We have a floor drain in our laundry room. I’ve never noticed any odor from it but do poor a little water in it every 6 months or so just to be sure. Slab foundation connected to city sewer lines. It does come in handy from time to time and gives me a little peace of mind in case there’s ever an issue with the washing machine.

Our laundry room has a floor drain.

Another option is something called a Water Cop. Water sensors are placed under toilets and sinks where overflows might happen. An electronic shutoff valve is installed in the water line as soon as it enters your home. If one of the sensors detects water, the valve shuts off water to the whole house.

It is a standard installation here in new builds. Easy to retrofit since the sensors can be battery powered if you don't want to hard wire them.

quote:

Originally posted by mdblanton:
It does come in handy from time to time and gives me a little peace of mind in case there’s ever an issue with the washing machine.

As long as there isn't anything on the floor like laundry which could cover the drain!

Well they generally require a sloped floor for one to be effective. As far as keeping water in one I have heard of traps with a ball plug that seals the fumes. When water runs into the trap it floats the ball and the water can escape, but I have never seen or installed one.

"I’m a builder and I gotta say you guys aren’t even scratching the surface on all the reasons why you don’t want this"

Do us the honor of learning from your vast experiences by extolling the negative aspects of the floor drains. Please.

In nine years of installing appliances I saw four houses that incurred substantial water damage where a floor drain would have been beneficial.
And two homes which benefited greatly from having floor drains .

But perhaps with exceptional insurance coverage drains could be considered a moot point.

My townhome, built on a slab has a drain under the water heater & beside the air conditioner to drain the condensation.

I would think the main reason you don't see it is that it is not required by code, and builders ain't gonna build a utility feature if it is not required.

After one of my insurance friends went on a rant about house flooding and how washing machine auto cutoff valves should be mandatory I also wondered why auxilliary drains, like maybe a drain pan under the sink wasn't a more common thing.

But low level drains can definitely be a liability, news had an article, the city did some sewer work, lost some wood, the wood blocked a pipe, and backed up a street. A house with a basement toilet was the lowest point, and of course the family was on vacation (that always seems to happen for some reason) and they came home to a couple feet of sewage in their basement. Took them forever to get the city to pay for it.

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
"I’m a builder and I gotta say you guys aren’t even scratching the surface on all the reasons why you don’t want this"

Do us the honor of learning from your vast experiences by extolling the negative aspects of the floor drains. Please.

In nine years of installing appliances I saw four houses that incurred substantial water damage where a floor drain would have been beneficial.
And two homes which benefited greatly from having floor drains .

But perhaps with exceptional insurance coverage drains could be considered a moot point.

I think the slope the floor would require to make the drain functional would be my biggest complaint. In order to do this the concrete guys would have to recess or slope the slab before the house during the slab process. If the slope was created after slab by the flooring installer, then the transition between rooms would be a decent sized step to allow for an appropriate grade. The flooring would have to be a product that doesn’t need to be installed on a flat surface. Like small tiles like on a shower floor. This way the flooring could be moulded to the shape of the sloped floor. Once all that’s done you’d be standing on a sloped floor in the kitchen and master bathroom which are areas you spend a lot of time in. I think after a short time you’d find you don’t like this.

quote:

Originally posted by WaterburyBob:
A trap in the line would keep gases out, but you would have to run water every so often to keep it from drying out.
The trap wouldn't help at all with a sewer line backup, though.

This... my dojo has a floor drain in the mop room. It's separate from the mop sink. If we don't run water down it about once a week or so. The whole place smells like butt hole.

quote:

My previous home, built in the early 50s, had floor drains in the basement.

I have one in my basement as well. It's near the furnace and I have a large sink nearby where we bathe the dog. It comes in handy. I can drain my hot water heater and flush the sediment once a year into the floor drain.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
I'll just take a guess and say that there would be no way to keep sewer gases, creepy crawly creatures and other undesirables out.

Not the problem. What do you think your toilet is?

I’ve got a floor drain in my basement next to the well pressure tank. But it doesn’t go to the sewer line, it just runs outside.

I also have a drain pipe under my 2nd floor washer that runs to the basement. It’s not connected to the floor drain for some reason. If my washer flooded it would just pour out from the basement ceiling onto the floor.

Never heard of any good reasons against one.

I know my friends who are various forms of builders have never successfully gotten a client to install one. We had one in our laundry room on the ranch growing up.

I think if you have a shower/sink/washing machine drain into the same line, it would keep the trap full.

Most concrete folks should be able to slope a floor to a drain.

Can’t remember the name, but we have long drains at the plant, it would make the slopes a bit simpler.

It seems to me that the most compelling argument against them is the slope...

At work we have lots of floor drains in relatively large rooms (inmates tend to cause floods, both intentional and not intentional)... The slopes involved there don't seem to bother me, in fact, I can't say that I've noticed them before. However, I do recognize it is a vastly different situation. While I spend very long amounts of time there, it just isn't comparable.

That being said, it still seemms a good idea to put a hidden floor drain in certain areas... like under the kitchen sink or behind the fridge were the water connections are... the slope could be "contained" to those areas somehow and act more of a pan than an open and sloped floor. It would provide obvious protection against plumbing failures while away from the house.

A coworker had massive damage done when a waterline in the kitchen burst overnight. They didn't notice as all people in the house sleep upstairs. The burst ran all night and they had standing water all of downstairs by the morning. It took over 6 months to be torn out and made whole by insurance with them out of the house for pretty much the entire time.

I know it would require regular water into the drains to keep the traps sealed... seems like a low "cost of entry" to me.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
Floor drains are great until the sewer main clogs and the sewage backs up.

Yep. Happened to our home. Not a fun situation.

Fortunately there are one way valves made for that specific problem now.