each other by birth or not.

Family

A valve located at the end of a water pipe through of which water can be drawn from or held within the pipe.

Faucet

A metallic sleeve caulked or joined to an opening in a pipe, into which a plug is screwed that can be removed for cleaning or examining the interior of the pipe.

Ferrule

A receptacle other than a trap attached to a plumbing system in which water or wastes may be collected or retained for ultimate discharge into the plumbing system.

Fixture

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

Fixture Branch

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

Fixture Drain

A water supply pipe connecting the fixture with the fixture branch.

Fixture Supply

__________ is an arbitrary quantity in terms of which the load-producing effects or water requirements on the plumbing system of different kinds of plumbing fixtures are expressed in some arbitrarily chosen scale. One fixture unit is equivalent to a rate of flow at 28.3 liters per minute (1 cu. ft./minute).

Fixture Unit

The level in a fixture at which water begins to overflow over the top or rim of the fixture.

Flood Level

__________ is the top edge of a receptacle from where water overflows.

Flood Level Rim

a fixture is _____ when the liquid therein rises to the flood level rim.

Flooded

The area included within surrounding walls of a building (or portion thereof), exclusive of vent shafts and courts.

Floor Area

A tank located above or integral with water closet, urinal or similar fixtures for flushing or removing excrements in the fixture.

Flush Tank

__________ is a device located at the bottom of the tank for the purpose of flushing waster closet and similar fixtures.

Flush Valve

__________ is integrated within an air accumulator vessel which is designed to discharge a predetermined quantity of water into fixtures for flushing purposes.

Flushometer Tank

__________ is a device, which discharges a predetermined quantity of water into fixtures for flushing purposes and is actuated by direct water pressure.

Flushometer Valve

A valve in which the flow of water is cut off by means of a circular disc fitted against machine-smoothed faces, at right angles to the direction of flow. The disk is raised or lowered by means of a threaded stern connected to the handle of the valve. The opening in the valve is usually as large as the full bore of the pipe.

Gate Valve

A valve in which the flow of fluid is cut off by means of a circular disc that fits over and against the horizontal valve seat. The movement of the plane of disc is parallel to the normal direction of flow of water through the orifice resulting to a tortuous passage which offers a high-pressure loss.

Globe Valve

A return bend of small-sized pipe, one end of which is about 30 cm. long and the other end is about 7. 5 cm. long. It is commonly used as a faucet for a pantry sink. Also, the term means the flexible tubing connection between a service pipe and a water main.

Gooseneck

__________ is the slope or fall of a line of pipe with reference to a horizontal plane. In drainage, it is usually expressed as the fall in centimeters per meter or percentage slope of pipe.

Grade

An interceptor of at least 3 cubic meters capacity to serve one or more fixtures and which is remotely located.

Grade Interceptor

A device designed to retain grease from one to a maximum of tour fixtures.

Grease Trap

The water that stands in or passes through the ground

Ground Water

A branch vent that performs its functions for two (2) or more traps.

Group Vent

The vertical distance from the "Grade Line" to the highest point of the coping of a flat roof or to the top line of a measured roof or to the average height of the highest gable of a pitched or hip-roof

Height of Building

__________ is a drainpipe 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 Branch

__________ is any pipe or fitting installed in a horizontal position or which forms an angle of not more than forty-five (45) degrees with the horizontal plane.

Horizontal Pipe

__________ is that part of the lowest horizontal piping of a plumbing system which receives the discharges from soil, waste and other drainage pipes inside of a building and conveys it to the house sewer outside of the building.

House Drain

__________ is that part of a plumbing system extending from the house drain at a point 0.60 meters from the outside face of the foundation wall of a building to the junction with the street sewer or to any point of discharge and conveying the drainage of one building site.

House Sewer