This section is from the book "Plumbing Plan and Specifications", by J. J. Cosgrove. Also available from Amazon: Plumbing plans and Inspection.
IN PLANNING the plumbing for a large hotel, certain conditions must be considered, many of which are common to all types of semi-public buildings in which many people are housed and fed under one management.
In buildings where many people are fed, ample provision must be made for cooking the meals, and this necessitates large and numerous sinks, supplied with hot and cold water, located in the kitchen, bakery and scullery rooms. In the bakery, in addition to hot and cold water, ice water must be provided for use in mixing pastry, and in the scullery room separate sinks should be provided for the preparation of vegetables, and at which the table dishes and cooking-utensils are to be washed.
Large quantities of grease, accumulated in the preparation of foods and washing of dishes, are emptied into hotel sinks, and to prevent the grease from obstructing the house drains provision should be made to intercept it before it reaches the drains.
A large number of employees, both male and female, are required in the preparation and serving of meals, washing of dishes and laundering of linen, and toilet accommodations must be provided for their use. Further, floor drains should be provided in all of the workrooms and in the connecting corridors, to facilitate the cleaning of floors, unavoidably soiled by so large a force of help.
Butler pantry sinks should be provided in serving-rooms adjoining dining-rooms, and a bar and back bar in the cafe, fitted up complete with hot and cold water, ice water and waste connections.
As the guests of a hotel are to be lodged as well as fed, facilities must be provided for washing and bathing of the guests. The number and quality of the bath rooms usually depend upon the class of the hotel. In the best class of hostelries a separate bath room containing lavatory, water closet, bath tub or shower, and sometimes bath tub and shower, is provided in connection with each room or suite of rooms, while in the cheaper hotels bath rooms are provided only in connection with certain of the more expensive suites and the toilet accommodations on each floor are for the common use of all the guests. In rooms which are not connected with bath rooms, lavatories with hot and cold water are provided in all the better class of hotels.
To care for the comfort of the guests and keep the rooms and corridors clean, a number of servants are necessary, and bathing and toilet facilities must be provided for them on the dormitory floor of the building. Also, slop sinks should be provided on each floor of the hotel to facilitate the work of cleaning the rooms on the several floors.
Fig. 100 First Floor Plan of Hotel
A laundry is indispensable in a first-class hotel, and besides the usual machine washers, a battery of stationary tubs should be fitted up in every complete laundry.
There are certain provisions of a semi-public nature that must be made in a hotel, which are unnecessary in most other types of buildings. A large toilet room for the accommodation of guests and patrons of the hotel is a necessity, and a barber shop is almost indispensable. Hotel barber shops are sometimes fitted up with bath rooms, while in more pretentious hostelries Turkish and Russian bath parlors are provided.
Drinking-fountains should be fitted up in the lobby of the hotels, and all water used throughout the entire establishment should be sterilized by filtration.
In tall hotel buildings, in which it is necessary to supply the building with water from a house tank, two pumps should be provided, so in case one pump breaks down the other can be used to fill the tank while the broken one is being repaired.
In extremely tall buildings, twenty or more stories in height, a house tank should be provided for each ten stories, so as to avoid the excessive pressure on the lower floors that would result from the use of but one house tank located on the roof of the building. Instead of providing tanks at different elevations, pressure-reducing valves can be used in their stead. It must be born in mind, however, that a pressure-reducing valve only relieves the system of pressure when all the faucets on the low-pressure side are closed; when a faucet is opened the water will flow with a pressure due to the head or water measuring from the tank. If the building is very high and pressure-reducing valves are used there will be more splashing when water is being drawn than when tanks at different elevations are provided.
Fig. 101 Second Floor Plan of Hotel
A further condition to be considered is capacity for storage for at least one day's supply of water. This provision is to guard against a water famine caused by shutting off the water from the street mains for repairs or for other causes.
When storage of the entire daily supply of water on the roof would cause a greater weight than should be permitted, or would require more roof space than is available, part of the water can be stored in suction tanks located in the basement or cellar.
A feature which is generally overlooked in planning the water supply for hotel buildings is the advisability of providing a supply of ice-cold drinking water to every guest room. In view of the fact that hotels are always provided with a mechanical refrigeration system the providing of a supply of ice-cold water becomes very simple and economical, and a continuous circulation can be maintained throughout the ice-water system by means of a small rotary pump. The water should first be filtered, then cooled, after which it may be circulated through the distributing mains to the various ice-water faucets, then back again to the cooling coils.
Tig. 102 Upper Floor Plan of Hotel
In proportioning the hot water and cold water supply for the building, the size of pipes should be carefully calculated, to guard against the annoyance experienced in many first-class hotels of the faucets on the lower floors of the building robbing those on the higher floors.
Another consideration which should be kept in mind in limestone regions is the fact that hard water is very objectionable for washing and bathing, and that the entire water supply for a building can be softened, at no cost to the management when the saving of fuel effected by the use of soft water is considered and to that is added the saving of soap, labor and scouring preparations. The softening of water in a large establishment will be found to more than pay for the process, besides giving the guests the additional comfort and convenience of an improved water. Not only hotels but hospitals, sanitariums, asylums and like institutions can have the water supply softened with profit to the management and pleasure to the inmates.
Fire lines will be found desirable in hotel buildings, whether fireproof or combustible, and should be part of every well-equipped hotel water-supply system. In country, seashore or other suburban hotels, in addition to the fire lines within the building, there should be fire hydrants on the grounds outside, so that flames can be fought from without when the interior is inaccessible. In seashore resorts the question of salt-water baths is one that will have to be considered, and at other country and summer or winter hotels, water supply and sewage purification will be among the plumbing features which will require consideration.
Fig. 103 Novel Floor Plan of Hotel Building
An objectionable practice commonly followed in hotel design, but which should be changed for a more satisfactory method, is the installing of self-closing basin cocks at the lavatories. Very few patrons of a hotel care to wash in a basin which has been used by thousands before them, particularly when their preference under all conditions is to wash in running water; but, even in the very best hotels, they are confronted with a type of basin cock which makes any alternative but to wash in the basin almost impossible.
Another point which should be considered is the placing of combination cocks at lavatories. Usually the hot water in hotels is so extremely hot that it cannot be used without tempering it with cold water, and this cannot be done when washing at an open faucet unless a combination cock is used.
 
Continue to: