I live in a 1928 rental property. My bathtub/shower hotwater water supply keeps fluxuating between 1.0 to 1.5 GPM to my bathtub spout but especially shower. The cold water flowrate remains consistent at 5.5GPM.

I now the pipes are rusted and clogged. So I want my landlord to increase the hotwater flowrate to my tub diver spout to be comparable to the cold water, by having his contract plumbers figure it out or replace the piples.

This increased flowrate would be consistent with the matching flowrates for my kitchen sink hot and cold water with new copper or PVC pipes (5.0GPM each) and bathroom hot and cold water (4.1GPM each) with the old iron pipes.

Yet my landlord repeat claims there is no minimum amount of hot and cold water that he must provide to any of his fixtures, as long as the quantity is visually above zero; for no water would violate the implied covenant of habitability. He said his minimum flowrate prerogative is a visual quantity the diameter of a No 2 pencil.

Yikes!

I cited the 26 editions of the UPC from 1946 to 2001. They all cite 4GPM (WSFUs) for 1/2" pipes or 10GPM (WSFUs) for 3/4" pipes for a few bathroom tub/shower fill spouts (Section 610.3 Table 610.3). WSFUs are directly convertable to GPM except for 1-3 fixtures; kitchen sink, bathroom sink, and bathtub spout/shower.

He rebutted that only the plumbing code used in 1928 for the City of Berkeley, CA applies to his plumbing system.

But he knows the city has no archived copy of this code, only an electronic PDF archive of the permit receipt that the owner back in 1928 paid for all permits to build the property. Yes, there is a plumbing permit number on the receipt. But the city does not have a copy of that 1928 permit, only of those dated after 1991.

There is a 1931 federal building commission historical report online that cites the COB had a 1916 plumbing code. But I could not find any archived online copy of that code or copies any others up to the 1946 UPC.

The landlord is no-maintenance/defferred maintenance cost-savings opportunist, hence back-door rent increase unethnical.Even our city's Housing Code Enforce will not housing or plumbing code violation cite his rusted clogged low-flowrate plumbing system. They simply echo the landlord's excuse, the building plumbing system is old.

I could just move out into a modern apartment. But then I would be abandoning my 7 other neighbors. They have the same hotwater flowrate problem but are intimidated and remain silent. S

So, does anyone (especially experts on plumbing codes past and present) have any ideas of how I can get a copy of my city's plumbing codes from 1916 to 1946 (for the City of Berkeley, CA) or any other ideas of how to approach or resolve this low-flowrate hot water issue to bathtub spouts?

Note, a 1.0 to 1.5GPM hotwater tub spout fill-rate would take 34 to 50 minutes to take baths, daily or infrequent for a 50 gallon tub. I prefer to 7 minutes(at 4GPM) to 12 minutes (at 7GPM) minutes to hotwater fill a tub.



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I am not a pro, but in my opinion, getting a copy of the 1916-1946 plumbing code will not help you LEGALLY. If your intention is to go through that code, and hopefully find some words in there that dictates some sort of minimum flow rate for the hot side, to legally bind them to change their supply lines to conform to that standard, I doubt it will work.

You said there is a 1928 permit for work performed. So it is reasonable to assume that work was done legally, and this is all that is necessary. If the work was permitted and legal in 1928, and later on the code was changed fifty times over the years, it is still grandfather in. Where I am this would be referred to as "legal and non-conforming" and there is no need to bring it up to code until they want to do a re-pipe, then they have to observe today's code. Understand that regardless what the code says, planners and inspectors can always make exceptions, so even if you find some sort of minimum flow rate in the 1928 code, it does not mean today he has to conform to it.

Finally, personally in many cases flow rate through a pipe does not translate to flow rate out of a fixture. Think of the cold water line being 3/4", but when it is for a toilet, it is typically tee off to a 1/2" branch. That branch is then terminated outside the wall with a shutoff valve. If you look into the inlet and outlet of a shutoff valve, it is much smaller than a 1/2" hole. Then there is a hose connecting the outlet of a shutoff valve to the bottom of the tank. That hose is probably 1/4" or 3/8" at best. So there is a series of restrictive bottle necks along the way that even with a repipe will not necessarily resolve. Your hot water is probably smaller than your cold water pipe, then before it gets to your spout, it is probably going through a mixing valve, and I bet that mixing valve has internal channels much smaller than the pipes coming into it.

You can only do so much in an older building without opening up a can of worms with huge expenses that will and should be passed on by much higher rents. In the real world, if you don't like the way your hair stylist cuts your hair, you go elsewhere. Perhaps it's best to shop around for another apartment where you will be happier. No landlord wants to hear about plumbing code books from 1928.

I also want to add that the industry seems to be going in the other direction. There is a Title 20 Water Efficiency Standards in California, governing MAXIMUM flow rate allowed out of faucets, urinals, toilets, showers etc...I think California is limiting kitchen and bathroom faucets to 2GPM or 1.8GPM for water conservation. I don't know if tub spouts are classified as a faucet and if so you are going to be forced to cut back to 1.8GPM anyways. Tub spouts do not have an internal flow restrictor, unlike shower heads where manufacturers typically insert a flow restrictor to conform to flow rate standards.



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The codes apply to when the system is installed. not 100 years later. In fact I doubt that the early code even addressed minimum flows or pressures.

Yep!

CA Civil Code 1101.1 - 1101.9 (especially 1101.5) requires all apartments must replace non-compliant fixtures (kitchen sink, bathroom sink, showerhead (and mixing-value and diverter filler) with water-conservation fixtures on or before January 1, 2019; or after if the property owner misses this deadline.

If this is true, then this requirement sets the optimum PSI, Temp, and Flow Rate (GPM) of all major fixtures, especially as section 1101.7 doesn't permit any "grandfathering" but only valid exemptions:

1. Maximum Flow Rate = 1.8 to 2.0 @ 80 PSI
2. Minimum Flow Rate = 75% of 1.8 to 2.0 @ 45 and 80 PSI and 60% of 1.8 to 2.0 @ 20 PSI
3. Diverter filler = Hot and Cold Water Flow Rate = Comparable Flow Rate

Is this analysis correct? If not, why?