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Public Health - Seattle & King County is hiring a Plumbing Plans Examiner!
Are you an experienced plumber interested in transitioning to something less physical? Perhaps a detailer interested in applying your experience to something new? King County is seeking PL01 and PL02 Certified Plumbers with experience designing or reviewing plumbing plans to join our Plan Review team. This is a fully remote position (except for occasional in-person trainings), represented by Plumbers and Pipe Fitters Local 32. Training and hardware/software provided. Application period extended to June 18, 2024. More information available on our webpage.
If you are reading this, chances are you are exactly the type of person we need to hear from! If you are interested in helping to review and develop our policies, procedures, and guidance documents, please consider joining one of our volunteer groups:
Plumbing Fixture List Subcommittee
Later this year, King County will be updating the permit forms used for applying for plumbing and gas permits. Our intent is to provide a list of fixture and equipment types on each application that will cover anything that may be applicable to a specific permit type instead of the standard list of only a few items. This subcommittee will receive survey links to help us decide what to include on these new permit applications. Three surveys with (5) questions each have been distributed with more to follow. If you use this link to sign up now, you will receive links to all prior and future surveys. Participation is open to anyone.
Policy Advisory Committee
This group is geared toward design professionals or those that develop and submit drawings for plan review, but is open to any design firm or contractor doing work within our jurisdiction. Participation is limited to (1) person per company or industry group. The Policy Advisory Group will soon have the opportunity to review upcoming Example Plans and updates to our Plumbing Design Guidance and Occupancy and Use documents before they are published on our website. Make sure your company is represented by signing up here!
Contacting the Plan Review team
If you have a technical or Code interpretation question, or need to find out if a certain project requires plan review, please send an email inquiry to: planreviewinfo@kingcounty.gov.
If you have submitted plans for plan review and want an update on the status of your project, please send an email inquiry to: planreviewstatus@kingcounty.gov.
Both of these email inboxes are monitored regularly so you will receive a prompt response.
Requesting inspections – estimated timeframes are only estimates
After a request for inspection is made, the assigned inspector will call the contact number provided at time of inspection request and confirm the project will be ready for inspection that day (permit and Approved plans printed and on site, etc.). The assigned inspector will provide an estimated time when they will most likely arrive. Please remember, this time window is provided as a courtesy. It is entirely possible your inspector may arrive earlier (or later) than the estimated time due to unforeseen conditions. If the inspector arrives and the project is not ready in accordance with Seattle Plumbing Code Section 109.2 or Uniform Plumbing Code Section 105.2.3 for inspection, the inspector is not obligated to perform an inspection. Not only will you have to reschedule the inspection if you are not ready, but the project may be subject to a reinspection fee. The project contact or responsible person in charge should be prepared to remain onsite if necessary with the plumbing system ready for inspection.
By Dave Price, Assistant Chief Plumbing Inspector, Public Health - Seattle & King County
After literal years of development, we are almost ready to publish a small set of Example Plans for public reference. This first round of plans will include (6) sheets and is meant to cover the majority of items requested within our Plumbing Design Guidance for a medium-size commercial plumbing project being submitted for plan review. More sheets will be added to our example plan library as they are developed.
What are Example Plans?
Example plans are created in-house using donated design information from industry partners. They are generic in nature and serve as a guide for permit applicants and/or design professionals. These plans will mimic what is typically submitted (or expected to be submitted) for plan review. A permit applicant can open an Example Plan cover sheet and see what we expect to be included in an Abbreviations List or what a Vicinity Map looks like. They can open an Example Plan schedule sheet and see the information that would typically be provided on a fixture or equipment schedule.
How are Example Plans used?
It is said a picture is worth a thousand words. A PDF plan formatted to resemble a professionally prepared plumbing plan sheet will help illustrate the items we request for plan review much better than the written Plumbing Design Guidance list by itself. As much as possible, various items from our Plumbing Design Guidance document have been incorporated into each applicable Example Plan sheet so that a permit applicant can simply open the Example Plan PDF and search (ctrl+f) for a specific line item. Once found, the applicant is able to hover over the question mark symbol next to the alphanumeric reference for tips related to that item.
Example:
An applicant or designer/engineer is not sure what it means to provide ‘square foot loading’ on a plan as requested in Plumbing Design Guidance item 5AA.
From our Plumbing Design Guidance document:
5. Plan sheets
Plan sheets shall include the following plumbing design information as applicable (solid black/bold)
AA. Square Foot loading at Each Roof Drain (include sidewall and/or downspout tributary area)
The applicant or designer can open the example plumbing plan, search for ‘5AA’, and visually see how this information is typically provided. If they hover over the question mark, an informational text note will appear:
 When will these plans be posted?
We will be sending our current set of Example Plans out to our Policy Advisory Committee for review and comment very shortly. After review, the plans will be posted to our website and a link sent out in an upcoming monthly newsletter. If you are interested in helping with this initial review, please consider signing up to join our Policy Advisory Committee at this link.
Will there be more?
Yes. Our current set of (6) sheets includes a cover sheet, calculation sheet, schedule sheet, plan sheet, natural gas riser diagram, and stormwater riser diagram. In the near future we intend to add domestic water and sanitary riser diagrams and a construction detail sheet. This set of Example Plans will include most items found in a typical commercial plumbing design plan set. Future Example Plans will be developed to cover rainwater harvesting design, food service design, lab design, etc. as time permits.
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