Backflow prevention

Why you have been contacted

If your building has a backflow prevention device listed on its compliance schedule, it has to be inspected and tested annually and certified on a Form 12A for the Building Warrant of Fitness. Councils write to building owners about it. That is almost always why people find this page.

What we do

Inspection, testing and Form 12A certification for applicable Building Warrant of Fitness backflow systems, carried out by a registered Independent Qualified Person (IQP). We are on the council register for it.

Why backflow prevention exists

It stops water in your building flowing back into the public supply. Pressure in the main drops, for a burst or a fire event, and water that has been sitting in a building can be drawn backwards into the street. It matters most where a building has something the drinking supply should never meet, which is why it turns up on commercial premises, irrigation, boilers and medical or dental fit-outs.

What the test involves

The device is isolated briefly, gauged, and its check valves and relief valve are tested against the required figures. It is a short job on a device that is accessible and in good order. The output is a Form 12A that goes to your Building Warrant of Fitness file.

Access is the thing that most often turns a short job into a long one. If the device is behind stock, under a bench or buried in a garden bed, clearing it before we arrive saves you money.

If a device fails its test

We will tell you what failed and what it needs. Sometimes it is a service, sometimes the device is at the end of its life. Either way you get it in writing, and the retest happens once it is sorted.

More than one device

Plenty of buildings have several, and they are not always where the drawings say. Part of a first visit is often working out what is actually on site against what the compliance schedule says is on site. Getting those two to agree is worth doing once properly.

Doing it alongside other work

If we already do your planned maintenance, the annual backflow test can sit in the same visit rather than being a separate call-out.

A note on drinking water

Backflow prevention is about protecting the network. We are not a drinking water supply assessor and we do not certify potable water quality. If that is what you need, it is a different specialist.