Study on the Bathroom Space and the Application of Same-Floor Drainage in Congregate Housing

Wan-Ju Liao,Cheng-Li Cheng,Chao-Jung Lee

doi:10.3390/w13202922

Abstract

There are no regulations in Taiwan that clearly forbid the current practice of configuring a pipeline that passes through the floor of a condo to reach the ceiling of another condo downstairs with different ownership, giving rise to potential disputes during pipeline maintenance. In Japan and China, the regulations for water supply and the drainage system strictly forbid the installation of drainage pipes that pass through the floor of a condo to reach the ceiling of another condo downstairs. In this study, life cycle cost analysis was adopted to investigate the traditional piping system as well as the same-floor drainage system, including the descended floor piping system, the raised floor piping system and a pre-wall piping system. According to the results of the life cycle cost and benefit analysis for pipeline renewal and maintenance, and taking into account the overall pipeline construction cost, although adoption of the same-floor drainage system increases the total cost by about 0.3–2.7%, it shows benefits in terms of pipeline maintenance and construction time. From the perspective of property management, if the same-floor drainage system can be implemented in the initial design stage, operation and management related issues can be minimized to reduce both pipeline maintenance and management costs, achieving the best performance in sustainable construction and maintenance.

Highlights

Building a drainage system is critical to home sanitation
The results show that the partial replacement cost of the traditional piping system, the descended floor piping system with backfill and the raised floor piping system with backfill is the highest at NT$21,600 (±0%), followed by the cost of the descended floor piping system without backfill and the raised floor piping system without backfill at NT$15,800 (−26.9%), the cost of the pre-wall piping system at NT$11,500 (−46.8%)
From the perspective of the life cycle cost of the building, if the goal is to extend the operation, as well as the management period, of the building and to reduce the maintenance costs in the future, a correct drainage method should be implemented in the early stages of building planning to avoid potential ownership conflicts raised during the repair of water leakage over time

Summary

Introduction

Building a drainage system is critical to home sanitation. The outbreak of SARS in the Amoy Gardens, a large residential community in Hong Kong, was due to the breaking of the house trap seal, leading to the rapid spread of virus throughout the community via the venting pipeline [8,9,10]. Since this incident, people started to pay more attention to the performance and safety of drainage systems in buildings [11,12,13]

Objectives

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion