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Once the standard,
these beautiful fixtures are no longer being made.
[UPDATE: A Reproduction
is NOW availaible! Click HERE] There are
1000’s (if not Tens of 1000’s) still in use across the country today.
In
response to the high number of emails we receive each week from people looking for repair and replacement options, we have added this informational page to our
site to help spell out the available courses of action and to answer the most common questions.
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Frequently Asked Question #1:
Q: “I have a funny tub faucet with the spout coming through the side of the tub. Do you have any repair parts for these?”
Short Answer: No.
Long Answer:
Maybe. Send us your broken parts and we’ll see if the needed parts match any we have lying around, otherwise we will machine new parts to fit.
Really Long Answer:
There are no “off the rack” brass repair parts available for these fixtures. Telling us about the make, model, and serial number really doesn’t help in these cases because there hasn’t been a parts-list printed in over 75 years.
Fully restored, these valves sell for around $2000+; as a result, we don’t “part out” complete assemblies. We do however have a 27-year accumulation of spare parts and can often adapt parts off a junked valve to work with your valve. In almost all cases, we can machine new parts as replacements in our shop. In either case, we need the original parts to work from.
More information on how to go about sending us your parts on our Restorations Page.
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Picture at left shows a fully restored valve body and
“Yoke” assembly. The yoke is the heart of the Standing Waste assembly, if your valve is missing the yoke, you have expensive problems! The yoke is the
one part we cannot reproduce. If an over-zealous plumber hack-sawed this piece in half, we might be able to make repairs, if the piece is missing entirely, you may
have to consider replacement options. We occasionally have complete Standing Waste assemblies for sale on our Restored Valves Page.
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Frequently Asked Question #2
Q: “I
would like to replace my old lift-up tub drain with something that has an overflow, can you help?”
Answer:
You already have an overflow! Standing waste drains are also called “bi-transit drains” due to their dual-tube construction. The picture at right shows a restored drain assembly. The tube in the center sits inside the large tube on the left and acts as a stopper. Notice the hole near the top of the stopper tube: That’s the overflow hole. As water fills the tub, it also rises unseen inside the large drain tube to the same level. The overflow hole is slightly below the rim of the tub. When water reaches the overflow hole, it runs down the center of the hollow stopper tube and down the drain.
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Frequently Asked Question #3
Q: “I have an old standing waste tub valve and
want to add a shower. Is there anything available or do I have to replace the whole thing?”
Answer: Not any more! We at
Bathroom Machineries have devised a way to machine your existing tub spout to accept a riser and tub spout. This not only adds shower convenience to the tub, it brings it up
to “code” by placing the spout more than 1” above the rim of the tub.
If your valve is in good condition, all you need to send us is your
spout. The two common styles of spout are pictured below. “Elephant trunk” spouts are easily machined to accept a riser, bell filler-style spouts (shaped
like hockey pucks), sometimes must be replaced with a custom fitting.
More information on this custom fixture on our Shower Conversions page.
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Close-up of “elephant trunk” style standing waste spout. Easily
adapted for riser. Don’t break this while removing it, to cast a new one from scratch, machine it, polish, and plate it is about $600! Tell your plumber to take it easy!
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Close-up of bell filler spout. This is often mistaken for the overflow.
(Looks sort of like a hocky puck, doesn’t it?) Note the slot in the bottom where the water comes out. We can usually adapt these to accept a riser but may
have to replace them entirely if the spout is badly corroded. Warning!, these are also about $600 to replace!
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Standing Waste Code Spout Conversion:
Sometimes a shower
isn’t needed but due to the sale or remodeling of the home, the original standing waste is flagged by a building inspector for not being anti-syphon code
compliant.
(Spout is not 1” above the rim of the tub.) The spout at left shows a custom gooseneck spout we manufactured and fitted to the
customer’s original elephant trunk spout which was then inverted. This allowed the customer to bring his standing waste up to code without the cost of
replacing the fixture and without having to remove an historically appropriate fixture from his vintage home and replace it with something inappropriately modern.
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Frequently Asked Question #4:
Q: “I want to completely replace my standing waste with a
‘regular’ drain and new faucet. Is there anything available to do this?”
Answer(s): The first thing we need to know is if your
valve has the spout near the rim of the tub (roughly where the overflow would go on a ‘regular’ tub), or if it is down low near the drain. Scroll to the very
top of this page and look at the “high-bell filler” and “low-bell filler” valves pictured above.
If you have the low-spout valve, you
are pretty much stuck using a standing waste-type drain and fill valve. Short of refinishing the tub and having the hole in the side filled, your best option is to rebuild your existing parts or purchase a restored fixture. It may be possible to plug
the filler spout from the back side of the tub and use another type of valve until a more permanent, attactive solution may be employed.
If you are fortunate
enough to have a high-spout valve, a standard tub drain may be used, the overflow cover will fit the hole formerly occupied by the spout. The tub may then be filled
“over the rim” with a Freestanding Tub Supply set.
If the hot and cold handles on the old valve are mounted through the rim of the tub, a deck-mounted valve or combination of swing-arm and deck-mount couplings may be used to mount one of our 79-series tub valves to the rim of the tub.
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The Bottom Line: Standing Waste & Drain Valves are rare,
valuable antiques that are neither cheap nor easy to replace. When you consider that a fully restored Standing Waste sells for anywhere between $2000 and $3000, however,
the value added to one’s home by keeping the original fixtures intact usually offsets the $400 to $1200 average restoration cost. If this proves to be a
“budget breaker”, other options are always available. The Bathroom Machineries Restoration Crew are Problem Solvers you can count on to guide you through the
available options. Feel free to email or call us at 800-255-4426 if you have any questions or wish to discuss the options.
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