Plumbing Consulting for Contractors, Architects and Developers

Design-assist and pre-construction plumbing review

Design-assist means the installing contractor weighs in while the design is still moving. On plumbing, that usually covers routing (can the stack go straight down, or does it jog through a beam?), chase and wall depths, cleanout access, and where fixtures sit relative to existing drains in a renovation.

A pre-construction plumbing review looks at the finished set with the same eye. We check that the scope matches the drawings, that equipment has room to be serviced, and that nothing obvious is missing — a floor drain at the water heater, a relief-valve discharge route, a trap primer where one is needed.

Sizing checks and value engineering

Water supply and drain sizing are driven by fixture units, length of run and available pressure. We check the numbers on the plans against the fixture count and the water service coming into the building, because an undersized service on a multi-unit renovation is expensive to discover after the walls close.

Value engineering is not simply the cheapest material. We look at where a different pipe material, a revised routing or a different water heating approach saves cost without creating a service problem later, and we say plainly when a proposed savings is not worth it.

Code review: Illinois and Chicago

Suburban projects generally follow the Illinois Plumbing Code as adopted by the local municipality, which may add its own amendments. Projects inside Chicago follow the city's own plumbing requirements, which differ in several practical areas. We review the plumbing scope for the requirements we see enforced in the field and flag anything your design professional or the local authority should confirm.

Water heaters, tankless and drainage planning

Water heater selection depends on peak demand, gas supply, venting route and space. As a Navien-certified contractor we can walk through tankless and combination options alongside conventional tank heaters, including gas line sizing and condensate disposal that tankless units require.

Below-grade work gets its own review: whether fixtures drain by gravity to the sewer, where a sump pit belongs relative to the drain tile, and whether a basement bathroom or laundry needs a sewage ejector and how it will vent.

Permits, inspections and trade coordination

We help prepare the plumbing side of permit submissions and can be on site for rough and final inspections. During construction we coordinate plumbing with framing, HVAC and the owner's electrician so penetrations, equipment clearances and power for pumps and water heaters are planned rather than improvised.