I am often asked when I did my first high-rise design. The answer is: my senior year of college. I took a course called “High Rise Plumbing Design.” It was a graduate-level course, so I needed special permission from my advisor to take the course. I was the only undergraduate crazy enough to take this class.
When I read the class syllabus, I assumed most of the class would involve designing the drainage, waste and vent systems. How wrong I was! About 80% of the class was spent on water-piping systems. Taking the class, it made perfect sense. It was easy to design the drainage system. The water piping was a different story. There were many options in the design of the water-distribution system. The key was balancing the pressure to get the proper flow at the proper system pressure.