Monday, December 28, 2009

Monday's Tub Overflow Plate


Alan writes:

How did you get a plate with one (screw) hole to affix to an overflow designed for two screws?

The replacement plate with its single hole comes with an adapter in the package. The adapter has two holes which you screw onto the tub with the two old screws. Next you screw the new plate to the adapter through the adapter's third center hole and that interfaces the old with the new. A single show screw keeps things more sanitary and easier to clean, since debris and mold tend to gather in the indentations on the phillips screw heads which is almost impossible to scrub out without using a toothbrush. Btw, the screws I use are stainless steel and will never corrode and bind and end up breaking off. I've done that already. They actually get stainless steel overflow plates which last a life time at a plumbing stores but I'll get there someday.


Unlike you, I don't have a whirlpool jacuzzi in the master bathroom, so the overflow drain on my tub is a necessity of life as much as the tub itself. Then a female guest of Hotel Waikiki misplaced the rubber plug for the tub's drain. There went the pleasure of soaking my aching ass in the tub. I simply wasn't able to find the right size rubber drain plug at the hardware store. My tub doesn't have an internal stopper. The mistake-proof method is to take your worn out rubber plug with you to the store and visually match it up with it's replacement. All the rubber drain plugs that I purchased were either a smidgen too large and wouldn't fit at all, or a little to little in diameter to effectively seal off the water in a filled tub from receding which when you thunk about it is kinda stupid lying in an empty tub with your fleet of toy boats moored at low tide. On occasion, I've even tried utilizing a malleable cellulose sponge to plug up the tub's drain. Then finally....screw this. Too much trouble. As you can see by the photo above, the tub's old overflow plate has deteriorated with age beyond repair. Last week I had to snake the bathroom drain and this is done through the overflow valve. You can't thread a plumbing snake through the drain on the floor of the tub unless your coiled snake is the narrower guage. When I tried to refasten the overflow plate, the screw went right through the old plate.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

OK So I just have to ask.

How did you get a plate with one (screw) hole to affix to an overflow designed for two screws?

Alan from Makiki

Anonymous said...

Also, if you can find one out here, they make tub stoppers that are thin, flat, round pieces of rubber/plastic material that fit OVER the drain hole.

Alan from Makiki

RONW said...

Alan- good question. The plate with the single hole comes with an adapter. You screw the adapter onto the tub with the 2 old screws, and next screw the new plate onto the adapter.

and no, I've completely given up with bubble baths.