Overview of the NC Plumbing Code

If you are studying for the exam to qualify for your NC State Plumbing License, being comfortable with the Code Books is crucial. The exam is open book, but it is also timed, so knowing where to find information you are not sure of makes a huge difference. All of the relevant books and materials are provided. You can not bring your own code books with index tabs, highlights, and notes, but those are good practices for study and to have out on the job for quick reference.

The NC Plumbing Code is divided into 13 chapters. Each chapter covers specific information on one aspect of the plumbing system. Chapter one, which has mostly been superseded by a separate book, covers Scope and Administration. A copy of North Carolina Administration and Procedures should be included in your sturdy.

Chapter 2 covers Definitions used throughout the code. Some of the definitions given are trade specific terms and others are common terms used with specific meaning within the code. It is very important to understand all of the terms before continuing.

Chapter 3 covers General Regulations concerning the installation of the plumbing system, requirements for materials, and protection of the piping system. More specific requirements are given in the detailed sections, but the general requirements are assumed throughout.

Chapter 4 covers Fixtures, Faucets, and Fittings. This is where you will find the minimum material requirements for appurtenances used in the plumbing system, and proper use and placement.

Chapter 5 – Water Heaters. This chapter is much like the previous chapter as it pertains to water heaters. Water heaters are an important part of any plumbing system and presents dangers other fixtures do not, which is why water heaters rate a separate chapter.

Chapter 6 takes us into actual design and piping with Water Distribution Systems. There are numerous charts in this section that you will want to reference during the test.

Chapter 7 – Sanitary Drainage. This is perhaps what most people think of as plumbing – the waste pipe. Along with Chapter 9 – Vents, this is the real meat of the code. Waste and vent piping is what the plumbing inspector is going to spend the majority of his time inspecting. The most basic principle of plumbing is to provide the sanitary removal of waste. Problems with waste and vent systems not only cause potential inconvenience, they can cause sickness and spread of disease.

Chapter 8 covers Indirect and Special Wastes and supplements the general requirements of Chapters 7 and 9.

Chapter 9 – Vents. A plumbing system will not function properly without its vents. Improperly vented waste systems will not drain efficiently and can cause toxic gases to be released inside a building.

Chapter 10 covers special components of the drainage system such as traps and interceptors.

Chapter 11 covers Storm Drainage when it is not connected to the sanitary system.

Chapter 12 – Special Piping and Storage Systems covers anything not covered in other sections.

Chapter 13 presents all of the Referenced Standards used in the code. All materials must conform to one or more of these standards.

There are several helpful appendixes given. These are not part of the official code, unless they are specifically referenced within the code, and are given to clarify points in the code. They should be studied for the information they provide and some have charts that will be helpful while taking the exam, so be familiar with where you can find the info you need quickly.

The Plumbing Code exists as a single standard and one section can inform and alter another, so you will need to have a good overall knowledge of the code as a whole. It is also good to know where you can find information quickly during the exam, especially the many charts throughout the code.

I plan to go through each section of the code here on this blog over the next few months. I will tag posts by their Chapter to make searching for specific information easier. As I said earlier - using tabs, highlights, and notes will be helpful as you study and in the field as you work, but you are not allowed to take anything into the exam area. You need to be familiar with where to quickly look something up in a pinch.

Sometimes knowing where to find the answer is as good as knowing the answer.

NC Plumbing Code - Administration

Chapter 1: Scope and Administration

Much of this chapter has moved to another book – North Carolina Administrative Code andPolicies – which should be studied in addition to the Plumbing Code. What is left is general requirements for existing structures, temporary facilities, repair, and remodeling. There is also a section on inspection and jurisdiction.

It often comes into question, “What requires a permit, and what should be inspected?” Those requirements are addressed in this section.

All new construction and additions to existing plumbing systems require a permit and inspections. Some minor repairs and replacements can be completed without a permit, but they are very limited. You can, for example, change out an existing fixture, such as a faucet or toilet, without permit or inspection. You can even replace a water heater if it is the same size and fuel source, but not if the piping needs to be rerouted – so if you are moving the heater to the other side of the laundry room or closet you need a permit.

The basic rule is – you can replace piping and appurtenances exactly as they exist, but if the system must be altered then a permit and inspection is required.

The code also touches on historical structures and new innovation. Since historical structures must remain as they were constructed for historic purposes, the code allows for replacement and repair by historic methods that may now be prohibited by code. It also allows for special engineered designs that may allow new innovations of materials and methods. In all of these special cases a great deal of latitude is given to the local code official to use discretion.

This brings up a point that runs throughout the code – local rulings and the authority of the local inspector. The local inspector is expected to interpret and arbitrate the written code along with possible local ordinances or accepted practices. There may be requirements imposed by the local health department, for example, or minimum standards for a specific type of building. Much is left to the inspectors discretion when performing inspections.

It is always a good idea to check with the local official on anything that doesn't seem clear in the code. It never hurts to ask a question.

If you are working toward your journeyman or technician license there will be less emphasis on administration and more on piping systems on the test. But it is still important to understand the laws and regulations that must be followed. If you are working toward a state contractors or “Masters” license you will need a copy of North Carolina Administrative Code and Policies. In either case there will be questions on administration.

Taking the North Carolina State Plumbing License Exam

I'm old school. I started plumbing when I was ten, working summers with my father carrying appliances and tools to projects his men were working on and cleaning up around the shop. At twelve I was helping my brother. He was sixteen and already roughing houses alone. When I was sixteen my father closed his company and went to work for a large international construction company.

I hired on as my brothers helper at a commercial plumbing company when I was seventeen. We told them I was eighteen. My brother was a lead plumber at twenty-one. He'd gotten his journeyman license at eighteen and his State Master License at twenty. It took me until I was twenty to have the four years documented experience to take my journeyman test.

Back then you went to the inspection department and sat at one of the inspector's desk to take the journeyman test. The inspectors were hanging out, looking over your shoulder, making sounds in their throats that said “good job” or “you're screwing up.” Sometimes it was hard to know which. They all knew who I was. I was Jim Moore's kid, Mike Moore's little brother. I was there with three other guys. I knew two of them.

It was much the same when I took my state test a few years later, just bigger. The test was held once a year in an auditorium at the state fairgrounds. The entire State Board of Examiners were there, sitting at a long table at the front. I was there with a couple of hundred hopefuls from all over the state taking the test. The board members would wander around among us, grunting and shaking their heads.

When I took my test back in the eighties we were allowed to bring our code book, a #2 pencil, a slide rule, and a calculator. It was an eight hour test. Besides questions on everything from plumbing code to payroll taxes we also had to design and draw the plumbing for several structures including a house, an apartment building, and piping for a boiler.

When my father took his test, before I was born, it was a two day test. The first day was manual work. He had to actually rough the piping for a bathroom group, pour and wipe lead joints, cut and thread pipe, and solder copper pipe. If you failed day one you weren't allowed to take the written test on day two.

Things have changed over the years in the industry. Plumbers today are only required to have eighteen months experience before they take the journeyman test, now called the “technician” license. The State Contractor license, what was once called the Master License, only requires two years experience. The tests are administered daily, state wide, on computer in testing centers.

Over the years, working as a foreman, superintendent, project manager, I didn't really need my contractors license. I was in business for myself awhile, but after years of working for a company which held a state license I let mine expire. Recently I decided to reinstate my license. That required taking the state test again since it had been over three years since I renewed it.

In my time the state code contained a set of four books; Building, Plumbing, Mechanical, and Electrical. All a plumber needed to concern himself with was the State Plumbing Code. For the Master license you needed to have some knowledge of business and taxes, but it was up to the individual to figure all that out.

Today you need four books to take the test; the Administrative Code, the Plumbing Code, the Fuel Gas Code, the Laws and Rules book, and the book Business and Project Management for Contractors. All that information was on the test when I took it the first time, we just didn't have all those books. The addition of Business and Project Management for Contractors is especially helpful. I had to research all that information, and we didn't have the internet back in the eighties.

I won't say the test is easier now. It's different. I think the experience requirement is too short. A person would need to work and study very hard to pass the test with only two years in the trade. I've been in the industry thirty-five years and I didn't just breeze through the test. The questions were hard, sometimes obscure, sometimes misleading if I didn't read them carefully.

I do like that all the required information is available in five books you can order from the state. There are some questions that are from “practical knowledge” and not in the books, but working in the trade for awhile gives you that knowledge naturally. Those questions just assure you do have some working experience in the field. I advise any apprentice to order the books now and start studying.

I've known, and trained, a lot of apprentices over the years. Most worked four years (the old requirement) then bought a code book and started trying to cram for the test. That's not a good strategy. It is more advantageous to gain the book knowledge along side the practical knowledge. When you get home at night get out your books and find out why your plumber told you to run a pipe a certain way. What is the code behind it?

The test is open book. You can't take your own books, with all the notes and dog-eared pages. Books are provided at the test site. But you don't have time to look up every answer. You'll use the books for the charts you're not expected to memorize or to check an obscure question you're not sure about. The important thing is to know the books and where you can find an answer quickly. For the majority of questions you should know the answer without looking it up.

The computer test allows you to go back through your answers and even flag questions to return to easily with the “goto” command. So the old advice of answering all the questions you know first, then going back to tackle the harder ones, works well. I paged through answering the easy ones, skipping the hard ones, then started back at the beginning and went through again answering everything and double checking the ones I'd already answered.

That strategy worked well for me. You can also page through just the unanswered questions, but I found a couple of the easy questions where I had clicked the wrong answer and was able to correct them. You need to time it right. Another strategy might be to answer the easy ones, page through the unanswered ones, then recheck everything from the beginning. Just make sure you answer every question even if you have to make a wild guess before your time runs out.

The test is multiple choice – four possible answers. An unanswered question is obviously a wrong answer. If you make a guess, you at least have a one-in-four chance of getting it right. And many of the choices are blatantly wrong answers, so that increases your odds to one-in-three or even fifty-fifty. You can even tag the ones you guess at and come back to them if you have time and look them up in the books. Just don't spend so much time researching an answer that you run out of time with other, possibly easy questions unanswered.

Some people know all the answers, but they freeze up taking tests. You just have to stay chill and push through. At least you don't have your father's golf buddy messing with you while you're trying to concentrate. You'll be in a quiet room, in your own cubicle, sitting at a computer with a stack of books to reference. No one is looking over your shoulder or rushing you. Be systematic, determined, and relaxed. Good luck.

Information on the North Carolina Contractors License testing procedure:

 http://www.nclicensing.org/examInfo.asp