Bathroom Plumbing
Loft conversions put bathrooms wherever the waste could be reached. That decision, made decades ago, is why some of them behave the way they do.
Toilets
Most toilet faults are one of a small number of things, and most are inexpensive if they are dealt with before they cause damage.
| Running constantly | Flapper or fill valve. The most common fault there is, and quietly one of the largest sources of wasted water in a building |
|---|---|
| Weak or incomplete flush | Blocked rim jets, a flapper closing early, or a partly closed stop valve |
| Rocking | Loose closet bolts or a failed flange. Worth attending to promptly, because a rocking pan works the wax seal loose and then it leaks into the ceiling below |
| Water at the base | Failed seal or a cracked pan. Establish which before anything else, because one is a small job and the other is a replacement |
| Backing up repeatedly | Not the toilet. Look at the branch or the stack, under drain cleaning |
Showers and tubs
Valve work in a tiled Manhattan bathroom is mostly a question of access. Where there is no panel and no adjoining closet, reaching the valve means opening tile, and matching pre-war tile is frequently impossible. Where a like-for-like cartridge replacement will do the job, that is nearly always the better route even if the part is obscure and has to be tracked down.
Thermostatic and pressure-balancing valves are worth understanding: they exist to stop the shower scalding when someone runs a tap elsewhere on the branch. In a building where several apartments share a supply line, that is not a luxury feature.
Basins and waste
Wall-hung basins in old buildings are fixed to whatever was behind the plaster, which is sometimes not much. A basin that has started to move needs its fixing dealt with rather than its trap tightened. Pop-up wastes and bottle traps are the usual source of slow drainage and of the smell people assume is coming from the drain itself.
Renovation and rough-in
If a bathroom is being redone, the plumbing decisions are made at rough-in and they are effectively permanent once the walls close. The things worth getting right then:
- Pitch on the waste. The most common defect we find in bathrooms added during a conversion, and the hardest to live with
- Venting. A fixture without adequate venting gurgles, drains slowly, and pulls its own trap. It is also the reason a bathroom can smell for years with nothing visibly wrong
- Accessible isolation. A stop valve on every fixture, reachable without tools. Cheap now, invaluable at midnight
- Access to the valve. Leaving a way to reach the shower valve that does not involve destroying the tile
Most buildings require board approval and an alteration agreement for bathroom work, and many restrict when noisy work can happen. That is a scheduling matter to settle before demolition rather than during it.
Need this doing?
Call and describe the problem. You will get the price before anyone starts.