tacky p-trap installation

3 years ago

After carefully choosing the design of my new powder room, my plumber made my hard work useless (see pic). I purchased this Kohler modern p-trap to keep my powder room looking clean and contemporary

. Instead the plumber used a trap adaptor that looks atrocious.

Please tell me there is a better way to install my p-trap.

Featured Answer

Jake The Wonderdog

3 years ago

Yeah... kinda like when builders leave red and blue PEX sticking out of the wall.

So here's the thing: It's important to be clear about finishes from the beginning of the project. You can't design "on the fly" or pick finishes later because many of these decisions will need a different approach to rough-in.. What you have would be perfectly fine if the plan was to use a vanity. It's not at all fine If it's going to be exposed. Note that doing this properly for an exposed drain is more labor intensive and thus more expensive.

The right way to do this is to recess the connection as near to flush to the finished surface as possible and then use an escutcheon plate that covers it. For "old work" where the walls are up, this involves using an inside pipe cutter to cut the PVC below the finished wall surface and recessed enough so that the outside ring of your adaptor finishes out from the wall just enough to get channel locks on it. Note, this involves making the hole in the drywall slightly larger also. It's good to be slow and neat about that so that you can caulk, but don't have to patch the drywall.

I've used chrome compression nuts on things like this because they are a much lower profile and easier to hide behind an escutcheon plate than the large bulky PVC version. Since it's covered with a plate, it doesn't matter if the finish doesn't match.

Again, all of this takes a little more time and detail work - and that needs to be clear when the job is being bid.

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Comments (8)

kudzu9
3 years ago
Yes...if you Google "bottle trap installation," you will see clean looking installations that do not have that plastic fitting sticking out of the wall. However, I will also say that bottle traps are not code compliant in many jurisdictions, so you could have trouble passing inspection:

Bottle traps not legal
PRO
Joseph Corlett, LLC
3 years ago
Use a can of flat black spray paint on the adaptor please.
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Jake The Wonderdog
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
@Lomo

This is obviously a remodel job, not new work.

In addition, I just described how this is done without "ripping the wall out and redoing it".

I'd bet this is as much a failure of the homeowner who is working as a GC on a small project as it is the plumber. As I mentioned, I'd bet this wasn't clearly communicated from the start - perhaps because the homeowner didn't know to communicate it or keep an eye open for signs it was being missed.

When the plumbing is going to be exposed, that needs to be made clear upfront and have a conversation about what the finished product will look like. Then keep an eye on the rough-in to remind them if it doesn't look like it's being done right.
Lynn
Original Author
3 years ago
Thanks to all of the responses to my post. Just for clarification this was both a remodel and a new job. This powder room was once a laundry closet. Due to a rotting floor discovered during an encapsulation, we decided to turn our half bath and a closet into a laundry room and the laundry closet into a powder room. The walls and most of the flooring was stripped down to the studs to re-route the plumbing and flooring. The plumber ran the plumbing for the toilet and wall sink.

Kohler has responded and I have received these great comments from my fellow Houzz followers. I only need to know that this can be fixed. If not I have wasted $225 for the p-trap and will purchasing another brass p-trap whether it is a bottle trap or the classic to make it right.

According to the plumber, Rutherford county, Tennessee is okay with either.
Jake The Wonderdog
3 years ago
Can you get a brass tail piece for that as well? (the black part at the bottom of the sink)
palimpsest
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
If you are going to do the fancy bottle trap, you really need to have all the brass fittings and the perfectly placed shut off valves in the satin brass finish and rigid supply lines, not the standard flex lines and chrome valves.

When you put in something fancy that it meant to be an exposed focal point, everything about the installation needs to be brought up to this level because it's meant to be noticed.

If you just had all the standard equipment under there, nobody would look at it, it's meant to be ignored and it's what people are used to seeing.

But once you put something that is meant to be seen and noticed, everything is going to be seen.

So you can either waste the $225 bottle trap and try to sell it maybe, or spend a couple thousand dollars buying reinstalling everything to make it all look like something like this is supposed to.

I'm not saying this to criticize you, I frequently set up these situations where if I do X, then Y and Z have to be done as well or it just looks halfassed.
Linda Dornan
3 years ago
That wallpaper looks like it has had an unfortunate encounter with a toddler and a loaded diaper 💩