Tub overflow need to be straight?

[inexplorata]

Hey all, I've been reading this forum like crazy, tons of good stuff here.

I'm dropping in a new deck-mount tub upstairs, and I picked up a groovy cable-driven overflow/stopper dealie. The tub is deep -- 33 inches from drain to lip -- and it's a center drain I've got nearly filling the far wall of the bathroom.

I've got the waste roughed in fine, but the overflow coming straight down (as it usually would, to meet the drain waste pipe) would mean still more holes in a perfectly good floor joist (they run parallel to the tub). I feel like I've probably put as many holes in it as I should Would it be OK to turn the drain line 90 degrees and have the overflow sort of wrap around the tub a bit (keeping a good slope) and come down? In other words, would another foot or two of pipe in that overflow line be a problem?

[geniescience]

.... turn the drain line 90 degrees and have the overflow ... wrap around the tub ... and come down ... another foot or two of pipe in that overflow line ....

Yes, it's OK to do this. From the tub, slope the overflow pipe so it goes horizontal, with a minor slope, and then have the pipe turn down above or near the spot where it will connect to the tub drain. Which fitting will you be using at that point?

David

[inexplorata]

I figured a sanitary wye and a 1/8th bend, or a combo, depending on how much wiggle I need.

I had another thought: what about wrapping that overflow all the way around (with a little drop along the way) and coming down on the other side of the tub? Then I'd be pretty much in line and could do all the below-tub work between two joists... and before you ask, I don't want to just flip the tub 180 degrees, because then the first thing you'd see looking at it would be the overflow, which might take away from the ungodly-expensive roman tub filler my wife wants.

[geniescience]

Fantastic thinking. You are welcome to stick around here and contribute for ten or twenty years. : - )

A way to kill two birds with one stone is to buy a "Geberit Integrated Cascading Tub Filler and Bath Waste/Overflow" http://www.terrylove.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7037 . It puts the water spout in the same place as the overflow.

Then, you get to enjoy one_fewer_piece of expensive chrome to look at when you enter the bathroom. Cleaner lines.

David

[Jay Mpls]

Can you get ahold of what is called a direct drain? In other words it drain into the trap from the waste outlet instead of going straight down from the overflow.Hope this helps.

[hj]

Unless that unit has an air gap/backflow preventer it is completely illegal. The spout has to be at least 3" above the tub. That spout is the same as the ones in the indirect waste tubs made 100 years ago and went out of business for the same reason.