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sadiebrooklyn

designer siphon for duravit sink - will it pass inspection?

sadiebrooklyn
13 years ago

I really want the nice designer siphon to go under my Happy D sink in my bathroom renovation, but my contractor says when he has tried to use them in NYC, they do not pass inpsection. I was wondering if anyone else had had that same experience?

Here is a picture:

picture of Happy D with designer siphon underneath

Comments (6)

  • MongoCT
    13 years ago

    Bottle traps can be hit or miss when it comes to being allowed by code itself or being accepted under any 'it depends" clauses that might allow the AHJ the leeway to accept them. More often than not, they are not allowed.

    Sometimes there is a "special circumstances" provision, but that again is up to the AHJ.

    With a P-trap, the basic design of the trap ensures that the trap will self-scour and prevent gasses from entering the house as long as the trap is wet.

    With bottle traps, they generally are not self-scouring, and the internal partition that provides the "trap" function can corrode away, allowing sewer gasses to enter the house. While the simple lack of scouring might cause more clogs, a clogged drain will be obvious to the user. It's the fact that the trap has to be taken apart to see if the trap function is intact that irks the folks that write and enforce code.

  • johnfrwhipple
    13 years ago

    Our North American P Traps and such leave lots to be desired compared to the European counter parts. We have function. They have style. We have ease of use. They have style. Ours our easy to hook up and service. They have style.

    And on and on.

    I have been forced to work with beauties job after job. :) . Many people in my town love these products with no CSA approvals to their credit. You can buy them anywhere - all the finer stores carry them. Call Cantu here in Vancouver...

    I believe there are two versions of what you seak with CSA stamps or UPC stamps. It has been so long since we used one on an inspected job I can not recall the name.

    Install what is code approved first - get your paperwork and then start "Re Designing"....

  • davidro1
    13 years ago

    ditto.

    It's subjective in every way.
    Get the inspector to state his position and begin pressuring him from there if need be.
    These traps work well everywhere in the world. It's a residential bathroom, where one or two people will use it once or twice a day. It's not a high-traffic bathroom. The fact that a functional design flaw can be described decades prior to a possible failure is actually a functional design advantage: you know what will fail first. (And that IS an advantage in system design theory.) But speaking of failure does not mean it will fail; this is just idle talk a century in advance. Get serious: it's "tubular" and this is a customer-purchased item that any repair handyman can replace. It's not even covered by the plumbing Code, and the inspector's job is Code compliance not idealizing his whims into reality. By the way, everything is designed to fail, when you think about it a little. So nobody should take this concept and turn it into a big thing. Socks and underwear fail faster than shirts and pants, but nobody insists he buy only the highest quality underwear. Any owner can change the trap if as and when. His job is to focus on the serious stuff. There are many serious concerns that a drain system compensates for, with pipes of a specific diameter, bends of a specific geometry, pipe slope of a specific angle, and venting within specific distances. So, let's get seriosu and move on to the next subject. (By now, he's smiling and he'll drop it.) Hope this helps.

  • cat_mom
    13 years ago

    We're just north of NYC and used a bottle trap in our guest bathroom. I know DH was concerened about using it, or at least having it installed prior to our inspection, but as I recall, we used it and it wasn't an issue.

    The only thing we had to be sure to specify when ordering our sink, was that the manufacturer, Sonia, send us the sink with overflow holes, which are code (they used to make/ship them only without the holes).

  • johnfrwhipple
    13 years ago

    {{gwi:1455957}}

    With the level access "Wet Room" and curbless shower the entire bathroom floor is seen as you enter this tiny boys bathroom. The floor is heated and the toilet wall hung. From every angle you see the P Trap below the wall hung "Happy D"... No reason it should not sparkle.

    I work on this home all the time. The last job a drywall repair from a leaking skylight. I inspected the bathroom just 3 months ago and it is rock solid. We had to do a full repipe of this project to pull of the curbless look but the end result was worth it.

    All the stainless pieces sparkle thanks to the two bright down lights above. The custom medicine cabinet and night light all that is needed for the boys at bed time.

    A family of four - three years - not one call back on the P Trap. I have fixed the garberator twice though...

  • sadiebrooklyn
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    beautiful bathroom - love the lights! Here is a pic of my kids' bathroom. You can see the ugly siphon below the duravit vero. What I'm getting from this thread is that I should go ahead and swap it out for the designer siphon as long as the inspector isn't coming over for dinner ;+)

    And do the same for the next two bathrooms I'm renovating.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Vero Sink with standard siphon

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