question about drain trap
Hello,
We bought our 44yrs old eichler in Sunnyvale last year. It's a 4br/2ba atrium model with a shower in master bathroom and a tub in the hallway bathroom. Does anyone knows if the original eichler house had a drain trap built in for the shower area? The shower floor looks to be almost flush with the house floor. We would like to add the trap if it's not there. Same thing for the hallway tub,i cannot tell if there is drain trap underneath the tub either. Just wondering if the drain traps are required by code at that time.
thanks,
Charlie
All drains have a trap. The water in the loop keeps sewer fumes out of your home. Some commercial drains in dry locations are self-watering, so the water in the trap doesn't dry out and let the smells fumes in.
Randy,
I can see the U-shaped pvc traps under all the kitchen and lavatory sinks. However the shower seems be sitting right on top of the concrete floor,does that means the drain trap is buried somewhere below the concrete surface?
Thanks,
Yes, the trap is buried in the concrete and dirt under the concrete.
I have inherited a 1948 book on meeting plumbing codes and it shows all drains having traps, so traps were standard before Eichlers were built.
All home sewer lines have traps to keep the fumes out. Goes way back to maybe the 19th or even 18th century.
Think of the ills that they talk about whenever there is a flood, hurricane, etc where sewer liquids are exposed. That is what the trap is there to control...getting those nasty germs into the house.
The showers have the pan level with the concrete slab. The trap is in/below that top level. I've put in a new shower (cultured marble) and in taking out the old pan found that it's sub-grade (below the slab). There was water seepage (clean water from dirt, not sewage) that wicked up, along the old pan an onto the foundation 2x4. Cleaned it up and painted several coatings of green. Sealed all around the new pan and the hole in the slab, so no more seepage.
Tubs have a hole in the slab. About 2'x2' and about 2' deep. That houses the trap and drain stopper mechanism. I've put in a new tub and put a little door on the outside just in case I ever have to work on the trap, stopper mechanism, or ??? Looked at it the first winter after installation and found that the hole had almost filled with ground water (clean, not sewer water). Going to put a sump pump in there and had completely forgotten about that till writing this.....THANKS for the reminder!!!
All of the old and even the new traps stop up once in a great while. Usual is hair and soap scum mixture. Plumbers plunger works just fine, even sweetie (little gal with almost no strength to open jars can do this).
If you are going to replace a shower trap, almost for sure you'll have to replace the shower pan, as I don't see how you can ever break apart the bottom and repair it to be totally water tight.
