Duke's home improvement show

Post by **Duke** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 7:31 am

Ok TK, do that thing you do when you tell everyone how it all works.

I have been ordered

to install a bathtub instead of the shower in our bathroom. To do that I have to put a drain in the floor and get rid of the double sink and put in a single sink on a different wall.

I know how to put in the drain in the floor. I know how to mount and install all water pipes but I cant get a good answer anywhere on how big the angle on the pipe for the waste water from the sink to the drain has to be. Is it good as long as it is in a downward angle or does it have to be like " 5 degrees per meter" kind of thing?

Am I at all making sense?

The actual terms for the stuff above isnt really something we learn in school over here so forgive me for trying to explain with "normal" words.

Post by **korexus** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 10:52 am

Straight down should do it. All you're doing is letting water go down, right?
You might want some sort of U-Bend in there so that when you start dropping important stuff down the plug hole you can get them back.

Or do you mean you have a setup where the sink is here and the drain is all the way over there? ---->
In that case any downward angle will do but so will horizontal and that's far easier to install.

Code: Select all

|Sink|
--\/--
   |  _   
   |_| |
       |____________
                    |
                 |Drain|

Should do the trick due to the wonders of water pressure. All bow before my 733t drawing skillz!

korexus.

Post by **Duke** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 11:05 am

Freely translated from Swedish I guess the name is "waterlock" but it may be different in english.

That comes with the sink so I am good there. The drain is all the way over there and the quesion was if any angle is a good one or if we need a certain one in order to make sure that nasties like hair, balls of snot that I've spit down the sink etc doesnt stop in the pipe but instead goes through my pipes and down the drain never to be seen again.

We need TK on this one. I am sure.

Post by **korexus** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 11:22 am

The U-Bend is meant to catch any nasties which won't get washed away. Anything which doesn't float (or floats too much) gets caught in that, then every so often you can unscrew the bottom -with a bowl underneath it and get all the crap out. Anything which floats just enough gets washed along the pipe, down into the drain and out of your life.

Having just checked, the sink in our house uses exactly this setup and that works fine for taking the water the two meters or so it needs to go so to answer your question, any angle should do but horizontal is easiest

.
I can't think of anything called something like "water lock". What does it look like?

PS, TK is currently AWOL. He came back with a woman the night before last and no one's seen him since. My theory? - She ate him, praying mantis style!

Saladin · Post by **Saladin** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 11:27 am

korexus wrote:All bow before my 733t drawing skillz!

korexus.

733t skillz...

1337 Korexus. 1337.

Post by **korexus** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 11:51 am

Ooops, well there goes my street cred.

Post by **Duke** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 12:12 pm

The U-bend you are describing so well (any questions about this, anyone?) is the "waterlock" I was talking about. It is called that in swedish since it prevens the nice odor from the sewers from going into the house and the water in the U-bend works as a "lock".

I am talking about the angle from the sink to the drain which is 2 meters away. Horizontal isnt working for me. I need to have the pipe going along the wall following the room since I cant have it actually crossing the room. Well I could but it would look like an English house.

BigJOzzy · Post by **BigJOzzy** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 12:43 pm

Duke this is just a thought, since I am no plumber, If the pipe goes horizontal then you would have a greater chance of a stopadge then if it goes down at an angle.

So angle is better.

Massielita

Post by **korexus** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 1:00 pm

So that's what the smell is. I just thought it was TK's decomposing (and headless) body...

Having been to look at sinks around the house again, one of them which is away from the wall goes to the wall horizontally and then down a bit, then along the wall horizontally. Although having them go across the room would be more interesting, especially for limbo competitions at parties!

If you want to be all un-English* about it and go with angles, the common answer from Google is 1/4 inch down per foot across which comes out as about 1.25 degrees below horizontal, ie if your drain is 2 meters away, the end of the pipe should be 4 and 1/6 cm lower than the start.

*By Un-English, I mean not like a crummy pre war block of flats designed to keep students in. After all, students never wash anyway so it doesn't matter what you do with the plumbing. I'm sure there are some houses in England with working plumbing/lights/cookers/etc...

Post by **Duke** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 2:25 pm

*Looks at Massie like he is from outer space*

Yes, angle is better. I've said that all along. It is the degree of the angle I've been after and Korexus wins the basket of treats and mini muffins for digging it up on the net. Thanks!!

(To all of you. Any question you have, could be electrical or anything, just post it here on the boards and someone will solve it for you

)

Post by **Donut** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 5:34 pm

If you'd waited till I was up I could have probably told you... I can't believe that Chris didn't know about the U pipe (I think we actually call it a P-trap or something like that)... Duh

Anything less then horizontal will work. The downward flow of the water will get 95% out leaving only a little in the drain pipe. Then you just need a little coaxing to get it out. I'm pretty sure me and my Dad didn't start measureing to get the angle right when we did it... and it still works... assuming women with long hair don't shower in it. Judging by your former Home Improvement questions I can't picture you measuring either

.

Donut

Post by **Duke** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 6:39 pm

I never measure anything in the bathroom

Post by **korexus** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 10:19 pm

Donut wrote:If you'd waited till I was up I could have probably told you... I can't believe that Chris didn't know about the U pipe (I think we actually call it a P-trap or something like that)... Duh

What do you mean didn't know? I mentioned the dangnabbit things!

Also, A P trap is slightly different. - In that it looks like a letter P. Much like an S-Bend looks like a letter S and and L-Thingamujig loks like a small town near Antwerp. A U-bend is nothing like this. It looks like a Donut. - One which has been half eaten...

Post by **Donut** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 10:28 pm

Just for the record your "U Bend" is called a P-trap. It doesn't matter what direction the pipe goes after the 'U'.

And I was referring to the actual function of the P Trap. It's not to catch your ring when it goes down the sink, it's to stop the nasty smell of Korexus comin up your sink

Donut

TK · Post by TK » Mon Feb 07, 2005 11:12 am

Duke,

You dont need me. You have Chris here. All the knowledge you can find on Google and not a thing more. At least he admitted to using a search engine this time.

BigJOzzy · Post by **BigJOzzy** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 12:48 pm

Nothing beats the experiance of someone who has actually gotten his hands dirty doing the work......

Post by **korexus** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 1:14 pm

TK wrote:Duke,

You dont need me. You have Chris here. All the knowledge you can find on Google and not a thing more. At least he admitted to using a search engine this time.

Hey, if I'm sitting around bored I may as well do something to help my fellow human beings. And if I don't know something, a search engine seems like the obvious place to start and then mentioning that it's from a search engine, not personal knowledge, seems a good way of covering myself for when Duke's house blows up...

Post by **Duke** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 1:45 pm

If it didnt blow up from TK's wire plan in my kitchen I seriously doubt it will now.

A UPS-got-a-package-people trap (or whatever, I still feel "waterlock" sounds better to describe it) cannot possibly be as hazardous as a 3 phase 380V outlet that I with guidance from TK turned into single phase ones.

There are two things in this thread that are totally incomprehensible to me. 1. How the whole discussion focused on that U-bend thing which I have 100% understanding of AND own 3 different sets where one is in aluminum and 2 are in plastic. All in their original cases. I know how they work and how to connect them to everything. Wasnt at all the object of my question.

2. How did TK manage to bring home a female. At gunpoint?

And I was expecting more cred on the measuring joke.....

Still, thanks to everyone.

TK · Post by TK » Mon Feb 07, 2005 2:29 pm

Duke wrote:1. How the whole discussion focused on that U-bend thing

Not guilty.

Duke wrote:2. How did TK manage to bring home a female. At gunpoint?

Guilty.

Post by **Duke** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 2:32 pm