Backflow Testing in Doraville, GA

Local conditions in Doraville

Doraville is a small, highly diverse DeKalb city on Buford Highway, with a large Asian community, many Latin American residents and a long strip of immigrant-owned restaurants and markets. It grew around the former General Motors assembly plant. The city's utilities menu sends water service to DeKalb County Watershed Management, and Doraville has no water department of its own.

DeKalb's Backflow Prevention Section covers every DWM customer. Commercial and multi-family properties need an assembly matched to their hazard level, and single-family homes need one on any irrigation system. Each assembly goes on the customer side of the meter, is installed by a plumbing contractor holding a Georgia license and must be tested every year by a GBPAT-certified tester; GAWP keeps the list. The section's phone is 404-687-4075.

With so much food service along Buford Highway and Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, a large share of Doraville's testing is commercial. On the residential side, about 60% of homes were built before 1980, so sprinkler systems at those houses were usually added later and may never have had a device installed.

Repair or replace?

Signs it's time

• A DeKalb notice about a missing test
• Relief valve discharge on a restaurant's assembly
• A business changing hands or menus
• A leak around the meter pit
• New sprinklers at a house

Timing

Commercial owners should schedule the yearly test well before any deadline so a failed device can be rebuilt without disrupting service. Homeowners should test when irrigation starts in spring, and drain and wrap an outdoor assembly before the first hard freeze. When you call, say whether the property is a home, an apartment building or a business, and how many water connections it has, so the plumber arrives ready for the size of the job. New or relocated assemblies go on Doraville's Trade Permit Application through Cloudpermit, and every permit needs a notarized property-owner affidavit.