When I plug stopper at the bottom of the bath tub and turn on the water, after sometime the bathtub overflows. The overflow drain at the top of the tub does not seem to be doing it's job. The outflow is less than the intake. My house is one year old. My builder won't accept that it is problem. Is this normal and acceptable? Is there any california safety requirement for bathtubs?
Thanks Tom
Look at the size of the opening of the faucet (BIG). Look at the size of the opening in the drain (SMALL). Unless you have very low water pressure, drains won't always be big enough to work completely. The drain is there to buy you 30 or 60 seconds to run back into the bathroom and shut off the water. And, it'll help prevent overflows if the tub's filled too high and someone gets into the water.
So, this leads to a question: Who in the house is filling the tub and walking away for too long?
I think it is normal. I don't want to accept it, but I have no choice.
Even if the faucet open very little, the drain is not enough to keep from overflowing on my tub and my powder room sink. The other two sinks are identical, so I suppose the same thing applies.
Human safety? How would a better overflow help humans to be safe?
Household safety. I don't think there is a rule anywhere about how much the drain has to drain.
I'm sure they slow down the time of overflow, although I'll admit some seem to barely allow anything to pass, not just tubs but sinks.
In order to have a deeper bathtub, I inverted my overflow, and I didn't pay attention before, but the middle of my open section of the metal part just about reaches the tub. I was going to try to put in a spacer to open it up a bit, and I guess that will open it along the middle also, lowering the water level when I want it high. Not sure what I'll do.
When I had no heat last two winters ago, furnace problem, I got started leaving the hot water in the tub after I took a bath. Made use of the heat and humidity. But one time I left the water running a little bit too. Sitting in view of the bathroom floor, but water is invisible. Poured into the dining room below. I wasn't happy. Now I am extra careful to check that no water is coming out of the faucet before I leave the room, and I've continued to only leave for maybe 10 seconds when filling the tub. I often get distracted on another floor or another room and stay for an hour, but I won't allow that to happen when filling the tub.
(In Brooklyn NY, I defeated the overflow to have deeper water, and extra inch or inch and a half, and it was a rental so I was even more worried I would do some damage. Lived there for 10 years and never made a mistake once. AND, I remembered to take the tape off the overflow holes before I moved out. (1930's tubs in a luxury building used an external outside pipe with stopper pipe, with overflow holes in the top of the stopper pipe. Very nice arrangement actually. Makes the tub smooth inside.
It meets code, it's legal, and it's not a safety hazard. That doesn't mean it's right, but you probably can't make the builder fix it.
I tried mine out of curosity the same thing occurs here, Tub and home new in 1950........
I suppose you could throttle down supply valves so input and ouput roughly match but theres no way to prevent every home disaster.
just pay your homeowners insurance
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