A Detailed Look at Bathroom Waste Drawings: From Bathtub to Toilet to Sink

Exploring Waste Drainage Drawings in Bathroom Plumbing Design.

Explore the intricate aspects of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing drawings in both residential and commercial projects. Delve into the specifics of drain line sizes, ventilation techniques, and the application of these drawings in planning the layout of bathrooms, kitchens, and other areas of a house or building.

Key Insights

  • The article provides a detailed look at the requirements and planning involved in mechanical, electrical, and plumbing drawings. These include specific size requirements for waste lines from different utilities such as the bathtub, toilet, and sink.
  • The author further explains the strategic placement of ventilation to meet the homeowner's preference of having no ventilated bathrooms visible in the front of the house. This involves running the ventilation up and hiding it behind the roof crest.
  • While these drawings are generally consistent across residential and commercial projects, they become significantly more extensive in facilities like hospitals and biotechnology facilities. However, the general rules remain applicable across different projects.

Now, these are the drawings of wastes, so let's get closer to this bathroom. So what I have is that I have the lines of wastes from the bathtub, the toilet and the sink. You can see that there are size requirements, so I have a line of 1.5-inch wastes for the sink, a 3-inch waste for the toilet and a 2-inch waste for the bathtub.

Take a look at this similar situation. 3-inch waist that is opening and goes to the sink, to the bathtub and then to the sinks that are there. If I look at the isometrics, we have something similar to what we had before.

Now, what is happening is that when it is solid, it goes down, when it is discontinuous, it goes up. So one of the requirements of this house was that the owner did not want to see any ventilated bathroom in the front of the house. So, one of the reasons, for example, why the ventilation of the bathroom goes up and up again, was to have the ventilation of the bathroom hidden behind the roof crest.

So, again, I have my sink. This is the main bathroom. This is Jackie Jill's bathroom.

This is the bathroom we just saw, and the kitchen is here on the right. So you can see that it says W for sink, cold water supply, and so on. But you can see that it is showing the sizes of the different drain lines as they leave the house.

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So this is how I have a cleaning that is happening right here. But again, let's go back to the main bathroom where we have the WC1 toilet. We have the bathtub.

We have a wall cleaning, WCO. And so between the bathroom and the bathtub, we have a ventilation that goes up, passes over and then ventilates the ceiling. Because again, this area here is the front of the house.

And you can understand that the roof top would be right in that area. So, what is happening is that we have the Jack and Jill bathroom, we have the toilet or the bathroom, and the bathtub going up. And the ventilation goes over and then ends up exposed or illuminated in the back of the roof.

I think these drawings are very interesting and they are also very fun to do digitally. So this has been a general review but relatively detailed of the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing drawings. These drawings tend to be very similar in residential and commercial projects.

Now, once you start getting into projects like hospitals and biotechnology facilities, they are much more extensive. Significantly much more extensive. But the general rules apply.

We have a summary sheet that will list the symbols, that will list the abbreviations, any requirement of particular code and, in general, the lists of articles used. So, the lists will include the symbols, frequently the abbreviations, the manufacturers, and the components that will be used in the appropriate drawings. So first we give a general overview and then we will enter the floor plans.

And depending on the professional discipline, all the work will be presented in an orientation plan. Or more often, for greater clarity of installation, we will also have isometric.

Al Whitley

AutoCAD and Blueprint Reading Instructor

Al was the Founder and CEO of VDCI | cadteacher for over 20 years. Al passed away in August of 2020. Al’s vision was for the advancement and employment of aspiring young professionals in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industries.

More articles by Al Whitley

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