Need advice on drum trap

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RRWA

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Old apartment building from 1920s, has 4 apartments on main floor, 5 apartments upstairs.
In 1 of the downstairs apartments, a drum trap is by the bathtub. I assume that this only serves the bathtub, and that the bath sink and kitchen sink do not flow into this drum trap. Is this a correct assumption? Which fixtures typically flowed into a drum trap?

In the other 3 apartments on the main floor, there is NOT a drum trap visible. It may have been covered by flooring, OR all 4 apartments may share the single drum trap mentioned above. Question - would it have been typical to plumb 4 apartments into a single drum trap, or would they each have their own drum trap?

I've currently got clogged tub drains on at least 2 of these units. I have tried a snake, but could not get it very far into the pipes - so I may have hit a drum trap. I also tried a pressurized bladder which did not work.

Thanks for any advice.
 

Terry

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Typical would be that each fixture has their own trap.

The kitchen sink should have a p-trap; that would be easy enough to see. The only traps below the floor would be for tubs and showers.
The toilet has a built in trap as part of the bowl.

mckeand12_tub_trap_1.jpg
 
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RRWA

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additional info

My goal is to unclog these 2 tub drains.

So, what happened before this? Well, somehow the main line got clogged between the building and the street. This probably happened many weeks ago, but I just noticed it after the problem got so bad that it backed up into the main floor toilets and tubs. I was able to run a large snake into the main cleanout and clear the clog.

These tubs did not have a problem before the main was clogged and backed up into them. I suspect that the backup is what clogged the tubs. I also suspect that if there are in fact hidden drum traps under the flooring, then the backed up sewage may have clogged the drum traps. I don't know if this problem would be typical with sewage backed up into a drum trap.
 

hj

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Typically, all the drum traps would be in about the same location relative to the tub, but a metal detector should locate any that are covered over. Each tub would have its own drum trap, and the only way to clear the drain is to find it and remove the cover so you can snake the outlet pipe.

tub-drum-trap-01.jpg


tub-drum-trap-02.jpg


tub-drum-trap-03.jpg


tub-drum-trap-04.jpg
 
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RRWA

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update

I was able to resolve my problem and get the drain unclogged. I ended up dropping a snake in from the 2nd floor which broke the clog free on the 1st floor. The clog was not in the drum traps but rather in the drain pipe near where the drum traps connected.

I also discovered that each tub in this building originally had a drum trap, however some have been bypassed (with no p-trap installed on the drain), and others have been covered over by a wall that was built to hide the bathtub water/drain area. The building originally had clawfoot tubs and most of these were replaced with modern tubs.

So, thank you for your help. Old buildings with hacked up plumbing are not much fun.
 
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