Floor drain in laundry room

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KD

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Per Code, can I have a floor drain go into a P-trap and then drain onto the ground? The drain is for washing machine overflows and mopping.This was previously connected to the sewer and a back-up flooded the room with ugly sewage.
 

Cass

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KD

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I want to have a floor drain so that a washing macine overflow will not flood the entire house. I just want to know if it is Code legal to have it drain into the dirt under the house.
 
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Terry

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The floor drain to be legal needs to go into the waste system.

It should also have a trap primer to keep water in the trap.
The trap should be a 2" and needs to be vented to keep it from siponing dry.
 

SRdenny

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Flr drain in laundry room

How about putting a pan with a 3/4" discharge line under the WM and running it to the exterior of the house?
 

KD

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What is the difference between a pan under the washer and having the whole floor be the pan? If you connect the drain to the sewer it becomes the lowest point, first area to flood. A shower pan is much easier to clean. Also what is a trap primer?
 

Cass

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kd said:
I want to have a floor drain so that a washing macine overflow will not flood the entire house. I just want to know if it is Code legal to have it drain into the dirt under the house.

Even if you had the washer drain into the dirt it would back up because there is no way, if when it backs up it is, "flooding the entire house" it could drain fast enough to handle the amount of water the machine would be dumping.
 
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Jadnashua

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When a drain isn't used much, the water in the trap will often evaporate, leaving a hole into the sewer, allowing gasses to escape. In these cases, a pipe and special valve is used to to dribble some water into it to keep it "primed" so it can do its job of blocking the sewer gasses.
 

KD

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I am planning on using using a screened shower drain with a 2 inch ABS pipe and a 2 inch trap. Should an overflow happen, I think that will handle the washing machine pump flow, assuming that the drain is not clogged with lint, etc. I presently have a 2 inch standpipe with a 2 inch trap in the crawl space. I have not had a standpipe overflow, but have had several "filling the washing machine tub" overflows. The fill level is regulated by an air pressure hose with no emergency over the top shut off switch. My macine is 2 years old.
 

Geniescience

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floor- or shower drain

kd

seems to me you keep asking two independent questions simultaneously every time.... every post confuses me.

1. Yes, a floor drain is a good thing, and is way better than a pan. I have floor drains.

A floor drain that is going to be used more than just for an emergency, is a shower drain. Needs waterproofing around it, on a slight slope too.

Why waterproof? Otherwise your floor rots, even if it is made of concrete or tile, since dirty water percolates through grout and stagnates under the tiles, or percolates through the pores in the concrete, even if the concrete is sealed.

Why on a slope? So water runs, trickles, slips and slides over to the lowest point, the drain. A shower drain is made to accept the bulk of the water through its visible top but also to receive a minute trickle of water that has worked its way under the floor's top layer of tile.


btw, according to code a floor drain in a bathroom is to be waterproofed and sloped just like a shower drain.



2. Whether you can officially or wisely send your drain water down into the ground, is a second concern. A different problem.

I wouldn't do it.


David
 

Stephanie43

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second floor laundry room drain

I am building a new house and am trying to find out what the plumbing code requirements are (in Illinois) for:
- is a drain required, either from a pan under the washer or in the room floor?
- is a pan required under the washer, and if so, what do they look like and where do I get one? (The heating company made one of sheet metal, but with only a 1-inch lip, so doesn't look like it'll hold much water).

Anyone know where I can find out?
 

Randyj

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Your local department of building inspections or the equivalent... if nothing else you can call the business license office and begin your search there.
 

Kordts

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Do you have a licensed, registered plumbing contractor doing the plumbing? He will know the local code, or ask the inspector.
 
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