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December 2017
Engineer
of theYearThe next generation’s voice is amplified. Pg 46
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
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3. pe12_pgs_01_03.indd 3 11/15/17 8:11 AM

4. 4/Plumbing Engineer December 2017
Volume 45, Number 12, December 2017
FEATURES
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
ASPE REPORT
16 FROM THE PRESIDENT'S PEN
18 SYMPOSIUM HIGHLIGHTS
COLUMNS
6 Editor’s Letter
Working together to grow stronger.
22 Young Professionals +
Integrated Design
A facility tour sheds light on why
engineers should care about
prefabricated bathrooms.
26 Legal Pipeline
What to consider when you’re
asked to perform work that’s
outside the project’s scope.
30 FPE Corner
A too-close-for-comfort encounter
with the Sonoma County wildfires.
34 Plumbing & Heating
Thoughts
Stop focusing on the term
‘millennial’ and start thinking
about the term ‘perennial’.
38 Designer’s Guide
The ins-and-outs of compressed
natural gas acting as a fuel source.
40 Collaborative Health
Care Design
What appears to be simple on paper
is not always simple in the field.
42 Code Classroom
Mark your calendars for the
next cycle of code changes.
DEPARTMENTS
8 Industry News
58 Classifieds/Ad Index
The views and opinions expressed in this issue's articles are those of the contributors and do not
necessarily reflect a position of Plumbing Engineer, TMB Publishing Inc., or ASPE.
THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION
OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF
PLUMBING ENGINEERS
54 Low Pressure Low-Down
How low-pressure steam heating is helping businesses with
money savings and versatility.
46 Cover Story: 2017 Engineer of the Year
Nicholas J Hipp uses his knowledge and voice to promote the
industry every chance he gets.
www.PHCPPros.com
Be sure to check out www.PHCPPros.com for the
latest news delivered throughout the day.
52 Plumbing Coordination and Clash Detection
Communication can make or break the success of your
next project.
56 WOA: We Are Inclusive, Not Exclusive
Breaking barriers and creating a platform to promote all mem-
bers of ASPE, Women of ASPE lead with purpose.
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6. 6/Plumbing Engineer December 2017
Editor’s Letter
Sharon J. Rehana, Editor
sharon@tmbpublishing.com
PLUMBING ENGINEER
(USPS 567-950) ISSN 0192-1711
PLUMBING ENGINEER (USPS 567-950) ISSN 0192-1711 is published monthly by TMB Publishing Inc., 6201 W. Howard
St., Suite 201, Niles, IL 60714. Phone (847) 564-1127, Fax (847) 564-1264. Magazine is free to those who design and
specify plumbing/piping systems in commercial, industrial, institutional and governmental buildings; as well as govern-
ment officials and plumbing inspectors. Subscription rates for U.S. and Canada: $50 for one year, $90 for two years.
Periodical postage paid at Northbrook, IL, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Change of address should be
sent to Plumbing Engineer, 440 Quadrangle Dr., Suite E., Bolingbrook, IL 60440. Material and opinions contained in
contributed articles are the responsibility of the authors, not of TMB Publishing Inc., Plumbing Engineer magazine or
ASPE. The publisher cannot assume responsibility for any claims made by advertisers. Copyright © 2017 TMB Publishing
Inc. All rights reserved. Volume 45, Number 11. Plumbing Engineer is microfilmed by University Microfilms, Ann Arbor,
MI, and indexed by Engineering Index Inc. Publications Mail Agreement No. 41499518. Return Undeliverable Canadian
Addresses to PO Box 503, RPO West Beaver Creek, Richmond Hill ON L4B 4R6
New Beginnings with Familiar Faces TMB Publishing, Inc.
6201 W. Howard St.,
Suite 201, Niles, IL 60714
(847) 564-1127 • Fax: (847) 564-1264
Chairman of the Board
Tom M. Brown
Editorial, Production, Admin
Cate C. Brown, Vice President/Principal
Sharon J. Rehana, Editorial Director
Kyle Milnamow, Assistant Editor
Steve Smith, Senior Director
of Content Management
Mark Bruno, Senior Designer
ASPE Managing Editor
Gretchen Pienta
gpienta@aspe.org
Contributors
Timothy Allinson, P.E., Designer’s Guide
Sam Dannaway, FPE Corner
Max Rohr, Alternative Energy
Ron George, CPD, Code Classroom
Bristol Stickney, Solar Solutions
Cory Powers, Young Professionals +
Integrated Design
John Gregory, Collaborative
Health Care Design
Sales
Brad Burnside, East sales
6201 W. Howard St., Suite 201, Niles, IL
60714 Phone: 847/564-1127
Fax: 847/564-1264
E-mail: brad@tmbpublishing.com
David Schulte
Midwest, South and E. Canada sales
6201 W. Howard St., Suite 201, Niles, IL
60714 Phone: 847/564-1127
Fax: 847/564-1264
E-mail: dave@tmbpublishing.com
Scott Reimer, Publisher
West, Texas and W. Canada sales
6201 W. Howard St., Suite 201, Niles, IL
60714 Phone: 847/564-1127
Fax: 847/564-1264
E-mail: scott@tmbpublishing.com
ASPE Offices
6400 Shafer Court, Suite 350
Rosemont, IL 60018
(847) 296-0002 • Fax: (847) 296-2963
info@aspe.org
THE OFFICIAL
PUBLICATION OF THE
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF
PLUMBING ENGINEERS
I
t’s hard to believe that the year has come and is almost gone. It seems like
it was only yesterday that I came on board at TMB Publications and took
on the role of editorial director for Plumbing Engineer, PHC News and The
Wholesaler magazines.
But, it has in fact been more than a year now, and I can finally say with confi-
dence that I am able to wrap my head around this wonderful industry and all the
individuals who make it…flow.
Last month, I had the opportunity to attend the ASPE Technical Symposium
in Montreal, Canada, during which I spent some time with the ASPE Young
Professionals, as well as the Women of ASPE. I met some great people, and had
informative conversations that revealed a common goal.
There is a need, and a want, to position plumbing engineering as a design disci-
pline that is innovative, collaborative, and necessary. We, at Plumbing Engineer,
couldn’t agree more, which is why our main objective is to be your voice, and
your platform.
Beginning with this issue, I will take on the role of editor for Plumbing
Engineer, as Sarah Cimarusti will focus on managing the voice and platform for
PE’s sister publication, PHC News.
I look forward to working with all of you and welcome your input, and feed-
back. But before I sign off for the year, I wanted to leave you with a lasting image
that hopefully serves as a reminder of our strength and resolve as an industry, and
as a nation.
I met a young engineer by the name of
Nicholas J. Peterson, from Guttmann & Blaevoet
Consulting Engineers in San Francisco, at the
2017 ASPE Technical Symposium. Nicholas
mentioned he was from the Bay Area and I
asked if he was affected by the recent fires. I
told him that I had just visited Sonoma County
in September and was heartbroken watching the
news unfold. Although he personally was not
affected, his family had suffered a great loss.
He pulled up a picture on his phone and showed
me what remained of his relative’s house in the
Fountaingrove neighborhood in Santa Rosa.
The only thing left standing was a water heater.
Nicholas said, “If that’s not a testament to our
industry, I don’t know what is!”
I wish you all a happy and healthy 2018. ●
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8. 8/Plumbing Engineer December 2017
Industry News
8/Plumbing Engineer December 2017
CISPI Builds Digital and Print Advertising
Campaign to Educate Plumbing Engineers and
Inspectors
The Cast Iron Soil Pipe Institute introduced its new
digital and print advertising campaign, “We’ve Seen It All.
We’ve Done It All.”
This campaign supports CISPI’s mission of educating
plumbing engineers and building and plumbing inspectors
on specifications and model codes. CISPI is dedicated to
answering questions to support the construction of reliable
and efficient plumbing systems.
The digital campaign aims to create an engaging and
information-rich resource to drive awareness of the benefits
of using cast iron soil pipe and fittings. Dave Parney, CISPI
executive vice president, is featured in the campaign. Parney
brings 26 years of experience in the industry. CISPI is look-
ing to appeal to millennials coming into the workplace who
may not know about the benefits of cast iron soil pipe and
fittings. CISPI is also looking to educate through multiple
platforms, including print, social and digital marketing.
Recently, CISPI released a new website with a cleaner
look and feel to cut through the clutter. Hosting key techni-
cal resources such as the Cast Iron Soil Pipe and Fitting
Handbook and other CISPI specification documents, the
site brings together critical information about the benefits
AND YOUR COMMUNITY.
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Metropolitan’s air gap break tank systems are used to keep your potable water supply
safe. A physical air gap is one of the simplest, most reliable means of backflow
prevention. Air gap pump systems are used for industrial, commercial and municipal
applications or anywhere the potential for a cross-connection exists.
Custom engineered complete packages from Metropolitan are a perfect choice for
any protected potable water supply, non-potable water system or seal water supply.
Contact us today to see if an air gap system is the right choice for your application.
Let’s work together to use our water wisely. 815-886-9200 or metropolitanind.com
of cast iron soil pipe and fittings.
A series of new videos will be introduced over the next
several months, each highlighting specific features and ben-
efits of specifying cast iron soil pipe and fittings in plumb-
ing systems. All digital campaign elements will direct back
to existing education components on the CISPI website.
CISPI will continue to provide the tools and solutions
necessary for plumbing engineers and building and plumb-
ing inspectors to understand the benefits of cast iron soil
pipe and fittings, as well as the manufacture and use of cast
iron soil pipe and fittings in a variety of installations.
Visit www.cispi.org
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9. T H E L E A D E R I N C O N D E N S I N G T E C H N O L O G Y
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10. 10/Plumbing Engineer December 2017
Zurn is also the title sponsor for future AYP events, such
as at the next ASPE Convention & Expo in Atlanta in 2018.
Visit www.aspe.org
Zurn Industries Partners with ASPE Young
Professionals
Zurn Industries LLC will sponsor the American Society
of Plumbing Engineers (ASPE) Young Professionals pro-
gram, or AYP.
The AYP program was created to connect young profes-
sionals to share experiences, network with other ASPE
Chapter members and exchange ideas. Zurn's sponsorship
of AYP is an example of how the industry can work togeth-
er to ensure continued growth of the plumbing engineering
profession.
Zurn will now be able to pass along years of knowledge
and experience in plumbing specification, information on
their breadth of water-saving, easy-to-install products, and
guidance to help young engineers build high-performing
buildings that lead to a sustainable water future.
“Developing a stronger relationship with the plumbing
engineering community's newest generation is an important
step in our journey moving forward,” said Eric Loferski,
director of marketing at Zurn Industries. “We are excited
to work together with the members of AYP to help provide
information and training where needed and to collaborate
on better specification tools that make their jobs as efficient
as possible to help set them up for success in the future.”
Industry News
ICC, Jamaica Advance Building Safety
The International Code Council and the Bureau of
Standards Jamaica signed a milestone memorandum of
understanding to update Jamaica’s building codes. Under
this agreement, the ICC will work with BSJ to produce
customized building codes for Jamaica based on 10 of the
International Codes, including the International Building
Code, International Plumbing Code and International
Mechanical Code. The ICC will also provide its expertise
to help with strengthening training programs for code
officials in Jamaica.
The World Bank Group, as part of its Disaster
Vulnerability Reduction Project, and the Global Facility
for Disaster Reduction & Recovery facilitated this agree-
ment through a $30 million loan granted to the govern-
ment of Jamaica to support investment in resilient infra-
structure and disaster risk reduction measures.
Between 2001 and 2010, 10 major natural disasters
impacted Jamaica, affecting approximately 2 million peo-
ple and causing nearly $1.2 billion in property losses. This
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12. 12/Plumbing Engineer December 2017
agreement is a much-needed boost to Jamaica’s efforts to
address the effects of natural disasters and prevent the loss
of lives and property.
The ICC’s engagement in Jamaica complements a
simultaneous effort carried out by the government of
Jamaica to enact a new Building Act, expected to be
passed by Parliament by December. The act would consid-
erably modernize building control processes and formally
give legal effect to the adapted ICC building codes.
“ICC engagement is critical to Jamaica as it will set the
stage for a successful implementation of the new Jamaican
Building Code,” said BSJ Chairman James Rawles. “This
will be a major step to protect health, safety and welfare
and make Jamaica more resilient to natural disasters.”
Visit www.iccsafe.org
Please Thank These
AFFILIATE SPONSORS
of ASPE
AFF
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The Leader in Condensing Technology
Industry News
Uponor Annex Achieves LEED Gold Certification
The North American Uponor Headquarters Annex
manufacturing facility has achieved Leadership in Energy
and Environmental Design (LEED), Gold certifica-
tion, through the United States Green Building Council
Minnesota (USGBC). The 90,000-square-foot building
supports the lean manufacturing operations for Uponor’s
PEX plumbing, fire safety, radiant heating and cooling,
hydronic piping, and pre-insulated piping systems.
During the design-to-construction process of the new
building, PCL and Uponor focused on incorporating sus-
tainability aspects into site development, water efficiency,
energy efficiency, materials and indoor environmental
quality for the occupants.
Sustainable elements of the completed building include
the installation of a solar array, use of a white roof system
designed to reduce heat absorption and cooling require-
ments, all LED lighting, low-flow water fixtures, envi-
ronmentally integrated landscaping and a high-efficiency
irrigation system that utilizes collected rainwater when
available. Collected rainwater is also filtered and used for
plumbing fixture flushing. These efforts, in addition to
other water-management techniques, combined to achieve
56 percent reduction in water usage and 25 percent reduc-
tion in energy usage compared to similar buildings using
more conventional fixtures and technologies.
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14. 14/Plumbing Engineer December 2017
“The end-to-end process of designing and construct-
ing a building to achieve LEED standards and certifica-
tion requires a LEED-knowledgeable team and a joint
effort and commitment throughout the project,” said Dan
Hughes, director, Real Estate and EHS, Uponor North
America. “PCL Construction was an ideal partner for this
project and its LEED certification goal. They delivered an
excellent finished product that allowed Uponor to achieve
LEED Gold certification.”
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Industry News
Greenbuild International Conference
Going to Europe
The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has
announced that Greenbuild will be held in Europe, at the
Radisson Blu Hotel in Berlin, April 17-18.
Founded in 2002, Greenbuild brings together profes-
sionals dedicated to sustainable building to learn about
groundbreaking green building products, services and
technologies.
“The green building movement is driven by passionate
individuals who are dedicated to creating healthier, more
sustainable communities,” said Mahesh Ramanujam,
president and CEO, USGBC and GBCI. “There is no
better place than Greenbuild to bring these passionate
green building leaders together. Greenbuild Europe is
an opportunity for us to come together and explore new
opportunities to create a more sustainable built environ-
ment throughout the region.”
With demand for green building expected to double
every three years, according to the World Green Building
Trends 2016 SmartMarket Report, Greenbuild’s expan-
sion increases access to green business tools and resources
and encourages discussion around some of today’s tough-
est environmental issues.
GBCI opened its first European office in Munich in
April to help facilitate its array of green business rating
systems and professional credentials.
“For decades, the European building community has
been among the greenest, continually raising the bar on
sustainability,” said Kay Killmann, managing director,
GBCI Europe. “With Greenbuild coming to Europe, we
will finally have a platform that brings regional players
together.”
The world’s green building market has become a
trillion-dollar industry. In Europe, currently, there are
more than 5,200 LEED registered and certified projects,
comprising more than 147 million gross square meters of
space and more than 2,500 LEED professionals.
Visit www.usgbc.org
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16. Monthly News from the American Society of Plumbing Engineers
ASPE Reportaspe.org
2016–2018
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Mitch Clemente, CPD, FASPE
President
David E. DeBord, CPD, GPD, LEED AP,
ARCSA AP, CFPS, FASPE
Vice President, Technical
Chris Graham, CPD, FASPE
Vice President, Education
Carol Johnson, CPD, LEED AP, CFI
Vice President, Legislative
Vincent (Vinny) Falkowski, PE, PMP,
CCM
Vice President, Membership
Vincent Scriboni
Vice President, Affiliate
Jim Zebrowski, PE, CPD, FASPE
Treasurer
R. Paul Silvestre, FASPE
Region 1 Director
Keith Bush, CPD, GPD, CSI
Region 2 Director
Steve E. Mastley, CPD, FASPE
Region 3 Director
Don Strickland, CPD, GPD
Region 4 Director
Bryan Hutton, CPD
Region 5 Director
Blair Minyard, PE, CDT
ASPE Young Professionals Liaison
William “Billy” Smith, FASPE
Executive Director/CEO
From the President’s Pen
Mitch Clemente, CPD, FASPE, 2016–2018 ASPE President
aspepres@aspe.org
ASPE Announces Zurn as the Exclusive Sponsor of ASPE Young Professionals
We are extremely excited to announce that Zurn Industries, LLC has partnered with ASPE as the exclusive sponsor of ASPE Young Professionals (AYP).
Together, Zurn and ASPE will help provide new generations of plumbing engineering professionals with tools that make their jobs easier. You can learn more
about this partnership at bit.ly/2zPiDOb and about AYP at aspe.org/ayp.
Check Out Our New ASPE Merchandise Store
We have launched this new service so you have one convenient spot to purchase ASPE promotional items and giveaways. Need some Chapter-branded products,
certification-specific items, or AYP or WOA gifts? You can find them at aspe.org/aspemerch.
ASPE Chapters Win Membership Awards
During the 2017 ASPE Technical Symposium in Montreal, ASPE President Mitch Clemente, CPD, FASPE, presented the following membership awards to
ASPE Chapters.
» Chapter Award of Merit: Baltimore Chapter, Boston Chapter, Central Texas Chapter, Chicago Chapter, Houston Chapter, Los Angeles Chapter, Minnesota
Chapter, New York City Chapter, Philadelphia Chapter, Phoenix Chapter
» Chapter Membership Growth Award: Central Texas Chapter, Connecticut Chapter, Denver Chapter, Los Angeles Chapter, Phoenix Chapter, Southwestern
Ohio Chapter
» Chapter Membership Retention Award: Capital Region New York Chapter, Cleveland Chapter, Columbia Chapter, Connecticut Chapter, Denver Chapter,
Johnstown Chapter, Memphis Chapter, Nashville Chapter, New Jersey Chapter, North Florida Chapter, Richmond Chapter, Southern Nevada Chapter,
Southwestern Ohio Chapter, Western Michigan Chapter
Let me start by wishing all of you a very happy and joyous holiday season. Hopefully you will be able to take some time
off and spend it with family and friends. As we close out the calendar year, ASPE is already in the process of planning
some new and exciting things for 2018, so stay tuned.
I would like to recap the 2017 Technical Symposium that was held in October in Montreal, Quebec. This Symposium
was the second highest-attended in the history of ASPE. Attendees traveled to Montreal for the event for many different
reasons, but I would like to touch on a few of the more prominent ones. This year we had the largest Product Show ASPE
has ever hosted for a Symposium, which consisted of about 50 exhibitors and stretched over a two-day period. This gave
the attendees more time to interact with the exhibitors, and it was very well received. This Symposium also gave us the
opportunity to recognize those Chapters that earned the Award of Merit, Membership Growth Award, and Membership
Retention Award. We also took some time to recognize and thank those who graciously contributed to the Education
Fund and the Research Foundation.
This year we offered more than 35 technical sessions that were presented by the leaders in the industry. The sessions
were well attended and achieved high marks in satisfaction from the participants. Thanks go to the Education Commit-
tee for developing the tracks and topics, which were a big hit. ASPE also hosted our first-ever Symposium party, which
was held at the Grevin Wax Museum. The attendees enjoyed some great food and drinks while mingling and taking
pictures with some life-like figures such as Wayne Gretzky, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Tiger Woods, Harrison Ford,
and Elton John.
During the Symposium, we set some time aside for many of our committees and special-interest groups to get together
and talk about the future of ASPE. Yes, we squeezed in many different events and activities over the course of a few days,
but it was well worth the time and effort. Sleep was minimal due to the long days, but I can honestly say that the attend-
ees made the most out of their time in Montreal. This year’s Symposium would not have been possible, though, without
the backing of our sponsors, for which we are very grateful. We depend on their support and they need you to support
them, so please remember our sponsors who are a vital part of ASPE.
continued...
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Monthly News from the American Society of Plumbing Engineers
ASPE Reportaspe.org
The 2019 Technical Symposium will be held in Pittsburgh, but next
up for the Society is the 2018 Convention & Expo, which will be held
in Atlanta. This event will begin on September 28th and conclude on
October 3rd, so mark your calendar now and plan on being part of this
great educational and networking opportunity.
Just prior to the Symposium, the Society Board of Directors got
together to talk about ASPE’s current position and where this Society is
heading. We covered many different topics such as our special-interest
groups, future growth opportunities, retaining and growing mem-
bership, and strategic planning. We also viewed a video that stressed
the importance of engagement and mutual commitment between an
employee and their company to be successful. This approach holds
true for ASPE, our Chapters, and our volunteers. If we are going to be
successful, we need each of our team members to be engaged. While
walking through a shop in Montreal, I saw a sign that said: “Be creative,
inspire, and start over.” The message here is to try new ideas and find
a way to improve what you have been doing to make yourself better,
regardless of what it takes. This plays directly into a presentation our
Executive Director/CEO gave to the Board of Directors during our stra-
tegic planning discussion, which was based on the following statement:
“Not new, just better.” Doing something just because you always did it
that way may not work today.
Have a great holiday season, and I look forward to seeing you soon.
webinar
ASPE
SERIES
This webinar
sponsored by:
This webinar
sponsored by:
Free
to ASPE
Members
Designing PEX Plumbing
Systems to Optimize
Performance and
Efficiency
January 16, 2018
2 pm EST
aspe.org/DesigningPEX
Alabama Chapter
William Cody McMurry
Atlanta Chapter
Mathias German
David Nimitz
Lindsey M. Simpson
Boston Chapter
Michael Albert Foulds
Ralph Charles Merullo
Stephen Francis Spang
Dennis Whitelaw
George Henry Yonke
British Columbia Chapter
Cameron Braun, P.Eng
Anthony Concepcion
Andrew Dermot Jago
Brad McCrea, P. Eng
Central Florida Chapter
James Haeger
Central Illinois Chapter
Aubrey Ann Tran
Central Indiana Chapter
Michael S. Henderson
Central Ohio Chapter
Kevin Francis Eldridge
Richard Michael Henry
Alexander C. Hume
Mark H. Klingler, PE
James Alan Richardson Jr.
Joseph Albert Wolf
Tarah D.Woodford
Charlotte Chapter
Aaron David Barton
Kevin Patrick Departhy
Chicago Chapter
Aaron Paul Kilburg
Jim McGoon
Andrew Wenri
Cleveland Chapter
Robert Janowiak
Columbia Chapter
Nolan Graham
Connecticut Chapter
Jonathan Cochrane
Dallas/Ft.Worth Chapter
Cameron Dean Buller
Christopher Brandon Childress
Codi James Darbyshire
Ryan Eddleman
Trisha D’Anne Hilton
Quentin A. Mackie
Jordan Eugene Meadows
Derek C. Michel
Camilo Andres Rodriguez
Pedro Rodriguez
Anthony Ray Stufflebean
Shelley White
Denver Chapter
Emma Alyssa Carmeli
Brett Dangler
Terrie A. Fowler
Patrick James Murphy
Cullen Robert O'Connor
Bradford Nash Stevens
Eastern Michigan Chapter
Julia Marie Briggs
Greenville Chapter
Joshua Daniel Harm
Houston Chapter
John Charles Ferranti
Garrett Lee Mock
William Joseph Shrader
Intermountain Chapter
Jay Christopher Listoe
Ryan Kim Nelson
Ephraim H.Willardson
Kansas City Chapter
Matthew Robert Norris
Los Angeles Chapter
Victor Flores
Daniel Leroy Lucas II
Kevin James Morey
Jonathan Poblete
Member at Large
Fernando Camacho
Scott Thomas Churchill, PE
Brian H. King
Gustavo Alonso Gonzalez Orta
Miami Chapter
Matthew Cocking
Minnesota Chapter
Justin Lee Churchill
Bryan Peter Haider, PE
Kyle Bernard Hemmingsen
Logan John Markuson
Brett Alder Rosiejka
Stan Sveen
Montreal Chapter
Annie Leger Bissonnette
Sylvain Boudrias, P. Eng
Francois Bousquet
Emilie Boyer, P. Eng
Thomas B. Fanjoy
Joseph D. Funk
Andre Lalancette
Patrick Menard
New Orleans Chapter
Darrin P. DeJohn
John Donald Killian
New York City Chapter
Muhommad Arif Alamin
Daniel Saulino Blatto
Peter A. Kapit
Jonathan Alexander Maccia
Marcella Grace Moran
North Florida Chapter
James Haeger
Northern California Chapter
Karina Lairet
Leo Lehel Szilardy
Oklahoma Chapter
Mark Anthony Redden
Orange County Chapter
Aria B. Pezeshki
Overseas Chapter
Swathy Raj Lakshmipuram
Anandarajan
Haitham Ehab Abdel Kader,
P.Eng, CPD
Philadelphia Chapter
Jon Bergman
Phoenix Chapter
Vince Burbes
Jeffrey Landon
Robert Joseph Kiesl, PE
Alex F. Padilla
Christian John Phillips
Pittsburgh Chapter
Douglas Alan Raabe
Rochester Chapter
Joseph Elward
San Francisco Chapter
Curtis Lee
Seattle Chapter
Jesus Emmanuel Esqueda
Grant Edward Holmes
Pete Maniccia, PE
Maricel Aniel Mueller
Jeff Ramey
Southern Nevada Chapter
Michael Lukach
Southwestern Ohio Chapter
Christina Marie D’Amico
Derek Jeffrey Koogler
St.Louis Chapter
Zachary Landon Epple
Scott Thomas Eversgerd
Shane Russell McKee
Paul Rozsahegyi
Mark D. Schaake
Toronto Chapter
Jad Badine
Ralph Di Gaetano, P.Eng.
Jean Ghanem
Kent Robbins
Washington,D.C.Chapter
Paul John Metcalf
West Coast Florida Chapter
Andrew C.West, PE
New ASPE Members
pe12_pgs_16_21.indd 17 11/15/17 8:34 AM

18. HIGHLIGHTS2017TechSymposium
ASPE
Technical Education
Sessions
Technical Education
Sessions
The 2017 ASPE
Technical
Symposium in
Montreal on
October 19–22
was an overwhelming success. In fact, it was our
second largest-attended Symposium ever, with 461
total participants. If you weren’t able to join us,
on the following pages we have assembled some
pictures from the Symposium, including the ASPE Young
Professionals Leadership Academy and networking
event at Rage Montreal, the Product Show, the
Saturday Night Party at the Grevin Wax
Museum, and more. You can find all of
the photos from the 2017 Technical
Symposium at aspe.smugmug.
com/Events/2017-ASPE-Tech-
Symposium.
Product Show:
Our First Two-Day Symposium
Product Show Ever!
20
pe12_pgs_16_21.indd 18 11/15/17 8:34 AM

19. S
:
m
!
HIGHLIGHTS2017TechSymposium
ASPE
ASPE
Young
Professionals
Leadership
Academy and
Networking
Event
pe12_pgs_16_21.indd 19 11/15/17 8:34 AM

20. HIGHLIGHTS2017TechSymposium
ASPE
Saturday
Night Party
at the
Grevin Wax
Museum
Jean R.
Marcotte
Waste
Treatment
Facility
Tours
pe12_pgs_16_21.indd 20 11/15/17 8:34 AM

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22. 22/Plumbing Engineer December 2017
I
n expectation of the arrival of my first child, I pur-
chased a crib from my local big box store and thought
to myself, “I’m an engineer, I can put this together with
absolutely no problems.” Remember your dad throwing
those instructions away as if he was the one who designed
the piece of furniture? Perhaps they make furniture more
complicated today than they did back then, but as I flipped
past the 15th page (middle of the instruction book) I won-
dered to myself what our building’s instruction book looks
like from start to finish. Probably something like this:
Step 1: Clear site
Step 2: Dig hole
Step 19,364,291: Hand over keys to the client.
In a recent trip to Rapid City, South Dakota with
Mortenson Construction, I had the opportunity to tour
B&T Mfg., a company that manufactures prefabricated
bathroom pods. The business revolves around creat-
ing custom bathrooms to be shipped on flatbed trucks
to project sites all over the country. The concept was
simple: Design the bathrooms however you want, and
if it is repeatable and fits on a flatbed semi-trailer, B&T
can create a modular cost-effective construction alterna-
tive with the ability to save your project time and money.
As building engineers, why do we care about prefab-
ricated bathrooms? Why would we spend our design fee
thinking about a contractor’s means and methods? Our
job is to design the buildings, and the contractor’s job is
to build them. Typically, the first time we see the com-
pleted bathrooms, it might not be until a couple of days
before the clients take occupancy. At that point, you can
only pray that there isn’t some major issue to be found.
The reason we care is that these facilities are being
built at an incredibly rapid rate, and it’s starting to
affect how we design our buildings and systems. Critical
design decisions need to be made much earlier in the
process. Contractors are constantly looking for ways to
be faster and more efficient, and we’ve got to learn how
to keep up. In some ways, you’ve got to admire the free
market capitalist approach of the construction world.
This is an innovative construction method that is primar-
ily prevalent in private sector projects. Being able to
contribute to these new ideas will begin to set you apart
from your competitors.
There are a number of questions you will need to
begin asking early on in the project, such as:
so that sanitary installation can be made more modular?
-
pletion of DDs so the bathroom pods can be ordered and
completed in advance of the first floor pour?
Revit assembly for the bathroom so it can be simply
duplicated within the model?
Questions like these are likely to become more com-
mon as contractors push for more components of the
building to be manufactured off site.
This idea of prefabricating building components in an
off-site controlled environment is not new outside the
U.S. Although it’s pretty new in America, it’s gaining
traction. To help us better understand the process, we
asked the manufacturer the following questions, and here
were some of the answers:
What are the parameters for the manufacturing of the
PODs? It needs to fit on a flatbed truck and have a level
economy for production.
What are some specifics of what they would need from
us to get a quote? The same specs and drawings that you
would normally produce for a project.
How are they shipped, and how do you pick them
Manufacturing Buildings
Should engineers care about prefabricated bathrooms?
Young Professionals+
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24. 24/Plumbing Engineer December 2017
feet; and the wall studs pieces that were sent out were
rolled and fabricated in seconds with the correct milled
holes for assembly done per the drawings and ready for
assembly. It was immediately evident how quickly and
accurately the modules were being produced. A very
powerful tool for a contractor who is trying to control
project schedule.
During the last contractor interview, the team explained
that they were not constructing these buildings anymore.
They are manufacturing them, which is pretty cool. If
you think about it from the client’s perspective, this con-
struction method could have enourmous value. Any time
you can control parameters through manufacturing and
make things more predictable, you decrease the potential
fordeviation errors and failures.
Parameters? Modularization? Assemblies? Deviation
errors? I’m starting to sound like an industrial engineer.
The application of these pods are not going to be for
every project, but the engineering community is going
to have to begin to pay attention to how it will affect the
design and delivery methods of projects.
Thanks again to the truly innovative team at B&T
Mfg. company for the educational tour. Reflecting back
on assembling my son’s crib, I realize that my process
was less of a production line and more of a scene from
my now five-year old’s art class. Perhaps these box
stores could take a page from B&T, and begin prefabri-
cating furniture to arrive at your house pre-assembled,
saving everyone the time and headache of the traditional
method. l
Cory Powers, CPD, is an associate at HGA Architects
and Engineers office in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. HGA is a
top-10 national health care design firm with additional
practices in energy and infrastructure, corporate, arts
and higher education. Cory has a B.S in Architectural
Engineering from the Milwaukee School of Engineering.
He is a licensed master plumber and certified in plumbing
design (CPD). He has been a member of the American
Society of Plumbing Engineers (ASPE) since 2008, previ-
ously serving as president of the ASPE Wisconsin chapter.
Powers currently serves on the ASPE National Board
of Directors as the AYP chair. He can be reached at
cpowers@hga.com
and set them? It’s a wrapped system that has required
some trial and error, but they’ve figured out some of the
logistics.
Are they fully fit out and have a floor? Yes, they can
also leave the floor unfinished.
Are there different levels of finish? Yes, they will
install per your spec.
Are there certain finishes that transport better than
others? B&T believes that tub/shower inserts and rolled
flooring would be better than tile, but they have yet to
have those specified.
How are they inspected? What would we need to do
from a Department of Health DHS or local inspection
standpoint? They are open to having the local AHJ come
and review the work. On the line that was in progress,
while we were there, they had the AHJ from California
fly in and inspect.
Is a full water test typically done once installed to
ensure proper drainage? Yes.
Are the shower, faucet and toilet hooked up during the
mock-up to test?Yes, we pressure test the domestic water
supply lines.
How early in the process do the design decisions need
to be finalized? This is a function of when you need the
pods on site and delivered.
How dimensionally accurate are prefabricated pods
(i.e. for ADA compliant toilets?). Very accurate. The
tolerances are tighter than onsite.
What are the union/non-union constraints? This idea
was welcomed by the local contractor on the current
hotel project as it took away a lot of their “problem”
scope. Having that scope fall on someone else didn’t
bother this particular contractor.
To manufacture the modular wall assemblies, B&T
uses a machine called FrameCAD. On our visit, we were
lucky enough to get a demonstration where the operator
took a thumb drive with a CAD file of a wall assem-
bly. The wall assembly was approximatley 8 feet x 12
Young Professionals
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26. 26/Plumbing Engineer December 2017
R
elationships in the construction world are often
governed by written contracts. These contracts
provide predictability, which is critical to the play-
ers working on a construction project. This predictability
is needed for risk management and developing the scope
of work to be performed, the time of performance and the
price of the work. What happens, however, when a party
to a construction contract is asked to perform work on a
project that is apparently outside the scope of its contract?
If you answered “change order,” then you receive
partial credit. Parties enter into a change order, which is
executed by both parties to the contract, when they wish
to amend their agreement — usually to address changes
in contract time and/or contract sum. If the change order
document is fully signed, then either party may enforce the
change order’s provisions as part of their written contract.
However, if it is not fully signed or if there is no change
order, then what is a subcontractor to do if it performs
work, as directed, that is arguably outside the scope of its
contract?
If you answered, “quantum meruit,” then you receive
partial credit again! This month’s discussion is about the
interplay between a claim for quantum meruit and a claim
for breach of contract. By failing to appreciate the distinc-
tion between the two before it performed work on a project,
a subcontractor was unable to prosecute its claim success-
fully for almost $250,000 in extra work.
The Archon Case
In Archon Construction Co. v. U.S. Shelter, LLC, 78
N.E.3d 1067 (Ill. App. Ct. March 31, 2017), Archon, an
underground utility contractor, sought compensation for
extra work against U.S. Shelter, a homebuilder, in connec-
tion with the installation of a sanitary sewer system for a
residential development in Elgin, Illinois.
After Archon installed the system, the Elgin engineering
inspector required additional work to be performed before
he would accept the system. Although Archon’s proposal
(which was accepted by U.S. Shelter) called for the use of
polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes, Archon was required to
excavate, remove and replace a portion of the PVC pipes
with ductile iron pipes. Notably, although Archon only sub-
mitted a five-page proposal, it incorporated by reference the
plans (and general notes) for the project. The general notes,
“Sanitary Sewer” section, provide: “All sanitary sewers
shall be televised and tested as required by [the city] prior
to acceptance.” Although Archon’s proposal did not provide
for the installation of ductile iron pipes, the general notes
specified that the material of the sanitary sewer pipes could
be either ductile iron or PVC.
After completing its work, Archon submitted a bill for
installing ductile iron pipes — what it termed as “extra
work” — to U.S. Shelter, who refused to pay. Archon sub-
sequently brought suit and the Illinois Circuit Court was
asked to decide whether Archon was entitled to recover
damages.
Archon originally asserted claims for breach of contract
and quantum meruit. For reasons that are not clear in the
court decision, Archon voluntarily dismissed its breach of
contract claim and pressed ahead solely on its quantum
meruit claim. Following a trial, the Court ruled in favor of
U.S. Shelter, finding that after the sanitary sewer system
installed by Archon was not accepted by Elgin, the reme-
diation work performed by Archon was part of the parties’
contract and thus not subject to recovery under quantum
meruit. The Circuit Court also found that under the terms
of the parties’ contract, any work removing and replacing
material was to be performed at Archon’s expense. Archon
appealed to the Appellate Court of Illinois, which ultimate-
ly agreed with the Illinois Circuit Court.
Definition of Quantum Meruit
To understand the Courts’ decisions and appreciate their
significance, one must learn the definition of quantum
meruit. Black’s Law Dictionary (10th ed. 2014) defines
quantum merit (Latin for “as much as he has deserved”)
as, “The reasonable value of services; damages awarded
in an amount considered reasonable to compensate a
The Limits of a Quasi-Contract
Legal Pipeline
By Steven Nudelman
Disclaimer: This article is for informational pur-
poses only and not for the purpose of providing legal
advice. Nothing in this article should be considered
legal advice or an offer to perform services. The appli-
cation and impact of laws may vary widely based on the
specific facts involved. Do not act upon any information
provided in this article, including choosing an attorney,
without independent investigation or legal representa-
tion. The opinions expressed in this article are the
opinions of the individual author and may not reflect the
opinions of his firm.
Archon case emphasizes difference between
express and implied contracts.
pe12_pgs_26_29.indd 26 11/17/17 7:22 AM

27. pe12_pgs_26_29.indd 27 11/15/17 11:37 AM

28. 28/Plumbing Engineer December 2017
person who has rendered services in a quasi-contractual
relationship.” (Emphasis added.) A quasi-contract is not
actually a contract at all; rather, it is an implied contract
or “an obligation imposed by law because of some special
relationship between the parties or because one of them
would otherwise be unjustly enriched.” See Black’s Law
Dictionary (definition of “implied-in-law contract”). As the
Illinois Appellate Court explained, “A quasi-contract, or
contract implied in law, is one in which no actual agreement
between the parties occurred, but a duty is imposed to pre-
vent injustice.” Hayes Mechanical, Inc. v. First Industrial,
L.P., 351 Ill. App. 3d 1, 8 (2004).
Under Illinois law, to recover under a claim for quan-
tum meruit, a plaintiff must prove that “(1) it performed a
service to the defendant, (2) it did not perform the service
gratuitously, (3) defendant accepted the service; and (4)
no contract existed to prescribe payment for the service.”
Archon, 78 N.E.3d at 1074 (emphasis added). This last
prong of the test proved fatal to Archon’s claim because it
is well-settled in Illinois (as well as many other states), that
“an action in quasi-contract, such as quantum meruit, is
precluded by the existence of an express contract between
the parties regarding the work that was performed.” Id. The
Appellate Court reinforced this proposition by quoting an
Illinois Supreme Court from 155 years ago:
As in physics, two solid bodies cannot occupy the same
space at the same time; so in law and common sense, there
can not be an express and an implied contract for the same
thing, existing at the same time. This is an axiomatic truth.
It is only when parties do not expressly agree, that the law
interposes and raises a promise.
Walker v. Brown, 28 Ill. 378, 383 (1862).
The Illinois Appellate Court further explained: When the
parties enter into a contract they assume certain risks with
an expectation of a return. Sometimes, their expectations
are not realized, but they discover that under the contract
they assume the risk of having those expectations defeated.
As a result, they have no remedy under the contract for
restoring their expectations. In desperation, they turn to
quasi-contract for recovery. This the law will not allow.
Quasi-contract is not a means for shifting a risk one has
assumed under contract.
Industrial Lift Truck Serv. Corp. v. Mitsubishi Int’l
Corp., 104 Ill. App. 3d 357, 361 (1982).
In sum, both the Circuit and Appellate Courts found that
Archon was not entitled to quasi-contractual relief for the
costs it incurred for the services it performed. Specifically,
the Courts found that the services were covered under the
written agreement (and incorporated documents) between
Archon and U.S. Shelter, and as the contractor, Archon was
responsible for the costs of the additional work. Archon’s
argument that its contract only called for the installation of
PVC pipe, and said nothing about the higher-priced, ductile
iron pipe, was unavailing. “That may be so, but that does
not change the fact that the subject matter of the contract
between the parties was the installation of an acceptable
sanitary sewer system” Archon, 78 N.E.3d at 1077.
As theAppellate Court explained, “The work thatArchon
performed, for which it now seeks money damages from
U.S. Shelter, was part and parcel of the contract between the
parties. Archon contracted to install a sanitary sewer system
acceptable to the city. Its quantum meruit claim seeks to
recover for repairing and reinstalling that very same sewer
system. That work unquestionably involved the same ‘gen-
eral subject matter’ as the contract.” Id.
Takeaways
The Archon case is not groundbreaking in any particular
way. However, it offers a number of lessons to a subcontrac-
tor on a construction project — lessons that cost Archon
nearly a quarter million dollars to learn:
First, know your contract. Know the documents that
comprise the contract and be sure to familiarize yourself
with all of them.
Second, get a change order. Make sure that the change
order is signed by all necessary parties and that it complies
with all contractual requirements.
Third, know your claims. While the outside reader here
may not know why Archon agreed to voluntarily dismiss
its breach of contract claim, if it had not done so, the out-
come of this case may have changed dramatically. Here, the
Appellate Court held that Archon’s claim for relief sounded
in breach of contract not quantum meruit.
Fourth and most importantly, if you have questions about
the above three pointers, check with your construction
attorney. It is far more efficient, economical and productive
to seek out legal advice early, before a claim has arisen,
than it is to do so after a claim is ripe to be asserted. l
Steven Nudelman is a partner at the law firm of
Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis LLP in Woodbridge
and Roseland, New Jersey. He is a member of the firm’s
Litigation Department and its Construction, Community
Association, Alternative Dispute Resolution and Alternative
Energy & Sustainable Development Practice Groups. He
may be reached at (732) 476-2428 or snudelman@green-
baumlaw.com.
Legal Pipeline
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30. 30/Plumbing Engineer December 2017
O
ur son and daughter both live and work in the Los
Angeles area. My wife and I have been scheduling
short weekend trips two or three times a year to the
West Coast, so we can get the family together. Last month,
we decided to meet the kids in San Francisco and drive up
to Sonoma County with plans to drink large quantities of
wine.
My wife spent weeks planning the trip; making reserva-
tions, finding the perfect food tour in the city of Sonoma,
finding the perfect guide for our wine tour of the Russian
River Valley, and finding great restaurants for dinner.
Upon arriving at SFO on Saturday morning Oct. 7, we
picked up our rental, a Chevy Suburban, and headed for
the city.
For breakfast, we feasted on Millionaire’s Bacon at the
Sweet Maple Restaurant on Sutter Street in San Francisco.
Then on to the food tour in the city of Sonoma. On the
tour, we sampled locally produced items; cheeses, Mexican
cuisine (with Margaritas), olive oils, and balsamic vinegars.
We also got a lesson on the history of California missions,
the origins of the California state flag, and the beautiful
historic architecture of the city.
Afterthetour,wedrovetoourhotel,locatedinHealdsburg
about 45 miles northwest from the city of Sonoma, and 16
miles north of Santa Rosa along Highway 101. We capped
the evening of our first day with a great dinner and wine at
the Rustic Restaurant located at the Francis Ford Coppolla
Winery. The restaurant features a museum of movie memo-
rabilia focusing on The Godfather and Apocalypse Now.
The next day, Sunday, Oct. 8, we embarked on a wonder-
ful tour of several small family wineries and got to try many
different wines, including several Pinot Noirs (my favorite),
for which the Russian River Valley is so well known. We
had a personal tour guide who also served as our designated
driver. Our tour included a winery where the tasting room
was in a man-made cave. Cave fire protection features
included sprinklers and two remote exits
Our daughter needed to get back to Los Angeles for
work on Monday, so that evening, after the tour, we drove
her to Sonoma County Charles M. Schultz Sonoma County
Airport and saw her off.
Our plan was to rise early Monday morning and leave
the hotel by 5 a.m. for all of us to make our 9 a.m. flights
out of SFO.
Something was a little off when I awoke about 3:30 am.
I got up out of bed and headed for the bathroom and could
not understand why the light did not work. It did not take
long to figure out that our power was totally out. I checked
the hotel corridor and it was clear that the building power
was out. Looking out the window, I saw the street lights
were lit as well as lights from some of the adjacent build-
ings. I figured the power outage was localized to our hotel.
So, we all got up and got ready in the dark. Using flash-
light apps from our iPhones we took cold showers, dressed
and packed out.
As we left, our room neighbor came out and said there
was a wildfire and that we should prop our hotel door open,
in case we had to return to the hotel.
Still, not aware of any real danger we hustled down the
dark stairs. The emergency lights were not working, so it
was likely the power was out for at least a couple hours.
My theory on the power outage was there was some type of
early morning disturbance in the electrical grid caused by
the initial wild fires, and it tripped off our hotel. Because
our hotel was not staffed in the evening, there was no one
there to deal with the outage, to turn the lights back on.
Once in our Suburban, we turned the radio on and started
hearing about the wildfire in Napa and the call for evacua-
tions. We quickly got on Highway 101 heading south from
Healdsburg and then began to hear the reports that Highway
101 was closed in both directions.
Sonoma County Wildfires
FPE Corner
By Samuel S. Dannaway, PE, FSFPE
Being prepared, and alert, can help save lives.
SFPE Notes
The SFPE Human Behavior Task Group has complet-
ed its 1st draft of the SFPE Guide to Human Behavior
in Fire, 2nd Edition and is seeking public comments
on this draft document. Besides updating all the good
information from the 1st edition, the new version will
include information on:
a. Incapacitating Effects of Fire Effluent & Toxicity
Analysis Methods
b. Occupant Behavioral Scenarios
c. Movement and Behavioral Models
d. Egress Model Selection,Verification, andValidation
e. Estimation of Uncertainty and Use of Safety
Factors
f. Enhancing Human Response to Emergency
Notification and Messaging
The draft document and information on how to submit
comments can be found on the SFPE website Technical
page. The deadline for comments is Dec. 21, 2017.
pe12_pgs_30_33.indd 30 11/15/17 8:35 AM

31. pe12_pgs_30_33.indd 31 11/15/17 8:35 AM

32. It was still quite dark and within
a minute or so, we crested a hill on
the highway and could see the entire
horizon before us glowing bright red.
I remember staring in amazement and
saying the obvious, “We are driving
straight toward this thing.”
My son then said, “Shouldn’t we be
going away from this?”
Soon after, we came upon a highway
patrol roadblock, which detoured us
off Highway 101 onto surface streets
around the Sonoma airport area. As
we got mired in a massive traffic jam,
we started to get a little worried.
The area filled with people evacuat-
ing north from the fires. Fortunately,
with the help of his iPhone, our son
and his girlfriend were able to navigate
us away from the jammed main roads
and onto small rural roads leading us
in maze-like fashion, west towards the
Pacific Coast Highway.
All the while the air with full of
smoke, irritating our throats and eyes.
At 8:30 a.m., we finally crossed the
Golden Gate Bridge, drove through
San Francisco and arrived at SFO four
hours after leaving Healdsburg.
We never were in any real dan-
ger from the wildfire, but there were
moments there where we were very
scared.
It was only later in the day, as we
listened to continued reports of the
fire, that we realized how terrible the
devastation was.
This Sonoma County wildfire
has rewritten the history books for
California. There were 43 fatalities,
making it the largest wildfire life loss
in California history. It surpassed Los
Angeles’ Griffith Park fire of 1933 (29
deaths) and the 1991 Oakland Hills
fire (25 deaths).
More than 240,000 acres in
Sonoma, and surrounding counties
were burned. Approximately 8,900
buildings were destroyed, including
entire subdivisions, in the worst hit
areas around Santa Rose.
It also turns out that this is also
the costliest fire in California history
at $3.3 billion. Insurance losses for
Sonoma County alone are estimated at
over $2.8 billion.
An official cause of the fire has not
been released, but news reports appear
to be focusing on downed power lines
being a possible cause of the three
initial fires. Apparently, the three larg-
est fires started between 9 p.m. and 11
p.m. on Sunday evening. Sustained
dry weather and winds gusting from
50 to 75 mph allowing the late eve-
ning fires to grow very rapidly before
residents and firefighters could react.
So, what can we learn from this
fire? We all remember Smokey the
Bear teaching us how to prevent wild-
fires (he called them forest fires back
then). One can find a great deal of
preparedness information on the web
that is very informative.
For this fire, the issues that stood
out to me were notification of the
population and evacuation planning.
There should be a system in place that
could alert the population of a fire
starting late at night when most are
asleep. There were also reports that
early power outages affected commu-
nication systems.
Also, once people began to leave
their homes, evacuation routes quickly
became clogged. A couple well placed
east-to-west highways connecting
Highway 101 to the Pacific Coast
Highway would have helped with the
evacuation.
Again, though my family was never
in any real danger from this wildfire,
it has given me a new-found appre-
ciation of the threat wildfires pose to
many of our communities. This is one
fire problem we are not able to sprin-
kler and call it a day. l
Samuel S. Dannaway, P.E., FSFPE,
is a licensed fire protection engineer
and mechanical engineer with bach-
elor’s and master’s degrees from the
University of Maryland Department
of Fire Protection Engineering. He
is a past president and fellow of the
Society of Fire Protection Engineers.
He is vice president of Fire Protection
Technology at Coffman Engineers
Inc., a multidiscipline engineering
firm with over 360 employees across
eight offices. Sam can be reached at
dannaway@coffman.com.
32/Plumbing Engineer December 2017
FPE Corner
pe12_pgs_30_33.indd 32 11/15/17 8:35 AM

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34. 34/Plumbing Engineer December 2017
“T
hey expect a medal for showing up to work,”
said one participant at our table when the
subject of millennials come up at a Workforce
Development Exchange held during CONNECT 2017,
the PHCC’s annual conference held last October.
Maybe you’ve heard this before about the 80 million
people — the nation’s largest age group — born between
1980 and 2004. Is she right? I think we all crave recogni-
tion for our hard work no matter our age. And from time
to time, we actually do receive medals, plaques and other
honorifics as testaments to a job well done.
For example, later during the meeting, another con-
tractor described an “Atta Boy” bulletin board hung in
the break room used to routinely recognize techs for the
jobs they do day in, day out.
Whether you hire and work with millennials or sell
products and services to them, you’ve certainly heard
plenty of other unpleasantries about them.
However, I suggest that millennials are just like you
and me — only younger. Many of the attitudes and habits
that are widely thought to be millennial-specific may be
actually quite widespread among the general population.
You say, these entitled, cocky and coddled job-hop-
ping narcissists are allergic to manual labor; so addicted
to social media that they sleep with their smartphones
next to their pillows; turn up their noses at anything other
than pour-over coffee and microbrews and would prefer
to work “flex-time” hours rather than 9-5? That sounds a
lot like 58-year-old me.
Too disruptive, too focused on social do-gooding? Put
some millennials in the Wayback Machine, set the dial
for “1968” and they’d fit right in with the baby boomers,
marching lock step in the same protests. (Not so sure
which facial hair for the guys would be better, though.)
Most generational differences are just generalities,
often vague, random and contradictory. For example,
millennials are selfish, but they also find the time to be
altruistic; they’re greedy and yet a curious bunch; they’re
lazy and, somehow, also ambitious.
It’s just what you’d hear from carny fortune-tellers to
imply they know more about you than they do: “I would
say you are mostly shy and quiet, but when the mood
strikes you, you can easily become the center of atten-
tion.”
You don’t say.
We’re all Venn diagrams with plenty of overlapping
characteristics. Whatever differences there are can be
chalked up to youth and what we brought along with us
from the crib to adulthood.
So let’s stop drawing strong lines between decades. To
say millennials are so-and-so is no different from saying
that a person of a given gender or nationality is so-and-
so. This type of thinking is not just politically incorrect,
it is actually just incorrect.
Instead of putting people into different age groups,
how about if we make it one group? One defined less by
age and more by mindset and purpose that might be more
universal than we think.
So let’s forget the millennials and focus on the peren-
nials.
Meet the perennials
What’s a perennial? Enduring, perpetual, ever-lasting,
recurrent. In other words, they keep up with the times
and remain relevant throughout life.
I heard this concept from a tech entrepreneur named
Gina Pell, who wrote about this last year and had her
blog post ricochet through Twitter and the rest of social
media.
“We get involved, stay curious, mentor others, and are
passionate, compassionate, creative, confident, collab-
orative, global-minded risk takers who continue to push
up against our growing edge and know how to hustle,”
Pell adds. “We comprise an inclusive, enduring mindset,
not a diverse demographic.”
Her alternative surpasses generational boundaries,
which she doesn’t think are reliable guides to traits or
behaviors in the first place.
“The days of targeting media and products at people
based on their age is over,” Pell adds. “By identifying
ourselves as perennials, we supply our constricting label
with something that better reflects our reality.”
Perennials are any one of us who understands that
age is not a limiting factor. Millennials can be perennials.
Millennials Are Just Like You and Me
– Only Younger
Plumbing & Heating Thoughts
By Steve Smith
Let’s stop shoehorning age groups into meaningless stereotypes.
There’s a better way to think regardless of birthdays.
Meet the perennials: Sarah Cimarusti, editor of PHC
News, and Steve Smith may be more alike than not.
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pe12_pgs_34_37.indd 35 11/15/17 8:35 AM

36. Plumbing Engineer December 2017/36
Octogenarians can be perennials. In other words, many
values, attitudes and behaviors are ageless.
While Pell talks mostly about perennials in terms of
marketing, it’s not difficult to see how her idea also applies
to the workforce. Any focus on an age group, for example,
naturally excludes everybody else. Worse, we think they
“have to be put up with.”
But generational values are more alike than not. And
plenty of consistency can also be found across workplace
attitudes. For example, a lot of workers are interested in
retaining some flexibility in how and when they work.
I’ve been reading “work-life balance” articles ever since I
started working in 1982.
As for one direction to move forward, Pell suggests look-
ing at algorithms and recommendation engines, which are
increasingly getting better and better at targeting people
based on behavioral data.
When Netflix recommends my next movie or when
Amazon recommends my next book, they both do it based,
in large part, on what I’ve actually done.
This approach makes it pretty fruitless to fall back on
group-level categories and characteristics.
More to the point, if you’re interested in predicting and
understanding what people do at work, focus on the indi-
vidual. Decoding and explaining what makes each person
tick is what we should really be focusing on.
Generation gap
We can blame this malarkey on the baby boomers who
got us fixated on age groups in the first place. Pre-boomer,
“generations” meant little more than “parents” and “chil-
dren.” But boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, changed
all that. And with good reason. Never had history such a
clear punctuation mark as it did at the end WWII and at the
start of not just boom in babies, but an economic boom to
post-war America.
Interestingly enough, baby boomers are the first and
remain the only demographic recognized by U.S. Census
Bureau.
The buzz about the next generations, however, got mud-
dled after the boomers started having kids themselves. Does
anyone, for example, even talk about Generation X? And
what happened to the echo boomers? The millennials actu-
ally started out life as GenerationY before Madison Avenue
latched on to the idea that some of these kids would be the
first high school graduates of the 21st century.
The impact of 80 million people entering the workforce
can’t be ignored, particularly with so many boomers cur-
rently exiting the workforce. But the ruckus ignores what’s
going on for everyone else.
For example, the number of Americans ages 65 and older
is projected to more than double to more than 98 million by
2060 from 46 million today, grabbing a 24 percent market
share of the country up from the current 15 percent. And the
fastest-growing population segment in the country is aged
85 and older – projected to rise to 19 million in 2050 from
5.8 million today.
Meanwhile, there’s another age cohort out there with
the unfortunate tag of Generation Z. (Do we go back to
the letter “A” next?) The oldest of this group is already 21.
Plumbing & Heating
Six Myths About Millennials at Work
I pulled this information off a website based on a
survey of 1,100 millennials done by the Boston College
Center for Work & Family and the audit and tax advi-
sory firm KPMG to see how young adults navigate their
careers.
“Some of the things people were saying didn’t jell
with my experience of this generation,” writes Brad
Harrington, executive director of the center. “I’ve
always had difficulty swallowing assumptions, and I
was seeing millennials with a strong work ethic and a
desire to succeed.”
Here are several beliefs his research didn’t hold true:
-
ing with their employers was their preferred strategy to
advancement versus leaving their organizations.
“When asked what they value most, having career
growth opportunities was very important,” Harrington
writes. “Fewer organizations offer lifetime job arrange-
ments, however, and the world has moved away from
the idea of long-term job security. But it is something
these young people embrace. At a rate of two to one,
millennials prefer to stay, and that was surprising.”
-
tions: Millennials still network like old folks – person
to person.
“What was interesting was when we asked how
they found their most recent position, instead of say-
ing ‘social media’ like we expected, the number one
answer was that they were referred by a friend, relative,
or another connection,” he writes. “They are using the
tried-and-true method of networking.”
much effort they give beyond what is considered nor-
mal, 80 percent of the millennials in the study answered,
“A great deal of effort beyond what’s expected.”
“They know they have to work hard to get ahead, and
they’re willing to do that,” Harrington writes. “A high
percentage of respondents wanted to take on increasing-
ly challenging tasks and develop expertise to advance
up the career ladder.”
to “how much I am helping others” and “contribution
to society” were among the lowest ranked items in
importance of career success measures for the millen-
nials surveyed.
-
lennials said competition is “what gets them up in the
morning,” compared with 50 percent of baby boomers.
wealthy, less indebted and less employed than previous
generations.
Which means they could be working in the next office right
now, and we don’t even know it. Let’s spare this generation
the same fate as the millennials and not check IDs at the
door. l
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38. 38/Plumbing Engineer December 2017
H
aving been in this business for 32 years, it does
come as a surprise when a project calls for a system
that I have never designed before. When this hap-
pens, it is always interesting doing the research required
to embrace this new territory of information. Such was the
case on one of my projects where the gas-fired emergency
generator required compressed natural gas (CNG) as a
backup fuel supply.
In designing such a system, there are two key factors:
the load of the generator and the duration of the standby
fuel supply. The client dictated the duration as 90 minutes.
That was the easy part; the load of the generator was a little
trickier.
For whatever reason, the generator load was given in
metric units of g/kWh (grams per kilowatt hour). I had
never heard of these units before. I researched a conversion,
and all I came up with was Btu/pound. I had no idea how
to get from there to CFH — the units I needed to calculate
the volume of gas required. I was able to source another
cut sheet for the generator that listed the demand in both
m3/hour and CFH. Interestingly, g/kWh are the same as
m3/hour, but I have no idea why. The bottom line was the
generator had a demand of 10,135 CFH. For a 90-minute
supply, it’s 1½ times the hourly load, so we had to store
15,203 cubic feet of gas.
If you remember Boyle’s Law, the volume of a gas is
directly proportional to its pressure (at constant tempera-
ture): P1xV1 = P2xV2
Pressures must be used in absolute terms. Since the
delivery pressure to the generator is 2 psi, P1 is 14.7 psi
plus 2 psi for 16.7 psi (absolute pressure) and V1 is 15, 203
cubic feet.
CNG systems can be run at 2,000 psi, 3,000 psi or up to
5,000 psi. The higher the pressure, the smaller the storage
tank(s). At 2,000 psi (2,015 absolute) the tank volume is
942 gallons, or 1,000 gallons nominally:
At 3,000 psi, the volume reduces to 650 gallons, and at
5,000 psi, it reduces further to 400 gallons.
Filling the tank requires a high-pressure compressor.
There are several manufacturers; in my search I stumbled
across — Sauer, Bauer and Caterpillar, to name a few. The
compressor and ancillary components can be purchased in
a weatherproof enclosure, which of course is good for an
outdoor installation.
As it turned out, I did not need a compressor. CNG trucks
can fill the CNG tanks, and since the system is only used
in an emergency, it doesn’t make sense to have a CNG
compressor sitting around doing nothing; so, all that was
required were the CNG tanks themselves.
Since they operate at such high pressure, CNG tanks
are usually spherical (a sphere is the best shape to contain
a high pressure). The vendor we selected had tanks in
250-gallon increments, so a 5,000-psi system required two
tanks to accommodate the 400 gallons of storage.
Another thing to take into consideration is the working
pressure of the piping. Schedule 80 steel, depending which
reference you use, has a working pressure of 4,100 psi for
½ inch pipe, so this would not be adequate for a 5,000-psi
system. For the high-pressure side (upstream of the first
regulating station), a high pressure stainless steel piping
system, such as Swagelok, is required.
Also, critical to these systems are the pressure regula-
tors. A primary station with two or three parallel valves
will reduce the pressure from tank pressure (5,000 or 3,500
psi) to around 1,500 psi. After each PRV, it is important to
have pressure relief valves and pressure gauges. The second
pressure regulator reduces the pressure to around 150 psi,
and the third reduces it to low pressure as required for the
generator.
It is important to provide two gas regulators on the util-
ity service for the generator: one that reduces the gas to 5
psi and a second in series that reduces it to 2 psi. The 2-psi
gas from the CNG system should connect to the piping
in between the two regulators via a check valve. As such,
under normal conditions the 5-psi gas will keep the CNG
check valve closed. If pressure is lost from the utility main,
the 2-psi CNG will automatically take over as the source of
supply. No valves need to be closed, and no electric actua-
tion is required to switch to the CNG backup.
On a final note, protection of the CNG tanks is important,
although I don’t know that it is necessarily a code require-
ment. In this day and age, one has to plan for the worst
possible scenario, such as a sniper who can’t resist the
CNG tank as a target. I don’t know that a bullet of any kind
would be able to puncture the thick-walled steel tanks, but I
wouldn’t want to test it. If the tanks were outdoors, I would
recommend a block wall be built to enclose and protect the
tanks. This should be discussed with your architect since
there may be other building code requirements associated
with this enclosure.
I hope everyone has a very happy holiday and 2018! l
Timothy Allinson is chief plumbing engineer at ACCO
Engineered Systems. He holds a BSME from Tufts University
and an MBA from New York University. He is a professional
engineer licensed in both mechanical and fire protection
engineering in various states, and is a LEED accredited
professional. Allinson is a past-president of ASPE, both the
New York and Orange County chapters. He can be reached
at lagunatictim@gmail.com.
Designer’s Guide
By Timothy Allinson, P.E.
Compressed Natural Gas
There’s a first time for everything.
V2 = 16.7x15,203 / 2,015
V2 = 126 ft3 x 7.48 gal/ft3
V2 = 942 gal.
pe12_pgs_38_39.indd 38 11/17/17 7:20 AM

39. pe12_pgs_38_39.indd 39 11/16/17 9:55 AM

40. Planning the Work
By John Gregory
Collaborative Health Care Design
40/Plumbing Engineer December 2017
M
ost of you know that there will be an impact
to plumbing systems, downstream or upstream
(however you wish to look at it), when doing a
tenant improvement project.
For example, a six-story medical surgery patient
tower sits on top of an emergency department, and there
are plans to renovate the second floor, from a standard
patient floor to an intensive care unit with oversized
rooms.
The architectural plans indicate that the patients’
restroom will be moved over about 6 feet. The current
restroom group lines up with the other restrooms, from
the sixth floor down to the emergency department.
The utilities within the plumbing chase between the
restroom groups consist of an existing 4-inch waste and
vent stack, 2-inch hot water, and 3-inch cold water risers.
With the utilities having to be relocated, this will impact
the patient floors above and the emergency rooms below
it. The waste and vent stack has to be relocated in the
ceiling space of the emergency department below. The
trauma room on the floor below has fan coil units above
the ceiling that are in the way of rerouting the waste and
vent lines.
So, besides having to take down an entire floor, you
will also be taking down several emergency rooms each
night and returning them back into service the next day.
When these lines are ready to be reconnected, you will
be required to take down the waste and vent stack for
however long it takes to make new connections to the
existing stack.
This seems somewhat simple on paper, since all you
need to do is work late at night since noise will shut your
work down when it disrupts the patients’ rest.
Along with the work being completed on the second
floor, the utilities being relocated and re-piped in the
emergency department ceilings also come with difficul-
ties.
Working in the ceiling spaces of the emergency
department usually requires the work to be completed at
night during slow periods.
Now, let’s look at the other system that has impacts as
well, which is the medical gas system. You’ll recall that
this floor was formerly a standard patient floor, and its
being turned into an intensive care unit. When convert-
ing a basic patient care room into an intensive care unit,
it will change in patient care from basic care to critical
care. The medical gas outlet/inlets will change from one
oxygen and one vacuum, to three oxygen, one medical
air and three vacuum inlet/outlets per the FGI guidelines.
The existing medical vacuum and oxygen mains will
likely have to be entirely re-piped, since line sizes will
most likely increase, and you will have to install medical
air to the rooms as well.
Line size will be impacted by the type of patient care
given, for example, the largest impact is the use of a
BiPAP machine. A BiPAP unit uses a 75-lpm flow rate
of medical air, which will drive up your demand on the
system. A standard ventilator will use 25-lpm of medi-
cal air. You need to discuss the possible uses of a BiPAP
machine, and how many can or might be used at one time
in the intensive care unit.
You get the idea; what appears to be simple on paper
is not necessarily simple in the field. So be sure to look
outside the project scope box at the piping systems prior
to taking pen to paper.
For projects like this, you will be required to collabo-
rate with the staff and the contractors to develop a game
plan for each possible conflict that could occur over the
course of the project. Plan the work, and work the plan
to keep staff, patients and clients happy and comfortable
for the duration of the project. l
John Gregory, mechanical coordinator in HDR’s
Phoenix architecture studio, has 28 years of experience
in medical gas systems design and inspections, process
piping, plumbing and fire protection systems design for
multiple business classes. He coordinates projects with
HDR’s clients, and he supervises team members on
plumbing, process piping, fire protection and medical
gas systems. John is a certified medical gas inspec-
tor NITC 6020. He serves on the NFPA 99 Technical
Committee for piping and installation, and he is a co-
chair of the P.I.P.E. Medical Gas Committee in Arizona.
He can be reached at john.gregory@hdrinc.com.
Tenant improvement plumbing impacts outside
the project scope box.
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42. 42/Plumbing Engineer December 2017
I
t’s that fun time of year again when we in the plumb-
ing industry can sit back, read some codes, and
debate their merit. Here’s a breakdown of what, and
when, to expect changes for the 2018 code cycle.
ICC Code Changes Due January 8, 2018
The 2018 International Codes are now available for
purchase and many jurisdictions are in the process of
reviewing them for adoption within the next year or
so. Since it is still early in the code change cycle, most
jurisdictions, inspectors, contractors and engineers are
waiting to make the purchase.
The deadline for the proposed code changes to be
submitted for the 2021 codes is fast approaching. By the
time you receive this magazine, you should have just a
few weeks before the Jan. 8, 2018 deadline to submit
revisions to be considered for the three-year code change
process. The plumbing codes are always included in the
first round of changes to be heard in what is called group
“A” code changes.
The placement of the plumbing code in group “A” has
always bothered me, as it has others in the industry. It’s
like we’re forced to purchase the new codes immediately
after they are published, curl up next to a fire over the
holidays and review them for differences from the last
change code cycle, and then plan code change proposals.
I find it very inconvenient for the group “A” code
changes to be due before any one starts using the actual
codes. I would like to see International Code Council
(ICC) switch the plumbing and mechanical, and the
residential codes, to group “B” so that people have the
opportunity to become familiar with them as they are
used or enforced.
Until then, we must comply with the current sched-
ule as it is published. You should be able to go online
before the Jan. 8, 2018 deadline and register for the
cdpACCESS software, which allows you to look up the
current code language section-by-section and propose
code changes to each one. The ICC’s cdpACCESS code
change software went live online to allow revisions to
the Group “A” codes on Oct. 2, 2017.
ICC offered free instructional webinars in October
to assist with the cdpACCESS code change submittal
process. These were just the initial webinars scheduled
with the rollout of the latest version of the cdpACCESS
software. There will be additional webinars scheduled as
well. Refer to the ICC website at www.iccsafe.org for
more information.
ICC will post the proposed code changes to the
International Codes online around Feb. 28, 2018. The
Committee Action Hearings, where the technical com-
mittee for each code will hear the changes, are scheduled
sometime between April 15-25, 2018. The approximate
dates of the code hearings will be published with the pro-
posed code changes. They do not schedule the days for
the code hearings until they know how many code chang-
es there are, and then they adjust the hearing order and
length of the hearings for each code based on the volume
of changes submitted. The code changes usually average
about 10 to 12 minutes per code change. Knowing this,
if there are 150 plumbing code changes, you can assume
about 5 percent to 10 percent will be withdrawn or com-
bined into a discussion with similar code changes. So,
assuming there are about 135 code changes, and each
one takes about 10 minutes, the plumbing code hearings
would need about 1,350 minutes, or 22.5 hours for the
hearings. The code hearings might go from 8 a.m. to 8
p.m. the first day with one-hour breaks for lunch and
dinner, and then 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. the following day if
needed. If the plumbing codes do not get completed, they
decide whether to keep on going or continue the hearings
on the third day, which would cause the following code
hearings to be delayed for their start.
This can cause havoc on airline and hotel schedules.
When the plumbing code hearings are completed, there
is usually a break period to allow the plumbing code
committee to pack up and move from the table in the
front of the room and the next code committee settles in
for their hearings. The code hearings go all day and when
they fall behind schedule because of lots of debate on
specific code changes, the staff may ask the committee
to go later into the evening and sometimes start back as
early as 7 a.m. the next morning to try and get the hear-
ings back on schedule.
The complete schedule for the code cycle is published
on the ICC website.
IAPMO Code Changes Due March 16, 2018
The Uniform Plumbing & Mechanical Code changes
will be due soon after the code changes for the I-codes,
on March 16, 2018.
2021 Code Changes Are Due Soon!
Code Classroom
By Ron George, CPD
Mark your calendars for the next cycle of code
changes.
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pe12_pgs_42_45.indd 43 11/16/17 9:56 AM

44. 44/Plumbing Engineer December 2017
2018, and hold hearings at the IAPMO annual assembly
consideration session Oct. 2, 2018 (location T.B. D.).
The deadline for submission of comments is Jan. 3,
2019. IAPMO will distribute a ROC on March 22, 2019.
The Technical Committee meetings are scheduled in
Denver, Colorado on April 29 - May 2, 2019. Initial bal-
lots will be distributed to the committee May 17, 2019.
Any comments received will be circulated in comments
on ballots May 31, 2019. The final closing date for bal-
lots is June 7, 2019. The technical correlating committee
will meet on July 3, 2019.
There will be a final distribution of the ROC on Aug.
21, 2019. IAPMO will hold code hearings at its asso-
ciation technical meeting convention on Sept. 24, 2019.
(location T.B. D.).
Initial letter ballots, along with a circulation of com-
ments, will be mailed to the Technical Committee on
membership amendments on Oct. 2, 2019. The final
closing date for ballots is Oct. 16, 2019. The IAPMO
standards council will meet on Nov. 13-15, 2019 to final-
ize and approve the code change process. Any appeals
will follow to the IAPMO Board of Directors.
See the IAPMO.org website for further information. l
Ron George, CPD, is president of Plumb-Tech Design
& Consulting Services LLC. Visit Plumb-TechLLC.com.
The International Association of Plumbing &
Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) issued its call for pro-
posals on Oct. 2, 2017. IAPMO will distribute propos-
als to the technical committee, Report on Proposals
(ROP), around April 13, 2018. Then it will hold its
Technical Committee meetings in Ontario, California on
May 15-18, 2018. Initial letter ballots to the Technical
Committee go out around June 1, 2018. Any comments
to the code changes are circulated on ballots on June 15,
2018. The final closing date for ballots is June 22, 2018.
Then IAPMO will distribute the ROP around Aug. 20,
2018. It will issue a “call for comments” around Sept. 3,
I find it very inconvenient for the group “A”
code changes to be due before any one starts
using the actual codes. I would like to see
International Code Council (ICC) switch the
plumbing and mechanical, and the residential
codes, to group “B” so that people have the
opportunity to become familiar with them as
they are used or enforced.
Code Classroom
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46. 46/Plumbing Engineer December 2017
T
here are a number of characteristics that qualify
someone for recognition. They vary in scope as
much as they vary in particularity. Often times, when
one is recognized for their professional contributions, their
qualifications are measured by time served in the industry,
coupled with merit of accomplishments during that period
of time.
Great achievements however, shouldn’t just be measured
by longevity, but by ambition and commitment as well.
Nicholas Hipp has worked as a plumbing engineer for
just 10 years, and though he is still at the beginning of his
tenure in this industry, he has stepped outside of the mere
requirements of his profession, and made his presence
known as an industry mover and shaker, which is why he
has been selected as the 2017 Engineer of the Year.
Hipp graduated from Ranken Technical College in St.
Louis, Missouri with a degree in architectural technology.
“I really enjoyed drafting in high school,” he recalls. “So, I
wanted to get into that field, but I had no idea what I could
do with the degree after that.”
It didn’t take long for him to figure it out.
Hipp is the plumbing department head at AEdifica Case
Engineering in St. Louis, and he’s been there since gradu-
ation. “I started out as the low man on the totem pole,” he
says.
He calls it luck — getting a call back from AEdifica Case
Engineering. At the time, the firm was looking for help with
plumbing drafting, and Hipp believes it was just a matter of
timing. “My eyes were then opened to wonders of plumb-
ing engineering, and it became very fascinating to me,” he
says. “I became a sponge for knowledge, learning as much
as I can, wherever I can, and whenever I can.”
He saw the opportunity and committed to learning the
plumbing engineering trade. “I was stamping drawings,
shipping, cleaning, answering phones and doing grocery
orders all while I was being trained in plumbing.”
He worked his way up by observing others and learning
everything he could absorb from engineering publications.
But even from the beginning, Hipp wasn’t just focused on
what he could get out of this opportunity, but rather, what he
could to do to expand on it. “I started teaching others what I
learned, and before I knew it, I had a team of six designers.”
Whether it was luck, or a calling, he has secured his place
in what he calls “a great place to work!”
According to Hipp, the rapidly growing MEP engineer-
ing firm is very supportive of its employees’ career goals
and creates a great working atmosphere. “When I first
started 10 years ago, I was only the eighth person in the
firm. We now have more than 60 engineers and designers.”
AEdifica Case Engineering has been more than a firm
where he has grown and developed his craft. Hipp also cred-
its the firm for his involvement with the American Society
of Plumbing Engineers, where he currently serves as the
vice president of Technical, ASPE Young Professionals
(AYP) liaison, as well as the Region 5 AYP liaison.
“My company highly encourages and supports employ-
ees becoming members of engineering societies, and man-
agement recommended I join ASPE,” he says. “I became
By Sharon J. Rehana
Nicholas J. Hipp:
2017 Engineer of the Year
Using his voice to megaphone the plumbing industry.
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