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Indian Plumbing
I posted this the other day in another thread and I'm surprised I didn't get any comments, so thought I'd post it imore appropriately in its own thread.
"I was in India in November. At the time, I had been doing a lot of plumbing work on my new house (remod of bathroom, new laundry tub, new HWH, etc). With that and my usual curiousity, I noticed the plumbing in India, Mumbai (Bombay) to be exact.
Where there was plumbing and not open trenches w/ raw sewage, the plumbing is run on the outside of the building. Obviously freezing isn't an issue there. I noticed mostly apartments, or flats, and there would be one trap for multiple fixtures. Usually one per floor. I didn't notice, or can't remember, if there was one at each fixture though. It appeared that hubbed cast iron was still common there and morter (probably among other things) was common to make the connection at the hubs.
Another interesting thing is a lot of the Indian style bathrooms have no shower pan. In the nicer places, marble is affordable. Walls and floor are all marble (large slabs) and there is a drain in the floor. One of those hand shower units are attached to the wall and water just gets everywhere. (Servants are available to clean up in the richer). Some of the more westernized homes will employ a shower curtain or door, but usually no curb.
As NG is uncommon, LP is available and used commonly for cooking and transportation, not water heating. From what I saw, electric was always used for heating hot water. They call the HWH a Geiser (they pronounce it geezer), as in Old Faithful in Yellowstone. Tankless is common as the temperature rise only needs to be a few degrees. I took many a 'cold showers' not even realizing that the Geiser was not turned on. With both systems, tank and tankless, the system needs to be turned on a few minutes before the shower is used and I was told that it would rupture if not turned off. I doubt it, but didn't want to try it!
My aunt recently got her bathroom remodeled--decided to go the tile route instead of marble. I asked her about how they put it in. Gutted the old bathroom and installed tile right on the concrete without any regard to sloping towardsthe drain. She told me getting a job done right is difficult, but getting it done is easy. Poured concrete and block is the construction method of choice there for high rises, so at least rot and leaking won't be an issue. Some water can get through the cracks in the concrete, but there isn't much one can do about it if your neighbors shower is leaking into your living room--as I saw on one occasion.
Electric service was interesting too, but thats another story. I wish I had some photos of some plumbing to share w/ you all.
My stories are of the nicer areas in India. There are still many places w/o utilities and w/o running water, but those I did not visit.
Jason
"
Several months ago, someone posted links to toilets from around the world. It was quite interesting. We tend to B***h about some of the code requirements in our country, but seeing how things are done or not done in other countries makes one realize that it's these codes that keep that of work from being done in the US. Of course, I'm sure you can find some pretty crude plumbing and wiring in some of the out of the way places here, too.
india
The plumbing is on the outside because the building was there first in most cases. And the water heaters are probably like the old "side arm" gas units. No thermostat so you did have to turn them on and off as needed.
So I guess I shouldn't be so hard on "Bob" or "Jeff", or even "Samantha" from India when I am trying to get my Dell computer fixed through live tech support because they live rougher than me. I'm sure my sharp tongue is as bad as their broken emgwuish.
I'm sure diseases run rampant in that part of the world as well.
Read what the end of this sentence means.
Is that avatar of yours a reflection of what you look like when your on the phone to India?
Spent a week in Honduras. In the hotel shower was a electric heater to turn on to get hot water. If it got too hot you turn it off. Nothing like messing around with electricity while taking a shower.
Originally Posted by Cass
Yes, and my computer still doesn't get fixed.
Read what the end of this sentence means.
batman
Oh, go and play with the Batlight and leave us alone.
Cleanliness is just not there...I dunno, off to lunch or something, I guess. I usually ask where they're from and "Bob" and "Samantha" usually open up some. Interesting, I think. They're doing their best, not their fault that Dell laid off Americans and hired them. They need to feed their families too.
Obviously things are cheaper there. They can be paid something like 10x less than us and make 6 times more than avager there!
BTW, to put into prospective, a hot lunch can be delivered to your home/office for about 20 US cents, including tip. That, though is about 10% of what someone might make per day if they're not well off!
Jason
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