My mother inlaw who lives in sheltered housing has just had her bath
replaced with a shower. However there are now two pipes draining into
the shower base. After inspection these are the overflows from the
cistern and the hot water header tank. The question is why. They could
have quite easily been connected to the main drains. Has it been done
this way so they you can see if either are overflowing? If so how would
it have been done before when the bath was there?
Thanks for any advice 

Steve

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
sjones@scannex.co.uk   wrote:


> My mother inlaw who lives in sheltered housing has just had her bath
> replaced with a shower. However there are now two pipes draining into
> the shower base. After inspection these are the overflows from the
> cistern and the hot water header tank. The question is why. They could
> have quite easily been connected to the main drains. Has it been done
> this way so they you can see if either are overflowing? If so how
> would it have been done before when the bath was there?
> Thanks for any advice
>
> Steve


Yes, it's for visibility - otherwise they could overflow for ever, and
no-one would know.

Maybe they previously fed into the bath?
-- 
Cheers,
Set Square
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Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

In article , 
sjones@scannex.co.uk says...

> My mother inlaw who lives in sheltered housing has just had her bath
> replaced with a shower. However there are now two pipes draining into
> the shower base. After inspection these are the overflows from the
> cistern and the hot water header tank. The question is why. They could
> have quite easily been connected to the main drains. Has it been done
> this way so they you can see if either are overflowing? If so how would
> it have been done before when the bath was there?


It's a bodge - they didn't have room to run them properly once the bath 
was removed without doing more work than they could be bothered with.

If its a bodge where can I run them to, does the overflow have to be
visible, it wasen't when the bath was fitted?

sjones@scannex.co.uk wrote:

> If its a bodge where can I run them to, does the overflow have to be
> visible, it wasen't when the bath was fitted?
> 


The usual method would be to take them through an external wall and 
leave them sticking out - east to see when there is an overflow as you 
get wet when you walk underneath!

This is the case on most houses but I don't know if there will be any 
rules/regs against doing this in her sheltered housing.

In article ,
	sjones@scannex.co.uk writes:

> My mother inlaw who lives in sheltered housing has just had her bath
> replaced with a shower. However there are now two pipes draining into
> the shower base. After inspection these are the overflows from the
> cistern and the hot water header tank. The question is why. They could
> have quite easily been connected to the main drains. Has it been done
> this way so they you can see if either are overflowing? If so how would
> it have been done before when the bath was there?


The overflowing water has to be visible. In flats, one way is a
special bath overflow which looks normal but actually has two
connections -- one to drain an overflowing bath as normal, and
the other to accept the overflow from tanks/cistern, and direct
that flow into the bath so it can be seen.

-- 
Andrew Gabriel

"Andrew Gabriel"  wrote in message 
news:431c96bb$0$38041$5a6aecb4@news.aaisp.net.uk...

> In article ,
> sjones@scannex.co.uk writes:
>> My mother inlaw who lives in sheltered housing has just had her bath
>> replaced with a shower. However there are now two pipes draining into
>> the shower base. After inspection these are the overflows from the
>> cistern and the hot water header tank. The question is why. They could
>> have quite easily been connected to the main drains. Has it been done
>> this way so they you can see if either are overflowing? If so how would
>> it have been done before when the bath was there?
>

The alternative is something called a tundish, which is a a flared 
receptacle
that fits atop of the waste pipe, and the overflow pipe empties into it
from above, although the two are separated by an inch or so, so you can see
the drips. You can buy them, possibly even make your own.

Andy.