Pineville, NCBackflowTesting

Who needs a test: NC 51 storefronts, Carolina Place and newer subdivisions

Carolina Place has stood at the corner of NC 51 and I-485 since 1991, and the stores and restaurants near it sit on Charlotte Water lines. Every commercial customer there has to keep a backflow assembly on each water connection. The utility's guide also names uses that must have the reduced pressure (RP) type, among them car washes, dry cleaners, medical and dental offices, veterinary clinics and tenant-occupied buildings.

Housing adds the irrigation side. Nearly half the homes in town date from 2000 or later. Cardinal Woods dates from roughly 1998 to 2004, and McCullough was started around 2009. A sprinkler system on public water at any of those houses needs its own assembly and its own test. The eighteen mill houses on Park Avenue are far older, but the rule is the same: if irrigation is connected to public water, it is covered.

• Restaurants and food service
• Medical, dental and veterinary offices
• Car washes and dry cleaners
• Multi-tenant retail buildings
• Homes with in-ground irrigation

Charlotte Water's rules for a town with no water department

The utility does not run tests. It sends a notice, you choose one of its approved testers, and the tester reports the results back. Commercial and industrial customers need an assembly on every connection, which the utility spells out as domestic, irrigation, fire line and swimming pool meters. Each assembly is tested when it is installed and every year afterward.

Irrigation has its own date to remember. Systems installed since March 24, 2003 must have a reduced pressure assembly. A McCullough home built after 2009 falls under that rule, while a Cardinal Woods system from before the change may still have an approved double check, which can stay until it needs replacing. For home irrigation, go by the due date on your notice. One caution: properties outside the town limits with a Pineville address may be served by Carolina Water, and then Charlotte Water's program does not apply.

Test day for a business, and the next step after a fail

The water past the assembly is shut off for part of the test, so timing matters to a kitchen or a salon. Tell us your hours and we come before opening or in a slow period. The tester attaches a calibrated kit to the assembly's test ports and reads each check valve and the relief valve. Allow 20 to 30 minutes for each assembly. When the water is back on, you see the results straight away.

If the assembly passes, we send the report and you are done until the next notice. If it fails, we explain which reading was out and what it will take to correct. Many failures are a worn check or debris holding the relief valve open, and those are rebuilt, not replaced. Backflow repair is quoted before we touch anything. After the repair we retest and send in the passing report, and the labor is under warranty for 1 year.

What it costs, how fast, and one schedule for many assemblies

Testing is $199 per assembly, and the price includes sending the report to the utility. The 30-Day Compliance Guarantee means we test your assembly within 30 days. We also keep each assembly on file and send a reminder ahead of the next due date, which is useful when the person who handled it last year has moved on.

A shopping center or a group of storefronts in Pineville can have many assemblies on different meters. Give us the list, or the stack of notices, and we build one schedule with one point of contact and work through it in as few visits as possible. Restaurants that also need fixtures or piping fixed can book plumbing repair or wider commercial plumbing work. Buyers and tenants taking on a building can ask for a plumbing inspection that checks whether its tests are current.