Compiled by: Tanya Olckers
A warehouse gets a plumbing upgrade.
- Executive bathroom. Images by © Plumbing Africa
- Intershu warehouse.
- Rainwater tank with piping.
- Inside the warehouse
Germiston in Gauteng is home to residences and a bustling industrial area. There are a number of warehouses in the area catering to various industries, and large business and manufacturing concerns.
A new building has popped up in the Jupiter section of Germiston. It’s a warehouse and office block which will serve as the new home for a shoe manufacturing company. The client, Intershu, as well as the architects, wanted to create a space that was functional, yet with stylish bathrooms and associated facilities.
Jazzman Sanitary Engineers worked with the builder’s programme in mind when they began work, following the programme from earth works through to the finished product. This was a new building, which meant building and installing everything from scratch, including creating washrooms using Duravit and Hansgrohe products to hit that upmarket vibe that the building’s owners were aiming for.
- Pipes for water to be used in case of fire.
- Sewer piping system.
- Down pipe.
Pipes that will relay water in case of a fire span the length of the warehouse, hug the walls of the building, and snake around corners to ensure safety measures are in place for the 18 386.63m² space.
The bathrooms come equipped with showers for workers at the warehouse. These showers were fitted with Kwikot geysers to ensure hot water for those who use them. Executive bathrooms, some including showers, were installed in the warehouse’s upstairs area. JKJ Pressure Pumps were also installed in the building.

Stylish bathroom fitting
“Some of the challenges we faced was the large amount of rocks in the ground and the height of the warehouse building itself,” says Leon Tobias from Jazzman Sanitary Engineers. “We had to work at heights and stick to a really tight programme.”
These rocks were dealt with through blasting, and the heights were handled through the use of a cherry picker.
A borehole was sunk and will take care of irrigation.
The plumbers used HDPE and Mepla pipework in the building. Because the project was a new build, they had to create back up water supplies from scratch. Three 20 000ℓ JoJo tanks with pumps were installed.
“We had tight deadlines regarding tenant occupation,” says Tobias, “We had to work hard to meet those targets and get the installation done to an excellent standard.

Kitchen piping
- No rainwater/greywater is being harvested.
- There is only one borehole and three storage tanks.
- The borehole is used for irrigation only.
- The pumps supplied by JKJ Pumps are for the building, not the borehole