Code Applied by the app plumb.waste.indirect
Indirect waste for food equipment
A sink or machine that handles food drains through an air gap (an air break is allowed for a commercial dishwasher and a pot or dish sink) to a floor sink or other receptor, never straight into the waste pipe, so a sewer backup rises onto the floor and not into the food side.
| When | The app uses |
|---|---|
| food storage, preparation and handling equipment (a prep sink) | air gap |
| a commercial dishwashing machine | air gap or air break |
| a sink that washes, rinses or sanitizes utensils, dishes, pots and pans (a three-compartment pot sink), other than in a dwelling unit | air gap or air break |
| an air gap, above the receptor flood rim, at least | twice the pipe opening |
- Source
- IPC · 802.1.1, 802.1.6, 802.1.7 and 802.3.1 (2021 numbering) · read the public text
- Editions checked
- 2018 · 2021
- Used by
- Courses
- Amendments
No state or local amendment to this rule is on file. Not on file means the model code as written — check your jurisdiction.
A model code the authority having jurisdiction adopts.
The prep sink and the dishwasher on the course's restaurant do not connect to the waste pipe. Each ends above a floor sink with open air between the end of its pipe and the rim, so when the sewer backs up it fills the floor sink and spills onto the floor, where someone sees it, instead of rising into a bowl that food touches or a machine that washes plates. An air break is the looser form: the pipe ends below the receptor's rim but is not sealed into it.
On a bid that is two things the plan may not draw: the floor sink, a fixture with its own trap, and the indirect drain from the equipment down to it, pipe you run. The floor sink then drains like any other fixture, so where it sees little water it needs seal protection too (plumb.trap.seal). A pot sink or dish sink in a restaurant is read the same way: the code sends it to a receptor too, so a set that draws it straight into the waste is a question for the engineer.
What the app does with it
Nothing yet: the app does not apply this rule. It is on a course card (the plumbing course, Chapter 2, "What the FD keynote costs"), which has you count the floor sinks as their own counter. No surface warns about a food fixture drawn straight into the waste.
Verify against your edition
The numbers are the 2021 edition's: food handling equipment by an air gap (802.1.1), a commercial dishwasher by an air gap or an air break (802.1.6), a sink that washes utensils, dishes, pots and pans, other than in a dwelling unit, by an air gap or an air break (802.1.7), and the air gap at twice the effective opening (802.3.1). Earlier editions number the same sub-sections differently (the 2018 numbers were not confirmed). The IPC allows an air break for the commercial dishwasher where the course card says an air gap; the gap is always acceptable, and a local health code may ask for it. The Uniform Plumbing Code covers the same ground in its Chapter 8, with its own figures. Settled 2026-09-27 by Claude on the owner's delegation, from the dossier's research and the model code text; not checked against a printed book or a local amendment.
Cited by section, not reprinted: the code text belongs to its publisher. Company practice is not a rule here — it lives with your pricing.