What are the stages of new-construction plumbing?
Three, each with its own inspection. Underground is the drain, waste and vent piping and the water service set in the ground before the slab, staked to the plan and tested. Top-out is everything inside the open framing: supply lines, vents through the roof, the tub and shower valves, gas if the building has it. Fixture set is the last visit, after finishes, when sinks, toilets, water heaters and equipment connect and the whole system goes under pressure for final.
| Stage |
What goes in |
What the inspector checks |
| Underground |
DWV under the slab, water service, cleanouts |
Slope, fittings, a water or air test before backfill |
| Top-out |
Supply, vents, valves, gas rough |
Pressure test on supply and gas, vent terminations, protection plates |
| Fixture set / final |
Fixtures, water heaters, equipment |
Everything connected, pressurized, no leaks, T&P and pan where required |
How do you coordinate with a general contractor?
We work to the GC’s schedule and communicate with the project manager directly, not through the homeowner. Rough-in dates are set against the pour and the framing walk, inspections get booked when the stage is ready rather than after the framer has closed the wall, and if a layout on the plan won’t pass, that conversation happens at underground, not at final.
The limit worth stating: underground can’t start until the pad is graded and the lines are staked, and a slip upstream of us moves our dates too. We don’t absorb a schedule we don’t control, and we’d rather say that at bid than on the day.
Do you take multi-family and commercial projects?
Yes: tenant build-outs, multi-family, and light commercial new construction, along with new residential. Growth along US-287 in Midlothian and the subdivisions filling in around Glenn Heights keep both sides of that busy. Commercial work has its own wrinkles. A restaurant space wants a grease interceptor sized to the kitchen, and the service wants backflow protection the city will inspect; both get specified before the underground goes in rather than retrofitted after a failed final. On a build with a hard opening date, that sequencing is the difference between a certificate of occupancy on time and a month of re-inspections.
What does a rough-in inspection actually check?
The things that fail badly when they’re wrong and can’t be seen later. Slope on the drain lines so waste moves. Fittings that let a cable through a cleanout instead of dead-ending. Supply held under test pressure with a gauge the inspector reads. Vents that terminate where code says and not into an attic. Nail plates where pipe passes framing. A rough-in that passes the first time is the difference between a schedule that holds and a week lost waiting on a re-inspection.