Bathroom Floor drain

Hello all,
Building renovation continues and the newest cause for convern is the the bathroom floor "overflow" drain.
Apart from many other things, we are renovating an old bathroom and the pipes have been roughed in.
I have notived that the waste pipe has not been connected to the sewer system but just run under the bathroom and punched out through a underfloor ventilation vent and left to overflow onto a path that runs along side of the house.

Is this common? It doesnt appear to be the right thing to do. I would imagine that the overflow drain should and or must be linked into the main sewer system
Any thoughts appreciated.

Paul

The overflow drain is not connected to the sewer as smells would then come in the house . It is an emergency thing only if the bath overflows . Just have a flap on the pipe to stop birds or rats nesting in the pipe .

Thanks for your response,
I'm sure the old one had a "S" or trap of some description to stop that, like the sink and the shower has. For example in a new bathroom in the same renovation they have linked the sink to the floor wast in a water trap system.

Regards

paul

Yes, Paul, floor wastes are usually plumbed into the sewer line via a trap - or in the case of older vitreous clay pipes via a gully pipe - in fact our original building approval specified that they had to be.

In our case the bathroom floor waste is plumbed into the sewer but the toilet (separate room) floor waste is just like yours. Other houses I have looked at in our district that I can remember had wastes plumbed in.

I dont know about the legality, but bearing in mind the price of plumbing if it were mine I would probably be inclined to leave it as it is - as I doubt it is going to cause a problem.

Arron

Must be different rules by state and local council . Here in country Tasmania it is definetly not connected to the sewer

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Originally Posted by Arron

Yes, Paul, floor wastes are usually plumbed into the sewer line

I dont know about the legality, but bearing in mind the price of plumbing if it were mine I would probably be inclined to leave it as it is - as I doubt it is going to cause a problem.

Arron

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Thansk Arron,
The cost of plumbing is not an issue, its included in the total price of the reno, I have a feeling the plumber has just done what is easiest and quickest - " lets just punch a hole through this vent and save ourselves a P trap and an extra joint, hellwe may even make up about 15 mins"

Getting very disulusioned with plumbers.

Paul

Hi Paul,
You need to check the rules at the time. Councils are fickle. In my case I plumbed both into the sewer as advised by the plumber. During this process the rules changed, and I had to change the laundry waste to the cat flap out in the open.

The bathroon waste had to remain into the sewer. The two floor wastes are separted by a wall and are about 1 metre apart. Presumably the council thinks water in the laundry is different from water in the bathroom..go figure.

Also, at the time I wanted to set up parallel system to capture waste water for gardens etc. No, you cannot do that they said. Now they are encouraging it!!!!

Have fun,
conwood

It's common practice to install a dry floor waste (which is what yours is). It's not necessary to connect it to the sewer because it's only there in case you flood the bath. There are probably rules governing where they are allowed to overflow to but other than that a perfectly acceptable practice.

If you install a wet floor waste (connected to the sewer) then it also needs to be charged from another fixture. Otherwise they dry out and then the smell starts.

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Originally Posted by silentC

It's common practice to install a dry floor waste (which is what yours is). It's not necessary to connect it to the sewer because it's only there in case you flood the bath. There are probably rules governing where they are allowed to overflow to but other than that a perfectly acceptable practice.

If you install a wet floor waste (connected to the sewer) then it also needs to be charged from another fixture. Otherwise they dry out and then the smell starts.

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I (& plumber) put a wet floor waste in my previous (terrace) house. This was charged by the hot water service overflow. The HWS was an internal gas storage job hidden in a (large, vented) wall cavity. The HWS sat in a gal tray that was plumbed to the floor waste trap. This should also catch any leaks etc.

By contrast my new place had a "floor waste" made from a basin fitting pushed through a hole in the floor. No plumbing fitted at all! :eek:
Also this "floor drain" is in the highest corner in the room. The leaking shower had wet the lino underlay everywhere except that corner.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by silentC

If you install a wet floor waste (connected to the sewer) then it also needs to be charged from another fixture. Otherwise they dry out and then the smell starts.

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Speaking of plumbing screw ups - when we moved into our house I noticed the laundry floor waste and tub were plumbed together. Still, we often used to walk around the house baffled by very faint sewer smells, but were never able to pin down where it came from. When we rennovated we found out the tub was downstream of the waste's trap - so the trap had dried out years before and thats where the smell was coming from. Changing the plumbing was out of the question for cost reasons - Plumber's suggestion was just to pour some water down occassionally- and pouring some oil on top to prevent dehydration.

arron

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Plumber's suggestion was just to pour some water down occassionally

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That's what they used to do until someone said "hey, why don't we hook the vanity basin up to the floor trap?" ;)

Having just been through putting a floor waste in the Laudary the argument against plumbing into the sewer, even with the trough up stream to keep the trap charged, is that suds water froths as it flows into the trap. The bubbles rise up onto the floor. The advice we got was just stick the floor waste drain out the wall with a flap on it. That is what we did. Must admit it feels wrong having grown up in South Aus where the wastes were plumbed in! However it works!