Flovac has the in-house capability to design a vacuum sewer system from first principles, and we do, when that’s what a project needs. But hydraulic performance and long-term reliability depend on decisions made close to the ground, catchment layout, staging, tie-ins to existing infrastructure, local approval requirements, which is why we favour working closely with the local engineering firm on the project rather than designing at a distance.
In practice, that partnership takes a few forms, depending on what the project and the local team need:
- Design training — we train local engineers on vacuum sewer design principles so they can develop the layout themselves, with our support.
- Design review — we check calculations and layouts against the hydraulics that make a vacuum system work, before they’re locked in.
- Full design — where it makes sense, our engineers take on the complete design in-house.
- As-constructed review — we review as-constructed drawings against the original design intent, so what’s built matches what the hydraulics need to perform.
We’ve trained and worked alongside engineering firms on vacuum sewer projects around the world, which is part of how our design process has been refined over time. Whichever way a project is delivered, the aim is the same: a system that’s hydraulically sound and performs the way it was designed to, for the life of the asset.
