A woman (in her 70’s) owns a trailer disquised as a modular home, and an old modular home at that. The entire plumbing system is located WITHIN the house (hidden by judicously located cabinets and closets,) except for the main supply and drain lines, and these enter/exit from the house in a crawlspace (uninsulated,) the supply line being heat taped. To accomodate the copper pipes and tub P-trap, the house manufacturer built a 6 inch pedestal that the tub rests on. So this little old lady must sit on the tub edge (potentially slippery) and rotate to get into and out of the tub. She would like the tub removed and a shower installed. The copper pipes I can reroute into the insulated exterior wall, but the drain would end up in the crawl space. This is in the Northeast, where winters will freeze the water in the trap. So the question I have is, what can I do to create a safe bathing environment for this little old lady, but not have her drains freeze in the process? I could build an insulated enclosure in the crawlspace for the drain (and wrap it in heat tape,) though no one knows if it would work, since nobody has ever heard of it being done in these parts. There must be similar situations with people who have renovated trailers; any ideas?
Thanks.
PS, I haven’t accepted the job, yet, though she’s the mother of a friend, so you know how that goes.
Replies
How's about getting her a shower with a plastic seat in it. Cheaper and you could jack it up a bit to get some insulation around it. Old folks don't do well in the tub.
Doesn't solve the issue of heating too well, but it does keep her alive longer.
Thanks for the idea (I have one of those in my shower, and it's great,) but due to space considerations, the only thing that might fit is a 32" stall, and it's going to cramp the toilet after I build the wing wall for the stall. So a stall larger than a phone booth won't fit. I thought about building a step and leaving the shower on the pedestal, but that's not recommended for the older generation.
Thanks.
I saw a tub with a gasketed swing door in Sweets catalogue a few years ago. It was developed to provide an accessible bath tub. I will look and see if it is still available when I get back to the office on monday.
Kohler has it. There is one in the potty museum in Kohler WI. I don't think this is fixed income material. seems to me there was a $3200 tag on it. They are really cool, hinged with rubber gasket like an old beetle.
Found a link.
http://www.toolbase.org/docs/MainNav/Seniors/930_Page30.pdf
If you do drop the traps into the crawl space you might prevent them from freezing by adding a commercial anti-freeze designed for the job. The stuff I'm familiar with is sold by camper or mobile home dealers, also available at Wal-Mart. It is a blue liquid that you dump in the drain or toilet trap when the travel trailer is prepared for storage. Not very expensive the down side is that if the drain is used the treatment has to be repeated to maintain protection.
Around here, Florida, this wouldn't be a big problem as the number of nights that freezing is likely are few and pretty much announced well in advance. If this is a northern area where traps would freeze every night for 3 months this won't help much.
As an alternative I have seen flexible rubber traps that i have been told are much more tolerant of freezing without shattering. This won't prevent backups in the morning, at least until the trap thaws, but might keep the damage to a minimum.