Floor Traps and Complementary Products

Floor Trap, Angle Valve and Pop-Up Waste: The Small Parts

A floor trap, an angle valve and a pop-up waste are the parts nobody photographs and everybody notices when they are wrong: a smell from the floor, a drip under the basin, water that will not drain. This category gathers those small fittings, along with the other parts that finish a bathroom, so they can be ordered with the basin and the water closet rather than remembered on the plumber’s day. Get the sizes from the plumber before you order.

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Buying guide

Choosing a Floor Trap and the Other Small Fittings

The floor trap is the part of the bathroom you smell if it is wrong, so treat these small fittings as seriously as the tiles.

Floor Traps and Gratings

What a floor trap does. It holds a plug of water between the bathroom and the drain so sewer gas cannot come back up. When it smells, the water seal has dried out or the trap has no seal at all. A trap with a proper seal, or an anti-odour insert, fixes most bathroom smells.

Tile-insert or grating. A tile-insert trap takes a cut piece of the floor tile in its tray, so the drain almost disappears; a stainless grating is the plain slotted plate. The tile-insert looks cleaner and matches any tile; the grating drains faster and is easier to lift for cleaning.

Material. A 304 stainless steel grating keeps its finish on a wet floor for years; a plated or thin pressed plate rusts at the edges. Look at the underside, which is what sits in water.

Size and fall. Measure the existing floor opening before ordering, and make sure the tiler lays the floor with a fall to the trap. A trap in a flat floor leaves puddles no matter how good it is.

Angle Valves and Pop-Up Wastes

An angle valve isolates one fitting. One on each supply to a basin tap, one to the cistern, one to a bidet spray or a bidet seat. With them, a plumber can change a tap without shutting the whole house; without them, every small job is a big one. The dedicated bathroom valves page goes deeper.

Choose a brass body with a ceramic disc. A ceramic-disc valve turns the same way after years of hard water; a rubber washer valve stiffens and drips. Match the finish to the tap above it, because it is visible under a wall hung basin.

Pop-up wastes: slotted or unslotted. A basin with an overflow hole needs a slotted waste; a basin without one needs an unslotted waste, or the joint weeps. The pop-up wastes page covers the click-clack and lever types.

Order them with the basin and the water closet. Sizes and finishes are decided by the fittings they serve, so add these to the same enquiry as the basin or the water closet and a matching bidet spray.

Common questions

What is a floor trap?

The drain in the bathroom floor, made of a grating on top and a trap below that holds a water seal. The seal stops sewer gas coming up through the drain; the grating stops hair and objects going down.

Why does my bathroom floor trap smell?

The water seal in the trap has dried out, or the trap has no seal, or the grating is loose. In a guest bathroom that is rarely used, pouring a jug of water down the trap every week keeps the seal full. If the smell stays, the trap needs an anti-odour insert or a replacement.

What is a tile-insert floor trap?

A floor trap with a recessed tray that holds a piece of the floor tile, so the drain shows as a thin outline in the floor rather than a metal plate. It suits a large-format tile floor where a visible grating would break the pattern.

What does an angle valve do?

It shuts off the water to one fitting, such as a basin tap, a cistern or a bidet spray, so that fitting can be serviced without turning off the house supply. A ceramic-disc angle valve in brass is the one that still turns after years of Malaysian tap water.

Slotted or unslotted pop-up waste?

Slotted if the basin has an overflow hole, unslotted if it does not. The slot lets overflow water join the drain; on a basin with no overflow the slot just lets water leak into the cabinet.

What size floor trap do I need?

Measure the existing opening in the floor and the pipe below it, or ask the plumber for both. Floor traps come in a few standard sizes and the grating must match the trap body, so order them together.

Send the plumber's list of sizes with the enquiry; the small fittings are the ones that go wrong when guessed.

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