International Plumbing Code

SUBJECT: Laundries
CHANGE TYPE: Modification

1003.6 Laundries. Commercial laundries Laundry facilities not installed within an individual dwelling unit or intended for individual family use shall be equipped with an interceptor with a wire basket or similar device, removable for cleaning, that prevents passage into the drainage system of solids 0.5 inch (12.7 mm) or larger in size, string, rags, buttons or other materials detrimental to the public sewage system.

CHANGE SIGNIFICANCE:

The revised section prevents the passage of solids to the drainage system by requiring a collection device in all laundry facilities other than an individual dwelling unit. Laundry facilities not installed within an individual dwelling unit shall now be equipped with an interceptor with a wire basket or similar device for cleaning that prevents the passage of solids. The individual who proposed the code change stated a laundry in an apartment complex is not “public” but definitely needs a method of interception based on the high volume of usage.

The term commercial, which is not defined in the code and in the past was generally applied only to self-service laundries, is removed. The phrase “not intended for individual family use” is based on the type II clothes dryer definition found in the International Mechanical Code. Large institutional laundry machines commonly are drained by gravity out the back into a large drain, where the collection device could easily be installed.

This code change will be an installation challenge. For example, many machines—other than single-family dwelling machines, which discharge to a 2" standpipe—now appear to need a collection device. Finding or creating room for these devices on the same floor level will be difficult.