What are they?
Bath wastes are the plug holes or drains in a bathtub. The waste fitting ensures that larger objects such as long hair or food are prevented from blocking your drainpipes and causing problems further down the line. There are two basic types of waste fittings: pop up or standard plug and waste.
Pop up style drains are opened and closed using a lever which can be located in a convenient spot (usually behind or near the spout). These drain types are most commonly used in vanity basins, where they are able to help retain water without the need of a plug. However, not usually used in baths as this would mean smashing out tiles to remove the whole body in the event of a mechanism failure. The standard plug and waste is the go to for bath fittings.
The old way of replacing a bath waste
Remove the old waste and overflow
Normally, you would have to remove the ‘tub shoe’ from the drain, which may require a tub drain wrench, as well as unscrew the overflow plate.
From either behind or under the tub, the rest of the tub waste and overflow would then need to be unscrewed or cut out depending on which type you have. This involves precision cutting in order to make it easier to put the new waste in. At this point, you might have to change the drain trap under the tub, however this is often quite difficult to get to.
Install new waste
Once all of the removal is taken care of, you still have to install the new waste.This includes the ‘dry fit’- screwing the tub shoe and overflow plate on to hold part of the drain so that measurements can be taken, then again after cutting to make sure it all lines up.
Then you will have to put the waste and overflow into place, and connect the drain part under the bathtub. After everything underneath is connected and glued to the right lengths, place some Plumber’s putty around the bottom of the tub shoe, and make sure the rubber washer goes under the tub on the opposite side of the tub shoe.
Following this, you would have to screw the overflow plate on, remove excess putty, and then test out the waste to make sure it’s all working right. All of this means a lot of work for you, and a more stressful process than it needs to be.
How Ezyfix can help
Replacing your old bath waste is a costly and messy job, involving cutting and sometimes breaking tiles to access the lockout beneath your bath which would then require replacement. Installing an EzyFix bath waste is extremely easy, as there is no tile smashing required – the fitting simply silicones in.
The Ezyfix bath waste kit takes approximately 5 minutes to install and comes with a 5 year warranty, as well as a deluxe plug option. As no destruction is involved, there is no tile replacement cost. You’ll also save a lot of money as you can easily do it yourself instead of having to hire a plumber or handyman to fit the bath waste.
Get one today!
You can find our range of DIY bath waste fitting kits online here.
