A friend asked me if he can add an overflow to a bathtub in a trailer home. Many of these trailer bathtubs never had an overflow, which I am aware. His elderly mother has memory loss and is constantly overflowing the tub in her trailer. I suggested just replacing the tub with a standard one from a house, but she's got little income. I considered trying to find a used one, but it turns out her tub is quite a bit shorter and much lower than the regular ones. That is also common in trailer houses. (I guess people who live in trailers are smaller) :) To change to a standard tub would require ripping apart the whole bathroom, and the water heater behind the tub would not likely fit afterwards. These trailers just dont have enough room.
Anyhow, her tub is either made of thin steel coated with porcelin, or some sort of material like a fiberglass. I cant seem to tell and will have to take off the panel under it to see for sure. If I had a magnet when I was there I could have seen if it was steel too.
Anyhow, the thought is to cut a hole and install an overflow, but I already know the pipes will need to be shortened on the overflow, and the overflow will have to be placed almost at the top edge of the tub or it wont hold much water.
Has anyone ever cut one of these tubs? I'm most worried about the porcelin chipping off. Any tips to cut the hole?
But I have another thought. Does anyone make any kind of sensor that shuts off the water when it gets to a preset level? That would be a much simpler method than cutting a hole and then trying to pipe it under the trailer (pain in the butt working under them).
Thanks for all help.