Bathroom Floor Drain: Installation and Maintenance Tips – Part I
Over the past couple weeks, we looked at a couple different kitchen and bathroom type installations and we’ve talked about a variety of different types of drains. Particularly a little while back we looked at a triple vowl cast iron sink. It’s a large sink used in kitchens, almost in the style and type you’d find in a commercial kitchen but this one that we examined happened to be a historic large residential type of fixture. Today we’re looking at an example of a floor drain in a bathroom floor. As you can see in the picture below, the floor and wall have a similar gray color tile
They’re not the same though, the floor tile happens to be a much more typical rectangular tile that is a medium or large format configuration, set on a half-half running bond pattern. Meanwhile the wall tile is a much more interesting medium size hex tile that fits together, almost like a mosaic but with tighter mortar joints and because this tile is much larger than typical mosaics, it’s set with a integral spacer instead of a textile mesh backing. The amount of variety that an even relatively simple kitchen or bathroom can have in the usage of fixtures and finishes is immense.
There’s a lot of good reasons why it’s helpful to have a drain in a bathroom floor. Bathrooms are just simply wet areas, even more than kitchens. Kitchens use water for cooking and drinking and washing dishes. Some of those processes, particularly washing dishes, can be a bit messy and water can still end up spilled on top of countertops and also over the edge onto the floors.
We recommend having or selecting flooring materials that are relatively resistant to the effects of exposure to moisture and water in kitchens, but this issue is way more important in bathrooms and it is also helpful to have a floor drain in a bathroom. But adding a floor drain to an existing floor or even to a construction plan isn’t just a simple single extra element. A floor drain involves several other types of added details and the complexities.
For a floor drain to work properly, you can’t just have a perfectly flat type of floor, instead the floor has to slope or grade towards the drain, from almost all parts of the bathroom, in this case. That means that you really should have a consistent grade that begins at the far extremities of the room and continues, as consistently as possible, towards the drain orifice
In this particular example, the floor drain is set directly in the internal area of a singular piece of ceramic tile. That’s ceramic tile happens to be a rectified tile, which means that it was processed, after kiln firing, to make it even more consistent in size and shape. And these tiles are fired and built in modern manufacturing systems and have relatively slight deviations and deflection. Therefore, it’s a pretty safe assumption to guess that these particular flooring materials are relatively flat and true.
That means, in effect, that there is no slope around the lip of that drain which, with a floor drain system, should passively allow water to flow to the drain without puddling up around the edges.
Since the area of flatness is just within a few inches of most of the sides of the drain, this might not be too big of a problem, but for this floor drain to work, overall the rest of the floor has to have a slope that will allow the water to run on its own, passively, without being worked and otlr guided with a squeegee, to the floor drain. If you have to use a squeegee to get the water to the drain, then it will be consistently inconvenient to wash the bathroom floor and or clean up any times or incidences of water application or spillage.
The grout lines used at this particular installation are about 1/8 inch thickness. The grout used happens to be a dark color, darker than any of the particular details found in the tiles themselves, but these tiles are relatively consistent or have a range of colors that concentrate around a medium to dark gray. The grout color from a distance, looks to be almost black.
In this picture, we’ll take a look at different angles and other photographs of this particular drain installation and discuss the piping under the floor that carries water away and uses and priming of traps and drain systems of this type.
Dupont Kitchen & Bath Can Help
As dedicated and local DC metropolitan kitchen and bath builders and installers, we pride ourselves on turning your visions into reality. Your kitchen and bathrooms can reflect your unique style and be designed with personalized aesthetics. It can be a process from creative designs to the realization of your dream space. Specializing in kitchen and bath construction, we bring expertise and skills to every project. If you’re contemplating a renovation, upgrade, or modernization in the local market, we’re happy to be your team. Consult with us, and we can start together on a path to redefine and elevate your DC living experience.
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